Quote:
Originally Posted by Ashes
Maybe I'm remembering last season incorrectly but wasn't it right at the end with about 10 games to go that Hanafin had a season-ending injury, he was replaced by Stone and the Flames proceeded to not make the playoffs? Obviously there was other variables last season as well, but that was a major reason for the team falling out of the race at the end IMO.
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We won the game against MTL where Hanifin was injured early, leaving us 4 pts back with 9 games to play; MTL had 10 to play.
MTL only managed 10 pts in those last 10 games. CGY only managed 10pts in those last 9 games.
We played MTL again 2 days after Hanifin's injury and lost 2-1. PP goals for each team in the 1st, and then Toffoli scored EVS in the 2nd - Tanev/Gio were the D on the ice - a bit of a broken play where all five Flames weren't great. Nesterov ended up playing 20 mins, with Stone and Valimaki under 15.
Had we won that game in regulation (and all else being equal) we'd have ended up tied in pts and I believe made the playoffs.
Of course, those 10pts in 9 games without Hanifin (12 in 10 if you include injury game) were a slightly higher pt % than their sub .500% in the first 46 games with him.
It's also worth noting how healthy the Flames were that season - at the time of the Hanifin injury the top 10 TOI skates had missed a total of 2 games (Backlund); though I suppose Markstrom did miss some time. Then again, MTL didn't have Price for any of the 5 late season games against CGY and started Cayden Primeau in one of them.