Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike F
Agree with pretty much everything you're saying in this thread, except the bolded: Flames had started winning before the stick toss (which was initiated by a lazy practice after a win). They won a few more after that, then slumped. I still maintain that the stick toss did little to nothing, as evidenced by players laughing it off in interviews later that day.
|
Stick toss was after the NYE game, which Flames had won. Prior to that win the Flames had lost 3 in a row, 6 of the last 8, and won only 4 of 13 overall in December. Brutal losses to SJ, Anaheim LA and Minnesota,where the team was at some point ahead, and/or tied in the third period, and found ways to lose each, or, as importantly, in a few earlier Dec wins, gave those team a bonus point into OT they don’t deserve. Multiple points lost there.
TReliving dealt with the strange Hamilton situation, told Jagr to get 100% healthy before trying to play again, which set the wheels in motion, and told GG that any excuses he had in Jagr or Hamilton was removed, and he himself better ship up and get this team to the level they should be. So, he cues up the dramatics and it works and the Flames win each game until the January break.
And then lose the next 4, including a loss to worst team in league at the time Buffalo, and collapse against the Oilers again, and just winning 5 of 16 up to now since the 7 game winning streak ended. Brutal losses to Vegas here at home. 4 points after the post break, pre all star games, and the Vegas chokejob game after the all star break, meant the Flames got 4 points in those 5 games, which should’ve been closer to 9 or 10 points by beating Buf and Edm, and getting at least a point vs Vegas at home rather than losing both points in the last 2 mins.
All without having to play much better than they did in each of this games as they were all tight.
So the poor results in December and giving free points away to division rivals got masked by the stick throw and a 7 game win streak, because the same issues that got GG on the hotseat about his teams not taking things to the next level have come right back to him the last 16 games since the big streak ended the 3rd week of January.