I think it's largely a player personnel problem in the top 9.
Lindholm and Dube have been fine IMO. That's about where it ends in terms of positives. Several players in the middle 6 have been on a cold streak for a while now:
-Toffoli has 5 points in his last 18 games
-Coleman has 0 points in his last 9 games
-Jarnkrok has 3 points in his last 18 games
-Backlund has 2 points in his last 10 games
-Mangiapane has 0 points in his last 7 games
Tkachuk has struggled moreso than anyone else on the top line IMO. Gaudreau has been worse than usual, but I wouldn't say he's been outright bad. The 4th line has been fine, but I believe they were the line that allowed the goal against in game 2.
It's hard to overreact when you're down 1-2 in a series. It's a dire situation. You have to win 3 out of 4 against a team that just beat you in 2 out of 3. Otherwise the season is done.
Worries are justified.
The Flames still have decent metrics and shot totals. I'm not prepared to blame Sutter, but I'll give credit to Rick Bowness on the other side. The Flames have good expected goals-for stats. Likewise, Oettinger has been great. Way above what is projected. Markstrom has been fine, but he's been heavily outplayed by Oettinger.
I'm wondering if the penalty parade has really negatively affected teams like Calgary and Nashville. They feel like that can't really play to their true identity. And it benefits PP teams like Colorado, Washington, Toronto and Edmonton.
It seems like the Flames are really missing effective net-front presences on the powerplay. I actually miss Monahan quite a bit right now. Even at his worst, he's usually good at this on the powerplay.
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