I'd replace Jarnkrok with Bunting but yeah. JT kills the offence of whoever is on his line. He's slow and prone to tunnel vision. Jarnkrok works well with Matthews.
Thing about JT is that when he's not scoring or producing, he's still doing other things - face offs, hits, etc.
There can be no passengers who don't do anything, so either they're scoring or doing something else that is positive.
Problem is that Bunting is limited defensively and would fit less perfectly on the lower lines. If Matthews and Marner are together, they have d chops covered. If Willy is with Matthews, then I would agree that Jarnkrok is a better choice because you don't want Matthews carrying the defensive burdens himself. It would be a waste.
Jarnkrok is a shooter.
Nylander is a shooter.
Matthews is a shooter.
I call them me-first players.
Marner is a you-first player as his first instinct is to pass it off to a shooter.
This is what has made the 2 players so strong together, and why JT works well with him as well, as Tavares is also a shooter.
I think that when he's at the top of his game, Nylander is absolutely amazing, but when he's not, he becomes a liability.
Why?
He becomes more narrow minded and wants to score thinking that is what will break him out of the slump.
Truth is that he's only in a slump when he's not moving and not moving the puck.
Willie needs to score, or defend well, or play physically in order to be useful on the top line.
He isn't the type of player to defend well or be physical, so he has to produce offensively.
That doesn't mean he has to score goals, it could be as simple as looking for the best goal scorer in the league once in a while and deferring to him instead of going at it alone so often.
Last night he wasn't poor, but he also wasn't visible. That's not good enough.
I think 58 draws in for 19 and that 16 sees time with 34 and 91, 88 swaps between 34, 91, and 90 going forward.
At this point, Knies is doing the little things much better than Nylander.
That's just not acceptable from such a great player.
