[PGT] Flames Fall To The Ducks 3-2

[AltaGuy]

I honestly think that a third pairing of Smith and Breen would be better than SOB and Butler. Not sure whether Breen is in game shape yet, but I would love to see him sooner than later.

The worrisome thing to me right now is that if one of our top 4 gets banged up, we will see one of that awful bottom pairing given more minutes (likely Butler). Hopefully Smith or Breen see some action soon.

[heep223]

Originally Posted by cowtown75

Forget Butler and Jackman, Brodie played an absolute brutal game- my god.

Love the guy but I agree, he was horrible tonight.

[GreenLantern2814]

This is likely the first of Many similar losses throughout the year. They'll keep teams honest but they aren't finishers yet.

Brodie had a rough night. Played the Penner goal decent, but a world class player made a great pass. He'll learn and adjust.

He'll also learn he can't skate everything into the zone. The selanne goal was a kid doing too much. That puck needs to get deep. But it's okay. Growing pains.

[blankall]

A lot of posters here are understimating the Ducks. They are contenders. We played them at home, where we always lose.

Yes our D got lit up a few times, but the Ducks have a fast and dynamic offence. They light up defences all the time.

Very good effort tonight. The 2011-13 Flames would have given up entirely after being down 3-1. We would have seen 5 minutes of too little too late effort at the end of the third. Extremely impressed with the way the team responded in the 3rd. The Ducks gave up more shots than on any other night this season. Fasth held them in there.

As for Joey Mac. He bobbled a few rebounds. He should have maybe had that second one. Other than that, he was great. Made some big saves. Played well enough to give the team a chance. No he's not flashy like Kipper.

I will agree that Butler was awful. Definitely time to make a call up. I'd keep SOB around though. A large part of the Flames current success is due to the fact they are making themselves difficult to play against through their depth. We have some soft players up front and need the extra grit a player like SOB has to counter-balance that.

[ComixZone]

The two big things I took away from last night were Colborne and Baertschi's games.

Sven, as TSN pointed out, is effectively playing Centre on defense - and doing a pretty darn good job. It's a good way to ease Monahan in and also help Sven develop his two way game. Good development, good coaching.

Colborne, for the first time as a Flame (and likely in his young NHL career), really started to show what he can bring. He made a number of great plays and used his reach and size to his advantage. He was aggressive, and I'm really excited to see if he can do it again in San Jose - because Jumbo Joe will be a handful.

[Kaine]

Originally Posted by JobHopper

Anaheim capitalized on 2 Flames turnovers by Chris Butler & T.J. Brodie. But Anaheim is a good team, any other team and one of those won’t have been a goal. I thought the Flames actually played pretty good. Good game by the veterans.
You have to think that this is going to be it for Tim Jackman after that penalty and game misconduct. The other guy that needs to be traded as well is Mikael Backlund. I’ll be surpised if he’s still a Flame by the end of the year. He’s a player that needs to be putting up points. You can’t rely on Baetrschi and Monohan every night.
Curtis Glencross and Ben Street both -3 . Glenny needs to go as well, time for a change for him.
Good effort by the Flames though, MacDonald made some good saves. Good games by Hudler, Wideman, Russel, to name a few and Stemptniak as well.
Russel with more ice time than Brodie tonight.
Monahan with a better face off % than Glencross and Backland.

Good game though. I have to give Jay Feaster some credit too, good mixture of veterans and younger players. Couple more little tweaks and this team will be pretty good.

Are you on glue? He has quietly been the best, most consistent Flame so far this season. Sure we'd love it if he put up major points, but I think most of us realize Backlund is going to be a great 30-40 point 2 way center rather than another "failed top line center" incapable of putting up a PPG.

Give your head a shake.

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by Kaine

Are you on glue? He has quietly been the best, most consistent Flame so far this season. Sure we'd love it if he put up major points, but I think most of us realize Backlund is going to be a great 30-40 point 2 way center rather than another "failed top line center" incapable of putting up a PPG.

Give your head a shake.

Agreed.

1st Line Centre: ? or Monahan
2nd Line Centre: Monahan or ?
3rd Line Centre: Backlund

Having a good 3rd line centre is important in this league. With how Backlund is continuing to develop, why would we want to move him?

[JobHopper]

Originally Posted by Kaine

Are you on glue? He has quietly been the best, most consistent Flame so far this season. Sure we'd love it if he put up major points, but I think most of us realize Backlund is going to be a great 30-40 point 2 way center rather than another "failed top line center" incapable of putting up a PPG.

Give your head a shake.

So you think you're right then? Fine but I disagree and the stats don't lie. Last night he was top 6 in ice time and had 5 shots and 2 hits. Currently he's 70 amongst league centers and last season was around 90th. Hot/cold player that gets hurt when he actually gets involved.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Originally Posted by JobHopper

Hot/cold player that gets hurt when he actually gets involved.

He's been involved all season so far and isn't hurt.

Not sure what the problem is with Backlund, he looks like he's taken a step forward, he's been playing well in all 3 zones. He's the least of any problems they may have...........besides, it's not about this year anyway. This team is building towards something in a few years, and if Backlund keeps improving he will be a huge part of the team when it does start to compete again. You certainly don't trade a player like him right now just because he isn't lighting it up.

[Huntingwhale]

Fun game to watch. You just knew the honeymoon would be over once the team played in Anaheim.

-Terrible game by Butler. No need to elaborate.
-Colborne played well and was noticable for once. Hopefully he keeps gaining confidence moving forwards.
-Joey Mac played decent. But IMO time for Ramo to show his stuff.

The team played with energy and and passion. I never really felt they were out of the game at any point. Definitely the better of both teams and they deserved the win. That's all I ask for from them. But hard to pull of a win in Anaheim, especially with Teemu still playing. I predict that we will never win another game in Anaheim until he retires.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

He's been involved all season so far and isn't hurt.

Not sure what the problem is with Backlund, he looks like he's taken a step forward, he's been playing well in all 3 zones. He's the least of any problems they may have...........besides, it's not about this year anyway. This team is building towards something in a few years, and if Backlund keeps improving he will be a huge part of the team when it does start to compete again. You certainly don't trade a player like him right now just because he isn't lighting it up.

I wonder what people think the return for Backlund would be? His upside is likely to exceed his return at this point.

[strombad]

Originally Posted by JobHopper

So you think you're right then? Fine but I disagree and the stats don't lie. Last night he was top 6 in ice time and had 5 shots and 2 hits. Currently he's 70 amongst league centers and last season was around 90th. Hot/cold player that gets hurt when he actually gets involved.

Bah, you on the cheeba?
Backlund is a solid third line center, how many 3rd line centers are in the top 60 (of whatever stat you were going by) in the league? Just because he plays top 6 on our team doesn't mean he has the talent to put up top 6 offensive numbers.

The guy is golden, the perfect puzzle piece kind of player that you need to win championships. He's not flashy, but he's solid. If he could improve those face offs he'd perfect.

If you think he should be putting up big points, then I question if you actually watch him play at all. That's not the kind of player he is.

Lets expect Hudler to be our top shutdown forward while we're at it, or O'Brien to pot 60 points this year! Points for everyone!

[codynw]

Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle

I know I'll get ripped to pieces for this, but with all this talk about goaltending, I have to say that's one area I don't think we've taken a step back on this season in comparison to last, maybe even the last two seasons. We are getting very average goaltending, which is what we got out of Mikka the last couple of seasons, or certainly last year. Don't get me wrong, huge downgrade over what this team had with Mikka for most of his career, but I don't actually think the team is dealing with average at best tending for the first time this season, that transition happens a couple of years back.

You're right, 35 wins, 2.35 GAA and .921 sv% are totally average at best.

Last season Kiprusoff definitely didn't put up very good numbers, but pretty much every other year before that he was solid.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Why is Glencross taking faceoffs on the PP? Ugh

[Five-hole]

If there's such a thing as a good loss, that was it.

[868904]

Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher

Why is Glencross taking faceoffs on the PP? Ugh

Agreed, that is really really dumb. I get that Hartley wants his best players out there, but winning the faceoff is key at the start of a powerplay.

There are 3 natural centres on the roster (Backlund, Monahan, and Colbourne), all of whom are skilled enough to play on the PP, there's no reason that one of them is not out there.

If he wants a big body to screen the goalie, Colbourne is a much bigger presence than Glencross. Glencross is okay at deflections, but he's not Joe Nieuwendyk. The drop off from Glencross to a Colbourne in front of the net is not that big.

Win the faceoff, get some momentum, and then change on the fly when the zone gets cleared. To not take advantage of an offensive zone faceoff is stupid.

[the2bears]

Originally Posted by JobHopper

Anaheim capitalized on 2 Flames turnovers by Chris Butler & T.J. Brodie. But Anaheim is a good team, any other team and one of those won’t have been a goal. I thought the Flames actually played pretty good. Good game by the veterans.
You have to think that this is going to be it for Tim Jackman after that penalty and game misconduct. The other guy that needs to be traded as well is Mikael Backlund. I’ll be surpised if he’s still a Flame by the end of the year. He’s a player that needs to be putting up points. You can’t rely on Baetrschi and Monohan every night.
Curtis Glencross and Ben Street both -3 . Glenny needs to go as well, time for a change for him.
Good effort by the Flames though, MacDonald made some good saves. Good games by Hudler, Wideman, Russel, to name a few and Stemptniak as well.
Russel with more ice time than Brodie tonight.
Monahan with a better face off % than Glencross and Backland.

Good game though. I have to give Jay Feaster some credit too, good mixture of veterans and younger players. Couple more little tweaks and this team will be pretty good.

Who ru Job H'opper?

[davidbjordan]

Originally Posted by Five-hole

If there's such a thing as a good loss, that was it.

In all fairness to Hartley, our natural centres were exactly winning a lot of offensive zone faceoffs on the powerplay.

interesting game, 3rd period was a great effort, seeing colborne getting non-4th line minutes gives a hint that he could be better than a steckel (who couldn't be) with effort and work on his skills.

and Lee Stempniak's effort has been great this year (aside from him losing penner)

[stemit14]

Good game by the flames... Some bad turnovers that a team like the ducks lives on but they outplayed them and out chanced them. People can look at the losing streak in Anaheim and think the flames play bad there but I've watched all of those games over the years and there have been so many that the flames deserved to win but they lost. It's a strange losing streak no doubt and it's impossible to explain.

Hope the flames come out swinging against San Jose. GFG!

[Where ru Chris O'Sullivan]

Originally Posted by Kaine

Are you on glue? He has quietly been the best, most consistent Flame so far this season. Sure we'd love it if he put up major points, but I think most of us realize Backlund is going to be a great 30-40 point 2 way center rather than another "failed top line center" incapable of putting up a PPG.

Give your head a shake.

I know Backlund is the GodSon of CP, but my "god" man....major points? how about "some" points? Or, win an actual important face-off.

he's getting his 21 minutes by default, he has to start producing. 25 years old in March, the "young" tag is wearing out!