Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
Gulutzan was clearly not a capable coach, but again, Hartley's Flames were not all "heart n' soul" either. The same team that experienced the Flames's greatest recent success is also the same team that drafted #4 overall the following year.
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1) Tkachuk was a 6th overall, not 4th. While Hartley picked Bennett 4th overall, that was the prior year, and I would argue that both the 2013-14 and 2014-15 Flames teams were expected to finish bottom ~two-ish given their total vacuum of talent at every single position (even Giordano wasn't ever considered a #1D before Hartley's arrival) - so 4th / 15th overall picks were both
overachievements, all things considred.
2) Hartley couldn't overcome league-worst
goaltending. This is different from having a team that somehow lost all ability to score and doing absolutely nothing to actually fix that issue other than
hope the plinko chips landed more kindly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
And then what does that say about the Hamonic Brodie pairing last year? Was Hamonic trying to save something that was just too tough to save? Was Brodie on the left side just too much for Brodie to handle?
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I've said it many a time to deaf ears, the problem with Brodie-Hamonic was not on the defensive end*, but on the offensive end where Brodie would pass laterally across to Hamonic who would do nothing offensively because he doesn't have much of a game from the point. Brodie needs a partner who can shoot - Stone, Giordano, probably would have worked with Hamilton or Andersson but we've never seen that. But people always point to failed pairings as somehow always just being unable to deal with their own zone. Yes, Brodie had some giveaways, magnified by the moment, but that was not what dragged the pair down.
Hanifin has a bit more of a game from the point and is more of a shooter than Brodie, so the pair is simply more balanced.
*although in the first half of the season Hamonic's gap control was an issue no one seemed to admit to