After their best season in a generation and winning the Western Conference, I was super-stoked for a long playoff run by my Calgary Flames.
Unfortunately, they flamed out in the first round losing to the 8th seed Colorado Avalanche in five games, shutting out the Avalanche in the first game but then losing four in a row.
(Believe it or not, the Flames actually did better than the Tampa Bay Lightning who finished as the overall top team in the regular season but were bounced in four straight games by the 8th seed in their conference, the Columbus Blue Jackets.)
Now that a few days have passed, here’s a few thoughts:
- A Tale of Two Seasons – Regular and Playoffs
The Flames (and Lightning) dominated the regular season but lost to teams who had been in playoff mode for a month already having had to battle to gain that last playoff berth right until the end of the season whereas the Flames and Lightning, having clinched a playoff spot a month ago, were probably coasting a bit. In an age of parity, that’s not a good thing. - A Game of Inches
Momentum is a nebulous thing but the Flames, who dominated the third period in the regular season more than any other team, ended up having two of their four loses come when they gave up a lead within the last three minutes of the game. - Flames Best Players Are Invisible
The Flames had five players hit the 70-point plateau (maybe unequalled in the NHL this season?) yet in the heavier, closer checking of the playoffs, Gaudreau, Monahan, Lindholm, Tkachuk and even Norris Trophy favourite, Mark Giordano were all but invisible. - Redemption of Mike Smith
Ironically, the Flames’ biggest worry going into the playoffs wasn’t their skaters but goaltending. Mike Smith had been inconsistent all season and was known for letting in easy goals at bad moments in the regular season (bringing back memories of Brian Elliott whose mistakes basically lost the Flames their first-round series a couple years ago.) The Flames had arguably played much better in front of backup David Rittich who was becoming the de facto starter but the coaching staff went with the competitive veteran with playoff experience in Smith and he rewarded their faith with a strong performance even setting NHL records for not just one but two games of 50+ shots against in a single playoff series. - James Neal
The Flames signed perennial 20-goal scorer, James Neal, as a highly desirable free agent this year. But perhaps playing in two Stanley Cup finals in a row – first with Pittsburgh and again with Vegas last year – left little in his tank. All year, he was criticized and all year, others defended him – “it’s a new team – he’ll find his game”, “the season’s half over but given his history, he won’t be denied”, “okay, regular season over but he’s made for the playoffs.” Except he wasn’t and he ended up with the humiliation of being a healthy scratch in Game Five in an attempt to shake up the team. - Coaching
Bill Peters was a bit of an unknown quantity as a newly hired Flames coach after some unheralded time in Carolina. But he led the Flames to an amazing finish, is in consideration for Coach of the Year honours, and was celebrated for making the right moves at the right time all year long – whether forward, defense, goalies, call-ups or whatever. But sadly, in the playoffs, he seemed to get schooled. When Smith was shitting the bed in Game Two, why not put Rittich in for a period just to see how he (and the team) respond? Why wait so long to bench Neal or bring in Valimaki? Why not give other young forwards an opportunity to draw in and bring some energy that wasn’t coming from veterans? I also wonder why teams don’t take the opportunity to mix up lines more during the regular season, even when things are going well, to see if that will provide different chemistry and balance? For example, Sam Bennett who had an average regular season but was probably the Flames’ best player in the playoffs was elevated to the top line in Game Five when things were “do or die”. What if he’d been put on the first line during the regular season a bit, just to see how he might perform instead of going in blind? - Nathan MacKinnon
After being drafted first overall in 2013, he was seen as, not exactly a bust, but not a generational talent like so many other first overall talents get branded with. But MacKinnon simply dominated the series and is now being called one of the Top 5 (if not Top 3) players in the league, at least in part by his performance in this single series. - At Least We’re Not The Oilers?
It took approximately seven minutes after the game ended for my Calgary-living, Edmonton Oiler-loving cousin to send myself and my Edmonton-living, Calgary Flame-loving cousin chirpy messages. It devolved into the usual arguments back and forth between Flames and Oiler fans – the Flames have made playoffs more lately but the Oilers have won more series in total, Oilers have a record for playoff futility only making the post-season once in the last twelve years but their 1983-84 edition was voted Best NHL team of all-time, they’ve won five Stanley Cups to the Flames single one but the Oilers have also had a similar number of #1 draft picks (meaning their team was one of the worst in the NHL) while the Flames have never picked in the Top 5 in their history. On and on. - Adversity Builds For Future Success?
People point out that the Flames had to lose in the 1986 playoff run to be able to win in 1989, the Oilers had to lose to the Islanders before they could win, the Capitals were perennial playoff chokers until last year when they weren’t and so on. The Flames have a great, dynamic young team. Whether they can convert that into playoff success in future remains to be seen but here’s hoping. - The Only Sport With Two Rulebooks
On one hand, I’m never a fan of blaming refs as I do believe they do their best to be unbiased, in a fast-paced environment and even the odd bad/wrong call should be negated over the course of an entire game. But it’s also frustrating that hockey is the only sport in the world where there seems to be one set of rules in the regular season and then, those are often ignored in the post-season in favour of “letting them play” or “not influencing the game” (ironically, if you let things that should be penalties go, you *are* influencing the game.) In my dream world, penalties would be called consistently whether it’s regular season or playoffs, first or third period, regular time or overtime, a Canadian team or an American team, if a player is “whining” or “being respectful”. Unfortunately, right now, that’s exactly what it is – a dream. (And don’t get me started on the lack of clarity on goaltender interference, not just in playoffs but in the regular season as well.)
This *was* a penalty against the Flames at a critical point in the game putting them down by two players for two minutes…
This was *not* a penalty against the Avalanche when Johnny Gaudreau was constantly hooked, slashed and held to slow down someone who is otherwise one of the most dominant players in the game (at least when the rules are enforced as written)…
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