Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
IMO, if the Flames are able to defend McDavid but just didn’t do the things they had to in order to accomplish it, yeah, they beat themselves. If they just don’t have the players capable of doing that, they were in over their heads.
I thought (a) the Flames didn’t play good team defence and checking and (b) they didn’t play their normal offensive game either. Tanev being either out or at 50% affected this a lot. The top line just didn’t play their normal cycle. It looked a lot like the one and done stuff we saw under Ward.
I agree they need more team speed. It’s a huge hole in the game of Tkachuk and they feel it all through the forward lineup (the D is decent speed wise).
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Tanev being out was certainly a big factor. In retrospect, the Flames playoff chances ended when Tanev got that injury. That was a critical hole they weren't able to fill.