Quote:
Originally Posted by Flash Walken
This seems pretty dumb.
He scored like 3 goals on that line and basically none assisted by his linemates, and after 20 ish games ward says 'hey do you think this is working' and his linemates say 'no I don't think it's working' so they change it up?
This reads like a puff piece.
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Yup, I had broken down those stats that Backlund goals were not assisted by his linemates, and only 30% of his linemates goals in that time period had his name beside it, but it was pretty clear with the eye test that SM and JG wanted nothing to do with Backlund as a viable option to pass to, after the first week of games.
That's probably the "hard conversation" quoted in the artifle: JG and SM basically probably told Ward that they think he is basically an anchor on that line because he's not getting in the tough and rough spots that he needs to be to convert the chances they create, or something along those lines.
The fact that the first line wasn't clicking was clear with an eye test, and stats overwhelmingly showing how those three forwards were not a match...but instead of team full of coaches observing, and a group of basic and or advanced stats guys, it has to take two of the players to alert the coach to that, 2 months later?
Something is fishy here, either the coaches are completely unaware of how they too line is working together, or they told JG and SM to deal with it weeks ago, and now Ward is given delayed praise to SM and JG for being right back then, and this change was made a few weeks too late.