Simple way to fix confirmation bias on if the Flames move the puck quickly or sit and wait.
Get a notebook, make two columns, and keep track.
This removes a lot of confirmation biases about a lot of things. I am betting (without performing this exercise myself) that the Flames sit in their zone for a long time making changes and getting ready to transition. That quick pass up the ice or the defencemen skating up the ice with the puck immediately after getting possession is not so common now in their gameplan.
Hartley made it illegal to rim the puck around from defencemen-to-defencemen. I love Sarich, but he thought it was stupid. Why? Probably because his game doesn't fit the quick-up, fast transition game. IIRC, he also had the rule of no D-to-D passing (or was it more than once? Had to go from D to F, or under forecheck pressure, D-D-F quickly - something like that). The D couldn't send it back and forth in their own zone anyway.
Now we heard from Versteeg that coach Q didn't allow the team to do similar things in their own zone.
This team does play awfully slow. Heck, maybe a few of us should grab a notebook out and make a few ticks next game. It seems to me like the stationary D holding onto pucks waiting to break out happens all the time - I am sure it isn't all the time, but it sure feels like it.
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