[News] Flames recall Klapka and Barrie

[sureLoss]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1884285420793651662

[Toonage]

Those are definitely two decisions made today.

[Robbob]

I am sure Barrie is well conditioned from his conditioning stint.

[Ba'alzamon]

If someone had nothing else to go on other than those photos, they'd probably think Tyson Barrie was the younger of the two.

[Reggie Dunlop]

The Klapper!

[Locke]

Release the Klapka!

And...I'm assuming this means that Bahl's not coming back anytime soon?

[stemit14]

Hoping Klapka can impress. Would really love for that player to turn into a full time NHLer. His physical tools and skills could be such an asset to the bottom 6 if he can put it all together.

[Bingo]

I see Klapka a little like Walker Duehr ... above average AHL player that doesn't have the processing speed to play the same way at the NHL level.

But I get it ... 0.90 PPG this season.

Deserves another look.

[IamNotKenKing]

Originally Posted by stemit14

Hoping Klapka can impress. Would really love for that player to turn into a full time NHLer. His physical tools and skills could be such an asset to the bottom 6 if he can put it all together.

I went to my annual Wranglers' game on Sunday and he looked pretty good.
A few passive plays getting the puck out which were frustrating to see, but looked really good down low.

[lazypucker]

So Bahl is out long term? And Barrie is just coming up to eat popcorn?

[Sec214]

Klapka is a NHLer. He's got size and speed. Flames need more.

This was the plan for Barrie all along, get into a game and be ready. He looked good for the Wranglers the other night. Albeit in the AHL.

[D as in David]

Klapka plays a top 9 role in the AHL but he's always been slotted on the 4th line when playing for the Flames. Physically speaking, you'd think he's made for the 4th line but maybe he can't adapt his game for it and the team loses out on his offensive capabilities by pigeon-holing him there. To me, he's looked very tweaner-ish playing on the 4th line.

[bigrangy]

Everyone who’s come up and played on the 4th line with Rooney has looked like a tweener because playing with Rooney is like being on a permanent penalty kill.

It cannot be overstated how much his usage limits this team.

[Calgary4LIfe]

Klapka definitely earns looks. What I like about him is that he does look good at times, but just doesn't seem (yet) to do things consistently well. Hopefully he will. He sometimes looks like a dynamite player, and other times looks like AHL depth. He was really raw when the Flames found him, so hopefully he can just make that transition. Having a guy that big that moves that fast (for his size) and with his pretty decent shot - that's found money.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by bigrangy

Everyone who’s come up and played on the 4th line with Rooney has looked like a tweener because playing with Rooney is like being on a permanent penalty kill.

It cannot be overstated how much his usage limits this team.

Actually you may have over stated!

The Flames have had 7 fourth lines this year, five have had Rooney on it.

Bringing in a sample size hurdle of 20 minutes, that list shrinks to four fourth lines.

One was good ...

Rooney with Lomberg and Kirkland (53.2% xGF)

One was decent ...

Rooney with Pelletier and Lomberg (48.0% xGF)

Two were terrible ...

Rooney with Lomberg and Duehr (32.6% xGF)
Kirkland with Lomberg and Klapka (35.7% xGF).

I'm not sure Rooney is the problem on his own. I think it's two weak fourth line players needing a better third player to prop them up.

And one of those times it was Kirkland who was terrible when he replaced Rooney.

Am I a Rooney fan? Nope ... I think he's over his skiis as this level. But I think it's likely a Lomberg problem as well.

And Duehr and Klapka couldn't fix it.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by bigrangy

Everyone who’s come up and played on the 4th line with Rooney has looked like a tweener because playing with Rooney is like being on a permanent penalty kill.

It cannot be overstated how much his usage limits this team.

It's pretty crazy that he's still being rolled out as the 4th line center and that Huska wasn't willing to give Kerins a look there.


Flames w/Rooney:
xGF%: 37.3%
GF%: 30.4% (7 GF - 16 GA)

Flames w/o Rooney:
xGF: 51.4%
GF%: 54.1% (72 GF - 61 GA)

At 5v5 they are +11 without Rooney, and -9 with him.

I know he generally gets tougher minutes than other 4th lines, but it's not helping when you're getting buried in those minutes.

Originally Posted by Bingo

Am I a Rooney fan? Nope ... I think he's over his skiis as this level. But I think it's likely a Lomberg problem as well.

It's for sure a Lomberg problem too, and IMO it's a Lomberg problem in two ways.

1) His underlying stats haven't been great...but Rooney is actually better with him than without him, and Lomberg is much better away from Rooney.

Rooney+Lomberg: 39.2% xGF / 33.3% GF (5 / 10)
Rooney w/o Lomberg: 30.2% xGF / 25% GF (2 / 6)
Lomberg w/o Rooney: 48.1% xGF / 62.5% GF (5 / 3)

2) Him being present on the 4th line is a big reason why the team can't move to a different 4th line structure (younger, and more offensive) but the coach doesn't seem to want to do that anyways, so it's a bit of a moot point regardless.

Something like Stromgren-Kerins-Klapka would be a lot of fun to see as our 4th line right now, but Huska wants no part of that...I think Huska would much rather call up the Hunt / Bishop types than the Kerins / Stromgren types.

[Calgary4LIfe]

I wonder if something is nagging Rooney. Though he only played 33 games last season, he looked good overall - much better than expected. This year he gets hurt again, but has not looked even close to the form he was in last season. I think it is certainly arguable how bad he really has been, but really hasn't seemed to be a player doing a lot of positives out there either, but he did so last season.

Hopefully he can find his game again, as that 4th line really seemed to have lost whatever it had early on this season when it was looking like a great line.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

It's for sure a Lomberg problem too, and IMO it's a Lomberg problem in two ways.

1) His underlying stats haven't been great...but Rooney is actually better with him than without him, and Lomberg is much better away from Rooney.

Rooney+Lomberg: 39.2% xGF / 33.3% GF (5 / 10)
Rooney w/o Lomberg: 30.2% xGF / 25% GF (2 / 6)
Lomberg w/o Rooney: 48.1% xGF / 62.5% GF (5 / 3)

2) Him being present on the 4th line is a big reason why the team can't move to a different 4th line structure (younger, and more offensive) but the coach doesn't seem to want to do that anyways, so it's a bit of a moot point regardless.

Something like Stromgren-Kerins-Klapka would be a lot of fun to see as our 4th line right now, but Huska wants no part of that...I think Huska would much rather call up the Hunt / Bishop types than the Kerins / Stromgren types.

I grabbed all the team's line for the year.

Eliminated all the top 9 lines.

Eliminated fourth lines with less than 20 minutes.

To me that's the way to go because Lomberg without Rooney is Lomberg with better players as well as it's Lomberg on the fourth line with equally poor players.

Whereas we don't see Rooney without anyone but fourth liners.

So that skews the data in my mind if you're looking for "blame".

I assigned all the forwards to two piles ... "fourth line" and "top nine". When you look at total ice time Lomberg has 100 more minutes with good players, and 14% more of his ice time with better players.

[Enoch Root]

I just watch Rooney play. And he's a black hole.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

I just watch Rooney play. And he's a black hole.

Don't think anyone is arguing that.

Just saying there are two problems that together need a lifting presence.

I don't think the young token AHL plug in can do it.