Too early to panic about Markstrom

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by TheSquatch

The freebie goal today shows he's not focused properly, not tracking the game. He had no idea a Panther was going to be on top of him, and that's a really bad sign, I think. Like a quarterback in football, and like driving for a more mundane example, when you are dialled in, you know where everyone is, what they are doing. He doesn't have complete vision right now for some reason, and he's making poor decisions because of it.

Or… a mistake was made.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Scroopy Noopers

Or… a mistake was made.

Markstrom occupies a weird space in people’s head where every mistake he makes is indicative of some greater truth about him as a player and has a ripple effect that can crush the entire team, making him ultimately responsible for anything that happens in front of him after the mistake…

…and every 10/10 great save he makes is “yeah, cool, good job, anyways back to what I was saying…”

He’s no doubt struggled this season but he had a good game outside of the misread behind the net. Was funny seeing people in the GT blame him for the players playing poorly afterwards.

[TheSquatch]

Originally Posted by Scroopy Noopers

Or… a mistake was made.

You're right, it's probably a one time thing, and not something we've witnessed all season.

He played good, good in the shootout too. But he's not tracking the game as well as he can.

[atb]

Originally Posted by dino7c

GAA is a team stat

The Flames allow the 5th lowest High Danger Shots Against (they were 6th lowest last year). I think the team is doing a good job at limiting high danger chances, the goalies are just not doing a good enough job on the shots they are facing.

[DazzlinDino]

Originally Posted by TheSquatch

You're right, it's probably a one time thing, and not something we've witnessed all season.

He played good, good in the shootout too. But he's not tracking the game as well as he can.

He was quite intense last season getting all those shutouts, it could be that he's taking a different approach or that he's trying different things. Sometimes these adjustments can take some time. It could be as intense as he played last season he was a little burned out by the time he got to the playoffs so he could just be taking a different approach. Come play off time he may be a bit more dialed in.

It is unfortunate that there is a lot of unnecessary comments before the game is finished, I rarely come into the thread during the games, I I would prefer to watch a whole game and just enjoy it especially when I see the outcome. Great game and something for the players to build on.

[ben voyonsdonc]

If Markstrom could reduce the softy goals to once every second or third game, we’d be in pretty good shape.

[DeluxeMoustache]

The puck handling error is not really what the concern has been.

Stopping shots-wise, he was on point tonight

[Snuffleupagus]

I've mentioned this before.

I will go down in "flames" with the belief Markstrom's eyesight needs a thorough checking and testing, seriously, watch closely folks, he doesn't seem to even react to some long shots. just hopes it hits him. From 20 ft in though he still makes amazing saves.

Before someone says "I'm sure he has his eyes checked constantly" sometimes people can appear to have great vision in an eye test, when they have the time to focus it looks great but early stages of myopia can screw you up when you don't have that time.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

I've mentioned this before.

I will go down in "flames" with the belief Markstrom's eyesight needs a thorough checking and testing, seriously, watch closely folks, he doesn't seem to even react to some long shots. just hopes it hits him. From 20 ft in though he still makes amazing saves.

Before someone says "I'm sure he has his eyes checked constantly" sometimes people can appear to have great vision in an eye test, when they have the time to focus it looks great but early stages of myopia can screw you up when you don't have that time.

That's actually kind of interesting. I recently had my eyes tested and the optometrist explained to me that sometimes people's eyesight can fluctuate day-to-day as well, or even hour-to-hour. Your eyesight might be fine most of the time, but some days it isn't and you need your glasses.

I can't say I ever thought it was an issue for Markstrom, but I can see it as a possibility.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

That's actually kind of interesting. I recently had my eyes tested and the optometrist explained to me that sometimes people's eyesight can fluctuate day-to-day as well, or even hour-to-hour. Your eyesight might be fine most of the time, but some days it isn't and you need your glasses.

I can't say I ever thought it was an issue for Markstrom, but I can see it as a possibility.

Ask anyone who got glasses after age 25 or 30 and they'll tell you they should have had them 2 years earlier, but they only say this after the fact.

[Rick M.]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Markstrom occupies a weird space in people’s head where every mistake he makes is indicative of some greater truth about him as a player and has a ripple effect that can crush the entire team, making him ultimately responsible for anything that happens in front of him after the mistake…

…and every 10/10 great save he makes is “yeah, cool, good job, anyways back to what I was saying…”

He’s no doubt struggled this season but he had a good game outside of the misread behind the net. Was funny seeing people in the GT blame him for the players playing poorly afterwards.

Markstrom made 9 saves on 9 Barkov shots (including one in the shootout). Let me repeat: 9.

[Flamesfan05]

The question is not if Markstrom can make a good save

It’s whether he can stop letting in bad ones. Especially in big games and close games

[Goriders]

Markstrom won the last game. He played great. Made one dumb mistake.

Find a player that didn’t do that. Doubt there was one. I think it’s more glaring this year because we lost a lot of our scoring HP so mistakes become more magnified. We can’t just let Gaudreau score us out of the hole.

Markstrom and Vlader are still probably on of the better tandems in the league. I think lack of scoring is the Flames bigger problem.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

Yeah, that was my post to which you are referring

I am fully aware that they didn’t have over 40 perimeter shots. They had over 40 shots. Too many were from the perimeter. You kind of have to trust the reader to understand the point. It would be too exhausting to write an essay to get across the completely accurate representation of the entire body of shots. Too many shots from far away, way too many that the goalie can see, and too few that make him move, etc. etc.

And I know you do understand the point because you cover it in the third last paragraph

I do agree that high danger chance definition is flawed. Or limited. And will add that none of the metrics take in to account the overall situation of the defensive team.

Yeah it's not flawed.

It's clearly defined and is what it is.

Could be better for sure, but as a standing stat you certainly want to have a higher HD count for than against.

The chances that come from outside the HD don't count for sure, but wouldn't the number of those that are dangerous be low comparatively speaking?

The other comments in this topic ... Sutter style. He didn't coach the team to a low HD event game last year, the Flames were 7th in HD60 and 10th in 5 on 5 shooting percentage.

They lost their top line. They will either get more out of the guys acquired (they'll find chemistry) or they won't, but this isn't a team being coached to shoot from the perimeter.

[Infinit47]

The weird thing about Markstrom this year is he seems to still be making big saves, and making those saves at a good rate. It's the absolutely brutal goals which seem to happen at terrible times that are standing out.

That and he just doesn't look comfortable to me.

In the end his .887 just needs to get better.

[gvitaly]

I was of a similar impression to many of you thinking that Markstrom wasn't stopping some of the easy shots this season. The low danger save % has always seemed to be like a strength of Markstrom so I decided to do some digging. Here are the numbers from moneypuck:

Markstrom 2021-22 2022-23
Low...........0.973.....0.971
Medium......0.894.....0.812
High..........0.699.....0.702

This seems to suggest that Markstrom is struggling with the medium quality chances more than anything. One more thing that probably influences his numbers is the quantity of the higher danger shots.

[DeluxeMoustache]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Yeah it's not flawed.

It's clearly defined and is what it is.

Could be better for sure, but as a standing stat you certainly want to have a higher HD count for than against.

The chances that come from outside the HD don't count for sure, but wouldn't the number of those that are dangerous be low comparatively speaking?

The other comments in this topic ... Sutter style. He didn't coach the team to a low HD event game last year, the Flames were 7th in HD60 and 10th in 5 on 5 shooting percentage.

They lost their top line. They will either get more out of the guys acquired (they'll find chemistry) or they won't, but this isn't a team being coached to shoot from the perimeter.

I agree with pretty much all of this. That’s why I added ‘or limited’ after the flawed remark. More limited than flawed.

I also expressed the view that chemistry will come in the Huberdeau handwringing thread.

And Sutter notes about the Tampa game that their only goal, they took Vasilevskiy’s view away

[devo22]

I can only speak for myself, but I do think I'm subconciously harder on Markström this season simply because I'm still bitter about the Edmonton series. Doubt I'm the only one who feels this way and it's probably unfair, but it happens if a player plays a season on a Vezina level and then has a series like that.

He's a bit Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde this year. He has some great stretches of play, but is also prone to giving up a soft one every other game ... hope he can fix it and return to his previous level.

[dino7c]

honestly this is a factor, Flames schedule has been ridiculous...everyone's stats are going to be worse playing almost all good teams in a small sample size.
(average opponent rank in the overall standings)

[PuckSlap]

Originally Posted by devo22

I can only speak for myself, but I do think I'm subconciously harder on Markström this season simply because I'm still bitter about the Edmonton series. Doubt I'm the only one who feels this way and it's probably unfair, but it happens if a player plays a season on a Vezina level and then has a series like that.

He's a bit Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde this year. He has some great stretches of play, but is also prone to giving up a soft one every other game ... hope he can fix it and return to his previous level.

I don’t think he’s had a great stretch this season. He’s been bad most games, even the ones we’ve won. He’s broken