Ok watching this game from a hotel room in Burnaby and I like the fact that the game was on even earlier out here. Besides the obligatory woohoo and a gif, here's what I thought
The good
Hiller was brilliant, beyond that I once heard a fighter pilot described as "He certainly won't blow you away with his brilliance, but he's confounded tactical. Hiller isn't like Kipper where you're wowed by the brilliance of his unlikely saves out of nowhere, however he's just a technically sound goalie who moves across the net so well and makes difficult saves look routine. The only thing that he shares with Kipper is his calmness..
Burnaby? Should have called. My 5 year is not the greatest drinking partner.
I agree on Hiller. Positioning and movement were fantastic and he stayed so calm out there. Nothing flashy but that was a great display of goaltending. Calgary is in good shape goaltending wise moving forward.
I'm happy we won and all, but Gaudreau's TOI was only 10:31 and Monahan was only 15:36. Why is does Hartley bury them on the bench so much? Watch the Oilers and they let their young guys play! Draisaitl and Yak both played over 14 minutes yesterday! Hartley should call up Baertschi and let him, Monahan and Gaudreau just focus on offense.
/frustrated
While I understand your desire to see the young guys play, the one question I would have for you is how has that strategy worked out for the Oilers?
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Don't get me wrong, I'm happy about the win, I think this was a hockey god balancing act. But this team just isn't where I thought that they would be in terms of drive.
As long as they keep getting better and keep stealing points at the same time I'm pretty happy.
Yes, their offensive game needs work, their lines are not really clicking, PP is pretty crappy and I think the whole system probably needs tweaking, but none of that stuff is terribly unusual to start the season.
I also think that kind of defensive effort takes some drive. Plus I blame the flu. And I think people are romanticizing last years team a bit. Yes they were strong to end the season, but the first half wasn't nearly as good.
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I just think if Monahan, Baertschi and Gaudreau had the comfort of knowing that they're the future and given lots of ice time no matter what, we'd have more exciting hockey. Right now, with Hartley taking the slow, patient and measured approach, they all appear to be ghosts and under utilized. I realize it's only 5 games, but it's never too early to start writing off prospects and losing patience, IMHO.
^^That did wonders for the oilers, You should read the comments posted by Red John on his take on the oilers approach.
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Ok watching this game from a hotel room in Burnaby and I like the fact that the game was on even earlier out here. Besides the obligatory woohoo and a gif, here's what I thought
The good
Hiller was brilliant, beyond that I once heard a fighter pilot described as "He certainly won't blow you away with his brilliance, but he's confounded tactical. Hiller isn't like Kipper where you're wowed by the brilliance of his unlikely saves out of nowhere, however he's just a technically sound goalie who moves across the net so well and makes difficult saves look routine. The only thing that he shares with Kipper is his calmness.
Backlund continues to impress, he was making the good small plays and consistency does so, but he's such a smart player and picks up his defensive assignments every time.
GioDie, ok I made that up and its actually pretty horrible, but those two as a tandem are making the case at being the top 3 or 4 top pairing duos in the NHL. They communicate and support each other so well, and Brodie has taken another step up in his game. The problem though is that the PA announcer should just say "Ok Brodie and Gio are leaving the ice, get ready for a serious downgrade in play" so we can go get popcorn.
Paul Byron is a major sparkplug, and he was very noticeable tonight the only thing that he couldn't do was score goals, but this was a solid game against a tough team.
The bad
Ok, I hate throwing out the word Identity, but here it is, Identity. The Flames haven't come close to the type of work ethic that they had last year, I haven't seen that push that the Flames demonstrated in close games over the last half of the season.
Defensive awareness, while the Flames aren't the Oilers, they're not great without the puck, and I really don't see that physical mean streak that this team had last year. On a semi plus note the team picked up steam for a while in the third and played some great shutdown hockey for a while.
Johnny Hockey not sure that I can say he's bad, he's being heavily sheltered and not getting a lot of quality ice time. When I watch him play his defensive game has stepped up and he did a good job on a couple of setups but I don't think he's getting the experience and confidence boost that he needs here.
The Ugly
The top two lines didn't really generate any offense. Lets be honest, a wet dog with a note in his mouth should be able to get more then 16 shots and not go 20 minutes without a shot.
The gaps the gap control tonight was terrible, the Hawks constantly had players in space because the forwards didn't come back and pick up their back pressure assignments
The game felt like a preseason game with very little in terms of intensity or physical play.
Final Thoughts
A wins a win and over the years we've learned that successful teams have to absolutely bank points when they can because a slow start can end your playoff hopes quick fast and in a hurry.
I think that the Flames have some real offensive system problems, their pp and their offensive generation aren't there.
I get that this is the second game in two nights, but the Flames didn't start skating until about 5 minutes into the third.
I don't know if there are any lessons that the team can learn as a collective except that you can get lucky, but eventually wins like this are balanced off by either a blow out loss, or another team stealing one from you.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy about the win, I think this was a hockey god balancing act. But this team just isn't where I thought that they would be in terms of drive.
Pretty accurate assessment.
...but this is a very talent weak team.
Not sure systems has a lot to do with it.
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Can I make a recommendation as for who the Goat was?
This was a team effort and a team win. No goats tonight! Wideman, Setoguchi, Raymond,etc....... Effort was there and all players were "in the game tonight".
People talk about playing 60 minutes of hockey, we haven't till this point this year. Tonight that's as close as you can come to playing 60 minutes of hockey.
Hiller was awesome, stopped a lot a lot of shots. D did well with rebounds.
Wow what a goaltending battle we have under way!
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Why didn't we deserve it? If they can only score 1 PP goal(a lucky, questionable tip in to boot) in 50 odd shots, why is that our fault? We did everything we had to do to win. Battled out of our skins, had Hiller to save us with some incredible saves, took 2 chances when they came.
We deserved it because for all their talent, the Hawks couldn't beat us. Fully deserved win, just being outplayed and shot doesn't mean its undeserved.
Games in which the Flames are badly outplayed for the vast majority of the game are games I consider them not deserving of a win.
Never said Hiller wasn't fantastic or that they didn't battle.
That's different from not being happy with the win, which I sure was. There will be games this season the Flames will deserve to win and won't, tonight was the opposite. Not a big deal.
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This game was won on the backs of Hiller Brodie and Gio.
Most of the team was badly outplayed but those 3 were stand outs all 3 periods and Ot.
I thought the Flames did a great job sticking to a smart game after CHI tied it up. They did not cave in and made safe plays and didn't force bad passes out of their zone they played patient and that all comes back to Hiller giving the team great confidence.
If it wasn't for his amazing goaltending this game is 5 or 6 goals against the Flames.
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Last edited by Stay Golden; 10-15-2014 at 09:38 PM.
I thought Backlund was unreal tonight.
He makes so many small, but important plays. He's always on the right side of the puck, and he has shown he can really hold onto the puck.
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Originally Posted by snipetype
k im just not going to respond to your #### anymore because i have better things to do like #### my model girlfriend rather then try to convince people like you of commonly held hockey knowledge.
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Games in which the Flames are badly outplayed for the vast majority of the game are games I consider them not deserving of a win.
Never said Hiller wasn't fantastic or that they didn't battle.
That's different from not being happy with the win, which I sure was. There will be games this season the Flames will deserve to win and won't, tonight was the opposite. Not a big deal.
I see this selling them short. They were in way over their head against one of the best teams in the league on the 2nd night of a back to back. They could have easilly went full Oiler and offered no pushback.
But they didn't. Even with them being out-played, there was a non stop hustle / compete. Blocking shots, everyone chipping in. That was a great road game that of course included stellar goaltending.
The Oilers had no business beating the Kings. With that effort, we had a little bit of business beating the Hawks.
Our Goalies might be strong enough to win us more of those record tieing 49 1 goal games last year. I think a healthy Backlund + a Brodie/Gio combo + Ramo and Hiller stealing some games = a chance that this team is more than a lottery pick team. I am reserving judgement for the first 20 games but if this team can tap into the energy it had after that Vancouver game and down the stretch last year we could see something awesome. This game was a huge bonding game though as I said in a previous post, the guys are going to come together after a game like that. I think we play a more structured game against CBJ on Friday much like Nashville, this game was a classic game we would lose last year especially early last year and we pulled out a win, great to see.
I think Byron is carving out a solid spot on the team for himself. 20 minutes almost tonight, chemistry with Backs, 3 clear cut breakaways in the last three games including two tonight. If this kid ever learns how to finish I think we have a legitimate offensive threat in him who can also be used in key defensive areas of the game like defensive zone starts, pk situations, OT situations. He is an exciting player to watch who is able to create. I really think Glenny is the wrong left winger for the Backs/Byron combo. They need a guy to really open up the front of the net and the slot.
This team is encouraging in the very least which is truly awesome after so much years of the same ole same ole.
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