Flames fortunes rests on the shoulders of Kris Russell tonight. He's going to score the winner in triple OT to net us that 1st rounder, which we then flip for a starting goalie. It also results in Hitch getting fired so he can come coach the Flames. It's all on you Kris! I believe in you!
There's your problem right there. Absolutely silly notion.
I agree this has been beat to death in multiple threads. But I disagree with you and I don't think it's silly.
Put it this way - if you have two players with equal skill, one's bigger and one's smaller, who the hell would take the small player? The best player available, with the most skill, the fastest, the smartest, is sometimes not the biggest player.
If you could find 7 players in the 2016 draft who are big and physical, and also fast smart and skilled, then yes absolutely I agree.
Otherwise I say take the BPA at every turn, and often they aren't the biggest player. I worry that they are going to draft the biggest player at the expense of the BPA, who may be smaller and more skilled.
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You forgot Chicago. Because they are immune to the narrative because they win.
And what makes the Avs soft? Iginla, Holden, Landeskog. They're not even small, Soderberg, Bigras, Erik Johnson, MacKinnon. They just fit your narrative because they're a bad team that plays a run n gun style. They are not a softer team than the Blackhawks.
The Blackhawks are not soft. No matter how many times you say it. They're still not.
I'll give you this much though: they are a bit softer this year than they have been.
The Flames were soft by design of the coach as there's plenty of large bodies on the team. They were purposely amongst the bottom of the league when it came to taking penalties and played a strategy based on quick transition over grinding things out ion the boards. This wasn't Darryl Sutter's Flames that were relentless in their puck pursuit and really that type of play simply isn't going to suit guys like Gadreau, Monahan, or Brodie. There's nothing wrong with the makeup of the roster outside of a lack of skilled wingers and a shutdown defenseman and the reason they are where they are today is because they are still a rebuilding team so comparing them against fully cooked teams like Chicago, St. Louis, LA, etc is apples to oranges. This notion that they need to start adding these hulking bodies is ludicrous. I'm not saying that big players can't be skilled but unfortunately those players typically get picked before the Flames get to use their first pick unless they want to reach for more Hunter Smith's.
Agree that the Flames played soft by design this year. That much will change.
As to the bold, what's ludicrous is your assumption that getting bigger and harder to play against means adding a bunch of hulking bodies (at the expense of skill).
The best teams in the west are more skilled AND bigger than the Flames. The Flames have to improve on both fronts, though the size gap is bigger. And yes, style is a part of that (and it's being addressed).
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must show all Flames games nationally when they play on Saturdays, Mondays, and Wednesdays !!!
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