[Game Takes] Stars 5 Flames 1 - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Bingo · 10-24-2013, 11:12 PM

http://www.calgarypuck.com/2013/10/g...rs-5-flames-1/

Vulcan · 10-25-2013, 02:47 AM

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Speaking of Baertschi, would be nice to hear why exactly the young player was benched. The exec/coaches are making a lot of good decisions of late so I’m going to assume they see something more than I’ve seen, or feel the need to adjust an attitude, because I just haven’t seen benchable play from Baertschi. His game is far from perfect but the effort seemed to be there. …

I'm at much of a lose too as he seems to be playing in all three zones and he's using his body to make checks. Maybe it's his positioning and effort without the puck which from my TV is hard to judge or maybe it's just part of his education?

Here's a thought from Martin St. Louis on his experience in Calgary which may be applicable to Baertschi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_St._Louis

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An offensive minded player throughout his amateur and minor professional career, St. Louis was forced into a checking-line role by the Calgary Flames. He credits the experience for rounding out his game:[41] "I played a true third-line role, killing penalties and playing against the other team's top lines. For me, it was like a five-month crash course on developing my defensive game. My whole life, I had been an offensive player, and suddenly I was in the role of trying to be smart without the puck. I think those fifty-six games helped me develop into a complete player."[2]

Breen got 12 minutes of ice time which is good to see for getting him comfortable with the league.

Erick Estrada · 10-25-2013, 10:16 AM

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Speaking of Baertschi, would be nice to hear why exactly the young player was benched.

Considering the mystery of the whole Jones benching last year I doubt we are going to get a lot of light shed on Sven's benching. Likely just the "looking for more of a complete game" stuff that we have heard before.

Bingo · 10-25-2013, 10:24 AM

in the end ... maybe it's a good thing. A higher level of accountability. What they were doing in the last 5 years certainly wasn't working. If the Flames develop prospects with offensive skill and 200 foot awareness they'll be a good franchise for a decade.

ricardodw · 10-25-2013, 10:33 AM

With Cammalleri Stajan and Jones back Hudler had his ice time cut to 16 minutes.... a season low.

Hudler has been the best Flame for the first 9 games by a wide margin. He has played his best when playing 21+ minutes a game.

What did he do ?

Part of the Flames great start and work ethic has been giving the players deserving more ice time more ice time........

Husky · 10-25-2013, 10:41 AM

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Originally Posted by ricardodw

With Cammalleri Stajan and Jones back Hudler had his ice time cut to 16 minutes.... a season low.

Hudler has been the best Flame for the first 9 games by a wide margin. He has played his best when playing 21+ minutes a game.

What did he do ?

Part of the Flames great start and work ethic has been giving the players deserving more ice time more ice time........

So why is Glencross even touching the ice??

Caged Great · 10-25-2013, 11:03 AM

With Sven, he responded rather well after getting called out by Burke at the beginning of the season and played a lot better overall. However, he hasn't been creating enough or standing out as much as he needs to on his line for him to take the next step which is him becoming a 60+ point player (not necessarily this year).

You need to evaluate players both in how they respond to things like this and their actual game play. Sven has the potential to be a great first line player. He needs to take those steps to become that. If he doesn't take those steps, he'll either become another Jiri Hudler, or might become a trade piece in a couple seasons when we start to come out of the rebuild (In the same manner that Simmonds and Schenn were trade pieces for the Kings)

Erick Estrada · 10-25-2013, 11:08 AM

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Originally Posted by Bingo

in the end ... maybe it's a good thing. A higher level of accountability. What they were doing in the last 5 years certainly wasn't working. If the Flames develop prospects with offensive skill and 200 foot awareness they'll be a good franchise for a decade.

I have no issue with Sven sitting out the odd game as long as there is good communication between the player and coach in the reasoning and what he needs to work on. Like I said in another post today if you just hand out top 6 ice time to kids with no accountability you get Edmonton Oilers type results. I just don't want to see some sort of personal battle between player and coach because that's bad for everyone involved.

ricardodw · 10-25-2013, 12:26 PM

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Originally Posted by Husky

So why is Glencross even touching the ice??

The exception that proves the rule?

Glencross from game 2 through game 7 had Ben Street as his centre.

They got to play against the other teams best lines.

The expectation for Glencross is off the charts... He has not delivered.

YET there were a lot of CPers who gave Bouwmeeester a pass for under-performance in the same circumstances.

calf · 10-25-2013, 12:35 PM

Weisbrod was on the Fan during the 2nd intermission mentioned that the Flames wanted to field a bigger lineup against a smaller/skilled Stars team, hence why Jackman/McGratten were in. Cammalleri stayed in since he's just back from injury, so Sven was the odd man out. Weisbrod specifically mentioned that Sven was playing well and had obvious chemistry with Monahan, but also said that it was a good opportunity for him to see the game from another angle...

ricardodw · 10-25-2013, 12:46 PM

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Originally Posted by calf

Weisbrod was on the Fan during the 2nd intermission mentioned that the Flames wanted to field a bigger lineup against a smaller/skilled Stars team, hence why Jackman/McGratten were in. Cammalleri stayed in since he's just back from injury, so Sven was the odd man out. Weisbrod specifically mentioned that Sven was playing well and had obvious chemistry with Monahan, but also said that it was a good opportunity for him to see the game from another angle...

WOW... That philosophy almost directly in line with my 3 soft player theory:

Cammalleri, Hudler and Monahan get to play the soft non-gritty roles and Baertschi gets to sit.

so who gets to sit next game?

BACKCHECK!!! · 10-25-2013, 01:36 PM

Game takes from my spot (5th row, bottom of the circle in the Flames' zone):

Backlund was the best Flame on the ice every shift, and it wasn't even close. He was playing like he wanted to be the Captain.

Jamie Benn was the best player on the ice, and it wasn't even close. He was showing why he IS the Captain.

Stempniak also had a very good game, often beating Glencross to pucks that Glencross should have had.

Glencross was dogging it so badly for the first 40 mins that it was giving me a migraine. He was on the ice for the 1st shift, and I instantly thought the guy must be injured the way he's just skating listlessly at the top of the circle... But eventually I had to come to the CP consensus, which is that there's something wrong 'upstairs'.

The cheerleaders in Dallas are noticeably above-average. Probably the best I've seen in person.

Monahan played the same game he's been playing all season, and almost got the lucky-but-not-entirely-luck bounce that he seems to get every game.

Ramo and the defence were both balls for the 2nd period. They were both pretty awesome in the 3rd, where they killed those 5-on-3's.

Nichushkin looks dangerous when he has the puck and gets on his horse. The rest of the game, he looks terrible.

Breen was super amped and wide-eyed all game. Played about as well as SOB and Butler usually play. Except Butler actually had a quietly kinda-OK night last night.

Russel was pretty good. Played like a 2nd pairing guy last night.

Team Notes:
- This team needs good defencemen with size in the worst way. There is literally not one defenceman outside of Giordano who can consistently knock a guy down when taking him off the puck. When things got "physical" against Dallas, the grind line forwards were banging bodies, but the defencemen were pin-balling off of Dallas forwards who were bigger than them. Jamie Benn was driving the net THROUGH Flames defencemen, who didnt have the size/strength to play the body effectively.

- Ramo is better than MacDonald, but he has still been below-average. I'd like to see him get a few weeks to shake the rust off and adjust to the NHL.

- Gotta wind it up with re-iterating how effective Backlund was last night, in every zone and in every situation. He blew an edge once or twice, and didnt score, but I swear if I didn't know better and had never seen the Flames before, I would have thought he was the captain.

Bingo · 10-25-2013, 02:03 PM

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Originally Posted by BACKCHECK!!!

Backlund was the best Flame on the ice every shift, and it wasn't even close. He was playing like he wanted to be the Captain.

- Ramo is better than MacDonald, but he has still been below-average. I'd like to see him get a few weeks to shake the rust off and adjust to the NHL.

Glad to see the comment on Backlund, I saw the same thing. really stood out.

What is the Heat schedule this weekend? I'm guessing we get Bera in Cgy for a game soon.

FlamesAllTheWay · 10-25-2013, 05:08 PM

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Originally Posted by fotze

Surprised no one has mentioned Stempniak lately. He does his job night in and night out and mostly outplays his salary. Just a good solid 2nd liner. Like Langkow lite.

He's stepped it up big time this year. Been a positive factor every game and consistently contributing offensively. Big change from a guy who used to be a bit streaky.

Rerun · 10-25-2013, 05:21 PM

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Originally Posted by Husky

So why is Glencross even touching the ice??

Now that's a mystery if there ever was one.

Rerun · 10-25-2013, 05:25 PM

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Originally Posted by calf

Weisbrod was on the Fan during the 2nd intermission mentioned that the Flames wanted to field a bigger lineup against a smaller/skilled Stars team, hence why Jackman/McGratten were in. Cammalleri stayed in since he's just back from injury, so Sven was the odd man out. Weisbrod specifically mentioned that Sven was playing well and had obvious chemistry with Monahan, but also said that it was a good opportunity for him to see the game from another angle...

Well at least someone in the Flames organization is being honest, instead of this crap about how he wasn't playing well enough and it was to send a message and help his development.

As to the bolded part, that's just the Flames trying to put a spin on their decision so it didn't seem so negative.