[PGT] Flames play well, can't capitalize. Oilers win 4-1

[CalgaryFan1988]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Talbot is Reggie Lemelin. Square to the shooter, doesn't give up the softie, but you can easily pass it around him because he doesn't move well.

This sums up my view of Talbot quite nicely. That's why I can never see him as more than just a backup.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Well when two of the best players in the league are on the bench and lesser players are taking their shifts it stands to reason that the Oilers probably won't be generating nearly as much in the way of offensive push. The Oilers were the better team in the first and after that Tippett managed McDavid and Draisaitl's ice time. You know full well if that game counted they both would have played 21-22 minutes each. This was an exhibition game so there's no point in arguing over and over but I think the notion of the Flames holding the play for the 2nd half of the game is kind of hollow when the other team isn't utilizing their top players as they normally would.

The Flames did the same thing. Gaudreau and Monahan only played 15.5 minutes. Giordano was the only player to hit 20 minutes.

I'm sorry man ... you're not going to convince me that Edmonton cruised. They looked awful.

Why do you need to be right on something like this?

Eye test said Calgary out played Edmonton, all the stats say the same thing.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

Is it just me or did Monahan look more engaged/ physical in all of the intrasquad scrimmages than at any moment of last nights game? I love the guy but why does his intensity drop noticeably in game situations...

If Monahan's intensity dropped (I'm not convinced it did), it was probably a result of the crappy tripping call in the first.

Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk

[DazzlinDino]

Look like the same Flames to me, I am feeling the Flames need an experienced coach who can get more out of the players. Making plays is one thing, making sacrifices is another. This just doesn't feel, or play like a playoff team. This group needs a coach that can take them to another level.

[Itse]

Originally Posted by N26

No matter what the stats say and regardless of the fact that the team visibly improved during the game it looked like a loss after 5 minutes of play.

That's a thing with this team.

You can see early in many games that there is very little chance they will win. I felt it last night and I have felt it many times this season. It wasn't bad bounces or anything like that.

It was mediocracy.

There is a big part of me that wants a mediocre loss to the Jets and a core rebuild on the fly with only Tkachuk, Lindholm, Backlund, Dubé, Giordano and Andersson truly safe from being moved.

I just want them for once to invest in a good coach, and see what happens.

Tippett has done wonders with two stars and a bunch of crap.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

McDavid (almost 3 minutes less than average) and Draisaitl (4 minutes less than) both played at or below 19 minutes. When it comes to the Oilers who always overplay both of these guys this is the very definition of giving them a night off and cruising.

Yes, they played lower minutes, but that is not the same as cruising. The Oilers were assessing and getting game conditions in for all 22 players, just as the Flames were.

But the effort and intensity were there. The shots were 7-1 Oilers to start the game - the usual, slow-out-of-the-gates start for the Flames - but then were 35-19 for the Flames for the next 40 minutes. And the scoring chances were tilted heavily in the Flames' favour.

Once the Oilers got the bounce for the 3rd goal, the game was over. But to suggest they were cruising until that point is laughable.

[djsFlames]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

Agreed on the difficult areas. This team still plays on the perimeter, and our first line can’t cycle/building anything while they have offensive zone pressure. It’s either on the rush, or it’s nothing at all.

I also thought our PP continued to look silly. Whip it around the perimeter without challenging the difficult areas, and then try and sift in a point wrist shot (which hey, led to our one goal).

Sam Bennett at centre gives me hope this team can make adjustments, but can they make them quick enough - and will they stick to them? I’m not so sure we should be playing Gaudreau-Monahan-Lindholm together anymore - but what would the alternative be?

The adjustment thing is good. I'd suggest feeding a puck or two to someone inside the circles for shots on the PP rather than making the sole goal a seeing eye shot from the point or a predictable forced pass to an out-manned monahan.

Good point about sticking to adjustments as well. I hope they adjust to the opponent and not go back on it. Whatever the "default" is/was, it hasn't worked in the ways they need it to. The team needs to get creative about what it can do to put more pucks in the other teams net fom night to night, meaning something totally different from what it has been trying. Like are those one timers for gaudreau at the right circle going to be a thing? They should.

Let's see a real attempt to switch things up.

[Poe969]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

Maybe the pandemic makes us forget that Backlund had taken his game to another level, and had 22 points in the last 16 games before it all shut down

Ok, let's just see how he does in the next 3-25 games or so. But the team needs to get faster and more talented in the top 6.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Same old Flames to me.

I'm not with the crowd that thinks Edmonton cruised, the Oilers looked awful last night and they're in big trouble. Why get in the way of being the sober voice of reason to hockey fans though right?

But Calgary was slow off the start, they don't have a goaltender, and they don't seem to have the skill/gumption to finish. Good game defensively, they didn't give up much at all, had some bad bounces, but they just don't drive the game to the tough areas enough.

Talbot is Reggie Lemelin. Square to the shooter, doesn't give up the softie, but you can easily pass it around him because he doesn't move well.

Similar to my thoughts.

Three things concerned me:

1) the slow start - we've seen that movie before
2) the goaltending
3) the same slow transition game that we saw this past season.

For me, the thing that made them successful the prior season was the speed of the transition game, and the amount that the D joined the attack.

There was some of that last night, and there were lots of good things, like the forecheck, but there were far too many failed clearing attempts from D-men that were standing still, passing to forwards that were standing still. Way too easy to defend.

This is my biggest concern with Ward.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Same old Flames to me.

I'm not with the crowd that thinks Edmonton cruised, the Oilers looked awful last night and they're in big trouble. Why get in the way of being the sober voice of reason to hockey fans though right?

But Calgary was slow off the start, they don't have a goaltender, and they don't seem to have the skill/gumption to finish. Good game defensively, they didn't give up much at all, had some bad bounces, but they just don't drive the game to the tough areas enough.

Talbot is Reggie Lemelin. Square to the shooter, doesn't give up the softie, but you can easily pass it around him because he doesn't move well.

This is accurate insofar as the Flames are concerned IMO.

Fact is since eliminating the Canucks, the Flames are 2-12 in the playoffs. And to me biggest problem is the lack of 5 on 5 offense during playoff type games which as you point out, requires doing the dirty work.

The Jets are totally beatable but this version of the Flames is going to need to flip a switch here sometime to really make some noise. I still can't get over that we are icing virtually the same team as last year's playoff team but that's a dead horse I've beaten enough.

[djsFlames]

Team plays best when it moves its feet, transitions quickly and activates D. That, really, is the teams game. Every highlight from all their epic comebacks in 18-19, they were busting ass getting to open areas and moving around. So why is there this standing still passing stuff going on? Is what I'm wondering. Ward needs to be beating the "skate skate skate" drum each and every game if he knows what works for this group.

This gaining the zone to form a stationary box around the perimeter thing that has cropped up over the season needs to be shot into the sun.

[howard_the_duck]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Same old Flames to me.

I'm not with the crowd that thinks Edmonton cruised, the Oilers looked awful last night and they're in big trouble. Why get in the way of being the sober voice of reason to hockey fans though right?

But Calgary was slow off the start, they don't have a goaltender, and they don't seem to have the skill/gumption to finish. Good game defensively, they didn't give up much at all, had some bad bounces, but they just don't drive the game to the tough areas enough.

Talbot is Reggie Lemelin. Square to the shooter, doesn't give up the softie, but you can easily pass it around him because he doesn't move well.

The point on tough areas is bang on. It felt like déjà vu where the top line is just unable or unwilling to get inside the hash marks with any sort of danger. Tkachuk, Backlund, Dube, Bennett and Mangiapane were the only forwards able to do this.

Where the old cliche in hockey is in playoffs your best players need to be your best players, I worry again about the perimeter nature of our top line and not being able to drive offense when it counts.

[Classic_Sniper]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Similar to my thoughts.

Three things concerned me:

1) the slow start - we've seen that movie before
2) the goaltending
3) the same slow transition game that we saw this past season.

For me, the thing that made them successful the prior season was the speed of the transition game, and the amount that the D joined the attack.

There was some of that last night, and there were lots of good things, like the forecheck, but there were far too many failed clearing attempts from D-men that were standing still, passing to forwards that were standing still. Way too easy to defend.

This is my biggest concern with Ward.

Ward’s system is the same one Peters deployed last season that won the team 50 games. It’s a “check for your chances” system which was mostly successful.

But the biggest problem I have with the system is that a lot of times, the middle of the ice is left wide open and the opposition can come barreling into the Flames zone like Colorado did in the playoffs. The Flames aren’t the fastest team and can’t track back as quickly; so maybe if this team was quicker they’d pull off the system better IMO.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

You could see Tkachuk gave the goaltender an additional push after he was contacted. Little doubt in my mind that goal gets reversed in a playoff game.

I watched it again in Slo-mo, and you are right, Tkachuk certainly took advantage of the situation. But it's always a bit of a crap shoot with video review.

[SuperMatt18]

One problem with the first line is that they seem gun shy to shoot.

Last night they had 3 combined shot attempts at 5v5 (1 each).

There were times where they were in shooting positions and they are looking to make that extra pass to get the tap in goal.

I think just shooting more will be a cure to the first line's woes. Easiest way to get into the dirty areas is to take a shot and then have Monahan/Lindholm crash the net for a rebound.

[Flames_F.T.W]

I like Monahan, Gaudreau and Lindholm but I think I'm ready to see them on separate lines.

[Toonage]

Still waiting on the much vaunted Geoff Ward power play that he was so known for in Boston & NJ. Got 1 last night (of 4), but it still looks so disjointed to me.

[HighLifeMan]

Can someone explain to me why Mark Jankowski is still a regular in this lineup?

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Bingo

The Flames did the same thing. Gaudreau and Monahan only played 15.5 minutes. Giordano was the only player to hit 20 minutes.

I'm sorry man ... you're not going to convince me that Edmonton cruised. They looked awful.

Why do you need to be right on something like this?

Eye test said Calgary out played Edmonton, all the stats say the same thing.

It's not that I need to be right and more I'm not a fan of the mentality of trying to make up positives (I agree with your assessment for the outside of the fact you didn't think the Oilers coasted) for losses when the team quite frankly wasn't good enough. There seems to be a divide between the posters that can't accept negatives and the posters that can't accept positives. I don't care about advanced stats. The eye test and the result is all that matters to me. I didn't see a lot of positives last night myself and that's not me being negative and more my opinion of what I saw unfold. I recall in the first round of the playoffs last year you having a bit of a fit on me after I declared that the Flames effort after their game one win wasn't good enough as they failed the eye test to me. They promptly lost four straight and I never did an "I told you so post" then so it's not about be being right and more that I'm not a fan of sugarcoating when the team doesn't play well as it usually is an indication that they aren't going to go on to big things.

I'm not going to declare the Jets sweeping the Flames or anything as I think it's a coin flip series but as you said they looked like the same old Flames and goaltending is an issue and that's not very encouraging. A solid effort last night wouldn't guarantee success against the Jets but at the very least it would give fans a little sign that the team really is tired of losing early in the playoffs.

[dino7c]

Reminded me of game one against the AVS...score was lopsided but didn't really reflect the play.

Oilers had 9 shots on Rittich