Originally Posted by Caged Great
I do still like the fundamentals of the system. Unfortunately, none of the players seem to be making any good decisions with the puck at all. The main problem is the lack of ability to adapt to change. Last year, how long did it take for Hamilton to learn the system. This year, we're having that problem. Unfortunately, instead of being one player it is more than half the team.
The system itself is not very complicated. Keep control of the puck, make passes to players that are moving so they can enter the offensive zone and keep a hold of the puck so you can generate scoring chances off the cycle. Unfortunately, players are having such a hard time that they are even stopping in the neutral zone to receive passes, which makes it both easy to intercept and easy to get into defensive position to prevent that player from having options both in terms of passing it again and in movement.
It also doesn't help that players are turning the puck over repeatedly at the blue lines, leading to odd man rushes like with the Teravainen goal vs Car, or the Perron hat trick goal vs STL. None of the Flames defense, Engelland excluded, have played even adequate defensively. Most of the time they have looked like Kylington at the beginning of last season. On the PK, they are having a difficult time clearing screens of the goalies and they are screening the goalies occasionally themselves.
The players need to learn what end of their stick is up. They are playing like they forgot even that basic task. Gaudreau and Monahan look like what Monahan and Hudler did during the Ducks playoff series. Broken and ineffective. At the end of the day, if your best players are not your best players, you are not going to win. When your best players post a -4 when you only allow 4 even strength goals, you're going to have a bad time.
I would like to see the system utilized properly, mainly because it's similar to the type of system that Chicago and Detroit have used in the recent past. The players just aren't able to make it work as of yet.
The power play and how it is set up is has been legitimately terrible. Too slow. If you do have to puck for more than a second without moving, you're doing something wrong. None of the players are moving. That means that you as a defending team can set up sticks in passing lanes and force pressure on the puck carrier. If they have no options available, it means they are either going to force a low probably play or turn it over (both of which usually result in the puck in our end).
It is not a surprise that the most intelligent defensive forwards have also been the Flames best forwards thus far. They are working easily in the system and they are finding a lot of success. Stajan, Backlund, Frolik, and Brouwer have easily been the best of the bunch. Everyone else has been okay (Versteeg/Ferland), to horrible (most of the rest)
I'm a patient person, but I am getting frustrated by the lack of execution of the other 13 players. If they were playing as the five above (4 F + DE) then the Flames probably win most of the first 5 games and last night would've been a toss up. Unfortunately, we won't know how long/if they figure it out.
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