Quote:
Originally Posted by Saqe
Was pissed off last night even though I'm not a hardcore fan. Can't imagine how some of you guys feel.
Something came to my mind this morning. When coach Q had his press conference in Florida he was talking about Toews and Kane and how they took their game to another level. The bigger the game, the bigger the moment- these guys rose to the challenge.
We're not seeing that from Monahan and Gaudreau. In fact it looks like they take a step back in the playoffs. Ultimately I think this is the biggest problem and downfall for this team. It's like this team is missing a first line come playoffs.
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Monahan is a big reason for Johnny's struggles lately and I don't think that is being considered enough. A small, passive yet extremely gifted winger cannot take over a playoff series on his own. Even when Iginla was in his heyday, he still had a guy like Conroy or Langkow at centre to just work their butts off and play with passion down the middle alongside him.
I was on the fence with him the last year or so and was cautiously optimistic he had figured it out this season after a pretty strong 50 or so games under Peters. The last 2 months have been a joke in terms of his compete level will to win. The guy plays like a cream puff and does nothing for the team unless he's getting fed glorious chances in the low slot.
This team won't be going anywhere in the post season with that kind of player in the #1C position. Just look around the Conference and what some of these better teams currently role out as their #1C:
Couture, Karlsson, Getzlaf, Kopitar, Johansson, Schiefle, Seguin, O'Reilley
There isn't a single guy on that list that you could argue a case for Monahan being even close to in terms of 200' game, puck play and just hating to lose hockey games. For me, he's a number 2 guy on an good team that is recognized as much more as a Flame due to his role on this team.