Johnny has lost that sweet breakaway deke mojo. Feels like it's been so long since he's put away a nice deke in game or during the shootouts.
And someone with pvr and other angles can correct me, but seems tough to call that OT breakaway a 2 on 0. Monahan was well behind, plus it looked like a penguin had caught up with him enough to harass him. So not really a 2 on 0 from what I could gather, unless Gaudreau wants to make a drop pass.
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Flames were lucky not to lose in the last 3 minutes of regulation. hopeless combination of give aways and failure to get the puck deep. Oh and Frolik was lucky not to get called when he took down Crosby in the last minute who was dancing in to roof it on Gilles.
You get the sense this team knows it can't make it with Gilles. Turn the lights out.
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Gillies is so far from ready it's not even funny. One would think watching him in the AHL would have demonstrated that to any Flames personnel that saw him play.
The Lack fiasco, and failing to get a legit backup at the deadline should combine with the Hamonic disaster to cost Trelieving his job.
They have a backup. They don't have a backup who is ready to be called upon when the number one goes down for an extended period of time. There's a huge different from playing once every 8 games to being called upon to be the number one.
First argument I would hear to that would be "its the backups responsibility to be the number one when the real one goes down". And to that I call BS. Rittich wasn't called up to start 10 games in a row. That's not the role of a backup.
It's on management to see that there's a long term problem and come up with the best solution. Flames had so much uncertainty around Smith's injury, they didn't pull the trigger on a deal leaving Rittich there to fill the gap. He clearly can't but that's not because he's not a good backup. It's because he's not a starting goalie yet. Will he be? Not sure. But I do believe in a backup role, he provided everything you could want in a backup.
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Good effort by the Flames against one of the best home teams in the league. I was worried about the fragility of the players hearing them go down 2-0 on the drive home but great push back to tie it up. Good coaching on this game, able to keep the guys motivated and lots of push back after giving up goals. A couple boneheaded mistakes back and Smith in net and this is a win.
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They have a backup. They don't have a backup who is ready to be called upon when the number one goes down for an extended period of time. There's a huge different from playing once every 8 games to being called upon to be the number one.
First argument I would hear to that would be "its the backups responsibility to be the number one when the real one goes down". And to that I call BS. Rittich wasn't called up to start 10 games in a row. That's not the role of a backup.
It's on management to see that there's a long term problem and come up with the best solution. Flames had so much uncertainty around Smith's injury, they didn't pull the trigger on a deal leaving Rittich there to fill the gap. He clearly can't but that's not because he's not a good backup. It's because he's not a starting goalie yet. Will he be? Not sure. But I do believe in a backup role, he provided everything you could want in a backup.
Not to mention Hamonic was not brought in to score goals. Stupid take is stupid I suppose.
Hmm thought he was brought in to improve the team... the team is worse.
Thought we were supposed to trust the process, but they continue to try and rush it. Hopefully they don’t trade another first in the off season, unless you don’t care about the future of the team.
Good effort by the Flames against one of the best home teams in the league. I was worried about the fragility of the players hearing them go down 2-0 on the drive home but great push back to tie it up. Good coaching on this game, able to keep the guys motivated and lots of push back after giving up goals. A couple boneheaded mistakes back and Smith in net and this is a win.
Good coaching and GG doesn't not go together in a sentence. Brouwer scores a tap in goal, and off a sudden he's bumped up to the first line? Screwing up the chemistry for the first line, they had basically zero zone time since he got added onto the line.
Putting Gillies in was a mistake, he's looked shaky every game. How close was he letting in a goal from 200 ft, every game he's been in he's been either let in a basic shot, or has lost the puck behind him and has zero reaction to it. This season is done.
My take on Gillies. Makes some saves because of his size. He also forces shooter to pick corners because of the amount of net he covers. However, he plays small and on his knees a lot which leaver the top of the net open. He seems to make decent saves with his legs. He does not track the puck. It reminds me of how Elliott played in the playoffs...every shot looks dangerous.
I was going to make a prediction after he last game that Gillies was not going to see another game this year thinking Rittich would play all games until Smith came back. But then I remembered who the coach is.
However, now I feel he is done for games in the NHL this season. Winning comes from timely scoring and timely goaltending. I give full credit to the team fighting back... But let's be honest....Hiller wouldn't have lost this game.
