Something definitely looks off with his game. His decision making is brutal and his hands seem to move in slow motion when he has the puck. Not sure we can attribute those to him tweaking his back in the summer.
Always comical to see the undercover Oilers fans come out of the woodwork for threads like these.
The guy is 22 years old and it has been 12 games, people need to take their hands off the panic button. It's like some of you just started watching hockey and don't know what a slump is. He missed essentially all of training camp and is likely still dealing with a nagging injury.
There's been a very worrying lack of progression in his game the past few years. I have no doubts that he will break out of his current funk, but the truth is that he isn't a very good two-way centerman, and he's never really shown that he's trending in that direction either. Even with soft starts he often ends up hemmed in his own end getting scored on. He has remarkable offensive instincts and awareness, and a good shot, as others have noted, but he just isn't someone you can ever rely on to drive play for his line.
At this rate, once Bennett matures a little bit more, he will likely overtake Monahan in spectacular fashion. Sean needs to find a way to grow his game as a center, otherwise his role on the team is going to be quite limited. Bennett and Backlund are just so much better options currently, in pretty much any situation.
The upside is that he's still fairly young, and he could hopefully learn from guys like Backlund and Frolik who play the system well. He has all the physical tools, and his intelligence in the offensive zone seem to indicate that he should have the mental tools as well. We just have to hope he puts it together.
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He has the hockey sense. Sometimes he makes great plays but even while making the plays they seem 'slow' to me compared to others. It's weird.
Hockey sense, wicked wrister, usually 50%+ FO.
Vs
Bottom 5 slowest skater on the team, no physical or aggressive edge, lack of puck protection.
I honestly think he's gotten slower over the last 3 years. He can score he is a good player but he needs to get faster and play more physical, period. He would be incredible if he did.
I'm also at the point where I think he and Johnny should definitely be split up, even just for a few games. Everyone on the team is no worse than a -1 on the year, most other teammates being + players, except for Johnny, Monny, and Brodie, who all lead the league at -9 a piece. I realize +/- can mislead, but when it's the guys who have had the most obvious struggles this season, and they're significant minus players, it's probably safe to split them up to try getting them rolling with players that aren't slumping so badly. Brodie has looked far better over the past week, so I'm not quite as worried about him, especially now that he's with Gio again (at least for now), but they need to get even one of Johnny/Monahan rolling again, it's just too vital to the season.
True. I understand keeping them together for maybe about 5-6 games, but still?
Do you put a struggling player with another struggling player to break slumps? Come the f on.
Maybe they break out against LA but I'm getting sick of saying maybe.
Let's try Grossman in for someone but not try someone else with Mony or Johnny? Suhh dude.
Always comical to see the undercover Oilers fans come out of the woodwork for threads like these.
The guy is 22 years old and it has been 12 games, people need to take their hands off the panic button. It's like some of you just started watching hockey and don't know what a slump is. He missed essentially all of training camp and is likely still dealing with a nagging injury.
Yeah if you're concerned about the lack of progression in a young core piece that we're paying $6.375m you are clearly an Oilers fan. Good detective work.
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He looked awful last night...So many plays died on his stick. He seemed to be making awful hockey decisions all night. Passing directly to the opposition every time he broke into the offensive zone. There were also so many times that JG created space and he was nowhere near the right spot.
So strange, he's never been a hugely dynamic player, but he always knew where to be and make simple plays before. I really hope he breaks out of this funk too.
Totally disagree with most of the negative criticism mentioned here. Do not believe he's as slow as some of you make out. His skating style is deceptive. He's a pretty good two way player. I'd be more concerned about his line mates. You want to see a play die on someone's stick, you better start watching Johnny. I think many of you feel that just because he's not scoring he's doing poorly. I doubt the coaching staff is as disappointed as most of you.
Always comical to see the undercover Oilers fans come out of the woodwork for threads like these.
The guy is 22 years old and it has been 12 games, people need to take their hands off the panic button. It's like some of you just started watching hockey and don't know what a slump is. He missed essentially all of training camp and is likely still dealing with a nagging injury.
Have you witnessed the exodus from said woodwork quite a bit since May of 2016?
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Monahan has been horrible this year, there is no doubt about it but he is still young. Like a lot of posters here Id like to see him develop a mean streak. A little piece of me died last year when he let Getzlaf walk in and destroy Wideman.
Last edited by TheChief; 11-04-2016 at 04:58 PM.
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I still like Monahan and believe he's much better than he's shown so far this season, but one play last night really stood out to me as bone-headed.
On a power play in the 3d, Monahan was skating the puck toward the blue line along the boards with Gaudreau behind him. Rather than cycling the puck back into the corner to Johnny, he forced a pass across the ice to the d man on the opposite side through 2 Sharks defenders, and turned it over.
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Originally Posted by snipetype
k im just not going to respond to your #### anymore because i have better things to do like #### my model girlfriend rather then try to convince people like you of commonly held hockey knowledge.
Always comical to see the undercover Oilers fans come out of the woodwork for threads like these.
The guy is 22 years old and it has been 12 games, people need to take their hands off the panic button. It's like some of you just started watching hockey and don't know what a slump is. He missed essentially all of training camp and is likely still dealing with a nagging injury.
Yeah, that has to be it, I'm sorry we said something bad about your favorite player, the point is: He hasn't progressed in these years at all IMO, if something, he's even slower and even worse in his own zone.
He's young, lets hope he figures it out, rather sooner than later as Flames is paying him to figure it out now.
