Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
He's not "up" the lineup.
He's playing the amount of minutes needed to play the shutdown role on a team without any obvious current replacements.
If the Flames could convince opposing coaches to play the MacKinnon's of the world less we could decrease Backlund's ice time.
So far they haven't played along.
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People don’t seem to understand that your match-up centre is typically #2 when it comes to ice time.
Maybe Frost can start taking on that role next season. But throwing Zary out there against McKinnon, McDavid, and Matthews is going to hurt his development rather than help it. It’s difficult enough to learn the defensive responsibilities of an NHL centre while still generating offence, without doing it matched up against the best players in the world.