Quote:
Originally Posted by driveway
I think this is wildly wrong. The gap between the 13th forward in the NHL and your 14th forward in the AHL is, I think, enormous. It might not appear that way in drills, or in measurables like speed, strength, etc.
But the thing that separates the NHL and players in the NHL from the leagues below it and other leagues around the world is that NHL players convert mistakes into goals so, so, so much faster and more regularly than in any other league. Make a mistake in the NHL and you're almost guaranteed to see a high-danger scoring chance for the other team.
And that's what separates guys who can play in the NHL from those who can't: they either almost never make mistakes, or they are fantastic at capitalizing on those mistakes, or - more commonly - both.
Your 14th forward in the A vs. the 13th in the NHL you're going to see guys who just make more mistakes. Consistently.
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Just to be clear - I'm talking about 13th and 14th forward on the Flames. Not the 13th forward on the Flames and then the 14th ranked guy on the Wranglers who they call up from the ECHL.
I think our defense situation proves my point well. They've rotated between Gilbert, DeSimone and Osterele - are any of them really that different from each other in terms of impacting the team's performance?