Quote:
Originally Posted by Strange Brew
I don’t believe many Flames (players, coach or GM) can escape their share of blame for that Avs series. Smith, Bennett and maybe a couple of others are about the only ones who showed up playoff ready.
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Yeah you could spread the blame around equally. I do think the first line slumping down the stretch was probably going to make for difficulties no matter what opposition they faced as you need your best players to be your best players in the playoffs and Gaudreau, Monahan, and Lindholm hadn't been the Flames best players for well over a month prior to the playoffs. Making matters worse Backlund and Tkachuk played by far the worst hockey they had all season and when you add all that up the Flames would have likely lost to any of the 15 qualifying playoff teams as it's not like the Avs are a playoffs juggernaut as they lost in the next round to a banged up Sharks team.