[PGT] Flames HabNoted 4-3 OT loss

[Rejean31]

Originally Posted by zamler

Price looked like 2015 Price just our luck.

And on Saturday, against the Oilers, he will turn into the worlds biggest sieve.

[Infinit47]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

The officials putting the whistles away isn't necessarily a good thing when one of the two teams is committing a lot more infractions. I still can't believe the Flames got only a single powerplay over 60+ minutes with the Habs slashing, hooking, interfering like it was 1995.

I try really hard to think the refs are just bad for everyone, but this game was hard to watch.

Lucic getting hauled down with no call was the icing on the crap filled ref cake.

[troutman]

Mediocre team with above average compete, beats above average talent with mediocre compete.

[browna]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

...

All of these issues are things that we saw under Gulutzan, and that is very concerning to me.

There is a reason that, for the individual main set of players that make up and have made up this roster, BT hired a personality like Peters after seeing what happened under GG in year 2.

There is also a reason that Peters hires a guy like Ward to have an offsetting personality effect for the roster, amongst the coaches.

It’s certainly a small sample size, but this core roster seems to need The taskmaster rather than the player’s coach.

Last year and even this year, they were able to finish games if they had a third period lead or be tied in the third. Peters would get an extra gear out of the guys when it mattered most and finish a game off. Again, small sample size, but these past 3 games, and even a few of the winning streak games, the Flames, while playing ok in the third, either didn’t push the play when they had to ramp it up, or just let the opponent hang around long enough in the third to tie it up or take the lead. They looked to be just expecting that they were going to score that 4-2 goal or be able to cruise around and tie it up late, but that needs an attitude of doing the little things/strong attention to detail, that the team under Peters, seemed to do.

We will see, BT has seen both types of team atmospheres under Hartley, then GG, then Peters and now Ward, to get a proper temperature if this relaxed attitude is going to be an issue and if Ward can reign them in and get some thing more from a roster when he pushes them. As mentioned by Resolute under GG, BT has also seen the tactical differences between coaches, and how the differences in a casual vs formal atmosphere affects the team and certain players.

[Travis Munroe]

I normally agree with much of what you post but strongly disagree with a lot of this.

Johny starts on the third line so that he can do his Johny things, aka 1 man show. When he is feeling it, Ward moves him up with better players. When he looks slow, disinterested, etc and isn’t driving the play for his line, he stays where he is. I was actually bothered to see him move up the line as the top 2 were playing well and as soon as Johny showed up on that line, it wasn’t as effective.

Isn’t Ryan our top face off guy? Nothing wrong with putting your top face off guy in for a offensive zone draw while lines 1-2 catch their breath. It was unfortunate that Ryan got waived from the draw which is why it ended up in our own zone.

Ward doesn’t make the call on coaches challenges. There are people hired for this role and while ward is the one to call the ref over, he is getting his intel from others.

The breakout is much better than it was. We are flipping pucks up high and placing them, ringing them around the boards hard enough to retrieve on the other side or making short support passes. To each their own but the breakout has been something I notice great improvement on. There are multiple options unlike Peters dump and chase with no speed through the zone.

Last night was a fun game to watch against a average team with above average goaltending and a better win % than the flames. Rittich likely regrets all 3 of the goals but I don’t blame him as he stopped 4-5 that could have went on and nobody bats an eye. Positioning on the first was actually good, just bad luck to go through.

I feel the flames were warned about post whistle scrums. Lucic goes right to the bench, Tkachuk went from 4-5 scrums to maybe 1, Bennett has been in a couple but keeps his hands low and doesn’t do anything.
I can’t for the life of me figure out how so many blatant calls go missed and we are one of, it not the most penalized team in the league. My only conclusion was that refs hate post whistle antics and we were great at starting them leaving the refs more likely to give benefit of doubt against us.

AC should do one of his video montages on missed calls and the can opener from last night that has 0 excuse for being missed.

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

It's interesting how the officiating turns to complete dog crap right when a bunch of eastern conference teams come through.

Anyway, one thing last night's game has really underscored for me is my concerns about Geoff Ward's coaching strategies:

- Gaudreau with Lucic and Ryan completely wastes our best scoring forward's abilities. It was no surprise that Gaudreau looked ten times more dangerous when Ward shifted him back up to skate with guys with skill.

- Late in the game, 3-3, Montreal takes an icing. Better get Lucic and Ryan out there again for the key offensive zone faceoff. Predictably, they lost the faceoff, and we got buried inside our own zone. Inexplicably, after Rittich bailed them out by covering the puck, Ward left them out for the defensive zone faceoff, which they again lost. I think in the end, Lucic had the single longest shift of any forward for us at that point. And all of it was buried in his own end.

- Ward absolutely sucks at coaches' challenges. The entire reason why it's a delay of game penalty now is to prevent exactly what Ward is doing: wasting time with a faint hope challenge. He's actively hurting the team by doing this.

- Our breakouts are turning into a hot mess. We're starting to rely again on multiple lateral passes before moving the puck up, and those passes are becoming increasingly predictable. Too slow getting out of the zone, too easy to be stripped of the puck.

All of these issues are things that we saw under Gulutzan, and that is very concerning to me.
That being said, the one thing that really differentiates Ward from Gulutzan is adaptation. Ward did recognize that Gaudreau on the third line was dumb and changed it. And later in the game, we did start prioritizing north-south passing out of the zone. So there's still a lot of hope there. But man do we need to clean up some of these issues.

[Travis Munroe]

Originally Posted by bubbsy

I don't understand this grit,tenacity, truculent, physical based roster when it's not even part of the game plan.

lucic, tkatchuk, Bennett should be involved in every post whistle scrum against teams like the habs. Use this aspect to your advantage, it wears on a smaller team.

Hockey is getting kind of boring to watch. There's absolutely zero emotion in the game. I miss some on ice hate, some face washes, some fights. It was an element no other sport had.

Im convinced the league spoke to the flames about this and warned them they would start taking them to the box for “instigating” so many post whistle scrums.

I mentioned in my previous post but you see a major difference post whistle as of late.

[calgaryboy]

Originally Posted by Manhattanboy

I like this group but a shake up is needed.

Flames locker room is like a country club. I think these guys are generally happy with life. Make a good living, have a hot wife/gf. Who really cares if they miss the playoffs or go out early?

There is no winning culture.

One of the best post on CP in a loooooong time for me. Exactly on the point. Exactly how I feel about us many many times.

[rooster]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

Lucic looked good. Refs missed an obvious penalty
Bennett looked decent
Rittich wants that one back where he didn’t seal the post. They happen. He also had some 10 bell saves to get the point and Domi won it on a very good shot
The Flames coach advising on challenges should be fired.

They never missed it! Ref was looking right at it. Was it ref # 13? Is that Dan Ohalerin?(spelling). He screws the flames every chance he can.

[rooster]

Originally Posted by Manhattanboy

They missed an obvious slash as well. Stick broken. How does that go uncalled?

Maybe it was the same ref that give Johnny a push after he bumped him a few games back?

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Travis Munroe

AC should do one of his video montages on missed calls and the can opener from last night that has 0 excuse for being missed.

If he did this for the season it would take 10 days just to watch it all.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

Yeah I saw the ‘you can’t fault him’ which is inconsistent with ‘softies’. As those concepts are essentially contradictory, I was not comfortable relying on one.

And a classic appeal to authority. In a matter of science, what are the feelings of the radio guys?

Haha.

Not sure I'd call the radio guys authority! But yeah they had the exact same take as I did from the game.

Flames didn't play that well, Rittich gave up three softies.

And I don't see it contradictory at all. When a team leaves their goalie out to dry and he's able to keep them in it he's playing well. But at the same time he gave up three softies that took away the impact of his bail out.

[Strange Brew]

The shelf life of a Calgary Flames coach is getting shorter. Maybe time to start hiring guys on a week by week contract.

Also, maybe it's time Flames coaches and management start trying to figure out why they are more penalized than the competition more often than not. I'm going to rule out conspiracy and suggest there are actually things within the team's control that could address this.

[rooster]

Originally Posted by bubbsy

I don't understand this grit,tenacity, truculent, physical based roster when it's not even part of the game plan.

lucic, tkatchuk, Bennett should be involved in every post whistle scrum against teams like the habs. Use this aspect to your advantage, it wears on a smaller team.

Hockey is getting kind of boring to watch. There's absolutely zero emotion in the game. I miss some on ice hate, some face washes, some fights. It was an element no other sport had.

I agree. Haven't missed a Flames game willingly since the 1986 Playoff run and this garbage hockey is making me think of being done with it. No wonder Iginla took 5 minutes after being traded to get the hell out of Calgary after management pissed away all the years off having him and Kipper without bringing in enough supporting cast.

[DeluxeMoustache]

The Lucic call they elected not to make was awful

In fairness to the refs on one other call, they do have to call the penalty on the ill advised failed offside challenge

The person who told Ward to challenge should have an interesting performance review. They screwed up twice within a week. The team can’t afford to have somebody who is bad at that job

[Bingo]

Does anyone have video of the Lucic hook? Can't find it anywhere.

[CroFlames]

Softies are part of every starter goalie's repertoire. Except maybe Hasek circa 1999. Rittich let in a couple he should have had, but he also faced 43 shots. He must have been dog tired and I don't hang this on him.

The game should have been put away while they had the upper hand, but I'm afraid Backlund just isn't the answer anymore on offense. He can't finish for the life of him.

I still maintain the Flames need one extra offensive weapon while Gio is still a top 5 NHL dman. I think you need to trade your picks because Brodie is not expendable anymore due to the Valimaki injury. Disappointing Flames didn't land Hall.

[rooster]

Originally Posted by Phaneuf_Phan

What the heck happened to Rinaldo? This team was on fire with him in the lineup and for some reason they took him out??

That's how the Calgary Fames reward good play! F*&^%$# stupid coaches.

[rooster]

Originally Posted by Inferno

If the league had any balls that missed call on the Lucic breakaway should earn O'Halloran a sit down with whoever is head of officials and atleast some missed games and lost pay. There's going to be missed calls but that one was inexcusable.

O'Halloran has screwed the flames time and time again. Maybe he is personal friends with the ref Wideman injured. I wonder if there is a process where teams can provide complaints of blown calls to the league and if the league really uses that information to keep track of referee performance?

[1_Flames_Fan]

I like Ward but definitely not sold on him as a head coach. I still think the team needs an established head coach and should be willing to pay for a good one. Also whoever decided on the last couple lost offside challenges needs to step up their game immediately.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[Joborule]

I'm really sick of Backlund being slotted as a top 6 player. How long does he have to show he can't produce whatsoever until he finally is placed into the bottom 6 where he should've been all this time?

Also, Mangi shouldn't be on the top line. He gets chances, but is not finishing them. He's a player who should still get chances in the bottom six in the meantime. He's growing still.

I would bump Dube and Bennett up to the top 6 lines. Either give Gaudreau-Monahan-Bennett a look for a few games since it's been done in the past with success, or try Dube with them instead.

The team has had good first of late, but can't sustain that energy throughout the 2nd and 3rd. Switching up the lines to squeeze out even more juice from the top 6 by having more offensive capable players could be the solution.

Last night game though they should've won if it wasn't for weak goals against. The game really turned after Rittich let in the first bad one.