To me the reason this team is not good enough comes down to the core players not being as good as many thought they were. Johnny was top 6 in scoring twice in his first 5 years in the league but no where near that in the last couple of years. Monahan went from elevating from 60pts to point per game to falling back to under 50pt pace. In his 20/21 year old season Tkachuk had 34 goals and 76pts playing on the 2nd line. Elias Lindholm appeared to be that missing piece and completed their big 4 upfront by becoming a near point per game all situations player. The Flames also had a franchise Dman who seemed to keep getting better with age.
The Flames top players are just not good enough. They showed signs of being an elite team and guys like Gaudreau and Monahan potentially had another gear but that just doesn’t seem to be the case. The core of this team seems to be regressing.
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