Sutter once said somthing like: Every team wins roughly 1/3 of their games. Every team loses roughly 1/3 of their games. And there's 1/3 left over which determines whether you make the playoffs.
And that's the thing the Flames have failed at - the games you need to win, the games against bad teams, the games against tired teams, the games against the teams right above you in the standings.
The Flames aren't awful, and they aren't great, they are a middling team with mostly middling players. If Johnny or Tkachuk don't score, you beat the Flames most nights. Montreal did it without any center depth at all. None. I mean... you gotta win that game if you are Calgary, going in basically healthy.
So in Sutter we trust, but this team needs a dominant 1C and a legit top pairing D man. No team can outwork the opponent every night. Sometimes you have to outskill them (at both ends) and the Flames... are close, but not quite there, is my take.
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