[PGT] Flames blank Bruins 4-0. But team needs to score more, apparently

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Flames Fan, Ph.D.

I had thought the coaching carousel in Calgary meant this core was broken. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. This team is showing me the real world difference between an average and an elite coach. I admit the delta is much larger than I would have predicted.

And thank God one of those elite coaches has a farm 75 minutes away, or the Flames wouldn't be able to attract one!

[calumniate]

Vladar, Markstrom and Tanev are becoming some A grade steals from other teams :d

Dim Benning and Van done messed up that one! Haha, stupid canucks

[Flame On]

Hey Steve, you're in the media. You're doing it wrong. You're supposed to open a Flames story first, with a bit about McDavid and one of his goals. Then maybe campaign for him to have an easier time. Then move on to how Calgary managed to hang on for a win. Sheesh come on!

Originally Posted by Steve Macfarlane

Forgot to drop this in here earlier.

https://calgaryhockeynow.com/calgary...boston-bruins/

[calumniate]

Originally Posted by Flame On

Hey Steve, you're in the media. You're doing it wrong. You're supposed to open a Flames story first, with a bit about McDavid and one of his goals. Then maybe campaign for him to have an easier time. Then move on to how Calgary managed to hang on for a win. Sheesh come on!

Don't be too hard on him. His execs are probably lambasting him as we speak. Frigging heretic

[red sky]

So does Markstrom start tomorrow? Crazy good problem to have right now.

[taxbuster]

Originally Posted by Elkyiv

While I do agree that Sutter is a great coach, I am curious as to why he's getting praised so much more than Peters' 2018-2019 season. Are we that confident this team is getting 50+ wins, 107+ points this year? More importantly, are we sure we're getting out of the first round? They're playing well, sure, but it seems a bit premature?

Structure, in a single word.

Peters' team was decent and played well...but it had neither the balance nor the structured play of the Flames under Sutter. I remember watching LA when they won Cups...each guy protected/covered/supported each other, skated directly at opponents to intercept them and played a relentless checking game, no matter where on the ice they were. That's what I'm seeing here.

Good grief -- Johnny making hits and playing pretty damn good defensive hockey? This looks to me like a team that is "fully bought it". Hope they can stay the course.

I was lying in bed last night thinking about my car flags....(I'll be all alone here in the middle of Everywhere, BC though).

[Tkachukwagon]

Originally Posted by calumniate

Vladar, Markstrom and Tanev are becoming some A grade steals from other teams :d

Dim Benning and Van done messed up that one! Haha, stupid canucks

https://twitter.com/user/status/1462821616098820100

Hoping Vlader continues his strong play, his contract is as good as it gets for a backup.

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by Lanny'sDaMan

"I’d suggest they come out flat after the travel and adjusting to home, but I’m dong betting against this team."

[Bingo]

Peters season vs Sutter's start.

Some really tight comparisons.

5 on 5

CF/60
Peters 61
Sutter 61

CA/60
Peters 52
Sutter 53

xGF/60
Peters 2.43
Sutter 2.39

xGA/60
Peters 2.14
Sutter 2.15

HDCF/60
Peters 11.5
Sutter 10.4

HDCA/60
Peters 10.3
Sutter 9.4

[Roof-Daddy]

Obviously it's early and things can change quickly, but with Sutter turning the Flames into a defensive stalwart that goalies can thrive in, after years of futility the Flames are currently poised to become a goalie factory.

Markstrom still has 4 years left on his deal.
Vladar (24) is excelling as his back up, has another year of league minimum and then is RFA
Werner (24) is off to strong start in the AHL and is an RFA
Wolf (20) is owning the AHL as a rookie and has that pedigree to go with it

There is also Chechelev and Sergeyev in the system.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by DropIt

Does this mean certain posters will finally admit that they have no idea what Jordan Sigalets job entails and will stop blaming him for not succeeding with the parade of average to below average goaltending thats come through town?

Okay, sure, let's revisit that. I was one of those people blaming Jordan Sigalet. Under his time as goalie coach:

- I didn't like how so many goalies (Jonas Hiller 2014, Chad Johnson 2016, Mike Smith 2017, David Rittich 2017, David Rittich 2018) would start seasons off fresh on an absolute tear, only to "spend extra time" with Sigalet on a lull in the schedule, and then their play would fall off the map for extended periods rather than improving as you would expect it to. Maybe at least one of those guys (Smith) can blame injury, but the rest? They all played their best hockey before Sigalet worked with them... usually after an off-season of working on their game.

- I also didn't like how so many other goalies (Brian Elliott, Mike Smith, Cam Talbot) seemed to give up some of the softest goals in the playoffs at the most opportune times. Elliott pretty much cost us the 2017 playoffs, and after game 1 I didn't think Smith played all that well either, giving up backbreaking, saveable goals late in games. On one hand maybe that's on them as individuals, but these are guys who had far superior playoff run in past years (Elliott 2016, Smith 2012, Talbot 2017) - their kicks at the can with Calgary were a steep droppff in their established level of postseason play. These were not "team shouldn't have left him out to dry" goals... they were softies... in April. Goalies on teams with well-established goalie coaches usually get softies out of their system by December, January-ish and by April are playing some of their sharpest hockey. Our guys under Sigalet just played their worst hockey down the stretch every year. This even applies to the 2017-18 season where we missed the playoffs - both our goalies just fell off the map down the stretch where they had been excellent early on the same year.

- I didn't like how the same argument on a macro level could be made for some of our goalie prospects... Gillies and Parsons were trending sky-high before entering the organization, and while Sigalet didn't work directly with them, it was his direction that led to them trying to alter their games. He publically stated Parsons needed to play less aggressively to be a pro, and that change has had disasterous results for a guy a lot of us thought was the most talented goalie we've had since 34. Gillies is playing his best hockey as a pro since leaving the organization.. All this said, I would say the Stockton goalie coach(es) take more of the blame in these areas, since they were working more directly. And on the flip side, Rittich played under the same goalie coach as Gillies back in 2016-17 and played excellent, even stealing Gillies' net in the 2017 AHL playoffs, so clearly it was a mixed bag at that level, and tougher to analyze.

- I, and just about everyone else, thought Sigalet was an excellent goalie scout. He identified Parsons. He identified Rittich. He identified Wolf. It was clear that when he's not working with the players directly, he was making a positive impact for the Flames.

So where are we now?

- He is not working directly with Markstrom or Vladar as the goalie coach. LeBarbara is the NHL goalie coach.
- We don't yet know if Markstrom or Vladar fall off the map towards the end of the season or the playoffs
- He is in charge of finding goalies, and it looks like Vladar, Werner, Chechelev, Sergeyev were great finds.

So far, it looks like "promoting" Sigalet out of his role has been a success, becauze he's no longer in the role he was previously criticized for. I'll reserve judgement on LeBarbera, but it does seem Markstrom took less time last season to get his game back up to a strong level, than Elliott did in 2017, Smith did in 2018 or Rittich did in 2019 or 2020.

[djsFlames]

I saw only parts of the game. What was the consensus on Valimaki in his return here?

[Reggie Dunlop]

Vladar for the Vlezina!

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by djsFlames

I saw only parts of the game. What was the consensus on Valimaki in his return here?

Mixed bag ... though that's expected.

Good assist early on Gaudreau's goal. Took a penalty. Had a rough turnover at the offensive blueline.

But then Zadorov makes mistakes too, so hopefully the Sutter lens isn't that sharp on a first game back.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Mixed bag ... though that's expected.

Good assist early on Gaudreau's goal. Took a penalty. Had a rough turnover at the offensive blueline.

But then Zadorov makes mistakes too, so hopefully the Sutter lens isn't that sharp on a first game back.

Sutter isn’t exactly knee jerk. Valimaki gets 3 games at least IMO.

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Mixed bag ... though that's expected.

Good assist early on Gaudreau's goal. Took a penalty. Had a rough turnover at the offensive blueline.

But then Zadorov makes mistakes too, so hopefully the Sutter lens isn't that sharp on a first game back.

I think that Sutter is good at thinking about the longue durée, Valimaki will get his games in, but it is good for the development of young D men to get fewer games. I don't see Sutter as being knee jerk, I think that this is all part of the plan for developing Valimaki into a future impact player.

[Toonage]

I have a hard time not seeing Zadorov back in there against the Hawks, regardless of Valimaki's play yesterday.

[GhostCookie]

Originally Posted by taxbuster

Structure, in a single word.

Peters' team was decent and played well...but it had neither the balance nor the structured play of the Flames under Sutter. I remember watching LA when they won Cups...each guy protected/covered/supported each other, skated directly at opponents to intercept them and played a relentless checking game, no matter where on the ice they were. That's what I'm seeing here.

Good grief -- Johnny making hits and playing pretty damn good defensive hockey? This looks to me like a team that is "fully bought it". Hope they can stay the course.

I was lying in bed last night thinking about my car flags....(I'll be all alone here in the middle of Everywhere, BC though).

One of the things I feel is different is that the 2019 Peters team was invested heavily on one line tearing it up, and Gio being a Norris beast. While there may have been defined roles, there never appeared to be a commitment to defense across all 200' of ice, and once the top line wasn't top anymore in the playoffs, things went how one can expect. It's exactly why McDrai hasn't been hoisting a cup year after year, or any team that has hasn't gotten there completely on the backs of one line. If the other team can key in on one or two players and it nullifies your game, you wont have success. What Darryl is doing here is holding the team responsible for the whole game, and so far the team is buying in and staying committed. Hence why we aren't needing our top line to win every game for us, and we have so much scoring spread out across the gamesheet.

[GioforPM]

I’d like to know the goal differential for the Peters versus Sutter teams. I suspect it’s heavily in favour of the latter. And I think goal differential is a big indicator of overall team quality.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

I’d like to know the goal differential for the Peters versus Sutter teams. I suspect it’s heavily in favour of the latter. And I think goal differential is a big indicator of overall team quality.

Through 19 games in 2018-19, the Flames had scored 58 goals and they had allowed 58 goals against.

Through 19 games this season, the Flames have scored 63 goals and have allowed 36 goals against.