[PGT] Flames fall apart again ... Lose 5-2 to the Avs

[Toonage]

Originally Posted by Ryan Coke

The goaltending hasn’t been awesome. Having said that, the inconsistent play and .500 results have been there all year, even with Smith playing great.

The team wasn’t getting consistent results when everyone was healthy, but now we’re going to say it’s the goaltending?

The second goal last night was the one Rittich should have had, but we lost plenty of games like this with Smith in net as well, when he either let in a soft goal or played lights out.

At this point in the season, Smith back in the net may be the only thing that can give this group the bump it needs.

[zamler]

Flames scored 2 goals in 2 games and people are blaming goaltending.

[joejoe3]

Without Johnny the last 10min also shows why he is one of the two MVPs on this team.

[Monahammer]

Gillies put up a .927 in his game. Definitely Rittich should catch some of the blame for tonight but Gillies has been solid.

On the other hand, far more to blame than Rittich is our ridiculous coaching/ utilization of players, and general lack of motivation by said players when they should be pretty motivated.

[madmike]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

Gillies > Rittich

They've been relatively equal in the AHL. They've both had stretches where they've played great, but neither has been consistently amazing.

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by zamler

Flames scored 2 goals in 2 games and people are blaming goaltending.

Nah. I think it's safe to say there is a lack of talent at every position

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by madmike

They've been relatively equal in the AHL. They've both had stretches where they've played great, but neither has been consistently amazing.

In the NHL, Gillies has done nothing but impress - whereas I'd say Rittich has been more consistently impressive in the AHL.

Gillies this year is 2-1-0, 1.67GAA, .946 S % in 3 starts. Last year, 1-0-0 with a 1.00 GAA and a .964 S %.

I mean, 4 games is 4 games - but you can't ask for anything better than that from a young goalie through his first 4 starts in the league.

But yeah, we shouldn't be hanging Rittich out to dry last night. He played great in the 1st, had a rough 2nd, and played solid in the 3rd. It wasn't his fault we lost, and he's a young goalie. An edge I'd give to Gillies over Rittich right now is Gillies seems to bounce back from a goal against a bit stronger than Rittich does.

[Buff]

Originally Posted by zamler

Flames scored 2 goals in 2 games and people are blaming goaltending.

Goaltending isn't at fault, but when an aspect of the team is struggling you need other aspects to be stronger. Right now a weak goal against is not going to help the team's composure and we saw a very weak goal against last night.

[tkflames]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

Nah. I think it's safe to say there is a lack of talent at every position

Not a lack of talent - a lack of bringing out the talent in players. This is the time of the year where you shorten the bench to get in and ride your horses and put your players in a position to succeed. A team like Pittsburgh or Tampa Bay can rest their core guys at this time of year. We cannot, we are still a bubble team.

This team is worse than the sum of its parts and until that changes, this team will continue to be inconsistent.

[Buff]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

In the NHL, Gillies has done nothing but impress - whereas I'd say Rittich has been more consistently impressive in the AHL.

Gillies this year is 2-1-0, 1.67GAA, .946 S % in 3 starts. Last year, 1-0-0 with a 1.00 GAA and a .964 S %.

I mean, 4 games is 4 games - but you can't ask for anything better than that from a young goalie through his first 4 starts in the league.

He shows promise. He doesn't always look like a composed veteran, but he's showing promise and that's a good thing.

[bubbsy]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Sharks are .500 without Thornton

well credit them for building up the cushion while they were healthy so that they can withstand such circumstances.

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by Buff

He shows promise. He doesn't always look like a composed veteran, but he's showing promise and that's a good thing.

His composure impresses me. He's made a mistake or two, but he bounces back. That's a good sign.

He's definitely not a composed veteran though - because he's not a veteran.

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by zamler

Which of these games do you think the Flames will win.

vs NY Rangers
@ Pittsburgh
@ Buffalo
@ Ottawa
vs NY Islanders
vs Edmonton

I think people expecting the Flames to win five out of six of these games are out of touch with the parity in this league. Any team can beat anyone on any night. There are no automatic wins in this league.

The Flames haven't beaten the Oilers for two seasons now. Flames lost to the Rangers a few weeks ago. I don't think you can assume the Flames will go on a string of wins here since they've been consistent in showing they're not consistent in winning. If they were playing like Vegas and Preds, then it would be fair to imagine they would win 5 out of those 6 games. They probably would've won last night then since that technically should've been a game they should've won since it was against a non playoff team.

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by tkflames

Not a lack of talent - a lack of bringing out the talent in players. This is the time of the year where you shorten the bench to get in and ride your horses and put your players in a position to succeed. A team like Pittsburgh or Tampa Bay can rest their core guys at this time of year. We cannot, we are still a bubble team.

This team is worse than the sum of its parts and until that changes, this team will continue to be inconsistent.

It's definitely a lack of talent.

[The Boy Wonder]

Originally Posted by Buff

Goaltending isn't at fault, but when an aspect of the team is struggling you need other aspects to be stronger. Right now a weak goal against is not going to help the team's composure and we saw a very weak goal against last night.

It’s all kinda pointing back to frolik screwing up the Vegas game and that meltdown. Those aren’t the kind of losses that you recover from quickly and it’s almost like they have communal ptsd from that game and losing in the last 2 mins of regulation.

It was one of the worst losses in franchise history in terms of the total level of collapse and sometimes that gets into s teams head.

I just think that was the game where the lack of mental fortitude first really showed itself and teams have been preying on it since.


Maybe they all need to go out to Banff, get real banged up drunk and then play guilty and just let it all go.

They need to play loose and not dwell on errors

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

Nah. I think it's safe to say there is a lack of talent at every position

I disagree, I think we have ample talent on D we're just using it wrong.

In net we could use a better backup while the other two grow more, but I'm pretty confident Gillies can turn out at this level. Smith has been fantastic in the mean time.

At forward we are absolutely short at least 2 top-6 worth talents, and that's if you believe Bennett is already a top 6 level talent which I do not.
On a cup strength team:
Gaudreau-Monahan-Tkachuk- Top 6 Talents

Bennett- Potential to be top 6 Talent, but not consistent enough

Backlund-Frolik-Jankowski-Ferland - Top 9 talent

Brouwer-Versteeg- Shore(?) - bottom 6 talent

Hathaway-lazar-mangiapane-stewart-Stajan- tweeners

We really need a top 6 centre IMO. If backlund is on our third line we are in a great place. No slight to backlund at all, we just need a higher producing offensive centre and a second offensive line to go with our #1 line and our shutdown line. Another top 6 centre (a la Turris, the rumored target from earlier in the year) gives us a lot more balanced attack.

Gaudreau-Monahan-Ferland/Bennett
Tkachuk- Centre - Ferland/Bennett
Jankowski-Backlund-Frolik

You can rotate Janko-ferland-bennett to fill. Bennett's failure to develop as a centre really holds this team back.

[Buff]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

His composure impresses me. He's made a mistake or two, but he bounces back. That's a good sign.

He's definitely not a composed veteran though - because he's not a veteran.

I think how he bounces back is great. As for composure, I was referring to the mistakes. He has moments, and not many of them, but moments where he looks like a fish out of water but he recovers and does good after that. Like you said, he's a rookie, you can expect that. He shows good promise.

[Otto-matic]

Flames fan being embarrassing on Twitter.
https://www.gofundme.com/help-the-fl...t-troy-brouwer

Starts a go-fund me to get the Flames to buyout Browuer.

[dirk diggler]

Originally Posted by Ryan Coke

The goaltending hasn’t been awesome. Having said that, the inconsistent play and .500 results have been there all year, even with Smith playing great.

The team wasn’t getting consistent results when everyone was healthy, but now we’re going to say it’s the goaltending?

The second goal last night was the one Rittich should have had, but we lost plenty of games like this with Smith in net as well, when he either let in a soft goal or played lights out.

This vaunted d core has been awful most of the year, how many easy games has Smith had this year. People were comparing this core to teams like Nashville? not even close. Even with Carey Price of a couple years ago, this team still struggles to make the playoffs. lots of weakness in the lineup

[OldSam]

Derek Wills eviscerating the referees on the Fan. Not the reason they lost but some of worst work he has seen.