Quote:
Originally Posted by ricardodw
softness and skill are not mutually exclusive..... but on the Flames it is where they have ended up.
The skilled players are soft and and the hard to play against players (the few that they have) are not very skilled.
I can see Comeau and Jones muscling their way into the top 9 as they may have enough skill to play well with better linemates.
Right now with this lineup I can't see anyone except Jones playing head to head against the Thorton's of the League. As Thorton plays 20+ minutes for these games Jones gets at least top 9 minutes.
I can see Hartley explaining to Backlund and Stempniak and Stajan that they are not skillfull enough to keep a top 9 spot unless they show more grit....and show up and win a few puck battles and take the hits to make the play. These are the guys that can't be floating looking for the soft spot on the ice to cash in on someone else's hard work.
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Many teams are matching skill against skill now on a regular basis. I don't see any reason to believe we won't be doing the same thing. There's a whole lot more value in playing offensively capable players against offensively capable players as opposed to checkers against offensively capable players imo but that's up to hartley and feast to decide.
If this trend continues i'll happily take a 4th line as an energy line full of blair jones/jackman/bouma type players and the other three as threats to score or make things happen. This team could at least be fun to watch for a change.