Gaudreau hasn't been playing like a top 6 forward so it makes sense moving down to the 3rd line. Ryan and Lucic are playing well and are winning a lot of board battles, something Gaudreau doesn't do.
Monahan already plays like a winger, so may as well play him on the wing. It should take some pressure off of him allow him to focus more on offense.
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Yeah honestly I like the idea of Gaudreau and Lucic playing together. Doesn't hurt to play with a centre like Ryan, who regularly improves the play of his linemates.
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Gaudreau hasn't been playing like a top 6 forward so it makes sense moving down to the 3rd line. Ryan and Lucic are playing well and are winning a lot of board battles, something Gaudreau doesn't do.
Monahan already plays like a winger, so may as well play him on the wing. It should take some pressure off of him allow him to focus more on offense.
Hasn’t been playing like a top 6 forward?
Gaudreau has had a bad stretch of 20 games by his standards for sure but he still has 21 points in 29 games.
14 points in his last 20 games.
No those aren’t superstar numbers like we are used to seeing him put up, but very much respectable as a top 6 forward.
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Yeah honestly I like the idea of Gaudreau and Lucic playing together. Doesn't hurt to play with a centre like Ryan, who regularly improves the play of his linemates.
In terms of fancy stats, Kent Wilson did a piece prior to the start of the season on comparing the best teammates for each player, and Gaudreau and Ryan were a 'pairing', posting 61.9 CF% and 68.4 xGF% together.
Considering that Lucic seems to at least not drag his line down in possession like Neal did, it could add a boost to that group and give Johnny/Ryan the option to dump it into the corner on zone entries so Looch comes in with a full head of steam.
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Gaudreau has had a bad stretch of 20 games by his standards for sure but he still has 21 points in 29 games.
14 points in his last 20 games.
No those aren’t superstar numbers like we are used to seeing him put up, but very much respectable as a top 6 forward.
He's really not though. Especially when you consider how much ice time, and offensive opportunity he's been getting.
He has 8 points at 5v5 in 29 games - that not good production at all when you are getting first line minutes.
Only 99 forwards have played over 350 minutes at 5v5 (call it top line minutes), his 8 points leave him as a tie for 16th worst in that category.
However it's even worse when you consider that he's played a lot more than others in that range. His 1.11 points per 60 minutes at 5v5 are the 9th worst among forwards that have played 350 minutes or more at 5v5.
At 5v5 he's been one of the worst "top line" forwards in the league this year. And his production only looks respectable since he gets a lot of PP time and has been able to put up some points there.
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In terms of fancy stats, Kent Wilson did a piece prior to the start of the season on comparing the best teammates for each player, and Gaudreau and Ryan were a 'pairing', posting 61.9 CF% and 68.4 xGF% together.
Considering that Lucic seems to at least not drag his line down in possession like Neal did, it could add a boost to that group and give Johnny/Ryan the option to dump it into the corner on zone entries so Looch comes in with a full head of steam.
I think this is part of it.
Teams are really trying to pressure Gaudreau to force him to dump in the puck. But issue is this year either it's causing Gaudreau to turn it over due to the pressure, or send it into the corner where his linemates haven't been able to win the puck battle to get it back.
Ryan and Lucic has done okay in terms of winning those puck battles this year, and having somebody that is going to get in and win that battle might actually give Gaudreau a little more space when entering the zone since the defense will have to play it more honestly.
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I prefer "on hand" for wingers. But putting Johnny on his off hand might force him to play more to the middle than the boards, where he's been winding up.
I think more than anything this is Ward just changing things up in practice to alter the mood.
Switch Johnny and Mony, then Mony and Backs and its fine.
Monahan and gaudreau for whatever reason arent working this year I'm all for switching them up and by gaudreaus play lately the 3rd line is where he belongs
major forward line shakeup:
The quality is garbage, but the point gets across)
