I have decided to let the dust settle a bit before giving my comments, but feel like my assessment of the loss to the Oilers really falls on Markstrom mainly and Hanifin to a lesser degree. I thought Hanifin looked absolutely lost the whole series, other than when he was on the 1st power play for a few instances where I thought he really added a different dynamic to that unit than Andersson. But he looked almost nervous and scared out there, very tentative.
But I have no problem putting the big blame on Markstrom. Whether that was due to being overplayed or not, definitely something to consider. I felt we had a strong backup that could have been played more often through the season. I believe Bingo said that through games 2-5, Markstrom was letting in one goal over expected per game. You remove that extra goal from even two of the games, say game 2 and 5, and you have a tie game in Game 2 where anything can happen, and in game 5 the Flames take that win before needing OT. Then you factor in Game 4 with the gaffe to start. We lost game 2, 4, and 5 by one goal (excluding EN) so hard for me to not see the correlation and wonder what if.
That’s not even to mention the atrocious Game 1 where you wonder how much wind might have been out of the Oilers sails if they lose 9-3 instead of getting the momentum that came from tying that game. Certainly the Flames lose some confidence in the game they have played all season knowing the goaltender behind them is playing leaky.
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