Quote:
Originally Posted by Red
People bring up Pitts and Chicago. They were not soft. In fact, the young Chicago team bullied the Flames in what was it, 07?
It's not about the knuckle chuckers. It's about defense that doesn't allow players near the crease and forwards that go to the crease,
What do the Flames have at the top half of the lineup that match that criteria?
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Tkachuk, Lindholm, and Dube for starters.
The line between defence that doesn’t allow players near the crease and a penalty is razor thin in the regular season, so it’s isn’t “simple.”.
Ultimately is about players playing cohesively with good sticks to minimize plays that enable shots with a high percentage of scoring and executing on their own high percentage chances at the other end.
This is how the Islanders are playing. They allow shots, but they’re shots with a historically low percentage chance of going in. Shoot away.
The Flames can play like this, but their problem has been between their ears and had been for years.
They can be mentally weak, work their asses off, but lose the cohesiveness in their play because they’re not working smart or they have trouble getting in sync or in a rhythm..
They were consistently in sync a great deal 2 years ago. If they can get the same mojo going in a shorter compressed season they could have actual momentum in the playoffs where the line between hard defensive hockey and a penalty widens a bit.