It's fascinating to look back at when the season turned. They opened up really well, going 5-1-0 (only loss to the Sabres in a rough one). The lines were:
Huberdeau Lindholm Toffoli
Mangiapane Kadri Dube
Lewis Backlund Coleman
Lucic Rooney Ritchie
Then they lost a game they should have won against the Oilers and pretty big changes were made. Huberdeau and Lindholm were split up, as were Mangiapane and Dube. Lucic was promoted from the fourth line and Ruzicka started getting some games.
It was a pretty rough stretch where they lost seven in a row but should have won some of those. Losses against the Islanders and Devils stand out where they outplayed them and lost anyways. The lines end up in a blender during that time (Huberdeau was hurt too).
That loss against the Oilers was such a bad turning point. Markstrom had some good performances just before against Carolina and Pittsburgh where the Flames were outplayed and won, then everything came apart.
It's hard to say, even looking back, if the coaches overreacted and changed too much following the loss to Edmonton, but the 6 games that followed are all over the place. I was a bit surprised to see the underlying numbers looked quite good in those first 6 games. Only Carolina and Pittsburgh carried the play against them and they had a big lead on Pittsburgh.
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