saneopinion

"Keep the opinions sane and well thought out."

Canada, AB • Canada •

Flaming out

I stopped counting at zero for seven on the power play. Then I noticed the penalty kill has let two in as well. I started thinking of catchy slogans like, "zero for seven fire Preston!!" or , "Penalty killers are slow let Preston Go".

The fact is in the playoffs there a few things you need to win. You need an incredible goalie to steal games for you, Kipper WILL do that. You also need your special teams to be well coached because during the tight checking playoffs your power play is incredibly important, more often than not the difference in the game.

Last nights game was a testament to how atrocious the Calgary Flame's power play is, there was no clear set up, no strong side pursuit, no movement...and no coaching. They DO have a special teams coach, you wouldn't know it by last nights game. There seems to be little accountability there however, Keenan has traditionally never had much stock in his power play time while running practice, preferring to work on defensive accountability...which is also a sore spot.

Let's be clear here, last night they had a five on three AND a four minute power play.... nothing. It's embarrassing. They should be embarrassed. I think the fighting showed they were and at least you know the players care.

Another not so minor thing that is becoming almost silly is the lack of aim. Sounds silly right? It is a huge reason why the other teams have so much transition when penalty killing, we clear it for them! The result is a team with a huge amount of short handed goals against. Dion would have had 10-15 more goals than he does had he hit the net more than once every five shots, even Iginla missed the net several times last night! Mike Bossy once said, "missing the net to me is like missing a 6" putt to a professional golfer.."

It's amazing to me to think what a little power play practice all year coupled with some fun accuracy competition could have done to the Flames' season.

I think we're in the division lead and deserve it, Vancouver fans will point to losing Luongo for a long stretch and that's accurate but we also didn't have our second line for a long period (still don't) and in my opinion it's right where it should be neck and neck.....but it didn't have to be.

S>O>

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