Quote:
Originally Posted by Classic_Sniper
Certainly helps that he played a lot with Backlund in the final quarter of the season. I know there was a lot of talk about whether he’d fit better with Kadri or Lindholm. But I was always in the Backlund camp from the start. Backs pushes the pace of play up the middle and is a great distributor to his wingers. He opens up a lot of space for Huberdeau and that’s exactly what Huberdeau needs.
Jonathan’s strengths are all about using his vision or ability to stop up and find the trailer or someone cutting hard to the net. So having a guy like Backlund who can push the opposition back and open up lanes is vital. Backs also dominates down low on the cycle and checks extremely well, so he does a lot of the dirty work which helps a skill guy like Huberdeau a lot.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by automaton 3
It would be interesting to hear from the coaching staff why they left Huberdeau to languish with Kadri for any length of time.
Backlund is a much better fit and I wish they would have tried this earlier.
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Also was curious and looked at Huberdeau with each of our three best Centers.
Huberdeau+Lindholm
TOI: 208 Minutes
Corsi For: 54.5%
xGF: 56.5%
GF: 45.5% (5 GF - 6 GA)
SH%: 4.95%
SV%: .927%
No way that 4.95% shooting percentage was going to last - honestly a bit ridiculous that this wasn't given more time and honestly probably the biggest mistake of the season.
Huberdeau+Kadri
TOI: 515 Minutes
Corsi For: 57.6%
xGF: 54.4%
GF: 51.9% (27 GF - 25 GA)
SH%: 9.00%
SV%: .888%
Actually probably wasn't as bad as it felt at the time, but the save percentage was pretty abysmal with them on the ice
Huberdeau+Backlund
TOI: 286 Minutes
Corsi For: 56.8%
xGF: 56.4%
GF: 70.8% (17 GF - 7 GA)
SH%: 10.2%
SV%: .944%
They had good chemistry and really did work well together. Also a bit of luck on the shooting and save percentage front when on the ice together.
I do feel like the miss in the end was not seeing more of Lindholm and Huberdeau together. There is no way that 4.95% shooting percentage together was going to last.