Players who need to step up a bit

[FBI]

Was looking through our stats and was pretty shocked that Hanifin and Tanev both have a grand total of 0 points. Zadorov with 1.

I know it's not all offense but last year Hanifin had 48 pts, Tanev 28 and Zadorov 22..

Are we not getting the puck up to the offense as well so far this year? Or is it mostly our 1st line not contributing..

Looking forward to a 7-1 game coming up soon where a bunch of our players get off the schneid..

Other players who need to step up: Lindholm, Huberdeau, Lewis, Markstrom.. Coleman?

[Paulie Walnuts]

Goes back to lack of finish so far. A lot of points come off the D pinching in deep and creating rebounds. I don't know the stats, but the shot volume doesn't seem to be as high so far from the backend.

[Jay Random]

Small sample size, tough opponents, and the Lindholm line hasn't been working at even strength.

Also, Hanifin, Tanev, and Zadorov are all coming off career highs in points, and some regression is to be expected. Andersson and Stone appear to be picking up the slack.

Last season, the Flames' top 6 defencemen had 196 points in 470 GP, for an average of 0.42 PPG. This year so far: 16 points in 41 GP, for 0.39. Bit of a drop, but I'd wait a couple of weeks before calling it a trend.

[FlamesAddiction]

Huberdeau for sure. I know it isn't lack of trying with him. You can tell he is giving it his all, but he needs to produce more. I wouldn't say it's his line mates either, Lindholm and Toffoli should be better than Bennett and Duclair.

[Lanny_McDonald]

Lindholm, Mangiapane, and Lewis have all been noticeable for all the wrong reasons IMO.

[Macho0978]

I’m not shocked with Hanifin and I argued he probably at his peak due to his experience in the league already. Necas for hanifin would be looking good right now. Kylington status impacts this move but IMO Hanifin is what he is and that above average

[Flamesfan05]

Huberdeau needs to step up big to earn that contract

Can’t believe he is way worse than Tkachuk and Kadri at this point

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Flamesfan05

Huberdeau needs to step up big to earn that contract

Can’t believe he is way worse than Tkachuk and Kadri at this point

He is not earning that contract for another year.

Sent from my SM-G986W using Tapatalk

[powderjunkie]

Kadri needs to step it up and start sucking. Because my skepticism of his signing is aging poorly.

[VilleN]

Originally Posted by Flamesfan05

Huberdeau needs to step up big to earn that contract

Can’t believe he is way worse than Tkachuk and Kadri at this point

Sometimes chemistry doesn’t come quickly. It’s not that unbelievable that Huberdeau has a 7 game stretch where is not as good as two other great players.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald

Lindholm, Mangiapane, and Lewis have all been noticeable for all the wrong reasons IMO.

I think part of this is line chemistry to be honest.

Lindholm and Toffoli are too similar in my opinion and Lindholm has been trying to adapt his game to be more of a distributor because of it.

Dube/Mangiapane/Kadri are all kind of similar too and think do their best work from similar areas of the ice and sometimes seem to be on top of one another.

Lewis just isn't suited for a third line role with Backlund and Coleman if we want the line to produce any offense.

Think we need try to balance our top lines a bit better:

Huberdeau (Playmaker) -Lindholm (Shooter) -Mangiapane (Puck Recovery/Garbage Areas)

Dube (Puck Recovery/Garbage Areas) - Kadri (Playmaker) - Toffoli (Shooter)

Coleman (Puck Recovery/ Garbage Areas) - Backlund (Playmaker) - ??? (Shooter)

That would be the best balance in our top 6 I think. Need another finisher IMO though, really wish Pelletier had a better camp to take that third line spot because I think he'd look great their. They really should have at least given him a look there in camp.

[Flamesfan05]

Originally Posted by VilleN

Sometimes chemistry doesn’t come quickly. It’s not that unbelievable that Huberdeau has a 7 game stretch where is not as good as two other great players.

Yeah but he was supposed to be better than them by quite a margin. So far he has not, that’s why a request to step up.

[EVERLAST]

Darryl pointed out we shooting more.
Here's where I wish Darryl would admit there's a issue....we are shooting more yes ....but we are shooting from thr perimeter and certainly NOT driving the net , crashing and banging as we should and I've only seen maybe 5 players go hard to the net all year consistently.

We have to get in the dirty areas and stsrt challenging ourselves to be way better in that department.

Teams like Edmonton will eat us alive forever if we keep up that garbage crap joke of play. Come on!!!!!

Tell me why this is?!?!?! We do this so much and dammit it's so exasperating to watch again and again and again.

Ffs start establishing a way better F ing effort. What are we a bunch of weak , scared pusssies? Honestly ?!?!!

Every team in the league will let us have the perimeter. Just take away.the middle of the ice , clog the neutral zone , forecheck Calgary hard and you WIN.

I don't give a damn about out shooting the opponent when no effort is made to bury good chances where nets are crashed and opposing D men are paying with blood and broken bones , shoulders etc.

We need to be way more aggressive....ya know....kinda like trying to win a hockey game.

Anyone else ? Seeing this crap this way.

I like our start but IMPROVING is essential to being successful .
82 games is practice. The rest mean something...ya know...the playoffs .

Better get after it fellas or it's how many wasted days, games, years and unfinished business just stays un f ING finished.

Come on guys

[Classic_Sniper]

Huberdeau, Markstrom and Hanifin for me. These guys are paid to be game breakers for the team and right now and they're not impacting the game positively enough or providing enough value in their current roles. So hopefully they all find a way to pick up their games sooner rather than later.

But I won't lie, Huberdeau's new contract next season has me big time nervous. I was hoping Treliving would wait later into the season before extending him because I wasn't sure he'd fit into Sutter's checking system and so far, I don't think he's been an easy adjustment. Heck, the dude's ice time is down to just 16 minutes a night which is considerably lower than what last year's top line received per game.

[FBI]

Originally Posted by EVERLAST

Darryl pointed out we shooting more.
Here's where I wish Darryl would admit there's a issue....we are shooting more yes ....but we are shooting from thr perimeter and certainly NOT driving the net , crashing and banging as we should and I've only seen maybe 5 players go hard to the net all year consistently.

We have to get in the dirty areas and stsrt challenging ourselves to be way better in that department.

Teams like Edmonton will eat us alive forever if we keep up that garbage crap joke of play. Come on!!!!!

Tell me why this is?!?!?! We do this so much and dammit it's so exasperating to watch again and again and again.

Ffs start establishing a way better F ing effort. What are we a bunch of weak , scared pusssies? Honestly ?!?!!

Every team in the league will let us have the perimeter. Just take away.the middle of the ice , clog the neutral zone , forecheck Calgary hard and you WIN.

I don't give a damn about out shooting the opponent when no effort is made to bury good chances where nets are crashed and opposing D men are paying with blood and broken bones , shoulders etc.

We need to be way more aggressive....ya know....kinda like trying to win a hockey game.

Anyone else ? Seeing this crap this way.

I like our start but IMPROVING is essential to being successful .
82 games is practice. The rest mean something...ya know...the playoffs .

Better get after it fellas or it's how many wasted days, games, years and unfinished business just stays un f ING finished.

Come on guys

Will Farrell escalated gif lol

[ResAlien]

Is Lindholm an untouchable defensively elite centre? I ask because it kind of feels like he is what a lot of people thought Monahan was.

Without hammering in those high slot one timers it doesn’t feel like he’s doing a whole heck of a lot right now.

[Heavy Jack]

I think that’s selling Lindy low honestly, he’s playing with two brand new line mates after having a career year for all 3 on his line the previous season so there’s that to contend with, new chemistry and all of that. Still, he’s been a great performer on the PK this year, picked up right where he left off with that part of his game, his points have come on the PP or PK so far this year so his special teams play is presenting nothing to be upset about. He’s also clicking at a 54.7 percent faceoff percentage winning 79 of 144 faceoffs taken over just 7 games (that’s 20.5 faceoffs a game so far) and he’s also still been going against top lines much of the year with the flames facing a tough strength of schedule out of the gate.

Lindy is perfectly fine IMO and is providing a ton of value in the other areas of the game that aren’t counting stats.

[Classic_Sniper]

Originally Posted by ResAlien

Is Lindholm an untouchable defensively elite centre? I ask because it kind of feels like he is what a lot of people thought Monahan was.

Without hammering in those high slot one timers it doesn’t feel like he’s doing a whole heck of a lot right now.

There's definitely a little of bit of that Monahan stuff when it comes to talking about Lindholm's offense. I don't think Lindholm is the natural 40 goal, ppg game player that we saw last season. A lot of that was situational in that he played with 2 premier playmakers who fed him in the slot all season long.

But don't get me wrong, I did a lot of dirty work that lead to those chances especially in the corners, along the boards and on the checking side. I think once Lindholm finds some common players who can check was well as he does, the 5 on 5 offense will come. Maybe not at the same clip as least season, but enough to help the team win games with regularity.

He's still fantastic defensively and still fits the Darryl Sutter mold, so I'm more confident in him finding his game. I think he's just lost his identity a bit on the current line he's with, but once he finds the right guys to play with, he'll become Darryl's swiss army knife once again.

[topfiverecords]

Gaudreau, Tkachuk and Monahan have been invisible so far this year.

[GioforPM]

If players need to step it up I guess that 117 point pace will be increased. They are behind only teams who’ve played 2-4 more games than them. They’ve beaten two of them (haven’t played the other).