Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
That completely ignores the defensive side of the puck and the PK.
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IMO Lindholm wasn't playing at the same level defensively that he played on the Gaudreau - Tkachuk line. Backlund still gets the toughest matchups.
Here's the xGA/60 of lines that played more than 100mins for the Flames
Huberdeau - Lindholm - Sharangovich 3.17
Mangiapane - Lindholm - Sharangovich 2.71
Compared to
Zary - Kadri - Pospisil xGA/60 1.86
Mangiapane - Backlund - Coleman 2.39
Huberdeau - Backlund - Coleman 2.56
Now I'm not saying Lindholm is bad defensively, but his defensive impact gets slightly overblown. Is he better than Kuzmenko defensively? Most likely. That said there's a good chance we won't notice the difference especially if Kuzmenko is producing.