1) Smith was amazing! If that's what he's going to do game in and game out, the team is in really good shape.
2) I thought the fourth line played really well. They were definitely better than the opposition and provided some much needed jump.
3) Bottom pairing was good. Definitely better than last year. Not sure if Kulak is an improvement over Bart, time will tell.
Negatives:
1) Where the hell was the top line? Those guys need to figure out how to play on the road. Johnny was invisible.
2) Brodie. How do you lose track of the top player on the planet for a goal against?
3) Third line. I don't know if Brouwer is that terrible to make the line look bad, or if the line is just bad. They spend too much time getting pinned in their own zone. Couldn't break into the Oilers zone at all and generally were a hot mess. They did seem to be up against McJesus a fair bit, but that's life without last change.
__________________ It's only game. Why you heff to be mad?
How do you defend against McDavid? How did the Flames defend against Gretzky in the 80's? They went to war against 99. They physically, mentally, and verbally abused him on the ice. They didn't let him have a comfortable shift at all. Neil Sheehy was always in his face and if he wasn't then Jim Peplinski or Tim Hunter or Doug Risebrough were.
Gretzky still got his points, but he earned it and the Flames were competitive. The 80's Flames were a hell of a lot more competitive against the 80's Oilers than the current Flames are against McDavid's Oilers.
Sam Bennett needs to put aside his friendship with McDavid and turn himself into McDavid's worst nightmare. He needs to get personal, he needs to bully him, he needs McDavid to hate him. They can't be buddies. Be buddies after you retire. You want to beat him, get mean. Get McDavid rattled, his goons will come after you and take penalties. McDavid will start whining like and his focus will deviate.
Flames need to go to war with McDavid and stop being awe-struck by him. He might be the greatest player ever but you can't just sit there and let him make you his bitch.
That's what the Ducks did in the playoffs last year and they shut him down. Flames have to do this every game to him, pre-season, regular season, all star game, playoffs.
We need to get you into that locker room for 5 minutes. That was on point.
There shouldn't be the same respect for him on the ice as there is in front of the cameras from these guys. Every 20 year old kid has their pressure points. Figure out what throws him off and exploit it.
Didn't Kesler shadow McD constantly during their play-off run last year?
Kesler is not that fast of a skater but he took Connor out pretty effectively.
I thought this would have been most teams fall back if their "systems" fell apart.
It could also have been that McD was so tired at that time compared to first game of this year with energy to spare.
McDavid is unreal man. This is going to be a repeat of the 80's
Treliving needs to be like Fletcher where he needs to find a way to beat the Oilers, in addition the to Ducks and the other top 6 Western Conference teams. Cripes, if the Flames continue to look this bad for the next 10 games or so to start the season, it's gonna be a long crappy one. That was piss-poor performance from everyone except Smith.
Originally Posted by 868904 View Post
How do you defend against McDavid? How did the Flames defend against Gretzky in the 80's? They went to war against 99. They physically, mentally, and verbally abused him on the ice. They didn't let him have a comfortable shift at all. Neil Sheehy was always in his face and if he wasn't then Jim Peplinski or Tim Hunter or Doug Risebrough were.
I agree, they should take one of they young guys, have it Brodie, Janko, Takchuk, anyone big and fast we have in the system, Bennett might actually be the best option but, take one or two of these players and just train them hard on shadowing one fast player. What I would do is give Johhny the puck and have which ever player just pick at him and attack him all over the ice. We need someone to take on McCap, hit him hard and get in his face. Make him hate us because he knows every time he steps on the ice, the next player on is Bennett and he won't let him touch that puck in peace. For this type of play a Tkachuk-Bennet-Versteeg would be the lines I use. So when we touch McCap and all the goons come chasing us we have some grit to fight back.
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On the second goal, however, McDavid topped out at 40.9 kilometers an hour. That’s 37.3 feet per second. Now on this one, McDavid stayed in a straight line and pushed the puck up the ice so he could skate without handling it. McDavid hit 40.9 kilometers an hour right before he got to the net AND THEN STOPPED INSTANTLY to deposit the puck past Smith. You can get whiplash if your car goes from 40 to 0 that quickly. As has been mentioned many times online, you can get a speeding ticket in a school zone for travelling 40 kilometers an hour.
Unprecedented. He's a sport changing player.
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I'm not sure that would work. Backlund can't skate with him. I think you have to tear a page out of the Gretzky playbook and match him up with a defenseman whose job it is to lay a hit or a stick on him every time he comes up the ice. Go full Neil Sheehy on him. I would say use Brodie, because he has the skating ability to keep up with him, but Brodie is Mr. Pylon right now. Maybe go with a double team, and have the center (regardless of which line) hold him up through the zone and force him to the boards, then have Hamonic/Stone lay the body on him at the blueline. McDavid tends to disappear when the physicality picks up.
In an alternate universe...
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Maybe go with a double team, and have the center (regardless of which line) hold him up through the zone and force him to the boards, then have Hamonic/Stone lay the body on him at the blueline. McDavid tends to disappear when the physicality picks up.
Yes!!! This brings back memories of how the Flames used to play Brett Hull, hit him hard and early. He'll disappear the rest of the game.
Brodie was excellent on the left side playing with Engelland, rather than Giordano. His struggles started when Gulutzan came in however it is not so much about playing on the left side, but rather the overall system. Brodie in Gulutzan system looks like Bouwmeester in Sutter's system and it goes way beyond playing on the left side or playing without Giordano.
Also the stat of Backlund shutting down McDavid in the limited time GG managed to get Backlund on the ice against McDavid shows that we need another defensive center, who can contain him. So that we would always have a top defensive center on McDavid even if Oilers have the last change. If there was no McDavid, our centers group could be the last of our worries, but he is there and the only way to beat Oilers in playoffs is to have at least two centers who can stop him. Like in 2004 we had Conroy AND Yelle so we could always have Selke caliber center against ops top line. If that means moving Jankowski, Bennett or even Monahan, so be it.
Last edited by Pointman; 10-05-2017 at 10:15 PM.
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Regehr would take Hemsky hard into the end boards. CGY needs to do the same thing, grab hold and run him hard into the boards. He needs to pay a harsh physical price. It needs to be relentless.
