Quote:
Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe
I don't think that Tkachuk brings his team into the battle. I have started seeing it as he is bringing the battle to his team.
I 100% think that the players see it as an issue if Tkachuk is doing this every night. Remember when the Flames "owned" the Kings? That elbow happened, the rivalry happened, and suddenly the Kings sucked but were always up to the challenge when meeting the Flames.
Know why rivalry games are exciting? Because they are emotional and you can see all the players GAF metre going up. Tkachuk making everyone a rival - what does that do? It simply makes every team put more of an effort against the Flames, no?
So I have stopped looking at Tkachuk dragging his team into the battle. I see him as dragging the battle to the team all the time, and he himself often disappears in those games. The playoffs is where the battle and effort get ramped up to the max (or it should!), so in the playoffs that's great. Only Tkachuk hasn't exactly performed well there.
Yeah, I don't think it is in the Flames best interests to have a battle for every game of an 82 game season. I don't think it is wise to have the other teams circle the dates they have against Calgary. It is not going to help this team win more if every game means a battle against an opponent that really wants to make sure they beat you MORE than beat the other teams they play.
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I’ve actually had very similar thoughts as well in regards to Tkachuk. But I came to the conclusion that at the end of the day, hockey to us fans is about entertainment right? We want to watch an entertaining hockey game and if Tkachuk helps to break up the mundanity of an 82 game season, then fantastic. I also think he brings more to the team than he subtracts, so I’m still all for keeping him.
Also, I really don’t like falling back on stats for extremely small sample sizes. Matthew Tkachuk’s line in the 2020 playoffs was the best line on the team and in my opinion, I thought that line was the single biggest reason why the Flames dominated the Jets in their best of 5 series. Then subsequently, when he went down with the injury against Dallas, that line along with the team were toast.