[PGT] Flames lose 4-3

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by SmoggyFlamesFan

Please explain how it wasn't, because it appeared pretty blatant.

"Blatantly" offside? As in, the players intended to play the puck offside?

No. It was neither "blatant" nor obvious. The play was onside.

[heep223]

That was a super greasy play by Backstrom. Now he is forever in my bad books, until the day he retires.

[Redrum]

Originally Posted by TheRealPepman

Guy in red agrees

No he doesn't. He showed that by hitting clean. Not being a dirty c*** like Wilson.

[Moneyhands23]

Originally Posted by Inferno

They should be calling the idiots who officiated this game to give them their pink slips.

Agreed, unfortunately that will never happen.

[The Cobra]

Query: has Calgary lost a game yet this year for a reason other that Smith’s horrible goaltending, horrible officiating or a combination thereof?

If we had a capable back up and average officiating, Calgary would be 82-0 apparently.


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[djsFlames]

I see we're still "trying to get Mike Smith going" 4 months into the season.

Maybe, eventually, we'll just stop opting to throw games for no good reason (or make wins a lot harder on us than necessary).

Probably still another 5 poor to average Smith games until something is done about it, unfortunately. He was the guy in Arizona when Brad was there so there's that extra leash cause of history I'm guessing, or something.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by cubistcastle

Yup, I don't care if the Flames "treat weekends as back-to-backs". Maybe they shouldn't!

The season is not won or lost on a single weekend. Both goalies need to play. Both goalies will play.

[heep223]

I wish Smith was still on the ice for that scrum. When Holtby jumped in, guaranteed Smith would have been sprinting down the ice and then #### would have got real.

Actually, Holtby probably jumped in for exactly that reason. Coward. Add him to my bad books too.

[Classic_Sniper]

League really needs to start grading the officials like the NFL does. How they don’t call an extremely obvious interference on Tkachuk but then call 3 straight chincy penalties on the Flames is ridiculous. If the refs have no idea what a penalty is, how can you expect the players to know?

Outside of the garbage officiating. Despite being physically overmatched, the Flames were able to battle back. That was nice to see, but it’s obvious that we could still use a heavy forward or 2 who can play heavy down low, be strong on the puck, cycle and be effective in playoff style games like this.

The 4th line is just a little too small and easy to push around. They’re not quick enough to compensate. Smith was decent tonight, made some good saves. But his giveaway did lead to a goal, he still plays a little too deep into the net and asking the team to score 5 goals to win is still an unsustainable to winning long term and into the playoffs.

[OldSam]

Originally Posted by Moneyhands23

Wonder if the league will be calling any of the players tomorrow

Certainly not any of the Caps. Do you think the refs are going to write up any of the Caps?

[Coach]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

The season is not won or lost on a single weekend. Both goalies need to play. Both goalies will play.

Maybe one of those goalies should be a different goalie?

I didn't see the 1st 1/2 of the game so I can't comment on today, because I thought he actually played pretty great for the portion I saw. But there's no doubt we need a more competent backup.

[Moneyhands23]

Originally Posted by The Cobra

Query: has Calgary lost a game yet this year for a reason other that Smith’s horrible goaltending, horrible officiating or a combination thereof?

If we had a capable back up and average officiating, Calgary would be 82-0 apparently.


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Well the player interviews tonight seem to be leaning towards the refs being crap. I say leaning as the questions are being asked and the players are having a hard time trying to answer without being fined.

And Smith is obviously trash.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by The Cobra

Query: has Calgary lost a game yet this year for a reason other that Smith’s horrible goaltending, horrible officiating or a combination thereof?

Yes, two - @Vegas and @Montreal.

[RedHawk12]

We can blame the refs and the dirty plays by the Caps all we want, but man they worked us over physically that game. I think the game was a good reminder of what the playoffs will be like. Hope Tre addresses the toughness issue. I still say we should target Gudas.

[bubbsy]

Im glad ovie won his cup cus i hope for a lot of caps to get what they deserve. Would love t9 see wilson gwt concussed out of the league.

I also think i hope these refs get fired and work bantam games going forward or at least get an nhl slaphsot to the nuts. Pure frigin incompetence all night.

On another note, do other fans get tipsy watching weekend games and get so angry they wish such ill will on others!

On a serious note... Refs looked like they were rusty from 2 weeks off time in the 1st. That tkatchuk interence hit was a joke.

Flames didn't look good at all, still the caps showed them what playoff hockey feels like all night and the flames had no answer whatsoever for the physicality.

Smith gave up 2 goals i didn't like but also saved about 5 that usually go in, so can't fault him totally.

I hope the caps play as physically as they did tonight for the rest of the year btw. Way nhl level hockey should be.

[Moneyhands23]

Originally Posted by OldSam

Certainly not any of the Caps. Do you think the refs are going to write up any of the Caps?

Wow I actually didnt know that the refs had to write up a player. I thought it was up to the brass. Man that's crazy

[Pizza]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

Lots of talk about how the refs/Smith lost us the game. Very few posts giving credit to the defending champion Caps. Don't forget there's 21 guys on the other side who are the best in the world at their job playing for a win.

Caps snapped a 7 game losing streak. They were desperate for a win and came fired up against the best team in the West. Tons of credit being given to the Flames on the other broadcast. I'm not surprised the Caps came to play. Kuznetsov had a dominating game. Caps broadcast is saying it was his best game of the season. Caps won most of the little board battles, and are overall much more physical then the Flames. Dmitri Jaskin had a great game.

Was hoping for at least a point, especially after a long break. Unfortunately there's going to be losses like this one. But at least it wasn't to a Western team.

No doubt, the Caps played great.

However had we had Rittich in net, we at least would've walked away with a point

[thymebalm]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

Flames work hard, tie the game and lose on a late goal against. It was a good shot, but Smith's goaltending style is fundamentally flawed. He sits deep in his net and never challenges shooters.

This is just symptomatic of him losing his reaction time or confidence or both (age or injury related or both). He wants to put himself further away from the shooters and closer to the posts to compensate for not being able to move as quickly, but as a result gives players far better angles to shoot at.

It's not working for him, and he's saving fewer shots on average than ever. You can look at each goal and argue whether the 3rd was bad, or the GWG, or they were all too good to be saved, but the reality is almost every other NHL goalie stops more pucks on average than Mike Smith. He should have a .900 save percentage or better, and if he did, he would have saved one more of those shots that went in tonight.

To me he looks like a rookie goalie all over again, surprised by shots and over-committing at the same time.

I suspect goaltending depth will be addressed before the off-season.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Breakfast

The Flames are in a very important battle for first in the division. These points matter, even if they’re having a great season. Especially if the game was winnable.

They are MILES ahead of both SJ and VGK.

I get that they need to keep winning, but the Flames are not going to win them all, and they have put themselves in an excellent spot. They will win the Division unless they fall apart, and I don't see anything that would suggest that is about to happen.

[thymebalm]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

Yes, two - @Vegas and @Montreal.

And probably the Pittsburg game.