Well if you want to say two weeks isn’t enough to say they don’t work well then you can’t claim they do work well based off a similar sample size last season.
The fact is Manson’s play greatly improved alongside Lindholm. The numbers back that up and the eye test backs that up. There’s no reason to break up that pair.
Fowler has had an awful partner most of the year and that is in part the reason for his bad play. But when he was with other guys this year he’s also not been great. When you’re paying a guy 6.5M for 8 years I think you need him to be good enough to not have to play with a specific type of player. A lot of dmen in the league would kill to have someone as good as Vatanen as their partner, I don’t think him being paired with Vats is a good excuse for any poor play.
But Manson's play didn't greatly improve immediately, which is a key point. I'm not saying break up the pairing, but I also don't think Manson's rough start and him finding his game can necessarily be attributed to playing with Lindholm. I think that's giving Lindholm too much credit, and Manson not enough.
As for Vatanen, which Vatanen are we talking about? Because it makes a difference. The one we saw this season, for example, some people couldn't wait to get rid of. He's been every bit as inconsistent as Fowler has. There is also the possibility that they just weren't a good fit, which is part of the problem, because if you're going to try to list the good D partners he's had as an argument for him not performing, if you consider that Vatanen and Fowler just weren't a good fit you're eliminating arguably half, or a third of the list. I say arguably because Despres and Fowler weren't together
that long. The other being Beauchemin, in Fowler's sophomore season.
And therein lies the problem. It's a very short list. The opportunities have not been great.
