What a disappointing night. I felt as though just about everybody seemed out of sync in their play.
I really thought that hit on Dube set the tone early. It was a fugly hit, and it was imperative that a team with no tough guys on it, to make up for it & send their own message on the PP. Instead, they completely waste 2 minutes, and then hamonic loses the fight outright to further exemplify the physical dominance the canucks were establishing on the flames early.
My main annoyances with the game:
- Inability to win PP faceoffs, followed by useless attempts to gain the zone
- 1 goal game through 2 periods, but so much for "rolling 4 lines thanks to all this depth". Jankowski/Bennett basically had no time on the ice..
Going into the season, what i was fearful of about this flames team is that the flames are trying to cover up lack of elite talent under the guise of "Depth". They have a top line, that will generate most of their chances, and overall that's what they did last night. However, there really is no high octane 2nd line scoring threat. Tkachuk is an elite top 6 player. Backlund is not. Frolik is not. Lindholm could be, need to see more. Neal used to be, is he still, we need to see more.
Depth forward groups can be successful, if the team can come in waves and win several shifts in a row, where the pressure builds up to a point where the opposition eventually has a breakdown and gives up a grade A chance. We saw that eventually late in the game, but you gotta be careful in crediting that to the flames without considering the canucks strategy change to prevent defence mode.
Remember that one year during the iggy era where sutter just went out and filled the roster with a bunch of "potential 20 goal guys" (hagman, kotalik, higgins, etc, etc). We all know how that turned out.
In summary, I'm not worried about the top line. I have some hope in the bottom 6 to provide acceptable bottom 6 contributions. I do have concerns about how threatening our 2nd line can be on a night in and night out basis to create real line mismatching issues for the opposition.
I will also add, with all the goaltending concerns going into the season, smith had little to do with last night's result. He made some saves on grade A chances, and the canucks only scored on grade A chances (ie. he didnt' give up any 'bad' goals).
I'm actually pretty nervous about Saturday. On some level, i'm confident we'll see a better flames effort. However, hockey can be unpredictable and unrewarding at times. Should the flames not get the W, that's 4 points given up against what should be one of the easier oppositions in the division/conference/league. I think there will be a bit of a premature freakout by the media/fans/CP/me should they lose!
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