[PGT] Flames lose to Habs 2-1 (OTL)

[sonq]

I think the NHL is back to having players play through colds. Both Malkin and Crosby missed practices with illnesses and neither actually missed a game.

That is so stupid. When I was younger I played through cold and was out for over 6 months cause of myocarditis, and it was not even a bad infection, barely had fever. NHL should know better

[madmike]

Originally Posted by SargentD

Every time I see Jake Allen in net for Montreal against us comes an undisputed attitude for defeat.
The guy is .947 and 1.67 GAA vs Calgary in Habs silks.
His career numbers are .910 and 2.63 overall.

You could say similar things about almost any goalie facing the Flames. They make mediocre goalies look like superstars.

[kobasew19]

Feels like we don't have players with high hockey IQ and just tries to make rough and tumble plays. Like a partial 3 on 2, Dube tries to skate wide and shoot the puck on net and it get deflected out of play, IMO, a smarter move would be to drive hard to the net and drop the puck off to Kadri and that would lead to a more dangerous scoring chance.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by kobasew19

Feels like we don't have players with high hockey IQ and just tries to make rough and tumble plays. Like a partial 3 on 2, Dube tries to skate wide and shoot the puck on net and it get deflected out of play, IMO, a smarter move would be to drive hard to the net and drop the puck off to Kadri and that would lead to a more dangerous scoring chance.

This just isn't a very good hockey team right now. They have a lot of good players but no great players and a lot of the good players are underachieving.

[calgaryred]

Originally Posted by Rejean31

And a month ago it was Calgary hasn't played teams like Montreal and Columbus. People need to open their eyes. The first seven games of the season were an aberration. This is not a playoff team.

They just played 3 out of 4 nights

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

^ agree, and at the same time Lindholm was out tonight and that created some new mixes

Huberdeau is 9 pts his last 9 games. I see more to come

I’m patient

It's nice the points are coming, but this team needs a lot more from it's best offensive player and if it can get it, will definitely see more wins coming.

This team really looks like a group that is 'trying' way harder than just 'playing' if that makes sense. All these sloppy penalties are due to players pushing too hard at the wrong time.

I still see this group as a playoff team, but the door to being much more than a low seed is going to quickly shut without some improved and sustainable play soon.

[Always Earned Never Given]

Originally Posted by dino7c

You may have missed the 4-2-2 part

I will bet you they make the playoffs...nobody said they would beat every bad team every game

4 points out of 2nd in the division after 29 games left and the easiest schedule in the NHL remaining...seems like an odd time to throw in the towel because of a SO loss missing 3 top players

I am with you and this us why:

Flames vs Eastern Conference 19 gp 6-8-5 17 pts ,447
Flames vs Western Conference 10 gp 7-3-0 14 pts ,700

Games remaining:
Eastern Conference: 13 games so possible 26 pts X ,447 = 11 pts
Western Conference: 40 games so possible 80 pts X ,700 = 56 pts

Flames end up with 98 pts, 2nd in their division and host Seattle!

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus

It's nice the points are coming, but this team needs a lot more from it's best offensive player and if it can get it, will definitely see more wins coming.

This team really looks like a group that is 'trying' way harder than just 'playing' if that makes sense. All these sloppy penalties are due to players pushing too hard at the wrong time.

I still see this group as a playoff team, but the door to being much more than a low seed is going to quickly shut without some improved and sustainable play soon.

That's what I see too.

Want it bad, but not letting the game come to them. Pushing it at the wrong times and in the wrong places.

Game in Columbus was a classic example.

They're out of a playoff spot now, so if you want to push they're not going to make it narrative there's plenty there to lean on.

But there's also a lot of odd stuff that likely improves.

- their schedule certainly gets easier
- they've had their share of injuries this year (unlike last year), could improve
- their record in one goal games
- odd overtime penalty run
- Markstrom turning it around
- new players hopefully gelling enough to return to who they are

It's been an odd season.

They may honestly never put it together, but there's a lot of odd in the first third that I'm guessing won't be repeated.

[klikitiklik]

Originally Posted by Khel

I hate how much I love this team. And how much this level of effort and result pisses me the eff off.

I wish I didn't care, but I do. Effing Flames, why, why do you make me suffer.

You just wrote my feelings out. Thank you. This is me everyday with this team.

[Burning Beard]

Originally Posted by SeanCharles

I think part of it is either because Toffoli isn’t a top line player or because he doesn’t seem to gel with the other guys on his line.

I think the Flames have 2 legitimate top liners in Lindholm and Huberdeau, 2-3 second liners in Toffoli, Kadri and Mangiapane and a bunch of third liners sprinkled in with some fourth liners.

I wouldn’t mind it if Sutter mixed things up a bit with the lines. The best shift I’ve seen lately was that shift tonight after Kadri got sent to to the dark room and Mangiapane-Ruzicka-Dube held the Habs in for nearly two mins. If there wasn’t a long change on the play I’m sure we could have cycled some fresh legs in there and scored.

This team just seems stale offensively and it’s frustrating to many as we are now signed up for this, whether we like it or not, for the foreseeable future due to all those large contract we dished out in the offseason to, let’s be honest, players who have already reached their peaks prior to ever suiting up as a Flame.

I just think Sutter needs to be less rigid in his way of thinking and test out some things he maybe wouldn’t normally.

I think 29 games is a decent enough sample size to realize some of the combinations just don’t seem to be working all that well while others I feel like have never been tested even once (I can’t recall ever seeing Kadri and Toffoli together as an example).

Sutter was getting roasted on here and in the media for changing the lines earlier in the season as none of the new combos he tried worked.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by Burning Beard

Sutter was getting roasted on here and in the media for changing the lines earlier in the season as none of the new combos he tried worked.

Why doesn’t he just go into NHL23 and play around with the lines. It tells you which combos have best chemistry. There’s even an auto fill best lines button.

We know it’s not up to the players to actually perform well. As long as they’re with the correct two linemates it all happens on its own.

[Goriders]

Originally Posted by Always Earned Never Given

I am with you and this us why:

Flames vs Eastern Conference 19 gp 6-8-5 17 pts ,447
Flames vs Western Conference 10 gp 7-3-0 14 pts ,700

Games remaining:
Eastern Conference: 13 games so possible 26 pts X ,447 = 11 pts
Western Conference: 40 games so possible 80 pts X ,700 = 56 pts

Flames end up with 98 pts, 2nd in their division and host Seattle!

Math is fun sometimes

[Goriders]

Originally Posted by Burning Beard

Sutter was getting roasted on here and in the media for changing the lines earlier in the season as none of the new combos he tried worked.

I think the new combos aren’t working because some of the players aren’t very good offensively and the others are underachieving.

All of them are inconsistent.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by Bingo

They're out of a playoff spot now, so if you want to push they're not going to make it narrative there's plenty there to lean on.

But there's also a lot of odd stuff that likely improves.

- their schedule certainly gets easier
- they've had their share of injuries this year (unlike last year), could improve
- their record in one goal games
- odd overtime penalty run
- Markstrom turning it around
- new players hopefully gelling enough to return to who they are

It's been an odd season.

They may honestly never put it together, but there's a lot of odd in the first third that I'm guessing won't be repeated.

It's crazy when you look.at standings and see Colorado, St Louis & Minnesota all struggling as well.
The entire top 4 from last seasons West are playing like bubble teams.

I think the Flames will improve for the reasons you noted but also think these teams will improve and take up the Wildcard spots (or Nashville).
It feels like we'll have to catch 2 of the divisional teams ahead of us.

[automaton 3]

Originally Posted by Burning Beard

Yeah Lewis was NOT the problem this game. Everyone is in a race for the next thing to be outraged over.

Lewis also ran over Caufield and took him out of the game. Full marks for him last night, great effort.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates

It's crazy when you look.at standings and see Colorado, St Louis & Minnesota all struggling as well.
The entire top 4 from last seasons West are playing like bubble teams.

I think the Flames will improve for the reasons you noted but also think these teams will improve and take up the Wildcard spots (or Nashville).
It feels like we'll have to catch 2 of the divisional teams ahead of us.

Reminds me of last season when people were conceding a spot to Vegas. Flames can outplay Minny, St Louis, Nashville,even the Avs with all their injuries. Flames also have by far the most favourable schedule. I expect a divisional spot too but to say they can't beat the WC teams is silly.

Flames have played poorly so far and are one point back of Minny and ahead of the others.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by dino7c

4 points out of home ice after 29 games...a little early to call it

Pretty fair to say that this season has been disappointing. I for one anticipated this team fighitng for the division title, not a playoff spot, but to suggest this team is junk is beyond insane.

[TheIronMaiden]

What do we think, Phillips earned another game?

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Reminds me of last season when people were conceding a spot to Vegas. Flames can outplay Minny, St Louis, Nashville,even the Avs with all their injuries. Flames also have by far the most favourable schedule. I expect a divisional spot too but to say they can't beat the WC teams is silly.

Flames have played poorly so far and are one point back of Minny and ahead of the others.

I didn't say they can't beat those teams, but it's more likely to see 5 Central teams make it again and 3 Pacific just based on quality of the divisions and how points will work as they play each other (3 point games etc).

I think we'll see weaker Pacific teams lose more once they go into tank/firesales/trade deadline and rising above them will be easier.
The pack in the Central will try to compete as they are in win now modes like us leading to more close games, 3 points games, staying around the playoff picture.
I think the pacific teams are weaker and more likely to falter off.

[saillias]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Reminds me of last season when people were conceding a spot to Vegas. Flames can outplay Minny, St Louis, Nashville,even the Avs with all their injuries. Flames also have by far the most favourable schedule. I expect a divisional spot too but to say they can't beat the WC teams is silly.

Flames have played poorly so far and are one point back of Minny and ahead of the others.

Yeah and now everyone is conceding that spot to the Flames. But surely we won't be this year's Vegas, it will be all those other teams