Wyatt Johnston has gone 16 straight games without a goal, and just had four assists in the month of December. On today’s episode of Locked On Stars, Joey answers the burning question how can the Stars get Wyatt Johnston to produce again? Johnston has not played bad by any means, some would say he has been unlucky with some of the chances he’s had to score lately. Joey thinks the Stars need to think about breaking up his line involving Jamie Benn and Evgenii Dadanov. The trio has scored 8 goals at five on five this season, just 3 ahead of the fourth line which does not have the same amount of fire power, plus they rank as one of the worst lines in all of hockey in Goals per 60 minutes. Joey believes adding someone like Sam Steel to join Benn and Johnston could help them be more effective, since the whole line has not been as effective since December. We have more news on Jake Oettinger who is now skating, but Pete DeBoer said he is farther away then closer. Joey speculates the possible return for Otter and why they are going to be extra cautious in the next few weeks. We also talk about Nils Lundkvist, Pete DeBoer had an interesting answer on dealing with the double edged sword of development and managing an asset. To wrap things up, a preview of the Montreal Canadiens and Shooting Star!
Video Clip: https://www.nhl.com/stars/video/deboer-on-the-new-year-s-eve-game-6344066576112
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6 Comments
We are winning games without Otter (out hurt) and Wyatt (not scoring) so I wouldn't worry about a thing.
All season I have felt Benn is probably the biggest hole we have for the starting forwards. He just doesn't fit into the high-flying offense that the Stars are trying to put together. He doesn't seem to have the same hockey IQ as Pavelski who is a master of positional play to mitigate his aging legs, doesn't puck handle well enough to drive into the zone or extend plays with puck protection and clearly isn't able to pull or clear defensive effectively in the zone.
Father time has caught up with Benn and his big physical play is a young man's game. It would never happen but Benn probably slots in better on the 4th line. There he can play defense heavy and many of his limitations are not as exposed. Guy is a wizard on the dot but that aside I just don't see Johnston's situation improving unless Benn can change his game up.
Steel and Daddy flipping could work as Steel is definitely an upgrade in physicality (although I would argue he isn't as much of a facilitator). Point is that whatever line Johnston is on needs three forwards who can contribute and role play and I just don't see what Benn brings to the equation. Hell I think the case could be made right now that Harley would be a better fit than Benn on that line right now.
Benn is the weak link on L3. Try moving Benn to L4 with Smith/Delly or Smith/Faksa, while moving Steel to L3 with Earp/Dadonov. Steel brings more speed plus a harder work ethic (Benn has been disappearing a bit lately). The only drawback of this move is Benn's faceoffs – might need to manage that a bit. I think Dadonov has been too productive to move to L4 or scratch him for more than one game (a la Delly). The other option is to let L3 play through its funk. Earp has been getting his looks, it's only a matter of time before he gets on another tear.
I don't get these complaints about Benn. Yea, he's not as good as during the peak of the Bennaissance, but he's far from useless out there, both statistically and from an eye test. The truth is that line is just in a slump born of an unlucky cold streak. They're clearly frustrated and starting to force things just like the top line was at one point. I mean, Daddy's forcing bad passes to the net front at almost every opportunity and I don't see that getting called out. The only one I can't truly be upset about on that line is Wyatt and really only because he just seem to have personally angered the Hockey Gods with how snakebitten his is atm.
If their issues were truly a season long thing, I'd be concerned. They aren't though, and they've already started to claw back some production recently. They don't need to score every night (although that'd be great), just do something productive, and I think they are more than capable of doing that. Personally, I'd prefer for them to work on their defensive zone issues more than anything, especially with the other lines rolling as they are. I have confidence in the offense working itself out, but not so much in the defense. They need to do a better job at tracking trailers, defending shot lanes, and winning possession/breaking out in the defensive zone. The whole team has issues with these things, but IMO the 3rd line is usually the most abused. Cleaning that up will go a long way to improving consistency.
I had no idea that line was so bad. Great analysis.
They pass the visual test as they don't look that bad but that Corsi was shocking and tells a story
Here's an experiment that the Stars should run. It'll sound crazy but it could incredible upside and positively effect the team defensively, offensively and the goaltending.
Here goes: Move Roope to Defenseman. Crazy, eh? Not so much. Hintz could turn into a bigger version of Cale Makar and would soon be one of the top Defenseman in the league. Hintz is that special.
Move Duchene or Wyatt to the top line, they could adequately do the job. Hintz on D would give us three puck moving dmen, and immediately solve the problem on the Blueline.
Hintz would impact the game more and actually create more offense from the Dman position.
Hintz has everything it takes to be a top 10 defenseman in the NHL. Size, speed, smarts, stamina, super hockey IQ, and much more.
I can't think of another forward in the league who I'd say could make that switch, but Roope could do it.
It's not a silly idea and woud be worth running the experiment. There are a lot of other positives I haven't mentioned yet..