I didn't see any issues with Wideman's game last night. I thought he was actually one of the few bright spots on the team. He saved what I thought was going to be a sure goal by Eberle by picking Eberle up and lifting his stick. Wideman played a fine game, and if he plays the rest of the season like that, Flames are going to be lucky to have him.
Grossman wasn't ALL bad - those two first turnovers directly leading to goals were not good. Sure, you can argue that someone should have been covering for him on the 2nd, but he made a terrible play with the puck. He seemed to just telegraph what he was going to do, and by the time he did it, the pass was dead. It looked like he got flustered at that moment trying to hard to make a play. However, that first turnover was atrocious, and I bet it threw Elliott off his game, and set the tone.
Anyways, I thought Russell looked really good for the Oilers. Still too expensive to have brought him back.
I didn't like how Gulutzan didn't change things up so much. Monahan's line was not working out well against McDavid's line, even though Monahan owned McDavid in the face-off dot. Backlund has better speed and defensive IQ - and Backlund + Frolik form a pretty difficult tandem to get away from. These guys should always be getting the tough minutes.
I hope Wideman keeps up his play like this. He was pretty steady. Loved the Engelland scrap with Lucic. I am sure Lucic barked at the Flames when it was obvious the Flames were going to focus on McDavid and be physical with him. Lucic wasn't much of a deterrent.
As for Grossman - if the Flames felt they needed some extra muscle, I sure hope they recall Bollig and keep him on the bench until the exact moment his presence is needed. Grossman is difficult to shelter out there. Way easier shelter a forward than it is a defencemen - and Bollig isn't horrible defensively anyways. Not that I am advocating in bringing Bollig back, but if muscle is what Gulutzan wanted, I would prefer they dress Bollig than Grossman.
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