Hard to say, could be a lot of things, and probably was several of them. I think the confidence just continued to erode, for one.
All else equal, a team should get better under the same coach for a second year, as the players get more comfortable with the system, and the coach learns what players can fulfill what roles.
But they went the other way. It's a team of 20+ players and an 82 game schedule. There are lots of currents at the same time.
I'm just trying to have a discussion about one of them here. I think points by D is important, and it clearly correlates strongly with winning. I think the Flames' D is much better than 24th in the league and I think most would agree with me.
Getting them back to where they should be (top 10) would go a long way to improving the goal differential and thus their record.
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