^ at the end of the day, I just think NHL coaches are inclined to stick with what has been proven to work. Despite the well documented short comings of JG & SM in the playoffs, they are still among the more prolific duo’s in the league over the last 3-4 years.
Splitting them may work. I agree Tkachuk and Monahan could compliment each other well. I’m not against it, but Ward did split them up and when rubber hit the road, sure enough, they were reunited.
If I were to put an alternate out there;
Tkachuk Monahan Mangiapane
Gaudreau Lindholm Dubé
Bennett Backlund Lievo
Lucic Ryan Simon
Reasons why this might be worth while:
-Lindholm has a great release, would be pairing him with a distributor
-Mang & Dubé both play a ‘dog on a bone’ style for puck retrieval
-going back a ways, but Backlund Bennett pair reunited
Holes/Questions I see here:
-5 LHS in your top 6
-Bennett C experiment is over
-Pretty small group for your top 6
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