Quote:
Originally Posted by Macho0978
The stars do have a more balanced distribution of ice, but of the 5 bottom forwards in ice time per minute...Bourque is the only one that has potential.
Blackwell - 32 years old career 4th liner
Faksa - 31 years old 3rd/4th liner
Steel - 27 years old 4th liner
Back - 25 years old, 3rd/4th liner
Dadonov - 36 years old nearly a decade removed from big minutes.
The stars might trust the 4th line more than we do, but they put players in that role that have accepted that this is who they are and the role they need to play to stay in the league.
Backlund was just under 19 mins a game last year. 17:07 is the lowest he has had since 2012. He is not dropping 8 minutes a game and playing the Colin Blackwell 4th line role.
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14:39 is what he averaged at even strength, actually. Oscar Back was 11:59.
That’s not much of a leap. I’d still expect that line to get matched against top players with the third line functioning as a 2B scoring line.
Again, being so closed minded, “this is not happening, that is not happening, this 25 year old is who they are and will never be more than that” etc is just silly. You don’t know. I don’t know. So no point in pretending otherwise.