Finally the Flames show up at their best in high pressure situations, and finally they string together two good playoff-like performances. That takes a weight off my chest that I feel has been sitting there for years.
I really wasn't feeling that great about the team after the first two games. Even when they won the first one, I thought it was more about the Jets being bad and distracted than anything the Flames did. Second game they weren't good at all and Winnipeg just choked them.
The last two games they played like they can. Third line emerging as a scoring threat is huge going forward, and with Jankowski even the fourth line has now looked useful. This is how I feel our depth has looked like on paper, but has never showed up on ice this season, until now.
I really have to eat crow on Talbot. Before the season, I thought he was a total hasbeen and would play himself out of the lineup. I stand 100% corrected. I love Rittichs personality, but going with Talbot has proven to be absolutely the right choice, he's been very good and seems to be getting into a groove.
I love what Forbort and Gustafson bring to the team, great acquisitions. Liked them coming in at trade deadline, love them now. Our defensive depth looks really solid with them.
Love the rise of Mangiapane and Dube. Love Backlund. Monahan I thought had a good, quiet game. Tkachuk was up and down in the series, but overall a beast and a leader. He feels like the captain already.
We might not have the brightest stars in the league, but everything else looks good right now. We got depth, we got strength, we got nastiness, we got goaltending. This should be a tough team to beat.
That said, any opponent we'll meet in the next round is going to be on a different level to what the Jets were in this series. This series was over when Scheifele got hurt, and the Jets were never a real threat after that. This was a play-in series, or as way say in Finland, "pity playoffs".
Now bring on the real thing.
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