[PGT] Flames lose 5-4 in shootout against Capitals

[Flames Fan, Ph.D.]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

I don't particularly like Street but he epitomizes the Flames philosophy of getting up after being knocked down and he's producing and doesn't look out of place. Interesting to see who's out after Cammallari and Colborne get in the line up.

I give Street credit for getting erased in order to keep the play alive for the Bouma goal.

[Hatter]

That was a fun game to watch!

- They need a lot of polishing on the PP and PK, but that will come.
- Couldn't really find a way to contain Ovechkin, but I suppose he makes $9MM for a reason!
- Pleasantly surprised by David Jones, Ben Street, and Chris Butler.
- Thought Wideman/Russell were fantastic, as they have been through the preseason.
- Galiardi's penalty was 40 flavours of stupid, but he busted his hump to make up for it. I think Hartley made the right choice letting him redeem himself.
- Ramo got beat by that backhand deke 3 times including the shootout, but his game was pretty good otherwise. Nobody on earth could have stopped that perfect shot through traffic off the faceoff. That was a seriously good shot.
- The kids were so-so. Thought Monahan got worse as the game went on, and Swiss Jesus got better. They'll both get better. No lack of effort.

Overall I'm not too sad about the loss. There were some good things to take out of that game.

[Rerun]

Backlund won 27% of the 22 face offs that he was in. That SUCKS!

Nobody on the team won more than they lost... except Stempniak and he was only in one. Overall the Caps dominated Calgary in face offs with a 61% win percentage.

Not good.

[devo22]

I had absolutely no problem with Street getting PP and OT time. The Flames have talked about meritocracy again and again and again, I am glad that they stick to their word. Street had a good preseason and looked fine yesterday as well, I felt that he earned some important minutes. Plus him and Galiardi did a good job in OT. If there's a guy that should have been taken PP minutes away from him, then it was Glencross.

BTW, I was okay with the TSN broadcast yesterday. I know people like to criticize Kerr, but I like him and I was disappointed to the see the TSN logo on NHL.com instead of SNet when I went online. But they did a surprisingly good job yesterday, even Ferraro was bearable for a change.

[Erick Estrada]

Funny I see praise and criticism for Stajan. Maybe I missed some solid play in his own end but I thought he wasn't very good offensively. There were some plays to be made in the offensive zone that he totally fanned or missed. I thought Backlund looked much better myself and if things continue like this hopefully he get's awarded with time on the 1st line.

[polak]

Yeah once again it looks like the coaching staff doesn't have faith in our young guys. Are we going to shelter them forever?

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Rerun

Backlund won 27% of the 22 face offs that he was in. That SUCKS!

Nobody on the team won more than they lost... except Stempniak and he was only in one. Overall the Caps dominated Calgary in face offs with a 61% win percentage.

Not good.

That's been an ongoing issue that's probably not going to be addresses anytime soon as I don't believe Colborne is stellar in the circles although I believe he's around 50% which would be an improvement on this team.

[CaptainCrunch]

I liked the effort and determination last night. It was the small mental mistakes that lead to a Capitals team that can capitalize coming back.

Forgetting about a guy leaving a penalty box. bad penalties. But the good news is that those things are fixable. I would be more worried if the team came out without a lot of energy and just felt like they were the Oilers and it was ok to futz around and lose.

I really liked Monahan's game last night. It was his first NHL game, he had his dad in the audience and he played a very simple detailed game. Yeah it wasn't sexy, but he did good things. I also heard that he was shaken up which limited his ice time.

Bart I thought was good, and he had a good effort level.

Backland was a beast last night, and he's really grown his game. I think the lockout year really accelerated his confidence.

David Jones looked great and getting that first goal is going to go miles for him.

I also thought that Stajan did a decent job.

Yes our blue line looked undersized, but I think except for his bad habit of dropping his knee Russell looked pretty good and Brodie looked really good to me. But we do need a mobile axe murderer back there and O'Brien ain't it. But at this phase of the rebuild we can homegrow one or two of those instead of trading or signing one.

Ramo looked fairly sharp, there was maybe one goal that he would want back. But he needs coaching on the shootout, its not dissimilar to Kipper who took a few years to figure that out when he added the fast poke check to his inventory.


For game one of probably 246 of a three year rebuild, I was pleased with what I saw with some individuals.

Its a game that we shouldn't have lost, but these are lessons learned if they care to learn them. And at this point we're ahead of the so called awesome Oilers and the Canucks. So that's the best birthday gift for me.

[lanny9]

I will not make a judgement on our players after one game, but a general feel of what I think needs to be worked on.

My take away from this game is Baertschi, I will be looking for him to be more aggressive out there, more assertive in puck chase. If he doesn't get more aggressive he will get sent down imo. I also think he may need to bulk up some more to work the corners better, it is either that or he gets put on lines with two guys who will go hard in the corners and he becomes a Hemsky type player? I think he has the potential for more but he will have to work on it.

Monahan, I will also be looking for more assertiveness, I think he was so worried about his defensive responsibilities that he was not in on the puck chase at times when he should have been, or at least being the second in puck chase. I noticed him sit back by the blue line or even towards centre a few times when the puck chase should have been on. I will not say if he should get sent down our not after one game but will be looking to the next few games to start figuring that out. I am sure the coaches and GM(s) will be doing the same.

Ramo, I saw him over play quite a lot, he took himself out of position a few times when going side to side, this needs to come under control or the other teams will pick up on it and look for the drop pass to an open net. I noticed this in the preseason as well so hopefully the coaching staff will be working on this with him. He did make some nice saves but lets see him some more before too much judgement.

Our D, well albeit soft, they did a pretty good job overall trying to contain the powerful offence they were facing. Of course they will have to tighten up going forward as a lot of the play this year will be in our end, but not too bad for a first game.

The team in general did pretty well, good overall puck chase(which we will live or die on the next couple of years). I was a little disappointed in some coaching decisions, such as having Street on PP instead of our young guys who have more offensive creativity and with more ice to work with it could be just what the kids need to get settled in to the bigger game. I saw this same decision making last year and I just don't know if I can agree with this. You see other teams throwing their kids into it and succeeding, we should be doing the same imo.

[868904]

Too many posters in here are too in love with the sexy prospects and first round picks. Sven and Monahan are going to be the cornerstones of this team in the future but they weren't that great last night to warrant more ice or play in OT over a guy like Street, who lots of posters seem to hate just because he was a low profile signing.

Street had a great game last night, and continually sacrificed his body to make plays which led to a goal. This guy competed in all 3 zones and was rewarded for his effort.

Some posters didnt think he deserved to make the team despite having one of the more impressive training camps. Is it possible he gets sent down when some veterans return from injuries? Yes, but he's been very good in the opportunities he's been given. He's a good player and like Hartley said is very versatile. To be able to play a 4 th line role effectively at his size is impressive and if he's given more offensive opportunities, he may show even more. This guy was one of the offensive leaders for the Heat.

[lanny9]

Originally Posted by 868904

Too many posters in here are too in love with the sexy prospects and first round picks. Sven and Monahan are going to be the cornerstones of this team in the future but they weren't that great last night to warrant more ice or play in OT over a guy like Street, who lots of posters seem to hate just because he was a low profile signing.

Street had a great game last night, and continually sacrificed his body to make plays which led to a goal. This guy competed in all 3 zones and was rewarded for his effort.

Some posters didnt think he deserved to make the team despite having one of the more impressive training camps. Is it possible he gets sent down when some veterans return from injuries? Yes, but he's been very good in the opportunities he's been given. He's a good player and like Hartley said is very versatile. To be able to play a 4 th line role effectively at his size is impressive and if he's given more offensive opportunities, he may show even more. This guy was one of the offensive leaders for the Heat.

I agree that street played a good game, but at the same extent you are trying to develop the young talent that are your future. You cannot play these guys 11 minutes a game and expect them to improve. If you are not willing to give them the minutes you have to send them down where they will play in a situations and be able to improve their game. But again they will only improve so much at the lower levels, they need time against NHL caliber players.

Like I say, it is only one game, I will watch the next few before making any judgement on players and coaching.

[868904]

Originally Posted by lanny9

I agree that street played a good game, but at the same extent you are trying to develop the young talent that are your future. You cannot play these guys 11 minutes a game and expect them to improve. If you are not willing to give them the minutes you have to send them down where they will play in a situations and be able to improve their game. But again they will only improve so much at the lower levels, they need time against NHL caliber players.

Like I say, it is only one game, I will watch the next few before making any judgement on players and coaching.

Agreed, maybe a better balance is needed; however, both Sven and Monahan actually got more ice than Street, and Street was much more impressive when he was on the ice.

Just think some posters are way too enamoured with the sexy prospects and think they can do no wrong. When Iggy broke in, he wasn't handed 20 minutes a night right away. There were some tough learning experiences for him too. Plus I always see these posters commenting on how great the Oilers do it with Eberle, Hall, RNH, Yakupov and how they load them up with ice time, well, sure those players put up points, but do they win? Can they hold leads? Can they defend? Not really.

You have to teach the kids to play defence properly and to compete in the defensive end when they are young. THat's how it gets ingrained into their game and that's how they become winners. Oilers have some great young players, but they aren't winners, yet. They won't be winners, till those young guys start competing in the defensive end.

[Flame On]

Originally Posted by howard_the_duck

Agree with pretty much all of this except Stajan. Thought he was fighting the puck all night and any rushes he was part of died on his stick. He was decent in the face-off dot but they'll need more from him going forward.

I thought Baertschi had a couple really nice shifts and wasn't rewarded with PP time that IMO he deserved. The puck just seems to follow him, which is a compliment for a kid his age. Would like him to be more assertive and shoot the puck but that will come.

Kris Russell looks like he might just thrive with this new responsibility of being a top 4 dman. I can see him getting better and better with confidence - a great trade by Feaster.

Agreed I thought Stajan was poor too, really clingy and took that penalty then whined about it, which is his MO.

[lanny9]

For sure you can't hand them 20 minutes right away, that does not work. I would however like to see them played in some more situations at least once a game if possible. You can only learn so much from the bench, sometimes you need to be thrown into the fire.

Problem with Edmonton is they have all this offensive talent but this talent has not learned to deal with their own end. I think Monahan has the wherewithal to work his end(needs to bulk up some more yet), Baertchi I think needs to work hard on this and part of that I think is a need to bulk up so he can better position himself against the large men in the league.

I am not one of those that have these kids on pedestals, whether they stay or get sent down is not my main concern, minutes and situational play is my concern and if they need to get sent down for that, then sobeit.

Just one game, maybe the coaching staff has more in store for them the next few games and they are going over the positioning etc with them on the bench and will yet throw them out there in all situations.

[Dienasty]

Originally Posted by 868904

. Plus I always see these posters commenting on how great the Oilers do it with Eberle, Hall, RNH, Yakupov and how they load them up with ice time, well, sure those players put up points, but do they win? Can they hold leads? Can they defend? Not really.
.

I think these kids will "learn to win" when they get a goalie and some defense.

The issues with the Oilers roster aren't the kids, it is that Nick Schultz was a top pairing D man, Dubynyk is a back up tender, and Gagner/Horcoff/Smyth/Belanger/Eager/Jones etc were playing a ton of minutes for the team.

It also hurt that Whitney became a shadow of himself. You can't defend/hold leads when you only have 4 really good players on your roster. As much as I hate the Oilers I don't think you can blame the big 5 for the loses

[BigFlameDog]

Originally Posted by Hatter

- The kids were so-so. Thought Monahan got worse as the game went on, and Swiss Jesus got better. They'll both get better. No lack of effort.

Overall I'm not too sad about the loss. There were some good things to take out of that game.

Maher was saying he thinks Monahan got dinged up in the second and it affected him.

Just passing it on.

[FakenHaken]

^^^Captain Crunch said it perfect I thought.

[FlamesAddiction]

I think we need to take last night's game as one to grow on. A young and inexperienced team has these things happen. Our best forward was out as well.

There were some positives. They looked fast and energetic. I thought Ramo was good until the team started to collapse and then he went south with them. Kiprusoff used to be like at times too until he was able to harness the positive (maybe time to bring back Marcoux).

[FBI]

As much as I hate to say it, Butler didn't look THAT bad last night.

[CsInMyBlood]

It is so obvious that Mikael Backlund is our smartest player on the ice. Every shift he demonstrates such a high hockey IQ and makes great quick decisions as well as showing a very strong 2 way game. The faceoffs may not be there, but hopefully he will get better with time. People tend to forget he is still only 24 years old.

Thought Monahan and Baertschi were solid in their 11 minutes of play. Not so sold on David Jones as some are, he had a couple of brutal giveaways in the game and made some questionable decisions with the puck.

Matt Stajan and TJ Gallardi took some brutal needless penalties at the end of the game that really hurt the team and their chances to win. I mean these guys aren't rookies you would think they would know not to be so stupid. Stajan with the stick slash (why?) and Gallardi right after Stajan with the face wash on the goalie (seriously double why?) Sad stuff to see.

The Butler-SOB pairing is such a disaster waiting to happen. Butler is always in pure panic mode when he has the puck, he also NEVER ties up his guy at the net. He will be beside his man but wont actually do anything to impede or stop the puck coming to that man. So frustrating to watch OVER AND OVER again. Hopefully Smith draws in sooner than later and puts in some great games to keep Butler out.

Kari Ramo was like a tale of two goaltenders in that game. At the beginning he looked so solid, calm, excellent rebound control and followed the puck well. When the goals started going in he looked way too busy, guessing at things, and wasn't following the puck well. He did pull it all together near the end, but it was really hard to get a read of what he is actually about from that game.

All in all I enjoyed the game, the effort was there, we had some great chances and there were a lot of positives that these guys will hopefully build off of.