Rob Kerr said something before the first game that's stuck with me watching this team since then. He was worried that with the new coach and sloppy preseason and guys missing that the adjustment period would spill over to the regular season.
In particular he said "If guys are out there thinking in the middle of the play they're going to lose games. They have be reacting and make the right decisions but not thinking."
I don't think this team has stopped thinking on the ice once this season.
I keep reminding myself that the team looked worse at this time last season.
But then I look at the next 7 games remember how last season ended. If the team doesn't turn it around quick, we could very easily have 1 win in 12 games to start the season.
After watching it live tonight, all of my friends came away with the impression that we desperately, desperately need some sort of structured breakout and zone entry system.
We're able to hold the line a lot, which I liked. But the majority of our zone entries, just off eyeballing, was on dump ins. Even on the PP. And there were just a ridiculous amount of neutral zone turnovers.
I'm noticing that the forwards often recieve a breakout pass when they're on our side of the neutral zone. Wasn't the plan supposed to be that you hit a forward picking up speed before he makes it out of the d-zone? The whole idea behind forward puck support moving it out of the zone?
I don't know if it was part of the plan or whether it was Hartley's old remnants creeping back in, but I noticed a lot of that tonight. And I really despised how little speed we had breaking over center ice. Only Johnny ever seemed to have the speed to make the defence back off.
Everyone else either got stymied at around the faceoff circles along the boards and had to either 1.) Chip it deep (and we often got beat on the puck battles) or 2.) Feed it back to the blueline (but eventually Carolina put another backchecker along the wall and that got stuffed more often than not too) which made several players resort to 3.) Blindly whip a cross-ice pass that usually got poked away.
No in-game adjustments. I mean I had a few beers in me, but I did not see a single bit of adjustment between periods, which really left my faith in Gulutzan shaken. Great, he can key in on a between-game basis - but he's getting outcoached during the actual games themselves.
Also, fire Cameron.
FIRE HIM NOW!!!!!!!
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I didnt watch the game. I had to work so I pvr'd it. From the comments i' ve seen here i may just delete it instead. Wow and to think that we had to really struggle and try to fit this team under the salary cap. How many games until something drastic happens.
I think the first period was a good indication of GG's system. There was a period of play where Carolina couldn't touch the puck. Flames possession was impressive and received a standing O. That kind of play only works with 100% compete level, which fell off. Maybe it's not sustainable? Not too sure. That said, it was all very low percentage shots and the players seemed more concerned with keeping possession than making offensive plays. Maybe that will come with time though, and it might pay off...
Last year we were sucking in October because our goaltending sucked and I had hope it would come around. This year we suck because our team outright sucks. Not looking good and nothing to suggest it will improve to date.
What happened with the PP? It was so good last year (well, at least halfway through the season, it was really good!). It somehow broke-down again.
It is difficult to keep the faith in a new coach when the wins aren't coming along, and the team as a whole looks dysfunctional. I have been telling myself to be patient and not judge this team too much until the 20 game mark, but these losses are making it more difficult.
Flames are going to have a tough go coming up playing some very good teams. Silver lining is that some of these teams aren't firing on all cylinders either.
Ferland looks better. That is a good 3 or 4 games now that he looked decent.
Backlund-Frolik - great.
Engelland - time to re-sign this guy - he seems to be the only steadying presence back there right now, and I think he makes for a good partner for the young up and coming offensive-minded D-prospects in the pipe.
Rest of the team - dysfunctional. They just keep turning over the puck. Constantly. It looks like they aren't skating so hard either - they look kind of slow, though that may be bias on my end at the moment, or just a result of over-thinking.
Oh well, onto the next game. Hope more stuff is figured out by then.
After watching it live tonight, all of my friends came away with the impression that we desperately, desperately need some sort of structured breakout and zone entry system.
We're able to hold the line a lot, which I liked. But the majority of our zone entries, just off eyeballing, was on dump ins. Even on the PP. And there were just a ridiculous amount of neutral zone turnovers.
I'm noticing that the forwards often recieve a breakout pass when they're on our side of the neutral zone. Wasn't the plan supposed to be that you hit a forward picking up speed before he makes it out of the d-zone? The whole idea behind forward puck support moving it out of the zone?
I don't know if it was part of the plan or whether it was Hartley's old remnants creeping back in, but I noticed a lot of that tonight. And I really despised how little speed we had breaking over center ice. Only Johnny ever seemed to have the speed to make the defence back off.
Everyone else either got stymied at around the faceoff circles along the boards and had to either 1.) Chip it deep (and we often got beat on the puck battles) or 2.) Feed it back to the blueline (but eventually Carolina put another backchecker along the wall and that got stuffed more often than not too) which made several players resort to 3.) Blindly whip a cross-ice pass that usually got poked away.
No in-game adjustments. I mean I had a few beers in me, but I did not see a single bit of adjustment between periods, which really left my faith in Gulutzan shaken. Great, he can key in on a between-game basis - but he's getting outcoached during the actual games themselves.
Also, fire Cameron.
FIRE HIM NOW!!!!!!!
YES!!!! He should not have been hired in the first place.
Idea for next game. Versteeg out, Wideman in. Wideman only plays powerplay, roll 3 lines rotating guys on the top line right wing, or double shifting johnny and someone else on the 4th line. Try to get more flow for the forwards.
What has struck me is the sluggishness in puck battles. Everyone's oddly dull out there in general. I don't know what deeper problem that indicates but it certainly contributes to bad PP and lack of sustained possession.
Maybe they just weren't ready to play and are now struggling to get themselves sharp enough for the season. That's the simplest explanation I can come up with.
I think all NHL teams have a pretty similar idea about how they want to play. Coaching is getting the team to execute it, not so much coming up with new ideas. For some reason the Flames appear to need more time than they should have.
Just home now from the game. It was terribly sloppy with no team play, nobody seemed to have a place or know where to be.
Lots of flailing and winging it.
The two 5-3 definitely did us in against this team. Some of the penalties were ridiculous; but the above was our downfall.
I've been to every home game so far and I would have to say that this team has no lustre or formation as it appeared to in previous seasons. Even if we lost I could say I watched a good hockey game. These starting games there is no pickup, sense of urgency and mostly a system.
I also agree the coach is being out coached during the game.
