[PGT] Canucks 5 Flames 2. Oh no! We suck again!

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

It's just one game and yes Peters could not solve the opening night woes but this is an issue that goes back several coaches. I think players that have been around for all these bad openers like Gio, Monahan, Gaudreau, Brodie, and Backlund need to look in the mirror as none of them brought their A-game last night. Locker room leadership has been poor for this core of players and last night was more of the same.

Most concerning to me is that once again a Flames goaltender was badly outplayed by the opposition netminder. Mike Smith has not been a very good NHL goaltender since January of last season. I'm not blaming him solely for this loss as he made some good saves early but over the course of the game he leaked goals and this team will go nowhere if the best goaltender on the ice is on the other side of the ice most nights like last season.

What goal was on Smith though?

I get it that Markstrom made more saves, and certainly had the bounces, but Smith had no chance on the first three, and the fourth one was a breakaway.

If Smith wasn't as solid as he was in the game's first 30 minutes that one could have gotten away sooner.

[Scornfire]

I can't even fkin believe they were trying that 2 line drop pass break-in AGAIN this year. Yep, let's have 4 guys not even ####ing moving just waiting at their blueline /eyeroll

[Huntingwhale]

The games sucked but I still enjoy reading the overreactions after loses, especially after game #1.

But of all the whiny overreactions, this has got to be my favorite

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

- Bennett's career is over.

Classic

[Robbob]

When are people going to stop bitching about the drop pass on the power play. Every. Team. Uses. It.

The whole point is you get a guy at full speed vs 4 near stationary players. There is a reason why everyone uses it.

The issues with the PP are when they get in the zone.

[Bingo]

To me the powerplay was a display of forcing it.

They're not comfortable and because of that they've made up their minds what they're going to do with the puck as they get it, instead of looking to see what they're given. You have to play the game you're given, not the one you imagine from practice.

Czarnik to Neal in the corner all night was a perfect example of "I've got the puck and I see you and I'm looking at you and as soon as that Canuck stick moves I'm going to give it to you and then I think you might give it back to me so I'll just stand here and maybe give it back to you again"

Telegraphed.

[Stay Golden]

Smith made the simple saves but when tested failed to make the save.
Zero for 7 PP couldn't be a worse result, it sure looked like the exact same predictable slow PP as last season.
Putting Neal on the 3rd line was flat out dumb.
Neal with Backlund and Tkachuk on the second line seems to be the smartest placement.
Why do we have coaches that hammer square pegs into round holes and insist they fit. Peter's finally put him on 2nd line in the 3rd.
Lindholm was terrible team high -4 lazy in the Flames own end often on PP didnt seem to know what he was doing.

Game 1 bleh i'm quickly moving on to game 2. Flames historically stink in home openers home and away so I have tempered optimism until game 3
Biggest disappoint was zero for 7 on the PP that didnt appear to approve.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Robbob

When are people going to stop bitching about the drop pass on the power play. Every. Team. Uses. It.

The whole point is you get a guy at full speed vs 4 near stationary players. There is a reason why everyone uses it.

The issues with the PP are when they get in the zone.

Exactly right. I thought the drop-pass was not working last night, and the coaches must have seen what I saw and made an adjustment in the third. But more often than not it works precisely for the reasons you point out. It is something that the Flames will almost certainly continue to deploy over the course of the season.

[gallione11]

One of my biggest hopes coming in with a new coaching staff was to not see Brodie as a PP QB. He was terrible at it last year and his showing last night didn't look any better. Put Hanifin on PP2 instead.


Otherwise, was like a typical game last season, tuned out by the quarter point in the third. Think I may just have the games on in the background like last year till they show they'll be more entertaining.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Bingo

What goal was on Smith though?

I get it that Markstrom made more saves, and certainly had the bounces, but Smith had no chance on the first three, and the fourth one was a breakaway.

If Smith wasn't as solid as he was in the game's first 30 minutes that one could have gotten away sooner.

As sloppy as the Flames were defensively last night as were the Canucks. Markstrom made saves on several Flames breakaways and that move along the ice by Virtanen was something a lot of goaltenders easily turn aside. On the first goal yes it was a great shot but Smith is too deep as that's his style but at 36 he's probably not as quick and reactive as he used to be which is the crux of the issue here at the age of 36. At 36 years old and it's a stretch to think he's going to be better than last year. It's not his fault he's getting long on the tooth and age is not something he can overcome. It's a big problem for this team. Making the routine saves isn't good enough. Goaltenders need to be stealing goals away from other teams and that just hasn't happened enough for this team with these goaltenders.

[really?]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

Whole team was bad but it's really telling that Petersen could make a big difference in 10 minutes of ice time while Bennett + janko were invisible

Even more telling, guys getting the majority of the even strength and pp time making a difference in a non-positive way. It's a diversion to blame this type of outcome on guys who has a minimal stake in the effort.

It's one game. Flames win the next two and much is well. They didn't look to be functional as a unit and that is why they looked slow. Teams that look fast control and disrupt as a unit. Last night the Flames were not coolectively disruptive. If they still look like this after game ten, maybe it's time to start scratching heads.

[SportsJunky]

I didn't enjoy the 1st period much. I thought the Flames made too many gaffs and didn't look comfortable at all. Shades of GG saying the team "wasn't ready to start the game". In this case I think it's excusable, though. Lots of new players, new systems, new coaches, etc. It may take a number of games before this team is playing the way Peters expects.


I thought guys like Lindholm and Czarnik made some questionable choices in the offensive and neutral zone last night. Johnny was floating. Especially early in the game. As the game wore on, I thought they looked better. You wouldn't know it from Lindholm's -4, mind you.

[Muta]

I thought the skill level was vastly improved. Some of the puck moving the Flames did last night was lightyears better than previous lineups.

[troutman]

Can I just watch my team and not feel embarrassed?

I know it is early, but the same old troubling signs.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Some wild fan over reactions but given the expectations built up over the summer it is quite predictable.

The lines that looked good on paper and that were reasoned with notions of player x will add the 200 ft game dimension to the line just didn't materialize in any kind of energy early on.

Do they abandon it? I'm not sure but when I watched how the team started the game in the first China game compared to last night it totally different. On their toes and in the faces of the opponent is what I'm expecting from the team. Fast, fast, aggressive hockey. For whatever reason there was no crispness, no rhythm no flow and to me they looked out of sync.

It was a bad game and that's it. They know they have a much better level and they will get there. I don't think it's time to go overboard on certain players but people will do what they please. There were some good moments but way too much bad - and the PP is an entire different discussion.

Find some chemistry, get some confidence and that flow and swagger will come. Team will be fine.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

As sloppy as the Flames were defensively last night as were the Canucks. Markstrom made saves on several Flames breakaways and that move along the ice by Virtanen was something a lot of goaltenders easily turn aside. On the first goal yes it was a great shot but Smith is too deep as that's his style but at 36 he's probably not as quick and reactive as he used to be which is the crux of the issue here at the age of 36. At 36 years old and it's a stretch to think he's going to be better than last year. It's not his fault he's getting long on the tooth and age is not something he can overcome. It's a big problem for this team. Making the routine saves isn't good enough. Goaltenders need to be stealing goals away from other teams and that just hasn't happened enough for this team with these goaltenders.

The Canucks had three blue chip chances in all alone in the first and he stopped them all.

Early in the second he stopped another three that could have ended the game.

I see terrible defensive work and a goalie left abandoned.

I didn't like the Virtanen goal (as I said in the game story) but I also find it hard to blame a goalie on a breakaway.

Seems like he's a whipping boy. That game wasn't his fault at all.

Markstrom didn't have the degree of difficulty as Smith either because the Flames were on the perimeter or if they got in close they flubbed it (Dube breakaway, Backlund off his stick when he was in alone). Markstrom had a lot of pucks hit him that he never saw and many a rebound that he couldn't find.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Robbob

When are people going to stop bitching about the drop pass on the power play. Every. Team. Uses. It.

The whole point is you get a guy at full speed vs 4 near stationary players. There is a reason why everyone uses it.

The issues with the PP are when they get in the zone.

I don’t understand why you need the deep drop pass to get a player moving at full speed. That just doesn’t make sense. And seems to me Flames used it a ton last night, more than other teams typically do.

They weren’t great at securing the zone, nor were they great once they had it. Lindholm in particular seemed to pass up some shooting chances. There were some bad passes and not great movement. Despite all that, there seemed to be some skill there.

[Toonage]

I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.

[heep223]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

I don’t understand why you need the deep drop pass to get a player moving at full speed. That just doesn’t make sense. And seems to me Flames used it a ton last night, more than other teams typically do.



They weren’t great at securing the zone, nor were they great once they had it. Lindholm in particular seemed to pass up some shooting chances. There were some bad passes and not great movement. Despite all that, there seemed to be some skill there.

They changed the strategy to a five man Flying V type move halfway through the game, when the drop pass wasn’t working.

[belsarius]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

Whole team was bad but it's really telling that Petersen could make a big difference in 10 minutes of ice time while Bennett + janko were invisible

I didn't think Bennett and Jankowski were invisible at all. If anything I noticed Bennett pretty much every time he hit the ice. Huge hit in the corner? Oh look it's those two guys again. They never got pinned in and while their forecheck didn't generate a lot of offense, it did up add energy and I thought was always followed up with a strong shift by the next line. I also thought they looked like the best penalty killing pair last night

I saw the comment earlier that Bennett had been "overcoached" and I totally agree GG over the past two years did but I didn't see that tonight. What it looks like to me is that Peters is going to rebuild Bennett by focusing on fundementals. He played like a guy who was told to go out there and hit, pressure, chase and get some shots on net. Don't do anything fancy, just focus one one shift at a time and give it your all; and that's what I saw out of him.

They may not have hit the score sheet, but they both had 3 shots a piece and Bennett had 4 hits to Jankowski's 3. Good basic hockey to build confidence on for under 10 minutes of ice-time.

[8sPOT]

Actually thought the Flames got better as the game went on. The 1st period seemed like there were 4 or 5 odd man rushes for the Canucks and they improved in that regard.

But wow is that powerplay awful. There was never really any danger and Markstrom didn't have to make any tough saves. SEVEN powerplays. Wow. Didn't like the look of the PP one bit. Thats 14 minutes of game time that the Flames should have taken a bunch of momentum and the opposite happened.

Saturday is going to tell me a lot about Bill Peters and what the PP is supposed to look like. I expect a much improved powerplay.