Quote:
Originally Posted by djsFlames
Okay we'll keep the 3 Boston goals on the board since according to you Smith wouldn't be able to save those (even though I think Gillies tracked the puck/anticipated poorly while making himself small which i don't think Smith would've done in every instance but I digress). Halak still made some really difficult saves himself that most goalies in preseason form would not have made, simply put. He was the difference for Boston.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by direwolf
Goaltending was the difference last night. Flames would have very likely won in regulation if not for Halak playing out of his mind. Dude was a brick wall for the entire game.
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Rewatch the game. Halak rarely had to go cross-crease. He was allowed to get square to almost every opportunity the Flames had. If there is a weakness in the Flames' system, it is not getting the defense to move laterally. Also, how many odd man rushes did the Flames have, versus the Bruins? The Bruins had many more odd man rushes than the Flames, and they were able to cash in on them. The Flames did not use this new found speed to generate odd man rushes. It wasn't much different than last season.
I get that everyone is all excited about hockey being back, and trying to find positives in the changes brought to the lineup, but there wasn't much difference from last year. The Flames looked okay against the Bruins, but this was a Bruins squad that was missing s number of important starters. There is a very long way to go.