[GDT] Flames vs. Coyotes, Alec Trevelyan…er…Treliving's revenge, 7 p.m., SNF

[Cali Panthers Fan]

For…Arizona, Dave?










The Coyotes are a difficult team to figure out so far. They’ve been wildly inconsistent in just about every aspect of the game. Some nights they play great defense that Tippet would be proud of, other nights they let in 6 or 7 goals. Some nights they can’t score to save their lives (shutout 3 times already this season), and others they score 6 to beat the Capitals or 7 to beat the Oilers (I know, who hasn’t amirite?). What is for sure is this is not a very skilled team. When your top line consists of Tobias Rieder (who?), Sam Gagner, and an aging Shane Doan you’re in a heap of trouble, although one could argue that’s their 2nd line now. Still, this is also a team that’s managed to beat Anaheim, L.A., and Washington so far this year, so clearly Tippett is squeezing the last ounce of point production out of this team. But 5 on 5 this is one of the worst teams in the league, and that is very, very un-Tippett-like.

Like the Flames, Arizona’s offense is led by their defense, and Yandle leads the team with 11 points despite a truly incredibly bad shooting% of 1.7%. Obviously he’s due to breakout any day now, so watch out for Yandle. Both Yandle and Ekman-Larsson lead the team in shots with 58 and 56 respectively. The next closest? Vermette at 42, and it drops off drastically from there. This team struggles to score on a regular basis, ranking 25th in GF/G in the league ahead of Montreal, Colorado, and Winnipeg (who would have said that before the season started?). They struggle because they have the worst forward group, in terms of talent, in the league, and that’s including Buffalo.

But hold on a minute, it’s all good because Arizona plays good defense and Mike Smith is a really good goalie, right? Hold on there hot shot. Arizona has been terrible defending as well, ranking 27th in GA/G at 3.33 (worse than Edmonton, OUCH!). They have offensive defensemen, but no really great shut down defenders, at least not at this stage of their career. Of course, it doesn’t help when both Smith and Devan Dubnyk have Sv% below .900. Neither has been able to bail the team out with any consistency, but at least Smith has gotten it together in his last 5 games. He’s had a Sv% anywhere from .914 to .970, showing that he can still hold this awful team together. Then it all fell apart in a poor showing against Dallas last game with a .875 Sv% in that game. Who knows which Smith will show up tonight?

The Flames are coming off a disappointing loss to Carolina to end another long road trip to start the year, and have had a couple days to rest, practice, and stew over the poor showing. Lord knows Hartley is going to have them energized to play this one. Still missing 4 important forwards, the Flames are expecting Baertschi back after a battle with a virus (flu?). It’s possible that he didn’t look exceptional in his first few games because of the bug. If it’s the same one that went through the Flames team earlier this year it took a heavy toll on players like Monahan, Hudler, and Gaudreau to name a few, and it stuck around a long time as well. No excuses though, Sven finally has the anchor that is Setoguchi off his line and has “50 pounds of dynamite” Jooris to help him get his game going.

The offense has been surprisingly good however, despite the loss of manpower at forward. Calgary still ranks 8th in both GF/G and PP% so far this year, at nearly the 20 game mark, which should give an indication of a trend for the year. Giordano extended his point streak to 7 games with an assist on Jones’ 2nd in as many games the other night. Speaking of Jones, he has 3 point in his last 4 games and is playing a strong power forward style of game with a lot of tenacity.

The defense has been suffering lately however. A team that was at one point near the top of the league in GA/G is now down to 13th. Some of that has been inconsistent team play and wearing down on the road, but the goaltending just hasn’t been the same in the last 3 or 4 games. Hiller has been more prone to letting in bad goals, and Ramo tweaked something in practice before his pretty awful start in Florida where he was pulled. The GAAs have risen and the Sv% have fallen, to be expected after such lofty early numbers. Still, as long as the team plays a more sound game defensively and the goalies give them a Sv% of at least .910 every night, they should still win their share of games the rest of the season.

Notes: Full disclosure, I’m just going to lift what SureLoss wrote in the notes from yesterday’s practice, just to keep everyone up to date who didn’t read that thread.


-this is the first time Ferland skated with the main group since his concussion on Oct 31st. Hartley says Ferland will need 5-6 days to get up to speed
-Colborne and Raymond skated on their own before the main group
-Bollig and Setoguchi are confirmed to be sitting out against Phoenix, Baertschi and McGrattan draw back in
-Hiller is confirmed starter against Phoenix
-Hartley has no updates on Colborne, Stajan, Backlund, or Raymond, but says none of them are close to returning


Flames
Glencross-Monahan-Jones
Gaudreau-Granlund-Hudler
Baertschi-Jooris-Byron
Bouma-Reinhart-McGrattan

Giordano-Brodie
Russell-Wideman
Smid-Engelland

Hiller


Arizona
Rieder-Gagner-Doan
Korpikoski-Vermette-Boedker
Klinkhammer-Hanzal-Erat
Chipchura-Vitale-Crombeen

Ekman-Larsson-Michalek
Yandle-Murphy
Gormley-Stone

Smith



Go Flames Go!

[playmaker]

I'd say
1) swap Glencross for Gaudreau to bring some size into the 2nd line. Johny Hockey has already shown chemistry with Moneyhands so this would make sense to me as well.
2) swap Byron for Reinhart as there's no way Reinhart can show what he's capable of playing 4th line minutes. And it would also help to spread the size around as the projected 2nd and 3rd line are IMHO small and buttersoft.

Hopefully Ferland and Colborne are back soon.

[killer_carlson]

i'd like Glencross to match up against Doan tonight. It would keep a kid away from Doan and also might light a fire under Glencross who needs to start putting the puck in the net.

[terminator]

Keep the writes up coming man, best hockey related part of the day prior to the game.

[Ozy_Flame]

Great write-up.

I know when the Flames hired Treliving, Muta called him "Trevelyan" and a couple posters got so riled up because purposely skewing athletes and sports professionals' names was disrespectful. HAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Huntingwhale]

I'm expecting a snoozer for this one. 'Yotes are due to break out, many players are slumping and some players have ridiculously low shooting %. Flames always seem to lose these ones. 3-1 'Yotes.

[H2SO4(aq)]

Thanks for the write up. Do you think you could include each teams record and current standing too? just an idea.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by H2SO4(aq)

Thanks for the write up. Do you think you could include each teams record and current standing too? just an idea.

Yes, I had thought of that, but it didn't seem relevant until this part of the season. Way too early until after the 15 game mark to use standings or records as an indicator of anything useful. I will probably do so from now on. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Just an FYI. The guy Glencross is giving a face wash to is none other than Mike Ribeiro.

I love that pic.

[J epworth]

First live regular season game for me since the 2011-12 season! Very excited to finally see these young guys play live, lower bowl seats as well! Flames better not disappoint, when I got these tickets I did not think the Flames would be playing as well as they are, so it's an extra bonus for me.

[Gaskal]

Flames Nation should start letting you do their FGDs. Writeups are continuously improving in quality.

[DoubleF]

That Bouma, Byron and Vermette pic...

*Snicker snicker

[4oh3]

I'll be there!

[Don Benji]

Originally Posted by Gaskal

Flames Nation should start letting you do their FGDs. Writeups are continuously improving in quality.

Don't do it. Please stay on this site.

[djsFlames]

Please pull out a W tonight boys. We're still just .500 at home. Gotta be better on our own turf. And just as importantly, keep Doan off the scoresheet. That'd be great.

[Gaskal]

At least no Ribeiro.

[sureLoss]

Pat Steinberg @Fan960Steinberg
David Jones absent from morning skate. #Flames

[Wood]

Baerschi should be healthy now, heres hoping for a solid game from him. I like the look of the 3rd line, i wouldnt mind seeing him get some time with Monahan too

[Inferno]

It's my birthday. The Flames have to win.

[dash_pinched]

Originally Posted by Inferno

It's my birthday. The Flames have to win.

Happy birthday and I wish you better luck than I had last Thursday (Flames lost to Tampa Bay that night).

Go Flames Go!