Quote:
Originally Posted by Itse
Thing is, you have to win games for games in hand to matter. We beat the Oilers by one goal and got embarrassed by the Avs. Those are both among the worse teams in this league. We couldn't match up against Anaheim which is a decisively average team.
An actually good team, the Sharks, needed to basicly play one period out of three to crush us.
None of these games have had that many bad bounces, terrible reffing or the opposition goalies playing out of their normal level. The results have been a rather fair represantation of the play IMO. My prediction is that we haven't yet even seen this team on a really bad day.
As much as I agree that Butler isn't very good, the 6th defenseman is not the guy losing games for us. The weakest link looks the worst, but the problem with the Flames is everything. Butlers defensive partner can't help him, forwards won't help him, goalie can't stop the puck, offense can't make up for goals against.
We're a team that's physically pushovers, very average in offensive skill, bad at defense, bad at PP, not good at PK and not good at goal.
The only positive on the season so far is that it's more fun to lose 3-6 and 3-4 than 0-3 and 1-2. Other than that, I don't think it's fair to put the losses on Hartley. He was not handed a good team playing bad like Darryl Sutter. Those are easy to turn around.
There is one glimmer of hope though. Our division is the worst in the conference.
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I agree that you have to do something with games in hand, but have patience.
I think there is more than one glimmer of hope. Roster upgrade, coaching upgrade. The Flames have dominated the play for long stretches of games, unlike last year. They are still adjusting to a new coach and system. Breakdowns today by a few people (notably Kipper, Butler, Bouw) cost them the game. If they play this way on the whole and fix the mental lapses, they win. It's still early.
6-3 was embarrassing on the scoresheet, but take solace in the fact that the Avs didn't win the game so much as the Flames lost it. That can be fixed.