I have been harsh on Gulutzan and the coaching all year, but I feel the players need to shoulder tonight's result.
No coach tells their players to play the puck back like that, at that stage of a one goal game. No coach draws up getting clean beat off the ensuing face off to give up hope of at least one point.
For all that skill, it's not the coaches fault they can't lean on skill and get at least a goal or 2 in every 10 tries on home ice.
Maybe the flames just aren't skilled enough to be a upper tier team.
Offensively, they only have 1 real top line threat in Gaudreau. Monahan is just a elite pure shooter in his spots but pretty darn avg in all other facets of the game. Tkatchuk seems to be progressing top a high end player, but outside if that, maybe the forwards are just not skilled enough to be regular contributors.
Goaltending is good, d finally looking good. Inability to score, particularly cash in with the man advantage clearly is a lack of skilled players seems to be the crux of the problem. Having a rw who can shoot and handle the puck could be a the major void hurting the pp. The setup as is, creates no bang-bang opportunities that the pk needs to worry about.
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