*still loses to the Ottawa Senators*

I doubt they go with that 3rd line, Monahan is struggling as a finisher with one of the best playmakers in the league, Lucic treats every pass like a hardest shot competition so he won’t exactly help, and Bennett’s hard work rarely seems to translate into any sort of production so those wouldn’t be great linemates. Not to mention that that line is painfully slow and has next to no defensive capabilities.

I think Monahan and Gaudreau need to be splitted, what do you think it will be?

The problem is Monahan doesn’t exactly work well with Tkachuk or Lucic due to footspeed issues so he generally stays with Gaudreau. The only way splitting them up might make sense is if you swap Tkachuk to his off wing and load up the top line (Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk) and then have Mangiapane and Dube/Bennett flanking Monahan? Gives Backlund even less help on the 3rd line though (Lucic is already a liability for matchups, he’s an exploitable weakness on what is otherwise a trustworthy shutdown line when Backlund+Mangiapane are there). Maybe Mangiapane-Monahan-Lindholm / Gaudreau-Backlund-Tkachuk / Lucic-Bennett-Dube could work too? Not a huge fan of that second line, puts a lot of defensive pressure on Backlund, but it gets our two best offensive players on the same line and doesn’t instantly lose the matchup game against guys who are above average skaters. The most important thing Sutter can do imo is get Monahan to buy in more defensively. Gaudreau playing more defense would be good too, but Monahan developing an all around game is more important, he’s a big guy and should be making his presence felt in all three zones, he’s too much of a floater most of the time.

Thanks for your answer!

I like the idea of splitting up Gaudreau and Monahan. One concern with the top line of Gaudreau, Lindholm and Tkachuk, is that Tkachuk works best when he's being a pest and getting in peoples heads, he needs people on the ice that are physical enough to rough it up as well, Gaudreau isn't going into scrums willingly because of Tkachuk. So Gaudreau is either watching or someone is gonna be trying to mess with him, considering he's the leading scorer I don't think he shouldn't be placed in the role frequently.

This is the whole reason I would love to see a line of
Tkachuk-Benny-Lindholm (so lindholm can take the offside draws, and be a scoring threat on that line.
You then could have Ritchie or Leivo riding shotgun with Johnny and Money.
And allows you to have a third line of Mang-Backs-Dube
Leaving you with Lucic-Ryan-some young guy with speed

I like that idea, but I think long term Lindholm should be a Center, unless Bennett really picks up his game. Allows the Gaudreau line to take sheltered offensive minutes. This all hinges on Bennett though, if his game picks up under Sutter something like this would work well, either Tkachuk, Bennett, Lindholm, or Bennett, Lindholm, Tkachuk.