Quote:
Originally Posted by Toonage
Treliving didn't tell GG to have Brouwer take 3 face offs in a row against Buffalo.
Extreme example but the coach clearly had a trust/like of Brouwer.
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Some of this is coaching - some of this was clear flaws in the roster that Treliving went out and also corrected this offseason.
We had no RH players to take important faceoffs on in the right defensive circle last season - only Brouwer (46.5%) and Lazar (39.7%) (338 Faceoffs combined) were available to GG.
So big issue at the end of that game was if you wanted a RH player to take that faceoff on his strong side your only options were Brouwer/Lazar - or have Monahan/Backlund take it on their weaker side. (Agree though after it lost the first two on that same side he probably should have tried something different).
Treliving went out and acquired Lindholm (54.5%) & Ryan (56.5%) (1733 FOs combined) as a clear solution to what was a hole on the roster last season.
And the other thing with the Brouwer trust by GG was that our forward depth was just so poor. Brouwer was 8th on the team in total TOI among forwards BUT the only regular players (30+ GP) lower than him were Janko, Stajan, Hathaway, & Lazar. Not exactly a murderers row.
The Flames just didn't have a lot of options or depth at forward last year and in the end that was the biggest focus of Treliving this offseason and also probably a big reason GG isn't the head coach anymore.