Quote:
Originally Posted by timbit
With the exception of Lindholm, the Flames top forwards have had a miserable season.
Especially, at even strength.
They have been badly outplayed, for the most part , by the other teams best forwards.
Hence, the dismal record and no playoffs.
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This is only partially true IMO. Yes the top guys haven't been as good as they need to be. Monahan and particularly Tkachuk have been huge disappointments. My take on Gaudreau's performance is different than yours. He seems engaged and energetic, but I fully acknowledge there are parts of his game that are lacking. He's just not my point of focus.
But the Flames are built differently than many other teams. Our top forwards are making between $5 and $7 million. That is far less than top forwards on other teams. These savings allowed the team to focus on building depth and a strong D corps.
That's not working.
Look at the results this year. Forwards like Backlund, Bennett, Lucic, Leivo, even Mangiapane and Dube are getting caved in 5 on 5. Monahan too. And the D, other than Tanev and his partner, are getting owned far too often.
Yeah you win with your best players. But this team was constructed to have better than average depth and defenseman. When our top players aren't on the ice, we're getting killed.
It is a poorly constructed team that isn't playing well. We don't have Mcdavid/Draisatl, or Matthews/Marner, Mackinnon/Rantanen, et al. There's no Norris candidates on the back end. I didn't expect our top players to be at that level, but we're not making it up anywhere else.
IMO there's lots of blame to go around.