[Game Takes] Avalanche 6 Flames 3

[Bingo]

http://www.calgarypuck.com/2013/01/l...costs-calgary/

[dammage79]

Good write up. Thanks!

[Fire]

If the Flames are not in serious playoff contention by the trade deadline and they still fail to start a serious rebuild I will lose all hope for this franchise. Iginla, Kiprusoff, Cammalleri and Bouwmeester need to be traded for youth and picks. I don't know if Cammalleri will have any trade value left by the deadline so the Flames might just have to buy him out in the off season. If Iginla goes you might as well trade Tanguay as well because he won't be happy.

I know everyone likes to make fun of the Oilers, but at least the fans of that team has some hope for the future.

[DeluxeMoustache]

Nice writeup. Fully agree that there are a lot of things going right with the team. Very early in to a situation with lots of changes. It will be interesting to see this play out.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Fire

If the Flames are not in serious playoff contention by the trade deadline and they still fail to start a serious rebuild I will lose all hope for this franchise. Iginla, Kiprusoff, Cammalleri and Bouwmeester need to be traded for youth and picks. I don't know if Cammalleri will have any trade value left by the deadline so the Flames might just have to buy him out in the off season. If Iginla goes you might as well trade Tanguay as well because he won't be happy.

I'm not sold on the "scorched earth" approach not because I think that it is important to keep the veterans, but more because at this stage I am not convinced that it accomplishes what proponents want it to. I agree that good asset management is ideally exchanging ageing players for high-end draft picks, and then rebuilding from the ground up through the draft. But is it wise to introduce so much change that results in such a dramatically younger roster all at once? In my mind this tactic appears borne more out of desperation, and I would much prefer a more gradual makeover that sees management re-evaluate and make changes with each passing season.

I agree about exploring the movement of all the players you mentioned, but likely not all at once, and perhaps only two or three of them.

Originally Posted by Fire

I know everyone likes to make fun of the Oilers, but at least the fans of that team has some hope for the future.

This insinuates that Flames fans presently have no hope, and with how much the prospect base of this team has improved in the past two years, I will respectfully disagree. There is actually plenty to be excited about down the road for this team (the Backburner is a great place to see the evidence for this), independent of whatever decisions are made to trade Iginla and Kiprusoff.

[flames_fan_down_under]

Kipper has an 0.854 SV % right now, that is all you need to know about his performance. Just terrible tonight. He needs to figure it out.

IMO the forwards gave him two separate leads and he gave up two real stinker of goals to let the Avs back in, then the boys fight back to tie it up and he rewards them with another awful goal. Not good.

[foshizzle11]

Originally Posted by flames_fan_down_under

Kipper has an 0.854 SV % right now, that is all you need to know about his performance. Just terrible tonight. He needs to figure it out.

IMO the forwards gave him two separate leads and he gave up two real stinker of goals to let the Avs back in, then the boys fight back to tie it up and he rewards them with another awful goal. Not good.

this is so accurate, I feel bad for the players on the ice directly after.

[Zamboniman]

Remember those happy-go-lucky, carefree days of arguing who was blame for the lockout and how the other side were poopy-heads?

I miss that.

[SebC]

On The Line

Personally, and I know many of you hate this; I see this season as a transition into a new order so I’m all about the process .. however if you have aspirations of a playoff spot, and I’ll admit this team seems more capable of such then I expected, then you need to have this one in order to get the season righted and push up the standings. A lack of games played and a tough schedule ahead would require two points against a tired Sharks team.

Just who exactly is tired, now?

[Travis Munroe]

Good write up... Embarrassing game to be at. All in all, we are above 500 with kipp playing avg kipp. I have faith he gains form and we roll on a nice streak but these losses that should be wins are tough.

[Yrebmi]

Kipper never plays well cold.
I always get nervous in games where he sees no real action in the first.

I'd be interested seeing a top line of the Czechs + Tangs
Drop Iggy and Glencross to the 2nd with Stajan.

Then again, the offense is working, maybe don't mess with it.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

This insinuates that Flames fans presently have no hope, and with how much the prospect base of this team has improved in the past two years, I will respectfully disagree. There is actually plenty to be excited about down the road for this team (the Backburner is a great place to see the evidence for this), independent of whatever decisions are made to trade Iginla and Kiprusoff.

I'm not sure there is plenty to be excited about. Optimistic maybe but not excited. The Flames have some promising prospects but I don't see a Jordan Eberle, RNH, Yakupov or even Hall. We all hope Sven can be one of those guys but that remains to be seen and I'm just not sure there are any blue chippers in the organization. Teams biggest need is an elite forward that is in the 25-28 year prime of their career. If Perry and Getzlaf test free agency you have to cut rope with Iginla (replace him with a younger elite player in Perry or Getzlaf) and Kipper (run with Ramo seeing they are so high on him) and offer one of these guys the Richards type deal that hopefully one of them can't refuse.

I strongly believe that Iginla needs to go if only to change the leadership of the dressing room. We are talking about a team that hasn't won a playoff series since 2004 and I'm sorry but I don't buy that #12 is a great captain. Great guy, great player, but lousy captain IMO. Take away 2004 and the Flames are easily the most mentally fragile team over the past decade and with five coaches shuffling in and out we know it's not a coaching issue.

[gargamel]

Good writeup, but I think you could have given the Big Hit to Bouwmeester. The way he hustled back and laid the body to break up that partial breakaway in the 1st period was beautiful.

[ricardodw]

The Flames have become an incredibly easy team to play against.

They have morphed into Hockey's version of the harlem globe trotters. Interesting to watch but not anywhere close to being able to compete with an NBA team.

When the Flames were forced to sign Begin it was an admission by Feaster/Hartley that they were not ready to compete at the NHL level.

Once the Flames get tired of fancy passing any other team can knock them over and drive towards the Flames net.

Despite the high light reels on sports centre 80% of NHL goals are based on fighting for space , deflections and winning physical battles in the area in front of the goal...... ie hard work rather than skill.

The Flames have far more skill than they have had in at least the last 10 years.... Hudler, Backlund Cervenka added to Tanguay and Cammalleri Stajan and I now have to admit it softer Iginla as softer skilled forwards leaves Glencross, Jackman and Begin to provide ALL the grit.

Wideman is >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> more skilled than Hannan who he replaces

Sarich is mentioned as being the Flames physical force on defence...... 2013 Sarich is not..... He is slow and non-aggressive. He joins Bouwmeester and Brodie and Smith and Butler, Gio and Wideman as total non-aggressive d-man.

The total of all Flames d-men have 19 hits in 5 games!!!!

For comparison Emelmin has 32 hits in 6 games. There are 13 individual defencemen that have as many or more hits as the whole Flame defence.!!!!!


Thank goodness this team will not be in the playoffs because in a seven game series when the other team wanted to impose their will on the Flames it would be a massacre.

[CliffFletcher]

The Flames have the best prospect base they've had in 20 years. However, it's no better than average by NHL standards. And pretty much all of the teams who have a worse prospect base have better players in the 21-27 range.

So relative to our peers in the conference I don't see a lot of reason for long-term optimism. In four seasons will we have a better lineup than the Hawks? The Blues? The Wild? The Oilers? The Avs?

[badger89]

Originally Posted by Realtor 1

Good write up... Embarrassing game to be at. All in all, we are above 500 with kipp playing avg kipp. I have faith he gains form and we roll on a nice streak but these losses that should be wins are tough.

We're above 500???

[The Big Thirsty]

Originally Posted by foshizzle11

this is so accurate, I feel bad for the players on the ice directly after.

You could see how deflated they were. It was brutal. Three times the wind was taken out of their sail by garbage a Midget AAA goalie would have stopped. With any type of NHL goaltending at all, the Flames would have won the Anaheim and Colorado games. Our record would be 3-1-1 rather than the 1-3-1 it currently sits at.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by badger89

We're above 500???

he meant we'd be above .500 if Kiprusoff was playing at his average self

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by flames_fan_down_under

Kipper has an 0.854 SV % right now, that is all you need to know about his performance. Just terrible tonight. He needs to figure it out.

IMO the forwards gave him two separate leads and he gave up two real stinker of goals to let the Avs back in, then the boys fight back to tie it up and he rewards them with another awful goal. Not good.

Originally Posted by The Big Thirsty

You could see how deflated they were. It was brutal. Three times the wind was taken out of their sail by garbage a Midget AAA goalie would have stopped. With any type of NHL goaltending at all, the Flames would have won the Anaheim and Colorado games. Our record would be 3-1-1 rather than the 1-3-1 it currently sits at.

I am not putting all of the blame on Kipper here - part of it has to go to bad defensive coverage. But these numbers are what they are...

Kipper's GAA: 3.76 (49th) and SV%: .854 (53rd overall)

If you cut the number of goals against in half - IN HALF - he would be:

1.88 (15th) and .927 (16th)

[Enoch Root]

On the FAN this morning they were talking about something that I have been wanting to mention...

Players playing well to very well:

Hudler
Wideman
Stempniak
Cervenka
Stajan
Backlund
Brodie

Players playing poorly or not well enough:

Cammalleri
Giordano
Kiprusoff
Butler
Comeau

Even though he has been playing pretty well overall, Iginla has 0 goals and he is paid to score (plus if he has even 2 goals, they have a better record) so you have to put him in the underperformomg group.

Glencross wasn't very good last night. Tanguay has been inconsistent.

Bottom line: the leaders of this team (when you include Iginla) have not been good.

For the last couple years, we have been lamenting the lack of secondary scoring and the overall depth.

Feaster did a great job of adding depth in the off-season and what happens? All the leaders crap the bed.

THis team seems incapable of firing on all cylanders at once.