The pessimist may think that this is just another 'winning when it doesn't matter' run that all of us have seen in the past.
The optimist may think that this team has finally got it, and that Darryl Sutter has finally got this team playing the way he wants.
I don't think the pessimist is right in this case. I agree with Giordano that this team has been looking better for a little while now, and I think some losses were basically on 'puck luck'. At the start of the season, I felt that the Flames were winning games while looking like a crappy team, riding a red-hot PP and a God-like Markstrom.
Markstrom has been better lately, but he hasn't been 'godly' like he started the season like. I am regaining my confidence in him as he is upping his game, but he hasn't stolen a single game for a while. The PP hasn't really stolen a game for a while either. There haven't been a heck of a lot of 'lucky breaks'. They aren't playing a complacent team in Montreal right now - they are playing a desperate team that even sent themselves a message prior to this 3 game series by cancelling their own practice time. Flames out-competed them well.
Call me a silly optimist. That's fine. I just don't see this as the 'smoke and mirrors' that we have seen in the past. I haven't seen a team working this hard since Hartley. Say what you will about him as a coach, or as a systems' guy, or whatever - his teams worked hard. Darryl's team is working hard now finally. It took a while for the players to adjust to it - longer than I thought - but it really looks like everyone is fitting in to a Darryl team now, including Gaudreau.
Anyone that thinks a Sutter system is simply smashmouth hockey that only oversized players can be effective in, are simply not paying attention. This team is turning it around. I suggest some of you hop off of whatever bandwagon you decided to hop aboard recently, and return to the team you really love.
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