Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
If our worst fears are realized and the team gets eliminated in the first round it will be curious to see how Treliving handles the offseason. I'm sure for the past few months most of his work has centered around finding at least one goaltender but I wonder if after seeing the same players wilt as the hockey gets more difficult that he shakes things up once again or maybe he looks at the overall season and thinks they are close and crosses his fingers these guys can finish strong for once? If Monahan can't get out of this funk maybe time to shop him around for an equivalent center that may be more consistent and brings more to the table other than having good hands around the net?
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The players are wilting now? Jesus. Not to mention, the hockey hasn't gotten tougher for the Flames, it's gotten easier. I know it's a rarity for us as a fan base, but the games have become less meaningful down the stretch for this team versus what they were earlier in the year.
This narrative that the Flames are performing worse in more meaningful games down the stretch is such garbage. The games mean less for the Flames, and they mean less for a large majority of the teams we have played against because many of those teams are out. Yet somehow we want to spin the narrative that the Flames players are "wilting" under the pressure or under ramped up competition? Nothing could be further from the truth. The Flames best players have been their best players when the games mattered most for this team. Now we get a little weird break until the playoffs starts and the games get really meaningful again for this team.
I'm going to wait until they start playing playoff hockey before I draw any conclusions about how the team is responding to higher pressure games, and if I was to draw conclusions about how our players will respond prior to seeing an actual playoff game, I'd give them the credit they are due for how well they played all year during actually meaningful games for this team.