Solid win by the team last night with all 4 lines contributing in some fashion. Thought the Islanders slept through the 1st and blew quite a few golden opportunities that could’ve made the game more interesting. But overall, the team played well overall and the win was deserved. Markstrom made some pivotal saves, so that was encouraging to see. In the end, nice of the team to give the fanbase a game where we’re not on the edge of our seats living or dying on every goal that’s scored.
In terms of the PP talk. I thought they tried a few different looks yesterday and I’m not sure it helped much. We’ve got the same coaches and systems from last year that made the powerplay top 10 in the league and we still have 3 out of the same 5 from last year’s PP1 unit. Obviously, the big 2 that are missing are Gaudreau and Tkachuk which are huge losses because they both were dynamite on the PP.
But in my opinion, if the team wants to try to at least replicate some of the success they had last season, they need that one timer from Lindholm to get going. Last season, Tkachuk was so good down low at making goaltenders guess depending on what the opposition took away. He would either drive it hard to the net himself or if Lindholm was open in the slot, one touch pass to Lindholm and bang, one timer from the slot. Gaudreau also did a great job on the flank. He was shooting more to keep defensemen honest, but he also drew a lot of defenders his way which opened up a myriad of other opportunities and also, he was great at finding Lindholm open for that dangerous seam pass.
If this PP can establish a credible threat somewhere, then that should open up opportunities elsewhere when the defenders start to cheat. But sadly, that’s not happening, they’re too easy to defend everywhere right now, in the slot, side of the net and on the flank. The best powerplays in the league make the opposition defense work, they keep them guessing and create a ton of chaos in their structure. But with the Flames, there’s no havoc, the opposition just sets up camp and is never under any duress because there’s no threat anywhere, it’s all telegraphed, they just sort of pass it around and shoot low percentage shots. It just looks like a 26th ranked powerplay right now and that’s exactly where they currently sit, 26th.
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