Quote:
Originally Posted by zamler
Do you think this season Sutter's coaching has been elite? In fact rate Sutter, 1 to 10.
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Sutter’s coaching has been fine this season, I mean, it’s basically the same coaches with the same messages, same systems, same special teams and largely the same group that produced last year’s results. Even this team’s underlying numbers look pretty similar to last year’s 50 win team minus the comparable goaltending and finishing which speaks more to a lack of individual execution than coaching IMO.
But do you know whose performances have deviated and regressed greatly from last year? Markstrom and Huberdeau. Let’s just call a spade a spade here, these 2 obvious candidates have had nightmare seasons and this team quite simply put, has not been able to cushion or absorb their poor performances.
Just think where this team would be right now if both players just played up to their career averages. Not even peak performances, just their averages. That would be about 73 points for Huberdeau in an 82 game season and .910 sv% for Markstrom which by my math, adds approximately +35 to this team’s goal differential.
Comparing that to other teams with similar goal differentials, that would put the Flames at roughly 81-82 points this season or comfortably in a playoff position with an outside shot at winning the division.
So as much as everyone here nitpicks the little things Sutter does or doesn’t do, those little things do not and cannot overcome 2 star players who haven’t played anywhere close to their expectations.