Because people want him to be some big bruising hitting defenseman, even though he’s never been that m, but that’s a problem with certain people.
Some people expect every player to be everything as opposed to being one part of the puzzle. Fowler gets dinged b/c he isn't a physical defenseman. Lindholm gets dinged b/c he's not a high scoring defenseman.
On this board, it's been Fowler vs Lindholm as it's best defenseman, but people take to the extreme and believe each player gets hate instead of preference. I prefer Lindholm's physical defense, puck battle wins, and transition game b/c better chances to win a close game than a shootout.
Lindholm is underrated than Fowler on this board and mass media b/c he doesn't score a lot of points. An example of this is on this board many prefer Chychrun over Lindholm despite their career ppg rate are similar. Lindholm can be paired with almost any defenseman save Fowler. Fowler needs a stay-at-home D to be most effective. That's what makes Lindholm more valuable. Fowler is mostly offense and Lindholm does like joining the offense, but therein lies the problem - they'll both pinch and leave the blue line unprotected. They both expect their counterpart to be the supporting D, which is why they can't be on the same pair.
Yet, having only one of them on the ice isn't going to help dominate the game. We need a mix of a Fowler, a Manson, and a Lindholm until we can find other talents to easy the burdens. Lindholm's pairing will work you over shut you down and then the Fowler pairing will score on you. Now, it's just Fowler and it's affected his PP game. Missing Lindholm and Manson affected the PK along with the PP, apparently, b/c Fowler is working so much more now.
We need two physical defensive defenseman this off-season to have a similar set up as this season so Fowler can be at his optimum. One to take the brunt of the heavy work on a different pair and one to do the dirty work as Fowler's counterpart. I love me a scoring Fowler.
