April 9 Practice Notes

[sureLoss]

Pat Steinberg @Fan960Steinberg
#Flames powerplay units at practice:

Tkachuk
Gaudreau-Monahan-Lindholm
Giordano

Backlund-Ryan-Neal
Brodie-Andersson

[ResAlien]

Still no Bennett? Must be a weird non concussion injury he sustained. Any idea what it is?

[Hockeyguy15]

Originally Posted by ResAlien

Still no Bennett? Must be a weird non concussion injury he sustained. Any idea what it is?

He was on the ice yesterday, these are the PP lines.

[Coach]

Like those PP combos. Hopefully Neal can pot a few early and get going.

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by Coach

Like those PP combos. Hopefully Neal can pot a few early and get going.

I like Neal as a shooter like this vs netfront in 1-3-1

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

He was on the ice yesterday, these are the PP lines.

still makes little sense. Bennett's outplayed Backlund on the PP all year.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

still makes little sense. Bennett's outplayed Backlund on the PP all year.

Probably more about getting two centres out. You'd probably see Bennett slide into Neal's spot if results don't happen.

[sureLoss]

Pat Steinberg @Fan960Steinberg
#Flames at practice today:

Gaudreau-Monahan-Lindholm
Tkachuk-Backlund-Frolik
Bennett-Jankowski-Neal
Mangiapane-Ryan-Hathaway

Giordano-Brodie
Hanifin-Hamonic
Fantenberg-Andersson
Stone-Prout

Kristen Anderson @KdotAnderson
Smith is in the starting net again. Lines the same as yesterday. Ditto with the pairings.

[CGY12]

PP unsuccessful for how long? Lets keep things the way they are lol.

No issues with unit 1, they've shown they can get the job done for a long stretch of the season (although recently ice cold).

Completely against Brodie on unit 2, 4 shots in 75+ minutes of PP time. I understand he is decent at moving the puck but his shot is nonexistent. Unit 2 will see more success if they simplify and just focus on getting pucks on net and crashing/banging (Neal/Backlund/Bennett are good at this). Can't do that if one of the d-men have a muffin of a shot and take hours to get it off his stick. Allows the pk to completely focus on everybody else and not worry about a shot threat from the point from half the blue line.

Bring on the hate...

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by Coach

Probably more about getting two centres out. You'd probably see Bennett slide into Neal's spot if results don't happen.

Even that makes little sense. Our best PP unit had both Bennett and Neal, in fact it was hottest when Backlund was off the PP.

Even faceoffs, Bennett has won more than lost:

Bennett is 12W - 9L on PP faceoffs.
Backlund is 26W - 34L

Backlund has more TOI spent on the PP (127 vs 110) yet Bennett has more goals (4 vs 1), more assists ( 2 vs 1), more scoring chances (22 vs 20), more high danger changers (18 vs 15), fewer minor penalties ( 1 vs 4). Backlund's awesome, but I just don't understand not going with the one unit (Bennett / Ryan / Neal ) that has actually had success this year.

[Toonage]

2 centres, win the draw, one goes off. Get waived, another shot to win the draw.

[sureLoss]

Pat Steinberg @Fan960Steinberg
Calgary’s group of black aces for the playoffs starting to become defined.

Czarnik, Dube, Quine, Valimaki, Kylington, and the recently recalled Gillies would form that group as of now. #Flames

[Coach]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

Even that makes little sense. Our best PP unit had both Bennett and Neal, in fact it was hottest when Backlund was off the PP.

Even faceoffs, Bennett has won more than lost:

Bennett is 12W - 9L on PP faceoffs.
Backlund is 26W - 34L

Backlund has more TOI spent on the PP (127 vs 110) yet Bennett has more goals (4 vs 1), more assists ( 2 vs 1), more scoring chances (22 vs 20), more high danger changers (18 vs 15), fewer minor penalties ( 1 vs 4). Backlund's awesome, but I just don't understand not going with the one unit (Bennett / Ryan / Neal ) that has actually had success this year.

Yeah but Bill Peters coached the team to the top of the West.

[Stanley]

I'm still uneasy with Smith...pls shut 'er down Smitty, pls shut 'er down.

[Beninho]

Originally Posted by CGY12

PP unsuccessful for how long? Lets keep things the way they are lol.

No issues with unit 1, they've shown they can get the job done for a long stretch of the season (although recently ice cold).

Completely against Brodie on unit 2, 4 shots in 75+ minutes of PP time. I understand he is decent at moving the puck but his shot is nonexistent. Unit 2 will see more success if they simplify and just focus on getting pucks on net and crashing/banging (Neal/Backlund/Bennett are good at this). Can't do that if one of the d-men have a muffin of a shot and take hours to get it off his stick. Allows the pk to completely focus on everybody else and not worry about a shot threat from the point from half the blue line.

Bring on the hate...

I think the idea is to have Andersson be the trigger man and Brodie as the distributor at the point. I mean it’s the second PP unit, it’s not going to win or lose the series imo.


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[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Beninho

I think the idea is to have Andersson be the trigger man and Brodie as the distributor at the point. I mean it’s the second PP unit, it’s not going to win or lose the series imo.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah, Brodie = Gaudreau on the second unit. Gaudreau shoots maybe a little more than Brodie but not by much.

[jg13]

Have we tried Hanafin on the powerplay at any point this year? I'd have to think he'd be at least as effective as Brodie.

[Kovaz]

PP2 has been more dangerous with Brodie than without. If you do a WOWY with Gaudreau as a proxy for the 1st PP unit:

Gaudreau (PP1):
274:41 TOI, 9.17 GF/60, 8.09 xGF/60

Brodie without Gaudreau (PP2 with Brodie):
64:12 TOI, 5.61 GF/60, 5.86 xGF/60

without Brodie or Gaudreau (PP2 without Brodie):
114:16 TOI, 2.63 GF/60, 4.69 xGF/60


PP2 is scoring twice as often with Brodie as without, and they're generating about 25% more dangerous chances. Sure, Brodie's not a great shooter, but he's better at both gaining the zone and distributing the puck than most of our other options. The other guy I think could be worth a look is Hanifin, but Brodie has outperformed him this year and the playoffs isn't the best time to experiment.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Coach

Like those PP combos. Hopefully Neal can pot a few early and get going.

Neal with a goal in one of the 2 games in Calgary would be a nice sign.

[Vinny01]

Originally Posted by jg13

Have we tried Hanafin on the powerplay at any point this year? I'd have to think he'd be at least as effective as Brodie.

I remember him being on the second unit early in the season.