Three Things From Week 7

It’s time for the Week 7 edition of Three Things. This week we take a look at the Sean Monahan’s frustratingly ineffective start to the season and wonder if he needs to be benched for a game. Plus where has the Flames offence gone and Alex Chiasson had himself a very good week. Without further adieu, here’s Three Things.

Does Sean Monahan Need To Sit?

Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

It’s no secret, nor a hot sports take that Sean Monahan has been terrible this season. Monahan signed a MEGA 7 year, $44,625,000 million dollar contract this off season and he’s not even close to living up to the deal. In 23 game so far this season, Monahan has 5 goals and 3 assists and is a brutal -10. Not only has Monahan been ineffective, he’s a non factor when he’s on the ice. The 8 points is almost shocking seeing how poor he’s played this season. Yes, he’s without Johnny Gaudreau, BUT when your team is paying you $6.35 million dollars a season to be one of it’s anchors, you better be able to play with whomever is out on the ice with you. In 2013-14 he had 15 points over his first 25 games. In 2014-15 he had 16 points over 25 games and over that same amount of games he had 17 points last season. While the stats are way off from years past, Monahan doesn’t seem to be right. Whether he’ still injured or feeling the pressure of that large contract, Sean Monahan isn’t delivering on the ice. Two 4 point months isn’t cutting it for your top line centre and that’s why the Flames might want to entertain sitting Monahan for a game. It’s less of a punishment and more of a way to sit back and look at the game from a distance and clear his head. This is something that’s been debated in the Calgary media for the last week and it’s not a bad idea. In the end, Sean Monahan will most likely figure it out and turn his season around, but for 1 game it might not be bad idea to get him off the ice and sit to figure some things out.

What do you think?

Where’s The Offence?

Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Remember that commercial for Wendy’s “Where’s the beef?” Well, the same could be said for the Flames offence. The Flames currently sit at 18th in the NHL with only 55 goals for. Calgary wasn’t lighting the lamp with any urgency before Gaudreau got injured, but since he has been out the Flames have scored 14 goals in 7 games. An average of 2 goals a game isn’t going to win you many games and that’s even considering how well Chad Johnson has been playing of late. The Flames have been playing with house money so to speak over the last 7 games. Chad Johnson has bailed out some terrible performances by the offence. And the Flames haven’t been not scoring for lack of trying. The Flames did get lucky in Columbus though. Calgary had only 20 shots on net and managed to score twice and win. That’s not going to happen very often. The rest of the shot chart looks like this: 24, 30, 26, 31, 29, 32. Not great, but not as terrible as it looks. Calgary is getting shots, but no quality chances. The Flames still have a good chunk of time without Gaudreau and Chad Johnson can only keep the ship afloat for some long before the lack of offence catches up and sinks this season.

Alex Chiasson

Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

Alex Chiasson had himself a very good week. Coming into this road trip Chiasson had only 4 points. After stops in Buffalo, Columbus, Boston and Philadelphia, Chiasson has added 2 goals to up his point total on the season to 6. Yes, it’s not the best stat line, but he’s been playing very well as of late. He scored the game winning goal against Boston on Friday night, was a +2 and had a goal in the Flames 5-3 loss in Philadelphia. Against the Flyers Chaisson had 4 shots on net and finished an even 0 and didn’t have a +/- rating in the negative column all week. He looked like one of the few Flames who was playing for something against the Flyers and maybe this road trip is something that can help jump start his season.