The 2014 fifth round pick has been glued to the bench by Philadelphia Flyers Head Coach Dave Hakstol as of late and deserves more ice-time.
Oskar Lindblom seemed destined to have a breakout season with his play on the Philadelphia Flyers west coast road trip earlier in the year. Lindblom posted seven points in eight games from October 30th to November 13th and was starting to emerge as a real two-way threat for this Flyers team.
Now, coming off a heartbreaking overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets, Lindblom is struggling to receive ice-time from Hakstol. He saw just 4:38 of time-on-ice in the losing effort with 1:55 of it coming on the power-play. That means he was on the ice at even-strength for a lowly 2:43 minutes, which makes absolutely no sense at all.
Lindblom ranks in the top ten among players on the team who have played at least 100 minutes of time-on-ice in Corsi-For percentage with 50.36% and Fenwick-For percentage with 51.13% at even-strength, according to NaturalStatTrick.com. Why would you demote one of your best puck possessing players at even-strength? It would at least make some sense if Hakstol took him off the power-play since the unit is struggling, but there’s really no excuse for the low time when play is even.
Possessing the puck isn’t the only thing Lindblom does well at even-strength, either. He ranks fifth on the Flyers team in Scoring Chances For percentage with 56.17% and second in High Danger Chances For percentage with an impressive 63.64%. Again, where’s the reasoning for his demotion? You could say that these scoring chances aren’t turning into goals, but that’s where you would be wrong.
The 22 year old Swede is tied second on the team in High Danger Goals For percentage with 66.67% and seventh in regular Goals-For percentage with 53.85%. It’s becoming more and more clear to me that Hakstol has no merit in his lineup decisions minus his preference of seniority. This can’t keep happening, especially when there’s nearly zero statistical evidence supporting Lindblom’s struggles.
He’s performed poorly in his last two games, but this is well after being put on the fourth line. Giving him less ice-time isn’t going to help and sticking him in the press-box only makes the team worse. Hakstol is starting to kill Lindblom’s development, plain and simple. It’s about time he puts trust in young talents to work through their issues because this is getting old real fast.
Lindblom has proved, at the very least, he’s a good third line player in the NHL. Benching him isn’t doing anyone any favors and he needs to get the ice-time he deserves from the coach.