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The Calgary Flames soared past even the most optimistic expectations during the 2018-19 regular season.
They finished 2nd in wins (50), points (107), goals scored (289), goal differential (62) and posted elite underlying numbers for the majority of the season.
Yet, come Round 1, they looked nothing like the team we grew accustomed to watching and were put out by the NHL's No. 17 seeded Colorado Avalanche in just five games as a result.
This has, and will, lead to many different opinions as to what the problem is. Michael Frolik offered his before breaking away from the summer.
I know a lack of size, toughness and/or physicality is often used as a key reason Team X lost a playoff series. I think that's rarely the real issue, and especially not in this case.
Over the course of five games, the Flames out-hit the Avalanche 181-146. Matthew Tkachuk, Garnet Hathaway, Sam Bennett, Travis Hamonic and even Elias Lindholm (3rd on the Flames with 23 hits) were in the middle of everything. A lack of "meanness" wasn't the problem.
Anyone who watched the series could clearly see it was the Avalanche's speed giving the Flames fits. Led by Nathan MacKinnon, they were absolutely flying through the neutral zone. This led to defense playing conservative and loosening the gaps, which the Avs certainly took advantage of.
With the puck, the Flames just looked...slow. They weren't able to gain much traction through the neutral zone and the Avalanche most certainly weren't forced to back off and respect team speed. That's part of the reason Austin Czarnik took James Neal's spot in the lineup, which probably should have been done earlier.
Nevertheless, playing fast was clearly a big issue and Bill Peters was quick to point that out when asked for his thoughts.
Excerpt from The Athletic:
Later, Peters mentioned his own preference for the lineup — getting faster.
“You can get fast and big at the same time, but that’s hard to do,” the coach said. “We want to get better in every area. We want to get quicker. We want to get bigger. We want to get more competitive. We want to get younger. We want to get cheaper. We want to get all those things, right? It’s hard to do.
“We didn’t have the required pace in Round 1. Part of it was we didn’t get up on our toes. We were too respectful. We’ve got to get our pace up. If that involves being bigger at the same time, that’s great.”
Peters has some old school in him but he's a smart guy. He knows the game is about speed and skill, which is what he preached when the Flames hired him a year ago.
With all due respect to Frolik, a fine two-way player, I think not having enough "bigger bodies" or "meanness" was the least of the Flames concerns in the opening round.
Peters seems to understand that. Let's hope GM Brad Treliving does as well.
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