[PGT] Oilers 7, Flames 4 -- Nadir

[Vinny01]

Excited to see how the team responds Friday. The game sucked but it wasn't anything to overly panic about. The main concern for me was Elliott but goalies have bad games and I expect him to rebound. i feel the top line struggled but Monahan missed a lot of camp with injury and Johnny with the holdout. The D pairings need to be revamped and if Gultzan wants a left-right pair then Gio or Brodie need to play with Dougie or reunite Brodano and have Kevin play with Dougie and play Kulak with Wideman or Engellend. Send Grossman to Stockton.

I really like our middle 6 lines and hope they stay together for a while.

I felt like the league wanted the Oilers to win last night. The TSN turning point for me was the blatant obvious no call on Johnny and the soft penalty shot call for McDavid. The game was 4-3 and the Flames should have had a power play instead itnis a goal against.

We will win on Friday book it

[shotinthebacklund]

any one know if the team is practicing today? one would think they need it but on same hand they are playing 3 in 4 nights

[polak]

Originally Posted by cannon7

All valid points, but lets not pretend that Gulutzan hasn't been coaching in the NHL for several years now and doesn't exactly have a great body of work to fall back on. I'm hoping Treliving knows something I don't, but the Grossman signing makes you wonder if they're seeing the same games as everyone else. If the decisions were logical, then it would be hard to argue despite the results.

It's been 1 game....

[burn_baby_burn]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

You are like the 2nd or 3rd poster to state this while ignoring the fact his turnovers were directly responsible for the first two Oilers goals. Just over a minute into the game his first turnover set the tone for a bad night and it was a turnover that simply can't happen in any level of junior or professional hockey as it's the first thing they teach defensemen to never throw the puck up the middle of the ice from deep in your own end. Two bad giveaways leading to goals is a lot of damage for only 11 minutes ice time and I don't hate the guy but he was garbage last night end of story.

Junior hockey? I would flip out if a player on my sons Atom team had a turnover like that.

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by polak

If Elliot plays like this all season and Johnson follows suit, it's not the goalies.

I think Elliot was just fighting the puck last night. Happens. Everyone is freaking out cause it's the first game. If he played fine last night and played like that on Friday the panic about his play wouldn't be any where near this level.

This is absolutely golden, coming from you.

100% sig worthy

[itsmagic]

Originally Posted by burn_baby_burn

Junior hockey? I would flip out if a player on my sons Atom team had a turnover like that.

Better start carrying blood pressure medication with you to your son's games then.

The players are kids just learning the game.

The referees are kids themselves; volunteers, not paid professionals, right?

I hope that you will not be one of the parents we often read about at these games.

That behaviour helps no one. Especially your son. Or you.

It is as effective as the coach, or fans, complaining about or screaming at the referees, no matter what league is involved, junior, NHL, or otherwise.

[Otto-matic]

Originally Posted by shotinthebacklund

any one know if the team is practicing today? one would think they need it but on same hand they are playing 3 in 4 nights

Pat Steinberg ‏@Fan960Steinberg 8s8 seconds ago
#Flames pairings are: Giordano-Brodie; Hamilton-Jokipakka; Wideman-Engelland; Kulak-Grossmann

[FBI]

Ok. Just finished reading all of the GT posts and haven't read the PGT yet but here are my takes:
It is so frustrating as a fan when we can all see obvious problems that aren't going to work, yet they are tried anyway.
Exhibit #1 signing Grossman. Boggles the mind.

Exhibit #2 scratching Jokkipakka in FAVOR of grossman. Are you Fing kidding me? Every single person and their mom knew this was a terrible decision and of course he sets the tone right away with the brutal give away. Kevin had a great preseason and World Cup, get him BACK on the ice and Grossman off the ice. Painfully obvious.

Exhibit #3 defense pairings. We all know this isn't going to work playing the slow crap players with our good fast players. Stop putting a square peg into a round hole.

The only small consolation I can see is maybe the staff will learn quickly and make all the proper changes quickly after that tire fire of a game.

Other observations: That non call against JG and resulting penalty shot for McD was a travesty and should be reviewed by the officiating supervisors.
Johnny: close, hopefully 1 game to get the cobwebs out.
Ferland: Start hitting man! WHere were the big hits?
BEnnett line: too fancy. Simplify.
Special teams: Looked pretty good.

We damn well better spank the Oilers at home and I better not see Kevin scratched for #8.

[Fischy13]

Nobody seems to be looking at the big picture here or reading the little nugget that BT mentioned in the press conference. He noted that they wouldn't be running with 8 dmen very long. Something is in the works, could very well be the team is showcasing someone. That would easily justify some of the dmen's TOI last night. There is always a bigger picture here when something doesn't make sense. Time to calm down and let this play out. Wideman for R Nash (retained salary)

[nemanja2306]

People need to chill, its one game.

Sent from my Tesla_SP3.1_Lite using Tapatalk

[automaton 3]

Originally Posted by Otto-matic

Pat Steinberg ‏@Fan960Steinberg 8s8 seconds ago
#Flames pairings are: Giordano-Brodie; Hamilton-Jokipakka; Wideman-Engelland; Kulak-Grossmann

Much better.

[polak]

Originally Posted by FBI

BEnnett line: too fancy. Simplify.

This.

Mainly Bennett. He had a few plays that clicked but his game was very reminiscent of last season. Just too many failed dekes.

[kyuss275]

Originally Posted by Fischy13

Nobody seems to be looking at the big picture here or reading the little nugget that BT mentioned in the press conference. He noted that they wouldn't be running with 8 dmen very long. Something is in the works, could very well be the team is showcasing someone. That would easily justify some of the dmen's TOI last night. There is always a bigger picture here when something doesn't make sense. Time to calm down and let this play out. Wideman for R Nash (retained salary)

meh to the " showcasing players" i hear so much on CP. Teams by now know what Wideman is. I doubt a couple of games is going to make teams line up for him. My guess is if there is no injuries on the backend in a couple of games then Kulak gets sent down.

[Travis Munroe]

4 pages after my post... the logic behind last nights d pairings which makes sense before the game(according to someone on the fan this morning)

Oilers had last change. Mclellan would have sent McDavid out against our 2nd or even 3rd pairing d men all night and roasted the flames. Putting 1 stud d man on each line was supposed to prevent this (it didn't).
Being at home with last change, Gio and Brodie will be back together where Gulutzan gets the final change.

I doubt we see the experiment of evening out the top and bottom guys but I feel it had just as good of a chance of working last night as it did completely failing.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Otto-matic

Pat Steinberg ‏@Fan960Steinberg 8s8 seconds ago
#Flames pairings are: Giordano-Brodie; Hamilton-Jokipakka; Wideman-Engelland; Kulak-Grossmann

Wait, I'm confused.

So, are we still trying to get Gultzen fired? Because I already ordered like 500 tshirts and one of those giant head signs, with his face crossed out andFIRED written on his forehead, i was gonna bring to the home opener...

[Travis Munroe]

I was pissed last night not seeing any emotion or yelling from our new coach at the bad calls. After having an evening to move on it dawned on me that some of the best coaches in the league are calm and rarely get fired up.
We are used to the heated coaches...give this guy and his coaching style a chance beyond 1 game.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

Isn't 4 goals on 41 shots pretty much the standard, if not slightly above? Just going by normal goalie save %. That's a .902%

Anyway, after absorbing the loss my takes are:

I thought each line had its moments. The top line got better as the game wore on, the TBB line pressured at times, Stajan and Chaisson were pretty good together and Backlund's line was fine.

Aside from Grossman and Elliott, there was no standout poor play. Bouma was a little too invisible for me. Monahan was a bit invisible, but he was trying to check McDavid all night. Wideman was better than I feared, Hamilton was OK. In fact, there were more players who played pretty well - Backlund, Frolik, Brouwer had good nights, Gaudreau was starting to play really well, Versteeg was pretty good.

Aside from correctable mistakes (playing Grossman) and bad nights from good players (Elliott), as well as the one horrific reffing sequence which turn the game on its head, the Flames would have won this game. So going forward, I'm not concerned with this one result.

I agree, though I thought Bouma's hits and play to set up the Chiasson goal earned him more than "invisible" status. He just didn't play very many minutes.

[automaton 3]

Originally Posted by Realtor 1

I doubt we see the experiment of evening out the top and bottom guys but I feel it had just as good of a chance of working last night as it did completely failing.

If this was the plan, it was a lousy one. It made all our D pairs bad. Doesn't explain dressing Grossman either (if speed is the issue why dress our least mobile guy?)

Not having last change is no excuse, change on the fly like every other team seems to manage (minus the Canucks I suppose).

[Travis Munroe]

Originally Posted by automaton 3

If this was the plan, it was a lousy one. It made all our D pairs bad. Doesn't explain dressing Grossman either (if speed is the issue why dress our least mobile guy?)

Not having last change is no excuse, change on the fly like every other team seems to manage (minus the Canucks I suppose).

They are talking on the fan again how this made sense in theory and how the flames actually did this same thing last year under Hartley.

I think this d pairing thing is being blown way out of proportion. If it was game 5 and it was still happening I could understand, not after 1.

[dino7c]

7 goals against

2 glaring giveaways
1 horrendous line change
1 phantom penalty shot
1 off refs skate
1 bounce off the end boards
1 EN

Shaky goal tending all around

It just wasn't their night