I have to admit, that game was the one of the most painful Flames wins I've ever watched. The Canucks look defeated and have no finish. That and Markstrom kept us in the game. The Flames looked, overall, uninterested, and it made their play uninteresting.
The biggest positive for me is Backlund. He looks amazing. He's playing excellent defence and he seems to be coming up with new offensive moves and vision. There actually seems to be some great chemistry, with Lucic of all people. Part of that is that Backlund slows down the play enough for Lucic to keep up. Monahan also seems to be benefiting from the slightly reduced workload brought on by using Backlund and Lindholm more. Last season, Monahan stated he was focusing less on his offensive game and more on his overall play, which might be paying dividend.
The Flames really need to see more from their wingers. Gaudreau has been getting points, largely from fast breaks, but he coughs up the puck constantly in the offensive zone. I have yet to see him do a single spin move all season. There was a time when the opposition feared his ability to control the puck, and he seemed able to dodge the best defenders.
And Tkachuk, just seems to be missing something.
This team relies to heavily on the PP. The team is tied for 2nd in the league in PP percentage. If they want continued success, they need to do better 5v5 and they need the stars to be stars.
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