To me, the Captain is a leader on and off the ice, and never takes a shift off, never gives way, fights for every inch.
So that's not Monahan. To me. I think he's a hell of a useful player and a gentleman (and I probably don't want a hot-head like Tkachuk as Captain either). But I don't see firey-eyed "I hate to lose" leadership in Monahan. I see Monahan cheating for ice, staying in the high slot waiting for the puck rather than getting tight in his own end and battling, little things like that just bug me about his game. To my eye, Backlund works harder than Monahan, game in and game out.
I see it in Tanev, he grinds out every shift, every game. The warrior that Hamonic was supposed to be.
Lucic would be good captain material, but I think the whole team is waiting for him to go away and get off the books too, really.
The trouble is, the Flames don't have that dominating obvious superstar who is clearly the Captain, no Crosby, no Messier, nobody capable of taking over a game physically AND on the scoreboard. Tkachuk would be the closest but I don't think he's mature enough for it.
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