Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
It was marginally better, not far better. The Flames had one of the worst groups of bottom-6 forwards in the NHL, if not the worst.
|
After the fact, maybe. Heading into the 2018 season, it was the same roster that had finished 2nd place behind Minnesota in 2017 for most 10 goal scorers, sans Alex Chiasson and plus Jaromir Jagr/Mark Jankowski/Andrew Mangiapane. Sam Bennett had just come off a playoff series where Treliving felt he was going toe to toe with Ryan Kesler as arguably our best center in the series at ES, along with one of our top penalty killers. Troy Brouwer was expected to bounce back from a hand injury that had allegedly limited him the second half of 2017.
Going into the 2017-18 season the Flames considered themselves a very deep team and fans did too, and the biggest question mark was whether Ferland could continue to hang with the top line (which he did).
Let's not kid ourselves, what could go wrong did go wrong last year from the opening puck drop in Edmonton where Gulutzan defaulted to things that would expectedly not work on the bottom six, from Versteeg-Bennett-Brouwer to Matt Bartkowski to a love affair with Stajan-Brouwer on the penalty kill to Tanner Glass. This snowballed into Bennett generally losing his confidence (after being our best player in preseason), Versteeg being awkward and making brutal offensive zone giveaways every game (after looking like he had gotten quicker than the year prior during preseason suddenly he lost a step, probably related to the hip injury), Kulak being healthy scratched despite clearly being the best option as Stone's partner, etc. Even Jagr's arrival didn't help, at firdt due to conditioning, next as his shot was simply not going in and injuries kicked in, and finally due to injury. On the backend Hamonic couldn't hit the net when Brodie set him up while Stone needed Brodie setting him up but couldn't keep up in our top 4 defensively. 2/3rds of our right D underperformed as a result.Hamonic needed a partner who prefers to shoot (like Hanifin or Kulak) and Stone.. well I'd prefer to ship himboff for cap space but either way he needs someone setting him up for thr one time point shot (Kylington?) to maximize his shooting skill. Bennett's strong penalty killing went to waste too as Gulutzan fell in love with Jankowski-Hathaway and then didn't have the cajones to break up Stajan-Brouwer.
All this despite Bennett, Jagr, and Jankowski actually having stretches of outright dominance. Even Stajan played far worse early in the season than he did in the second half. Mangiapane never seemed to be put in a position to succeed and underperformed during his callup. Garnet Hathaway was overplayed and that was obvious even during his hot streak picking up assists while Janko and Bennett were still high on that Jagr Training but unacceptable when he went cold without an adjustment. Despite having a farm team that could score, callups seemed to lose all confidence and comfort playing up here, which is not the case elsewhere.
While not bottom six, Backlund also posted an unlucky season and Frolik's post-injury play was a write-off. Ferland also seemed to struggle after his return from injury against the preds.
At least part of all that was also systems related, as players tend to thrive off the rush and with defensemen jumping into the cycle and Gulutzan's systems were all about the cycle and with defensemen hugging their point positions.
Our depth underperformed. If they were the worst bottom six in the league, it was because nothing went their way. And yes, GG was a huge part of that. Tre signing Glass/Bartkowski, injuries to Jagr and Versteeg also contributed.