Quote:
Originally Posted by FanIn80
I literally gave the example in my post. The Pens.
I can't think of a single example of a Cup-winning team with a Backlund-qualty shutdown guy as a top-six center.
Oilers had 99/11 as their top Cs. McTavish was their shutdown guy. We had Nieuwy and Killer as our top two with Otto as our shutdown. Islanders had Brent Sutter as their shut down on the third line.
Those aren't the only examples, just ones that immediately come to mind.
McTavish, Otto, Sutter, Staal, etc. All Cup-winning 3rd line shutdown Cs on teams with two scoring lines above them. That's the category that Backlund should have been in. He's the Otto behind Neiuwendyk and Gilmour -- the Staal behind Crosby and Malkin -- not the Forsberg behind Sakic or Fedorov behind Yzerman.
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Almost all Cup-winning teams in the modern game have a top-notch 2-way C in their top six.
Barkov
Point
Bergeron
Toews
O’Reilly
Kopitar
The Pens are an exception, but you can get away with that if your top 2 centres are Crosby and Malkin.
Opposing coaches would be licking their chops at the matchup opportunities of the Flames top two lines centred by Monahan and Bennett.