Quote:
Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814
You’ve listed a bunch of guys who are the best players on their team.
Monahan isn’t.
Sean Monahan has received virtually uncontested first line minutes with Johnny Gaudreau for seven years. He has received primo 1st unit power play time every year but his rookie season.
Sam Bennett was never given any chance to centre Gaudreau for any length of time because Sean Monahan was playing through any number of injuries that stopped him being effective the second half of multiple seasons. Who knows what Bennett might have done if Monahan had missed ten or 15 games and given him an opportunity. But that’s neither here nor there.
Johnny Gaudreau is tiny. This is not a secret. Over the course of 82 games, he can’t get abused the way he has his entire career. Some of that is officiating, but this is hockey. The refs aren’t there to save you, they’re barely there to make sure you don’t die.
So while Monahan doesn’t need to be fighting ten times a year, what he does need to do is recognize “hey. I’m 6 ft 3 210. My partner, who CARRIES ME, is getting hammered every night. Not on my watch.”
And when he sees Johnny taking abuse, he should get in that guy’s face. He should slash him in the back of the knee. Face wash him. Put him in a headlock in a scrum, and whisper “touch him again and I’ll break your neck” while choking him. Cross check him in the face like Buchnevich did to Mantha. Something. Anything to show your teammate and best player that you have his back, because Johnny’s only alternative is to assume you don’t have it.
Do you think Gaudreau thinks Monahan has his back? If so, why?
“It’s not Monahan’s job to stand up for Johnny” - the #### it isn’t. It’s everyone’s job, and Monahan is part of everyone.
To win a Stanley Cup requires extreme sacrifice. It’s way easier to take up for a teammate in November than it is the run through the brick wall that is the Stanley Cup playoffs.
So, why does Monahan have to?
Because it’s necessary.
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Seems like you are finding reasons why the standards that other top line Cs have don’t apply to Monahan. But, now he’s not, and Lindholm is, so please list the times Lindholm has done this on the same line, or since he’s been the centre.
Plus, a bunch of those guys aren’t the best player on their team. Some aren’t even the best centre. And they are bigger and heavier than Monahan to boot.