Quote:
Originally Posted by Classic_Sniper
To me Bingo, Curtis Lazar is a 13th forward. Perfect guy to have in the dressing room, but not good enough to play every night. I think collectively, this entire organization and fanbase needs to raise the level of standards we have for every player and personnel within the Flames umbrella.
And yes, that includes our 4th liners who simply weren't good enough. I know a lot of people will say, "well they're 4th liners, we shouldn't expect too much from them anyway." Well, personally think that's loser talk. Everyone has a job and everyone needs to contribute on both ends of the ice to get this team where it needs to be.
Take for instance Brett Connolly, guy is a 4th liner on the Caps and he has 2 consecutive 15 goal seasons. He outscored our entire 4th line this season and with his help, the Caps are only 6 wins away from the Stanley Cup. To me, this is the type of standard we need to set. We've accepted lower standards before and all it's gotten us is 3 decades of futility and mediocrity.
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I think we need to be careful not to cherry pick though.
If you go straight to NHL averages the 10th forward has an average of 19 points, the 11th forward has an average of of 15 points, and the 12th forward has an average of 13 points.
The Flames last year had Stajan, Lazar and Hathaway at 10-12th in forward scoring with 13, 12 and 12
They're behind but the issue lies much more with the upper half of the roster than the fourth.
The bigger issue is the top of the roster and the fact that they need a better second line to trickle things down and help the fourth line. Past that they need quicker players on the bottom end to hold serve until the big boys come out.
By line the NHL had the following this season.
Top Line : 69 points (85/65/55)
Calgary: 85/65/50 (Tkachuk as third best forward)
Difference: -5
Second Line : 42 points (48/42/36)
Calgary: 45/41/26 leaking
Difference: -14
Third Line : 27 points (32/27/23)
Calgary: 25/25/22
Difference: -10
Fourth Line: 19 points (19/15/13)
Flames: 13/13/12
Difference: -9
The middle six is the culprit, the Flames need to ...
a) add to the top six and create a trickle down
b) get young, quick with upside at the bottom half of the roster so they can improve and not decline through a season
I don't see Lazar as a problem with his foot speed, but if he's beat out he's beat out.