One who has continued to struggle, however, is Sean Monahan. In , it appeared he had fully arrived at the NHL level, registering what stand as career highs with 34 goals and 82 points. But since that season, it has been a steady decline. Though Monahan still managed to find the back of the net 22 times in , he put up just 48 points, his lowest total since his rookie season in Last season was even worse, as he registered just 10 goals and 28 points in 50 contests.
For anyone watching the Flames this season, it is abundantly clear that Monahan has not been nearly good enough. I think once you do that one goes in and you start to go with it. I gotta bear down, get around the net more, be harder.
The first step to fixing a problem is accountability, and it seems Monahan is having no trouble admitting he needs to improve his game. One particularly interesting comment from him is his mentioning of shooting less, which is certainly playing a part in his struggles. During his career season in , he registered shots in 78 games, which translates to 2. This season, he has managed to throw just 49 shots on net in 33 games, which averages out to just under 1. This likely stems from a lack of confidence, as he has converted on just 8.
That percentage peaked at its highest in at It is a shocking falloff for a player who once appeared to be as consistent as they came. This is very extensive for a player who is just 27 years old, though he is far from the only player in the league to have injury troubles.
The more optimistic look in describing his struggles, and the one both Flames management and fans should be hoping for, is a lack of confidence. If that were to be the case, it would mean that a few goals here or there could be all it takes to get him back to the Monahan of old, something that would be a huge boost for this team down the stretch run of the season and into the playoffs. It would also make trading the final season of his contract this summer much easier, though the argument could be made that it would make it easier to hold onto him as well.
It remains to be seen whether or not he can turn things around, but it is clear that his head coach in Darryl Sutter is doing everything he can to make that happen.
Perhaps a few markers on the man advantage is all he needs to get back to being the consistent goal scorer he was for so many years. Colton Pankiw is a former Jr. A hockey player who now provides his knowledge of the game through writing. He is a credentialed writer for the Calgary Flames but also does features on other teams throughout the league. Colton is also a co-host of both Oilers Overtime and Flames Faceoff podcasts.
Any interview requests or content info can be made through him on Twitter. Take a look at his work here. Mere moments after the Calgary Flames lost their captain to the Seattle Kraken in the expansion draft this past summer, fans started speculating how and when they could bring Mark Giordano back to the C of Red.
Appearing on the Eric Francis Show, Winter neatly laid out the reasons why Giordano would love to return to the franchise he played 15 NHL seasons for. Player loves the coach. Player has a home in the city. The fact is, the case for bringing back Giordano is more sentimental than logical. Fast forward six months, and absolutely nothing has changed. When the Kraken picked up Giordano at the expansion draft, there was a lot of hand wringing over how the Flames would replace the massive minutes the former captain logged on a nightly basis.
He led the team in ice time per game in seven of the past eight campaigns, including last season at the age of Oliver Kylington has arrived. Kylington leads all Flames blueliners with 19 points in 32 games, and his obvious chemistry with new partner Chris Tanev makes them an effective pairing. The young Swede has generated the offensive pop that Giordano used to provide, while Tanev continues to be one of the most effective shutdown defensemen in the league.
The other top-four pairing has also been very solid. Noah Hannifin has picked up right where he left off last campaign, and Rasmus Andersson is having a bounce-back year after a poor showing in New addition Erik Gudbranson had a decent start to his tenure in Calgary, but his game has seen some regression in recent weeks. There have been calls for head coach Darryl Sutter to try out veteran Michael Stone or even recall Valimaki from the Stockton Heat to reinforce the bottom end of the D-core.
Would Giordano be an upgrade on either Gudbranson or Zadorov? Absolutely not. Would the return of Giordano mean he automatically gets to wear the C on his chest again? What if he did re-sign but became a third-pairing guy with a diminished role? Greg Tysowski is a former broadcast journalist who chose the exciting life of a stay-at-home dad for over a decade. Luke Fox of Sportsnet : Two of the Toronto Maple Leafs biggest trade deadline needs would be a top-six left-winger and a top-four right-handed defenseman.
Two potential targets leading up to the trade deadline are free agent winger Evander Kane available immediately and Dallas Stars defenseman John Klingberg may or may not be available. Would Kane be a fit for the Maple Leafs? GM Kyle Dubas has to make the call though. Someone will likely outbid the Maple Leafs and GM Dubas will look to add a cheaper, gritty, stay-at-home defenseman at the deadline.
Connect with us. Share Tweet. Looking at depth scoring by rank To visualize this, we took the 5v5 point data of all the forwards from Natural Stat Trick.
Sorting out the Flames There are a number of options in the AHL that could earn a look including Matthew Phillips and Jakob Pelletier, but both probably need a touch more seasoning to this point.
Related Topics:. Continue Reading. You may like. Click to comment. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. A lot of things have been going very well for the Calgary Flames so far this season. Their top players have taken a huge step forward after a very down season last season, Oliver Kylington has emerged as a top-four defenceman for the team, and the team has a monster goaltending tandem in Daniel Vladar and Jacob Markstrom.
Aside from the top line and Andrew Mangiapane , they simply have not gotten enough secondary scoring this season. And while the trio of Johnny Gaudreau , Elias Lindholm , and Matthew Tkachuk has been working overtime to put the puck in the back of the net, the team just does not have enough scoring from their second and third lines to compete against the best teams in the league.
To visualize this, we took the 5v5 point data of all the forwards from Natural Stat Trick. We then compiled it by team, ranking players by points produced ie. Both Gaudreau and Tkachuk are probably where the team would like them to be.
Lindholm sits third, just a touch below where he should be relative to the league. The next four skaters, Andrew Mangiapane , Milan Lucic , Blake Coleman , and Dillon Dube , are reasonably close to average for the fourth to seventh best skaters in the league, but then the drop-off is quite substantial.
The Calgary Flames have not performed like an average team this season. They have looked far more like a top team, competing for the Pacific Division Crown than a team fighting for a wildcard spot.
Their scoring should not be at or below league average but should be substantially ahead of it. They were not abhorrent in any of the three games in the Southeast but were far from being the best team in any of them. And what was one of the biggest reasons the Flames were unsuccessful in securing points in their east coast trip?
The Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, and Carolina Hurricanes got scoring from more than just their top players, and the Flames simply could not get the same reliably from theirs. The most telling game was against the Panthers, where the two teams were relatively even in most areas… other than depth scoring. Aside from Gaudreau, the Flames are far and away the fourth-best team among the four in terms of points production by their forward group.
0コメント