[flameester]

Originally Posted by New Era

I just rewatched the first period and I don't see where Mike Smith did anything of note. Markstrom made more "saves" than Smith. The Canucks took low percentage shots and Smith "stopped" the puck. The Flames also took a lot of low percentage shots, and Markstrom "stopped" those as well. The difference is the Flames had a few dangerous opportunities where they got Markstrom moving, and he still kept the puck out. When you get Smith moving he goes into his favorite yoga pose - downward flailing snow angel - and hopes you hit him with the puck. Not much control to his game.


Overall the Flames played the same perimeter game they played last year. The first two periods were carbon copies of the same tired garbage we watched last season. The bright spot is they changed things up in the third and Peters started to try and adapt. I think this is great. I also hope that Peters is quick to pick up on things that don't work. My observations:


If Austin Czarnik is going to be on the PP and handle the puck so much, he needs to learn to make the cross ice pass. There were way too many opportunities for him to hit the defenseman sneaking in on the off point, and he held the puck or tried to force a pass down low. If you can't make that pass through the seem, then you're not the guy to be on the half boards. Same can be said for Derek Ryan. I don't know what Peters sees in him, but he doesn't make crisp passes or try to get the defense moving.


The drop pass is embarrassing and needs to go. People are 100% right that the Canucks had an advantage in odd man opportunities, but its because the Flames first instinct is to move the puck backward and allow the defense to setup. This is never more evident than on the PP when the Flames begin the rush (usually Brodie) and get almost to the opposition blueline, then make the long drop pass to someone coming up with little to no speed. The Flames continually faced four blue jerseys lined up at the blueline and choked off the entrance to the zone. In the third they went to the dump and chase, but that resulted in just as many turnovers and retrieving the puck from their own zone. Flames need to focus on short crisp passes and getting the defenders to move, creating open ice to take advantage of. They haven't done this for a couple of years, so this is a bad habit they have to break quickly. Interestingly enough, the new guys seem to already be doing the same thing, so it may just be systemic.


The blueline needs to get on pucks quicker on the dump in and begin the transition with more urgency. The Flames love to retreive the puck and try and move it back against the flow, resulting in a lot of broken plays and turnovers. They need to get on the puck and use the momentum of the flow to their advantage and catch the opposition in transition. Still the biggest weakness of the team and again something that looks systemic in nature.


The lines looked like they had little chemistry going last night. The blender helped in the third, but the only line that really looked dangerous with any consistency was Gaudreau-Monahan-Neal. The others were not good with any consistency. I don't get Peters reliance on Ryan. My concern with him coming in was that it would take opportunity away from existing skill players. So far, Bennett and Jankowski have been subject to watching Ryan take a regular shift ahead of them, and I think that is tactical error. I'm still struggling to see the fit in some of the lines. A natural to me is Frolik-Backlund-Lindholm, as they all play the same style of game at the same speed. I think a great second line would be Bennett-Jankowski-Tkachuk, as they young guys seem to play the game at the same speed and with the same aggressive nature. I think they would feed off each other. What I hope to see next game are these lines.


Gaudreau-Monahan-Neal
Bennett-Jankowski-Tkachuk
Frolik-Backlund-Lindholm
Dube-Ryan-Czarnik


Change needs to come quickly, or this is going to be another ugly season. This should have been an easy one out of the gate, but the Flames turned it into another loss. I hope they don't dig themselves another hole they have to try and get themselves out of.

I do agree that the D need to get back quicker but all of them coast back while waiting for Smith to play the puck. Smith becomes the third D and the D stop and expect him to pass the puck to them or the forwards.