Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
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.
|
Agree with every word here but I also think if you're going to start naming names, you can't leave out the Flames elite defensemen, which should have been our biggest advantage going in. The second pair got owned and the near unanimous Norris winner, who should have been the single biggest plus in the Flames column was held off the scoresheet and had very pedestrian advanced stats.
It's not hard to see why some people want to look hard at the head coach when nearly every single star player on the Flames laid an egg. It's hard to believe that none of those guys know how to play playoff hockey.