Quote:
Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina
On paper doesn't matter.
Why do you believe that it's superior.
When I look at Montreal they have a great goalie.
Their blueline is adequate bolstered by Shea Weber. Jeff Petry is criminally under-rated. But I would give the edge to the Flames.
But I'll tell you I like the make-up of their forward group more. I think they have a more balanced mix of skill, jam/grit, scoring and playmakers. And I think they have more two-way players. And better depth.
You are making an statement that the Flames roster is better and therefore it's coaching.
What if we start to realize that maybe the roster isn't as good as we once thought?
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The roster is pretty good still, and I think it's better than Montreal if you compare player to player.
The Flames goalie is just as good as Carey Price on current form. Seems crazy saying that, but that's a fact right now, Markstrom has been playing at an elite level.
Defense:
Weber, Petry, Edmundson, Chiarot, Romanov, Kulak
vs.
Gio, Tanev, Hanifin, Andersson, Valimaki, Nesterov
I'm taking the Flames d-core there every day of the week. I have a feeling Julien would have tried to see if they could do something else right now because Gio/Andersson just hasn't worked this year.
Center:
Lindholm, Monahan, Backlund, Ryan (Froese)
vs
Suzuki, Danault, Kotkanemi, Evans
Suzuki has been great, and Danault is similar to Backlund, but top to bottom I'm taking the Flames Centers, especially with how good Lindholm has looked in that role this year.
Wing:
Gaudreau, Tkachuk, Mangiapane, Dube, Lucic, Bennett, Leivo, Nordstrom
vs
Drouin, Toffoli, Anderson, Gallagher, Lehkonen, Armia, Byron, Perry
I'd say Flames have the better top end wingers in Gaudreau and Tkachuk, but Montreal has the much deeper group on wing and actually has some natural RWs.
So IMO the Flames have the edge at center and on defense. The teams are pretty equal in goal (I'd actually say Markstrom > Price based on current form), and Montreal has the edge at Wing (especially the depth).
No doubt in my mind that you flip the coaches and Julien is coaching here and Ward in Montreal that the Flames are easily ahead of Montreal in the standings. They players still need to perform on the ice, but there is more than enough evidence that in the last 18 months the coaches have not put the players in a position to succeed either and are playing a flawed system.
I said it on the previous page but this "Core" that had been in the top 5/10 of the main advanced metrics for the previous 4 seasons (Corsi For, HDCR, xGF), and who actually might have a better roster than they did those seasons, is suddenly in the middle of the pack by those metrics since the start of last year. The team is being coached to play this safe and boring style of play, and it just doesn't fit the composition of this roster.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
A lot of teams that turn the puck up ice quickly do it off of great defensive work leading to a high defensive zone turnover. Boston, for example. Bergeron, Pasternak and Marchand get a turnover and off they go. Calgary’s offensive forays tend to start slower because they are not generated from turnovers. The opposition play is over, the defence gathers the puck, and they start out. But the other side is set. It’s not really from some strategy to bring the puck back - it’s from how the play started. The Flames don’t have a lot of great two way players.
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This is defensive zone and transitions systems rearing their ugly heads too though.
Ward for much of his time as head coach has the team playing a very passive collapse in the defensive zone. They don't try to press for turnovers, they collapse in front of the net, keep everything to the outside and then try to get possession off a missed or blocked shot. Same thing on Zone Entries we were the third worst team in the league last year at allowing zone entries, because our defense is being told to back up and give up our blueline, instead of stepping up to try to create a turnover at our blueline.
Watch tonight to see how often one of our forwards is actually up at the blueline trying to force their dman into a turnover, that's where most odd-man rushes come from, and it just doesn't happen anymore. Forwards collapse too low and can't get out to the point to put pressure on the opposing d-man. Then the d-man has all the time and space in the world to make a play as the Flames forward just hopes to get in the shooting lane.
It was infurating against Dallas as the forwards just collapsed giving the Stars d-men all the time and space in the world to make a play. They made Heiskanen look like Bobby Orr.
In order to be able to generate a turnover you actually need to play aggressive to try and force the team into making a turnover, and this coaching staff does not encourage this team to do that at all. Safe, low risk, boring hockey.
You can see this in the stats for where we allow shots from:
18-19: More aggressive defense, very few point shots against.
19-20: Collapse in front of the net, but still not as much from the points, gave up way too much from the circles.
20-21: Just wide open point man every game so far with nothing from right in front which is where we are collapsing. Doing a better job at protecting the circles.
Because of this it means we are giving up much lower xG because there isn't much from the really high danger areas, but it means we are playing really passive on the points and not generating turnovers. That giant red right between the circles will catch up to us eventually too, my guess is that's a lot of tips, deflections, and plays where the other team gets a rebound on a blocked shot.