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The Calgary Flames are off to a much better start than most would have given them credit for, and it’s not going unnoticed. Flames coach Bob Hartley for one is impressed with his groups effort so far, but sees areas that still need much work.
"The players, there is a very solid bond and they're performing. We're not scared of anything, we just go and play. But at the same time I remind our guys that there are still 77 games to be played. We can't sit on what we did for the first five games because that will evaporate real quickly." Hartley told NHL.com on Monday.
What the team seems to have problems with so far continues to be their defensive game. Expected to be a better defensive team this year, the Flames continue to express some difficulties when it comes to clearing their own zones and covering their assignments. While still a younger team, the areas which we see inexperience is defensive zone coverage as too many times the Flames have allowed a few goals as a result of not properly covering their men.
As they currently stand as one of the more offensive teams this year sitting 6th overall at 3.6G/G, Calgary has played a strong break out game and has proven that they have the speed to zip around opposing team’s defensive pairs and create offensive rushes; especially Sean Monahan and Sven Baertschi to date. Conversely, what said players need to work on is their back-checking and ability to block shots and play the body in their own end.
A strong offense will only work for so long, but unless these guys are able to focus on their defensive systems some more, they will start to regress and lose games which they had no business losing.
"Obviously in Washington, that was a pretty good eye-opener for us in two ways: No. 1, we could score goals, but No. 2, we have to play 60 minutes." – Bob Hartley, courtesy of NHL.com
With that being said, the debate with Sean Monahan continues to grow. While many fans see nothing but strong play and offensive numbers from Monahan so far this year, stats paint a slightly different picture which may be the demise to his NHL season this year. As noted, the Flames have been a strong offensive team but have lacked defensively. As a rookie, Monahan has been given weaker assignments so far and has only started in the defensive end 40% of the time this year. While his ice time has grown the more he plays, there is a clear divide between what the rookie can offer offensively, and what he can offer defensively.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this kid has proven that he belong with the regulars right now, however with a current shooting percentage of 30.8 and the fact that he seems to struggle defensively, his numbers should naturally become a little more in line with each other. While there is certainly a case to be made that the rookie will have the chance to work on and round out his defensive game, are the remaining four games enough time to convince the coaches that he can play against stronger competition? This will ultimately be the deciding factor for young Monahan this year.
I know many of you feel that, with his play so far, there is almost zero chance he gets sent down…but realize that this is a professional sport and business to those in charge and winning is their number one goal. Hartley will keep the players that will give him the best chance to win every night and unless Monahan can improve his defensive zone play, he may be sent down despite his offensive production.
Furthermore, if Monahan is unable to improve upon his defensive game beyond the 9 games, then the Flames find themselves with a problem as Monahan will be playing a smaller number of minutes per game given that he won’t be challenged with top opposing lines. If we look over the numbers so far this season, and as I’ve pointed out above, it’s hard to argue otherwise that the Flames will start to regress as other teams start heating up.
Hard work and goal scoring will win you games, but if you cannot play a full 60 minute and 200ft game, then your losses will eventually start piling up. Thankfully for Hartley and the Flames, in a world of stats and computers, they are more than aware of this and have started working on their downfalls early on to try and avoid this to the best of their abilities.
“We learned this very quickly, it only took us one game. Just to show the balance in this League, we have five games played and our five games are decided by five goals. We could be 5-0 but we could also be 0-5."
“But we're all aware that the pace of the League is going to pick up. I believe with my years in the NHL that in probably another five or seven games, the pace is going to pick up and some of the teams that are struggling now are going to start to turn it on.”
"On our side, we're all aware of what has been written and said for us regarding expectations, where we should finish. We're all aware of this and that's OK. There's nothing that we can do about it from what was written or said. The only thing that we can do is control the way we work, the way we prepare and that's how I challenged the guys from Day 1 in training camp. I told them, 'If you read everything that is being said about us, No. 1 we're lucky to be in the NHL and No. 2 we may want to retire.' I said, 'If you want to use this as motivation that's fine, but I'd rather look at [president of hockey operations] Brian Burke, [general manager] Jay Feaster, our fans, our sponsors. We have a great hockey community over here and they're certainly behind us all the way.' – Bob Hartley, courtesy of NHL.com
I feel the next 4-5 games will be the most interesting for this Flames squad as it should really test how they can handle different situations and perhaps give us a better idea of what this team truly has to offer. After 10 games played, you should be able to better assess what a group has to offer despite still being quite early in the season.
The Flames will have four games to decide upon the fate of Sean Monahan, and do their best to increase their own productivity and play as other teams do as well. Whether this squad will be able to continue to out-battle and out-skate teams is still left to be seen, but what they have provided so far in terms of hockey has been nothing short of entertaining for fans across the league.
Calgary’s next game will be tomorrow night against the Anaheim Ducks, and there will be a pregame blog nice and early for you all tomorrow.
That’s all for today folks, thanks for reading!