What a fun player, maybe my favourite on the team in terms of overall play and entertainment. Mean, gives it 100% every shift, a real pain in the ass, and super talented to boot.
I burst out laughing at the replay of Backlund's goal at the 12:00-mark v. Arizona. Tkachuk watches his pass from behind the net, points to Backlund in celebration, then turns and smiles at Gologoski beside him.
It is no wonder the rest of the NHL hates him.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by woob
"...harem warfare? like all your wives dressup and go paintballing?"
I burst out laughing at the replay of Backlund's goal at the 12:00-mark v. Arizona. Tkachuk watches his pass from behind the net, points to Backlund in celebration, then turns and smiles at Gologoski beside him.
It is no wonder the rest of the NHL hates him.
I will never forget that little smirk as long as I live.
If this could be a line that can produce, problems solved.
I’m fairly convinced any line that involves Tkachuk and two players with some skill will produce. I think he drives offence. I’d rate Tkachuk and Gaudreau as our two best offensive creators and playmakers.
I think Tkachuk was wasted with Frolik last year on our shutdown line. Backlund/Frolik can play with almost anybody. But to get a third scoring line going Tkachuk needs to be the one driving it. I think he’d help Jankowski and/or Bennett with their offensive confidence.
It’s baffling to me that GG was never willing to try Tkachuk with either of our potential young scoring centres. It made too much sense to me and apparently made no sense to Gulutzan. Although I think we’ll add another top 6 forward I tend to think shuffling Tkachuk onto a different line automatically upgrades the team and makes our offense deeper. The way GG constructed the lines for most of last year was terribad. Basically made the NHL hard mode for Bennett and Janko by playing them with each other and a 4th line grinder in Hathaway. Instead of spreading out our offense, playing our struggling young players with proven offensive veterans GG really set that 3rd line up to fail by constructing it the way he did.
Imagine if we had tried this last year
Gaudreau-Monahan-Bennett
Tkachuk-Jankowski-Ferland
Frolik-Backlund-Lazar
Versteeg-Stajan/Shore-Hathaway
Or before Jagr left and Bennett failed at centre he could’ve tried
Tkachuk-Bennett-Jagr
We might actually have seen better progression from all of Bennett, Janko and Lazar. We might’ve actually had a few lines that could score. GG really didn’t help the confidence of any of our young forwards outside of Tkachuk by putting them in the roles he did.
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