[Game Takes] Canucks 5 Flames 3

[Bingo]

Canucks 5 Flames 3

- Flames roll out three solid lines
- Second period for the ages
- Markstrom steals one
- Smith struggling?

[Strange Brew]

Yeah Markstrom was deserving of the 1st star but you still let in 5 goals. I guess you can call it a moral victory.

I truly am having a hard time figuring out if this team is any good or not. I can see flashes of hope that if they put it all together they can beat anybody but then I think every fan believes that of their team. I'd really like to see a handful of solid wins in a row, where they outplay the other team from goaltender out.

[Dion]

I wonder if Bennett needs to sit down with a sports psychologist to work on his head games. The talent seems to be there but the voices in his head seem to be self distructing any confidence he builds up.

[timbit]

“The Canucks score a fluke short handed goal to tie it up”

I don’t think that is very objective nor do I think Smith is the goat.

Brodie made an awful effort and play on the short handed goal and it was a game changing event.

He is the goat, IMO.

[SeanCharles]

Swap Bartkowski out and run the same lineup. I thought Jagr injected some offence and puck patience into that third line that will do wonders for the other two. Lazar looked really speedy and effective down the middle of the 4th line.

Play like that every game and the results will come.

Only players I wasn't a huge fan of tonight were Bartkowski, Brouwer, Smith and Brodie.

Bart made some nice plays early but then struggled as the game went on. The breaking point was on the 5th goal when he just watched Sedin do what we all knew he would do instead of impeding the saucer pass with a dive or anything other than just staring at him.

Brouwer I thought wasn't terrible but he just doesn't do anything of value in the offensive zone. There was a time or two when he had a chance but just sent a predicable and easily savable shot on net.

Smith didn't look too great and Brodie had a bit of a lapse that changed the game.

Brodie and Smith will be better and we are stuck with Brouwer, and to be fair he's not a terrible 4th liner (if only he was paid like one), but the least GG can do is sub Bartkowski out, I'm sick of the mistakes every game that seem to cost us every time.

[Brick]

Brodie was the goat of this game.

Poor effort on his soft pass turned the puck and the momentum of the game over.

[crapshoot]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Yeah Markstrom was deserving of the 1st star but you still let in 5 goals. I guess you can call it a moral victory.

I truly am having a hard time figuring out if this team is any good or not. I can see flashes of hope that if they put it all together they can beat anybody but then I think every fan believes that of their team. I'd really like to see a handful of solid wins in a row, where they outplay the other team from goaltender out.

I believe you could argue that the three wins in a row we just had was just that handful of solid wins in a row. As far as dominating the game, this was just about as solid of a loss you could find too. This team is getting it together and is going places, I'm sure of it.

[DeluxeMoustache]

I am very much in disagreement with using single game sv% as a barometer of goaltending success.

No goalie stops the Sedins' play.
No goalie stops the goal off of the shin pad.

The flames allow another 10-15 easily stopped perimeter shots and the numbers again change dramatically.

Please for the love of god stop using stats, of an ironically statistically insignificant sample size, to attempt to generate hypotheses and imply conclusions.

Based on the eye test, Smith is not struggling. This game could easily be an 80s style 6-5 game where Markstrom stood on his head.

And Johnny's amazing hand eye effort was thwarted by the side of some guy's noggin.

Statistical outlier is what you have tonight, if sv% is what you want to talk about.

[calgarywinning]

I agree with the writeup a loss is a loss, but it was a very good game. Flames had so many positives rolling their way. It was the first loss of the season that I was okay with. The team really played well together.

Really happy with the Janko, Bennett and Jagr line. Just can't wait for the click. Bennett will turn a corner here.

[DeluxeMoustache]

I do agree it would be interesting to let Janko, Bennett and Jagr play through December (as long as Ferland doesn't start getting complacent/inconsistent and needing the jolt a demotion seemingly gives him).

[Erick Estrada]

No doubt in my mind Brodie is the goat in this one. He seems to have these games every once in a while where he's just awful.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by crapshoot

I believe you could argue that the three wins in a row we just had was just that handful of solid wins in a row. As far as dominating the game, this was just about as solid of a loss you could find too. This team is getting it together and is going places, I'm sure of it.

There are some signs of that for sure, so I hope you are 100% right. It’s a long season and still plenty of time to pile up the wins.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by timbit

“The Canucks score a fluke short handed goal to tie it up”

I don’t think that is very objective nor do I think Smith is the goat.

Brodie made an awful effort and play on the short handed goal and it was a game changing event.

He is the goat, IMO.

I honestly considered Brodie for sure, but he pushed back on the Sutter rush taking him to the corner without a scoring chance. Guy centers the puck and it hits a player shin pad and goes in on a powerplay where guys coming back should have out numbered the second forechecker on a penalty kill.

770 save percentage is always going to be in the goat discussion.

Not sure about the objective comment, fairly certain every opinion I have is subjective for sure, but to say something isn't objective seems a bit much.

[Badgers Nose]

I don’t think the light schedule suit Smith. Thankfully that should be more or less over now

[ricardodw]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

I am very much in disagreement with using single game sv% as a barometer of goaltending success.

No goalie stops the Sedins' play.
No goalie stops the goal off of the shin pad.

The flames allow another 10-15 easily stopped perimeter shots and the numbers again change dramatically.

Please for the love of god stop using stats, of an ironically statistically insignificant sample size, to attempt to generate hypotheses and imply conclusions.

Based on the eye test, Smith is not struggling. This game could easily be an 80s style 6-5 game where Markstrom stood on his head.

And Johnny's amazing hand eye effort was thwarted by the side of some guy's noggin.

Statistical outlier is what you have tonight, if sv% is what you want to talk about.

The Flames are not a good home team so far this year.

Smith's record at home is 4-5-0 sv % .902

away 4-1-0 sv % .953

The Flames are 1 of 6 teams that have a losing home record... (4-5-0) 2 of their 4 wins at home were tied after regulation.

19 out of 31 teams having winning records at home.

Not time to panic yet, but the Flames are giving away important home points that are there for the taking.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by ricardodw

The Flames are not a good home team so far this year.

Smith's record at home is 4-5-0 sv % .902

away 4-1-0 sv % .953

The Flames are 1 of 6 teams that have a losing home record... (4-5-0) 2 of their 4 wins at home were tied after regulation.

19 out of 31 teams having winning records at home.

Not time to panic yet, but the Flames are giving away important home points that are there for the taking.

But they've taken a good chunk of their road points to off set that. I would certainly agree a 4-5-0 home record is pretty stinky, but at 8-7-0 the Flames have done enough not to hurt themselves early this year, something they usually do.

No hole to crawl out of.
Just find your game and get going.

Or don't and sputter through a year where you're either a wildcard team or just missing.

[Itse]

Originally Posted by Bingo

I honestly considered Brodie for sure, but he pushed back on the Sutter rush taking him to the corner without a scoring chance. Guy centers the puck and it hits a player shin pad and goes in on a powerplay where guys coming back should have out numbered the second forechecker on a penalty kill.

770 save percentage is always going to be in the goat discussion.

Smith overplayed that situation pretty bad.

[ricardodw]

Originally Posted by Bingo

But they've taken a good chunk of their road points to off set that. I would certainly agree a 4-5-0 home record is pretty stinky, but at 8-7-0 the Flames have done enough not to hurt themselves early this year, something they usually do.

No hole to crawl out of.
Just find your game and get going.

Or don't and sputter through a year where you're either a wildcard team or just missing.

6 games until US Thanksgiving: Redwings and Blues at home and then Detroit, Flyers, caps and Blue Jackets.

Things will be so close that the legend of the playoffs being decided by Thanksgiving likely won't hold. Only 4 teams more than 1 game under 500 and only 6 teams 4 or more games over 500.

The funny thing is that half the teams 4+ games over 500 were supposed to be non-playoff teams in the west (LA, WPG and Las Vegas) plus NJD in the east.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Itse

Smith overplayed that situation pretty bad.

I would agree. For all the good he has done this season I was pretty frustrated by how he took himself out of the play there. I think both Smith and Brodie receive their fair share of blame on that play.

[timbit]

Originally Posted by Bingo

I honestly considered Brodie for sure, but he pushed back on the Sutter rush taking him to the corner without a scoring chance. Guy centers the puck and it hits a player shin pad and goes in on a powerplay where guys coming back should have out numbered the second forechecker on a penalty kill.

770 save percentage is always going to be in the goat discussion.

Not sure about the objective comment, fairly certain every opinion I have is subjective for sure, but to say something isn't objective seems a bit much.

You are right.

Just because our opinions differ, it is not appropriate to question your objectivity.

Bad choice of words, on my part.