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Originally Posted by Trochu
I believe I scoffed at that idea for one. I still do. Toughness, physicality, hitting, whatever you want to call it, or lack thereof, wasn't why the Flames lost IMO. Colorado isn't a big physical team which simply overpowered the Flames. Sure, if Kassian laid out MacKinnon every time he touched the puck, that may have helped, but Kassian wouldn't be able to do that because he can't keep up with MacKinnon. If Kassian can; stop Brodie from giving it away, speed up Neal and Jankowski, give strength and desire to Monahan and Johnny, make Chucky show up, make it so when the Dman hit their guy in the corner, he doesn't pop back up and get the puck before the Dman get the puck, make the guys skate faster on puck retrieval as that extra second makes a difference, in general, give the entire team, with the exception of Smith and Bennett, a lot more urgency, and make it so, on a team with five 70+ point guys in the regular season, Bennet isn't the best skater for the series, sign me up. I don't think Kassian can do any of that though, so I'm a bit skeptical.
It's also easy for guys to come in here after the fact and make comments such as "I knew they wouldn’t go anywhere in the playoffs, they don’t have a big rough and tough team." while seeming completely oblivious to the fact one of the biggest, if not the biggest, team in the league was just eliminated in the first round. I don't think it's as simple as signing Kassian and Clutterbuck and calling it a day.
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Bingo....
I found us very streaky through the year. JG was trying his heart out but what about the other 2? It seems that whole line took a permanent vacation after the All star break. Sure the team had some streaks in there but that was when the 4th line was lighting it up. This had nothing really to do with size, it had to do with learning how to win. I really thought Monahan was hurt. He said he wasn't, so???
What ever the actual issue was, it will be addressed. Our GM doesn't sit on his hands, that is one thing I really do appreciate about him. Interesting that Frolik was trade bait. I doubt he is here for next year. Between trade bait and a mouthy agent we don't need him.
Sooooo, How would Stone have looked in a Flames uniform? I was 1000000% right about that. A real shame we didn't get him.