Quote:
Originally Posted by SeanCharles
I think part of it is either because Toffoli isn’t a top line player or because he doesn’t seem to gel with the other guys on his line.
I think the Flames have 2 legitimate top liners in Lindholm and Huberdeau, 2-3 second liners in Toffoli, Kadri and Mangiapane and a bunch of third liners sprinkled in with some fourth liners.
I wouldn’t mind it if Sutter mixed things up a bit with the lines. The best shift I’ve seen lately was that shift tonight after Kadri got sent to to the dark room and Mangiapane-Ruzicka-Dube held the Habs in for nearly two mins. If there wasn’t a long change on the play I’m sure we could have cycled some fresh legs in there and scored.
This team just seems stale offensively and it’s frustrating to many as we are now signed up for this, whether we like it or not, for the foreseeable future due to all those large contract we dished out in the offseason to, let’s be honest, players who have already reached their peaks prior to ever suiting up as a Flame.
I just think Sutter needs to be less rigid in his way of thinking and test out some things he maybe wouldn’t normally.
I think 29 games is a decent enough sample size to realize some of the combinations just don’t seem to be working all that well while others I feel like have never been tested even once (I can’t recall ever seeing Kadri and Toffoli together as an example).
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One thing I've noticed of that the Flames don't have very many set plays. They've got a few, and the ones they do have seem to work. This signals to me that the Flames aren't spending enough time in this in practice.
If you look at a team like the Oilers, a major thing they do have going for them is a bunch of different set plays on the PP and to generate chances for McDavid.
I'm not saying the Flames should go full oilers, but they need to have plays to fall back on to build confidence. The forwards are handling the puck like they don't know that to do, and the defence seems limited to slamming the puck from the point. The Flames have a LW who just feet a record for most assists by a LW, and they can barely string together basic offensive zone control.