I totally agree with your analysis and have been telling people the same every time we talk about this around the water cooler.
We have a a few above average players but no real snipers and superstars on this team and the ones that are are in the top 6. Once you get past that we are very weak. We need the bottom group to be a better quality player as well. Tre keeps picking up these cast offs for little or draft choices but in reality they are being cast off by these other teams for a reason. Why would they turn into great things here?
We have also had some injuries that haven't helped but come on Smith has a history of injuries and it was well discussed when he first came here so no one should be surprised. You can't put the whole team on one goalie who you know at some point will probably get hurt in some form and he did again.
If the guys also would play a 60 minute game and up to their potential we probably would be a playoff team but probably first round only at best.
Getting 50 shots in the game the other night and many around the 40 mark and no scoring also tells you they have no snipers in the group. Yes Johnny is a great setup guy but not a sniper. Chucky and Monny are not snipers either and they are our prime offense outside of our 2 defensive guys.
Tre needs to get some guys in here that are snipers and add to the mix so that if we have a 50 shot night several are going in. I goal in 50 shots does not cut it and the king was not that great either most were average shots at best.
Wake up and smell the coffee everyone as we are sitting where we are because this is what we have and until that changes this is probably as good as it gets.
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Originally Posted by bubbsy
Flames fans perhaps overrating the players. If Backlund was such a great 2nd line center, and Monahan was such a great top line center, and Hamilton was such a powerhouse top pairing dman then this team would be in the top half of the conference, rather than the bottom half.
I probably have a wildly differing opinion than most. Monahan is a first line center but not an upper echelon one. He has a great shot in close, one of the better in the league and finds opportunities to get to the right spots. He's not a fast skater, yet doesn't play a grinding & physical style. He's below average defensively. All of this is greatly overlooked due to playing with on of the top 5 play makers in the game at the moment.
Backlund is a decent skater, and just one of those jack of all trade players. He's not an overly offensive player and I think his recent point totals have been inflated by playing with Tkachuk. That's not a slight but I really think not having a upper echelon top line center and then having a 2nd line center that is bordering as an elite 3rd line center, has a lot to do with the offensive challenges the team sees.
Hamilton is a good complimentary top pairing dman. What I mean by this is that he's fine on the top pairing as long as you have an elite partner playing with him. Giordano does so much of the heavy lifting on that pairing. I would love to be proven wrong and have Hamilton man his own pairing with hamonic, and Brodie with Giordano, but that's a topic for another thread.
If our core was so great then this team would not be so average. In my opinion, this team's core is very small. Giordano, Gaudreau, tkatchuk. I'd probably lump Monahan in because he's on a great contract and his value to the flames is likely stronger than any return on a trade. Though, I sure would be ok if the flames tested that assumption a bit to be sure.
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