Quote:
Originally Posted by Caged Great
If the Flames had a goalie putting up a .918 sv%, they would have surrendered 45 fewer goals (not counting the 4-5 fewer empty netters because of the fewer losses)
If you look at it that way, our goal differential would be in the positive by about 10. That would put us in the same ball park as Minnesota, which the Flames would probably be in a dog fight with right now.
Yes it's simplistic to say that the lack of goaltending is the cause of the current situation, but it is a large part of it.
The Flames basically have 1/2 of their team being that of a contender and the other half being that of a bottom end AHL team.
Gaudreau, Monahan, Bennett, Frolik, Colborne, and Backlund are all high quality top 9 forwards, Gio Brodie and Hamilton are one of the top 1-3 defender groups in the NHL.
Every other player has played terribly this year save Deryk Engelland, who has played at a very Deryk Engelland like level. The other 11 players on the team are all replaceable, some preferably sooner than later.
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Fair remarks. One minor objection is the glossing over of the top 3 d.
Hamilton is young and though I like his game generally, has had some absolutely spectacular and costly failures. Rakell cleanly skating around him in December (?). Another 1 goal game, I forget the opponent, he skated in to 4 opponents on the blue line and turned over for a goal going the other way (St Louis, perhaps?). Then the recent game where he just dropped his assignment (Chicago I think?). Anyways, the guy has a brutal October which is at this point forgivable, but has had some really untimely lapses since. Again, I generally think he is very good offensively but when I went to the Boston game and sat next to a Boston fan, he outlined their frustrations with him which pop up too often. Again, it's not the ceiling, it is the consistency that matters game in and game out
Then there is Brodie's sweet cough up to the hash marks last week
Let's face it, the team is bottom 20 percent of the league and the blame for several untimely and costly goals in terms of points extends beyond the goaltenders.
And don't get me wrong, Hiller has been consistently dreadful, and Backstrom has had one good outing,