Question two: On that note, do you think there was a specific reason or just little things piling up?
Jonathan Boulanger
Definitely little things piling up, those little things being good luck for the opposing team and bad luck for the Flames. Good teams are able to brush off bad or lucky goals by the opposition and keep pushing. Not the 2017-18 Calgary Flames, at all.
Ian Gustafson
Well it was an abundance of things starting to catch up to the Flames such as injuries, and depth scoring. They were out shooting their opponents during most games but unable to put the puck in the net.
Tomas Oppolzer
Calgary Flames
The goaltending was definitely the biggest reason but there was a bunch of small things that didn’t help. The fact that the Flames powerplay never really got their act together was hard and Glen Gulutzan just couldn’t seem to get a hold on what the optimal bottom 6 forward group was. It’s difficult to win games about 25% of the time your team is going to be completely ineffectual.
Benjamin Prokopy
Neither. There is no single reason for the collapse. Nor was it a situation where little things piled up. There were broad systemic issues with this team that overshadowed any day-to-day operational problems.
The Calgary Flames were offensively ineffective this season. Over the course of the year, the team averaged only 2.6 goals per game this season. They are 5th worse in the NHL in that category. This despite the fact that they generated 33.7 shots/game, which was 6th highest in the league. Whether it was a question of inadequate scoring chances or shots from bad spots is up for debate. Either way, the systems put in place to generate offence were woeful.
As I’ve already mentioned, the power play was equally lame. The team sits 4th worst in the NHL, scoring on only 16% of their opportunities with the man advantage. And it isn’t as though they lacked opportunities. So far, they’ve drawn 262 penalties this year, 6th most in the league.
The lack of success on the power play is due to some baffling decisions by the coaching staff. The biggest head scratcher was to consistently place Troy Brouwer on the top PP line in favour of more offensive players such as Dougie Hamilton.
You can‘t win games in the NHL if you don’t score. And you cannot score if the offensive systems in place are ineffectual.
Dan Raicevich
This team was starting to become fragile in a way. They were blowing leads after 40 minutes, especially the collapse in their first meeting with Vegas at home. Not to mention, this team cannot win on Saddledome ice to save their life. If they won 5-7 more home games, we would be looking forward to a first round matchup with a team and not dusting off the golf clubs.
Ramina Shlah
Yeah it was basically a mix of things all season long. The injuries, especially when Mike Smith got injured. The fact that it took the coaching staff 51 games to realize that Dougie Hamilton is their best offensive defenceman and to use him on the powerplay. Blowing leads, like Dan said. It was just a weird season and there was a lot of little reasons that the Calgary Flames’ season was a disappointing one.