The good:
Giordano!
Jokipakka
Backlund was mostly good, but coughed up the puck too much tonight - but was good
Johnson - he was very good tonight.
The bad - the rest of the team mostly.
Still giving the team a pass for now, but they are starting to dig themselves a hole now. This league is ultra-competitive now. If the team doesn't have this thing turned around by game 10, I will have to look at this team as a lottery team again in order not to be overly-frustrated.
Johnny is.. not playing well. I don't care if he is getting hooked and slashed. He is giving the puck away too much, and not really being the controlling offensive presence out there.
Monahan - I give him a bit more of a pass. I bet he is not 100%. Either his back is still bothering him, or he doesn't have his legs/timing yet. He looks worse right now than when he first started in this league. I am betting he is not 100% healthy.
Brodie seems disjointed right now too. It is unlike him to make many errors in a game. I am not worried about him though.
The Chiasson penalty was gross - sure, Chiasson skated to Dorsett, but Dorsett gave Chiasson a bigger shove.
Flames were better on D tonight. There's that. Work on the D, eventually guys will start scoring. However, I saw stretches where they fell into Hartley's 'passive' defence. I like this defence more when they pressure.
Gulutzan has to start feeling the heat right about now. When you are a new coach, you are eager to get that win. Most new coaches get that win pretty quick, as the team is 'responding' and playing hard. Showed too much respect for the PTOs in the preseason - this team should have been better prepared.
Like Hartley or not, but when thing I thought he did really well was prepare the team. Lots of teaching and teaching and teaching, even on morning skates. Is Gulutzan doing the same? I don't know. I am still giving him a chance (though I understand why Treliving fired Hartley, I still do disagree with it, but keeping an open mind about him). I still will not judge Gulutzan's system until game 20.
Oh, and Kulak was decent today. I hope he keeps it up.
Right now, the Flames look every bit a young team with a new coach. Inconsistent and disjointed. They look elite at times (well, the competition level so far hasn't been great) and then look like complete rubbish. They need a win here soon - a couple of wins soon - and buy themselves some time to iron-out the system and get everyone on the same page. It is just a disjointed team throwing blind passes at the most inopportune times, and holding their sticks way too tightly.
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