The only "good" thing about losses is they expose weakness. They hilight the areas which need to improve. And the Flames obviously have a few of them.
A couple of posts ago, I pointed out that this team is grossly top-heavy: after the likes of Iginla, Tanguay, Langkow and Huselius, the drop-off in terms of talent and on-ice contributions is precipitous (excepting, perhaps, Lombardi). It seemed a minor complaint after Calgary beat up on Nashville, but attained full relevancy last night for anyone watching the Flames struggle (again) against the Red Wings. A simple game of "one of these things is not like the others" explains why:
Tanguay - Conroy - Iginla
Holmstrom - Daystuk - Zetterberg
One of these things just doesn't belong. If you selected "Conroy", congratulations! You win a big, steaming bowl of 'NO FUCKING SHIT SHERLOCK'.
This contrast is important because Keenan favors a power v. power strategy, particularly because Calgary doesn't own a capable shut-down trio of forwards (Yelle is apparently past his best before date in that regard), meaning he doesn't have much choice. Anyways, who can blame him with a couple of guys like Iggy and Tanguay who will probably kill most opponents on most nights (whoever the center on the line might be)?
The problem is, of course, that "most" opponents is not "all". The Flames will continue to struggle against elite competition because their line-up is riddled with Conroy-like weak links. As an illustration, did you know that Tony Amonte (who was forced to retire unofficially this summer due to a lack of interest in his skills) had one more goal and as many points as Owen Nolan does now at the same point of the season last year? And that was on an arguably worse squad at the time? Im sure that scares a few Flames fans more than anything they saw this Halloween.
Not that the deadweight is limited to the forwards. We're 13 games in and it's becoming more and more clear with each subsequent shift that Anders Eriksson isn't an NHL defensemen. Just isn't. He does nothing even adequately, let alone well. He vacillates between "harmfully bad" and "just good enough to not quite be harmfully bad". He played all of 15 minutes against the Wings and was on the ice for 3 of the 4 goals against. Also, he singlehandedly diffused the Flames forecheck on a number of occasions thanks to dumb decision making and an outright inability to carry the puck and skate at the same time. The Eriksson signing is so much like the Zyuzin one from a year ago, it almost boggles the mind that Sutter committed the same species of massive blunder AGAIN. Particularly since it cost the team a cheap, far more capable player in Giordano.
On that note, the Amonte/Nolan thing above also seems to be in step with the "expensive fading veterans" dance Sutter insists on sticking to, however out of time it is with the music that's playing.
Look, the Flames have some stud lead horses. And that's great. But they also have a lot of passengers and at least one broken wheel on the carriage. Until they off-load some weight and get the axle out of the mud, they aren't going to get too far.
