Quote:
Originally Posted by GranteedEV
The team stacked its three best forwards on one line. Of course they were the team's driving force.
Good teams don't need stack their three best forwards on one line.
A line with two elite wingers and a complementary center like Lindholm is fundamentally flawed because when checking gets tight against contending teams, you need more gamebreaking skill from the center position, which a guy like Lindholm (or Monahan, or Backlund) cannot provide.
Slotting players properly is what it's about. The Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk line has Lindholm slotted improperly.
You're better off even with a top six of
Mangiapane-Eichel-?
Gaudreau-Backlund-Tkachuk
because Eichel's line will be getting the top attention.
|
I literally saw Austone Matthews-Mitch Marner-John Tavares on 1 line quite a few times 5 on 5. That’s a $34M dollar line. The Oilers also stack McDavid and Draisaitl constantly. Sometimes when the game gets stuck in muck, you need your best guys together to gain traction and that’s what the new top line does for the Flames, they create traction, spend all kinds of time in the offensive zone and help set up other lines for success.
Lindholm is also not a complimentary center. He may not be elite at manufacturing offense out of thin air, but he has a great one timer and has strong puck skills. But the most important thing he does is what he does away from the puck. He gives that line the ability to check for chances, the ability to defend less and is no slouch either in transition and on the cycle. That’s what makes this line dangerous, they can score in many different ways.
As long as someone can distribute up the middle effectively like say Gaudreau, then that line should be fine in transition. But in order for that to happen. Gaudreau needs Matthew Tkachuk to buy time and space for him and he needs Lindholm to consistently drive through the middle taking a defensemen with him.
That allows Gaudreau to back up the defensemen and opens up his ability to go east-west.
Like I said, I’d like Eichel. But not at the expense of the new top line. It’s far too risky to break the current line up for an injury prone center like Eichel. This team wouldn’t have the luxury of depth to win games when Eichel inevitably goes down.