One big issue I see is that the Monahan line seems to be chained to the Stone-Bartkowski pairing. Not optimal, to put it nicely.
Man, Jagr is still so good. Almost every time he's even near the puck in the offensive zone something good comes out of it. The problem of course is him getting there but still he's a net positive by a good margin and was the best and most dangerous forward last night. That line will do some damage especially if they start getting better support from the backend that help them in transition/through the neutral zone and in the offensive zone.
Although one game, and if he continues to improve and get into better game shape he will be playing more minutes, which means he might not be skating as well all game long given his age, Jagr was surprisingly skating really well. He didn't look gassed at all, was creating plays off the transition himself (carrying the puck up ice himself) and was even backchecking well. He also showed great speed on that one play when Gaudreau was skating up ice.
If he continues to play this way, I don't see why he can't form a dynamic line with Gaudreau. Jagr's goals will start to come, and when they do, he's going to open up the ice that much more for Monahan and Gaudreau.
Jagr, folks is not going to be that defensive liability or the one slowing down his line. Last year's version of Jagr was a fluke. The one you saw last night was the version of Jagr from Florida in 2015-16 when he was 7th in Hart voting.
He did look quicker (thanks to trimming down) on his skates last night than he has in a long time. He still is a possession beast though which clearly he hasn"t lost due to slimming diwn. I think he will turn into Calgary's MVP as the season wears on. Gaudreau might outscore him, but Jagr will be a catalyst, mark my words. Hopefully he will finally get back to being a great playoff player this year.
