View Single Post
Old 10-07-2018, 04:16 PM   #283
circle
Backup Goalie
 
circle's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Calgary
Exp:
Default

My 2 cents after last night's game:

The New Guys:
James Neal: I thought he looked better this game than the season opener. Had a few chances from the hash-marks in. His passing was a bit sloppy last night but I'm not too worried about him adjusting quickly. I was watching Neal's release during warm-up and man, his wristshot is a thing of beauty. He's able to get the puck off his stick so quick, really impressive and I have no doubt that he'll score a bundle in his time with us.

Derek Ryan: Nothing stood out last night for me. Sample size of just 2 games though so hopefully he has a better showing during the road trip. I did notice however during this game that Ryan was being used to take defensive zone draws and then immediately changing off once the puck cleared our zone which is a nice addition to this team.

Elias Lindholm: Extremely impressed by Lindholm. He does everything at an above average level and his ability to play along the boards down low is very good. I'm surprised at how quickly he has been able gel with the top line and am hoping for more great things. I was commenting during the game that I thought Lindholm should have been shifted to the 2nd PP unit to act as the man in front for tips/deflections but after his GWG, I promptly discarded that opinion. Had a very impressive game.

Austin Czarnik: Not as much to comment on apart from his empty netter but I did like him with Tkachuk and Backlund. They had one shift in the second period I believe where that line controlled the play in the offensive end for about a full minute. I'm sure had Backs been able to pot one or two of his scoring chances, more people would be talking about the line, but it is promising that they had tons of scoring chances.

Dalton Prout: Nothing to write home about, for sure. He did make a really good hit at the red line on Tyler Motte I think. Other than that, he was pretty shaky. His 5-on-3 coverage on Bo Horvat was not good, at all. I like Prout as a 7th d-man better than Bartkowski but am still in favour of giving Andersson a shot for the next game.

The Rookies:
Juuso Valimaki: In my opinion, a complete 180 from the season opener. I thought during Vali's first game, he was tentative and made decisions at inopportune times (mainly the play where he tried to jump up in the rush on a half-baked clear by Stone which led to the 2 Canucks left unchecked for the 3-0 goal). He did have that excellent breakaway pass to Dube, but all-in-all a nervous start for Valimaki. Last night however was a completely different player. He was poised, making great decisions, and a part of many great scoring chances. Really liked his play up and down the ice and he was even relied on to take some shifts with Gio on the right side.

Dillon Dube: This kid is fast, composed, and has the hockey IQ to make a big impression this year. Really like how Dube is able to read plays. It was too bad he couldn't pot Valimaki's feed on his big scoring chance of the night, but I'm really feeling Dube's first will come sooner or later because he definitely is getting good chances. Defensively, I only noticed one mistake from Dube where he made an errant pass on our blue-line back into the zone which led to about a minute of Vancouver pressure. All-in-all, another good showing.

The Best of the Rest:
Johnny Gaudreau: The Flames are just so lucky to have drafted Gaudreau. So talented. Just unbelievable. He was making passes only a handful of players in the league could make and that third period, he was by far the best player on the ice. When Johnny is on his game, he is probably the most exciting player to watch.

Mark Giordano: I love this man. For my money, Gio is one of the best d-men in the league in his own end. Not to mention, he scored an important goal to end the 1st and assisted on a couple more. Gio sets the tone for the team and he is always playing at a 100%. No coincidence in my mind that Brodie is playing much better to start the year. Gio just simply makes players better.

Matthew Tkachuk: It seems every time Tkachuk plays against the Canucks, he scores a few points. It's almost as if Tkachuk is just rubbing it in their face for not passing him up at no. 5 in his draft year. Aside from his 4 assists, I liked that Tkachuk was one of the only Flames to start going after Petersson.

Power Play: Really encouraging signs that the PP this night was much cleaner and better executed. You could tell that they spent a lot of time working on it during practice and it definitely paid off. Zone entries were much better as players were entering the zone with speed instead of Gaudreau trying to skate it in while our other 4 players are standing still at the blue-line. The drop pass although still frequently used, was not the be all, end all. There was variety in the breakouts which causes the Canucks in the neutral zone to be more honest instead of expecting the same play over and over and clogging the blue-line. I like that the coaching staff saw a weakness and made adjustments compared to last year where it felt like the coaches tried putting a square peg into a round hole every game.
__________________
"You must study hard, not just hockey all the time"
circle is offline   Reply With Quote
The Following 7 Users Say Thank You to circle For This Useful Post: