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Originally Posted by Strange Brew
So you believe the new players and the new coach are the single biggest reason for the Flames failing to show up for those three games? Or as you put it, has more to do with it "than anything else".
That is quite a bold statement so I'm prepared to listen to your rationale but at face value it sounds more like an excuse than a legitimate reason IMO.
Remember the teams the Flames play also deal with change in personnel, injuries and travel too. Have you determined the Flames are facing greater adversity in these regards than their opponents? And even if they are, why should that translate into such a poor effort from the Flames?
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I think the Flames have more adaptation to deal with than most teams, yes. Similarly so, the St. Louis Blues and the Carolina Hurricanes have also undertaken a higher-than-average turnover, and both these teams also appear to have been making adjustments
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I fully expect a few bumps in the road, such as players being unsure of where to be occasionally during a game. But at this point I'm not of the opinion that more familiarity is going to yield better results. It is going to take a rather significant change in the performance of several players IMO.
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So, I did not see the Montreal and Pittsburgh games, but I did watch the game against NYR. Based on my viewing of this and reports of the other two the defensive zone breakdowns (the biggest problem with the team during this stretch) strike me as the product of struggling to adjust. And yes, I agree that a significant change in performance is required from several players, but I was encouraged by what I saw on Saturday. This does not look like an insurmountable hole to me by any measure.