I think other teams got booked up on how to manage the Flames, and the Flames haven't really reacted back, hence my question months ago about Peters having "another gear".
How do you shut Gaudreau down? You pressure him hard as he's crossing the blue line, he won't fight through it, he always, always looks to pass. Take away the one or two targets for said pass (ie Monahan or Lindholm) and the play is dead. Rinse and repeat.
The only people on this squad fast enough to scare another team have no real offensive ability (Rieder, Kylington). So there's no speed game.
Forecheck hard (look how little time Flames defensemen have had to choose where to unload the puck to) and suddenly the Flames aren't a possession team anymore. They aren't passing clean to exit/enter the zone, it's scrambly and often the other team comes up with it.
Part of this is on the players, part of it is obviously that the system, whatever the hell it is, is not working real well, other teams are having no problem reading and dismantling the Flames.
And again, this is a team with a few skilled guys, a whole whack of not-very-skilled guys (I'm talking goal scoring), and it's showing. "Depth" is meaningless if your depth is mediocre. Jankowski has no points, right? None. And -10 on the year. Ouch. Backlund can't shovel a puck into an open net at speed. (He has a nice wrist shot which he uses occassionally). but basically nobody has to be worried about Backlund potting a couple in any game.
They were great last year till other teams started caring about them, and then it just died. And so far, no positive change from players or management that I can detect. I think getting rocked by the Avs again in the first game of the season really deflated them, like, they were all ready, it's a new year, and WHAM, right in the face. How do you recover from your "new improved" getting absolutely crushed?
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