I think in the argument between “did we score enough” vs. “goaltending” something we leave out too much is realistic expectations. Too me, this team was always going to struggle scoring, we lost all of our elite talent. We all expected Huburdeau to drop off (sure not this much) but to me I think everyone was expecting us to struggle there because just look at the roster. I’m shocked we even had a 30 goal scorer this year. So to even finish middle of the pack may actually be above or at least at expectations for the flames, I’m sure a lot of us would have actually taken 18th in the league in all situations (8th 5v5) by earlier numbers .
With goaltending, the drop off has almost been apocalyptic . This tandem was basically one of the top tandems in the league this year and i would argue our defense got better on paper (we lost Kylington which hurt ). This year they are one of the worst tandems and to me hold a significant portion of blame as to the teams failures this year. Very very few teams can outscore bottom of the barrel goaltending. We have given up 40 more goals than last year already, and if you look at the stats we do pretty well defensively (5v5 CA/ FA / SA /XGA / SCA / HDCA natural statrick) are literally all top 5 in the league . Yes I know “but the quality against” , well let me tell you, the numbers say we are stingy. The issue is goaltending. If we even had a shade of last years goaltending this team is easily in the playoffs IMO
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