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Originally Posted by TheScorpion
Well, the Flames have Gaudreau, Monahan, Bennett, and Backlund upfront and Giordano/Hamilton on the back.
Granted, they aren't on the same level, but I also don't see the Flames' D scoring 50 goals. More like 35.
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At this point, each one of those Flames forward is worse than their counterpart. And then you go beyond that and the Stars still had far superior depth which is why the were able to score 36 more goals than the Flames, and more than any other team.
Benn>Gaudreau
Seguin>>Monahan
Spezza>>>Bennett
Sharp>>Backlund
The point is 250 would be a huge surprise. Only one team reached it this year.
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Calgary finished 10th in the NHL in goals scored last season, and it wouldn't be a huge surprise for the Flames to jump over the 250 goal mark in 2015-16. The Flames have loads of skill up front; it's their defence that needs work.
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I don't believe that. Their forward group, at least until Bennett, Tkachuk and maybe Shinkaruk/Jankowski/Poirier/younamewho break out, this is a decidedly below average group. Flames might have finished 10th in scoring, but a lot of that had to do with the contribution from the most-offensive defense in the league. If you look at the teams scoring around the same rate, their forwards are putting up more points while their defenders are scoring significantly less, some in systems that stifled offense.
The Panthers had 233 goals. 27 goals came from their defense, who combined for 124 points.
The Senators had 230 goals. 39 goals came from their defense, who combined for 155 points including Karlsson's 82.
The Flames had 229 goals. 50 goals came from their defense, who combined for 203 points.
The Islanders had 227 goals. 34 goals came from their defense, who combined for 133 points.
If you just removed contribution from the defenders, the Flames were already below average in terms of production from forwards. However, if you were to replace Brodie, Giordano, Hamilton and the rest of the defenders with say Nurse, Klefbom and Sekera from the Oilers, do you not think the forwards are going to take quite a bit of a hit to their numbers? I would think so. I would say that, in large part because of the defenders on the Flames, scoring won't be their main issue this year, but I would certainly not say that the Flames have load of skill upfront, in fact behind Gaudreau and Monahan it was a pretty pathetic group. Hudler and Colborne got replaced with Brouwer and whichever rookie I guess, not exactly huge change to think they will go from below average to top of the league.
The Flames have the makings of a great first line, have probably the second best top 3 defense in the league (behind Nashville) and a goalie who has posted extremely good numbers over the last couple seasons. What they are missing is depth behind those guys. Behind Crosby and Malkin the Penguins had Kessel, behind Pavelski and Thornton the Sharks had Marleau and Couture, behind Taresenko they had Stastny, Steen and Backes. Even without Stamkos, behind Kucherov and Johnson the Lightning had a surging Drouin and Palat. Behind Gaudreau and Monahan, the Flames had Backlund and Frolik..not exactly the same league.
With that said, when Bennett and Tkachuk do breakout and do become 'secondary' scoring, the Flames will be in a great position. I just think that's not this year.