I do think you need the caveat for the win being that Montreal was tired - and that Montreal had a relatively easy night against Vancouver the night before where they didn't have to fight for every inch out there, which I think was a bit of a shock to their system tonight. I 100% agree with that point.
I think that good teams win most of the games when they play well, and they consistently play well. There is the old saying that "Good teams find a way to win", which usually references the odd time that they play poorly, but manage to steal a win.
Flames have been 'stealing wins' for most of the season I would say, on the backs of their goaltending for the most part, or getting some lucky breaks at times.
Tonight is the first time this season that I saw this team be the legitimately dominant team on the ice since the first game or two of the season. Even in the blowout wins against Ottawa, I thought the Flames were giving up too much and still reliant on goaltending. Just a really refreshing night.
I look forward to seeing the rest of the season unfold. I hope for some more dominant wins, and for Markstrom (and Rittich) to throw some cold water on any 'potential steals' from the opposing teams.
Team is going to lose - hopefully they will lose more often to the bad bounces or running into a hot goalie, rather than being outplayed, but I bet it will be a very rare night from now on that they will be out-worked.
|