Quote:
Originally Posted by Fire of the Phoenix
Do you not think teams were taking Gaudreau seriously at the dome? Maybe next year they will try harder. It probably was mostly due to having last change, something that won't change in 16/17.
The road match ups were telling, obviously improvement is needed. Hopefully a bigger team will help as well as a coach that works road match ups better. Hartley wasn't rolling four lines like Desjardins does but I feel a better coach might get better results there, especially with a bigger team.
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In the grind of the regular season, playing the Flames once a month or so, the standard coaching philosophy is to play your own game... roll your lines and play as best as you can on the road.
If the games with the Flames take on more significance it would not have to take serious thinking to focus on stopping the Flames alpha-forward at the expense of changing your own best game plan.
By the same token I would fully expect better coaching to get Gaudreau more opportunities on the road. I don't think he HAS to play with Monahan all the time (81% of Gaudreau's 5 on 5 had Monahan out with him) On the road it obviously did not work.
Bennett and Backlund have better scoring stats on the road than Monahan.