Quote:
Originally Posted by timbit
No mercy for Flames playing 6 in 9 nights with extensive travel?
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Oh that had an adverse impact no doubt. Keeping those atrocious lines for 21 games had an impact. I suspect both the schedule and hopefully going back to the old lines on a permanent basis will conspire together to allow the Flames to go on a bit of a run in the month of March. I personally do not blame Ward for this idiocy of trying Lindholm as the 2nd line center and Backlund as the third line center for 40% of the season, that struck me as a whole organization approach and one that they seemed completely resistant to changing course from. Fortunately the results were so horrifically bad and I suspect over the next 5-6 games that the results 5 on 5 of the old lines will be so demonstrably better that that experiment will not be tried again with this current compilation of players.
If I had a criticism of Ward outside the fact that I do not think he is as strong of a Head Coach as most other NHL Head Coaches it would be an organizational group think approach to issues. But that is more reflective of management not wanting to have a HC who is an independent power center and is something that happens in many workplaces. I suspect a Laviolette or a Trotz may have given up on those lines a lot earlier. But that is just speculation on my part.