Quote:
Originally Posted by dissentowner
He doubled down on his system which does not fit this roster, I heard what he said. This team should have comfortably been in a playoff spot with the roster they had to start, the talent was there. Maybe people need to stop defending a coach that is not right for the construction of this roster.
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Are you sure that he is wrong? Between November 4 (after the 2-7-1 start and when Martin Pospisil and Connor Zary had joined the team) and the trade deadline, over 52 games the Flames went 29-19-4 for a .596 Pts% which was 13th in the league and would have been good for 98 points and tied with Vegas for the final wildcard spot (one of the rare seasons when 96 points isn't good enough to get in).
During those 52GP the Flames were:
9th in Regulation Wins with 24
6th in GF/G 3.37
21st in GA/G 2.94
30th in PP% 14.0%
7th in PK% 81.8%
19th in 5v5 Possession 50%
6th in 5v5 Shooting % 9.6
12th in 5v5 Save% .914
I'd say that Huska's assessment that the adjustment period to the new system and the terrible powerplay as the culprits for the disappointing season is about as accurate as you can get.
And looking a little deeper, once the Flames got Kylington back into the line up (January 25) they went 10-5-0 (.667 and a 109 point pace) to the trade deadline before losing both Tanev and Hanifin:
5th in Regulation Wins with 9
9th in GF/G 3.40
11th in GA/G 2.93
26th in PP% 17.4%
7th in PK% 81.3%
10th in 5v5 Possession 52.0%
7th in 5v5 Shooting % 9.6
15th in 5v5 Save% .916
Huska is a first year NHL coach who had an incredibly disruptive season where the team lost 3 of the their top 6 D, four if you consider Kylington missed 49 games. He lost the expected first line center in Lindholm as well and honestly had a shell of the player when he was here.
When he actually had Markstrom playing at a high level and a D-core with Weegar, Tanev, Hanifin, Andersson, and Kylington, the team played pretty damn good. Even if the 15 game sample size is too small, the 52 game sample size would have had them in the mix for a playoff spot.
Conroy has plenty of work to do to restore the D core to an acceptable level and the coaches need to fix the PK without Tanev and Hanifin, but I think that this coaching staff is going to have the team playing at a competitive level for a playoff spot next season. Obviously the Flames don't have any superstars, but they have a pretty talented roster. Your assessment of Huska is too negative given the context of things outside of his control.