They have been on the ice for 2 empty net goals where no one else on the team has. They played a shift where 3/5 players (including Hanifin) were playing with each others stick (Hanifin had Lindholm's which is the wrong handedness, Gaudreau had Hanifin's massive stick and Lindholm had Gaudreau's tiny stick) and the Canucks ended up scoring; that is a complete fluke incident. They've also been on the ice when the other team has had a 2 on 1 because the d-man made a bad pinch and they were left out to try. 1 fluke play and 2 empty nets makes them the only minuses on the team. Send out Bennett's line in the dying minutes instead and that line is all - and Mony's is all +.
There defensive coverage is getting massively blown out of proportion, if people actually WATCHED THE GAME and not just take arbitrary numbers for gospel. Gaudreau almost never plays any kind of defence which I am fine with because I don't want him blocking shots and getting hurt. Watch Mony's line defend opposed to Backlunds where Tkachuk and Frolik actually help out and then watch Monahan running around doing the job of 2 people, often 3 because he covers for a defender as well.
Like last game where Monahan made the right play to bounce the puck off the boards to his winger and it ended up getting picked off and Montreal scored. If both his wingers don't blow the zone it is an easy out, it was also a tough bounce as it went right to the Montreal player.
Analysts and fans want to talk all this **** about the Flames, about Monahan, about what ever and no one looks at context, situations, etc. They look at 4-5 really bad shifts in 9 games and make conclusions from them.
Like I said, take away just those 2 empty net goals and Monahan, Gaudreau and Lindholm are all 0 on the season. A lot of superstars have mediocre +/- because they may be on for 20 empty net goals a year, again context. +/- is a horrific stat to judge a players defensive ability. Just like saying Monahan is bad defensively when he hasn't had a good defensive winger on his line his enter career. Put Frolik and Tkachuk with Monahan and see how good of a defender he is with actual defensive line-mates. Lindholm is good defensively, but I find the problem is him and Monahan sort of get caught with each other on who should be playing defence since they are both centers.
Lastly just to re-iterate a similar point I already made, but when Brodie missed the puck in Colorado since it bounced over his stick and the Av's player scored, the entire team on the ice gets a -. When Ras turned it over in St. Louis the entire team gets a -. When Vali made a bad pinch in Vancouver and Petterson scored (because Stone can't defend 2 on 1's at ****ing all), the entire line gets a -. This is 3 examples of bad plays made by the defence which the forwards have no control over and lead to goals against and a - for them. I don't know which forward lines were on the ice, but my point is is that +/- is a horrible stat because one bad play by someone else affects the entire line. It's garbage. I am fairly confident the St. Louis goal against was Mony's line. Or watch MacKinnon's opening goal the one game, what is Monahan supposed to do. Brodie (who I ain't blaming on this goal against) gives it to him right away, by the time Monahan gets it there is already a guy on him who slaps his stick, there is an opposing player also coming in who intercepts the pass and then they score. This goal happened because Colorado made a strong push, not because the Flames players are bad defenders (in this case).
I hate making these long posts because no one will probably read them anyway, but if horse**** articles want to come out and talk ****, ****ing back your **** up. If fans want to talk **** about players, back your **** up because I will refute everything said with real examples, hockey knowledge and understanding of the game. I am not calling out any HF member here, more so some of the horrible articles Sportsnet keeps putting out (just like the horrific post Dougie Hamilton trade article). I also am just adding context for some people when they say things like "this tells me they are a trainwreck defensively" <-- I am adding context your comment to refute that with my examples above. Not calling you out for having a bad opinion.
