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Originally Posted by Table 5
Appreciate the additional insight. I guess my question then becomes why did a team that on paper took shots from good areas, have such a poor track record in terms of translating to the results that matter, ie goals and wins?
I don't think you can put much of that to luck...at least not over a span of a whole season. Luck doesn't account for a league 9th worst -30 DIFF. Lack of finishing skillset is probably a big one. This years team definitely seems to have quite an upgrade on that front. Predictability and a slow game (as Fonz brought up) is probably another big one. Teams knew exactly what they were going to get with the Flames. To me that's mostly a systems issue, and also something that I see being upgraded this year.
I guess in the end we had a combination of subpar hockey players led by subpar coaching, led to a subpar result.
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I think luck plays a role, it always does. But you can't be the Oilers and just suggest that it's luck and leave your roster intact after a terrible season.
Hartley's 14-15 Flames were a team that clearly had a lot of good luck. You don't get outplayed as often as they did and get into the playoffs, especially with all those come from behind points.
But yeah I keep coming back to that off the charts total of shots that missed the net. The Flames of 2017-18 miss the net more than any team has ever missed the net since they started counting in 2018, so 11 seasons x 30 teams is 1st out of 331 outcomes. That's nuts.
So are they pressing?
Thinking they can't beat goalies so they're aiming for the perfect shot too often?
Or were there systems that put them in the right spot with the wrong situation? (goalie gets too much time).
Likely a bit of all as you suggest.