Quote:
Originally Posted by shadowlord
I'm going to throw this out there and probably get a lot of flak for it... but I wonder if Monahan's earlier development into a proper #1C was negatively affected by playing with Johnny so much.
In his first year before Johnny joined the team, people were comparing Monahan's style (in junior?) to to Jonathan Toews. But then Johnny was such a great puck distributor and Mony's shot was so deadly effective, that Mony became accustomed to going to the open spots where Johnny could get him the puck. As a consequence of extended scoring success in that role, the rest of his game didn't really develop, things like battling along the boards and the defensive side of his game.
Now, after 5-6 years of playing shotgun to Johnny, Mony has developed a reputation for being the sniper and not an offensive threat on his own.
We've seen Monahan on the PK recently, and I saw him take a shift on PP2 without Johnny and he carried the puck into the O-zone, which is a bit of a shocker for me. It was a successful entry, too.
Am I way off base? This wouldn't be my first bad take.
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Sean Monahan has never been great with the puck going all the way back to his rookie season. His lack of speed and mobility limits his effectiveness in a lot of areas such as checking, pace, 50/50s and tracking back.
The biggest problem with Sean Monahan in my opinion is that he’s not fast or explosive like Mackinnon or McDavid so he doesn’t have the separation speed needed to create his own shot. He relies on Gaudreau to get quality shots off (not good). He also doesn’t shield the puck well for big man. If you watch the Kopitar’s, the Thornton’s and the Getzlaf’s in their prime, they shield the puck extremely well and can lean on their defender, drawing double teams, opening up lanes, creating time and space for their linemates. Monahan doesn’t have this element either.
If you want to be an elite center in this league, you need something that makes you stand out. I personally don’t care if it’s speed or size, but you need one or the other. Or I guess you could be like Crosby or Toews who sort have a blend of both, but their work ethic and competitiveness are at such a high level, that it makes them extremely difficult to play against. Monahan lacks all of these traits; so at the end of the day, he just ends up being just a guy in the slot waiting for a pass that may or may not come to him.
Some people may not like this take, but it’s what I’ve seen since his early years as a Flame. It’s the same reason I’m not surprised by his sudden fall in production.