Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainYooh
What to look forward to in the next season?
1st line needs a big, mean, skilled player, like Benn, Malkin, Radulov, Stone etc. All this noise about the "game changing" and "size doesn't matter anymore" crap... It does f..n' matter. This is and will be a very physical game. You need to be able to play well against big strong guys to have any hope of winning.
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The funny thing about this is that the only playoff success we’ve had since 1989 has come on the back of physical players.
- Ferland and Engelland dominated the Canucks.
- Iginla and crew smashed their way through the opposition while Kipper played elite level hockey.
We see it every year come playoff time. Hell, it’s why we saw Bennett perform so well. People talked about trading away Bennett because he’s a bust, but really this team needs more of the type of player he is, not less.
Yeah you need balance - but we completely lack the required mixture of size and speed to create a successful balance.
How we address it this summer will be interesting. We have a lot of great pieces already here, we just need to compliment them accordingly. More speed, more size. Problem being of course that every team going into the off-season will have the same shopping list.
What we saw this year was the NHL clearly defining two game types. Regular season, and playoff hockey. The referees, as inconsistent as they are in the regular season due to their game management tactics, completely flip the script in the playoffs. They devalue pure skill through officiating, and it’s on Tree and the team to expect that.
The only player I want to see the Flames target in free agency is Matt Duchene. He brings speed and high level skill that would alter the makeup and depth of the team down the middle. Failing that, Tree is going to have to get creative on the trade front...which he tends to do anyways, so I’m already intrigued.
Standing pat, and expecting the players on this team to get 3 inches taller, 20 lbs heavier, and 10 strides quicker is too much of a reach in my opinion. Some players need to be said goodbye to, and I’d argue one more high level core piece needs to be added up front. Oh, and a goalie is needed as I’m not sure it’d be terribly wise to plan for Mike Smith to play at the same elite level in April 2020 that we just saw him play at this April.