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Second straight game where Gulutzan stared the 3M line along with Dougie Hamilton and Mark Giordano and I love it. Getting a jump in the parity stricken NHL is so crucial, why not start with your best off the hop and see if you can get a quick lead.
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This is very telling. If the Flames are looking for a quick lead wouldn't they start their #1 line?
The reason that Backlund/Gio 5 were starting the game was a reaction to the Stars starting Sequin/Benn/Radulov their three best forwards that the Flames were defending against.
Dallas goes directly against the balanced 2 guys and a filler theory of lineups.
Also having Backlund / Frolik / Tkachuk has 3 of the Flames top 5 forwards on a line....making it the clear cut #1 line in Calgary.
Used to be that Gaudreau/ Monahan / Hudler forced the other team to react.
In the pre-season I was told repeated that Ferland made the "top" line better.... now it seem that he has made the top line into the 2nd line and not one that the other team causes the other team to panic and line match against.
Big mistake having 5 top-4 defenseman ( all signed for the next 3 years) and only 5 top 6 forwards. My theory is that the defense will play better if one of the top 5 gets dinged and they have to go rolling 2 pairs without the juggling.... getting Stone ice time.
Brouwer played better with better linemates in Washington (Johansson/ Kuznetsov) and
St. L (Stasny / Backes). Just saying.