Flames changes since winning the West regular season 2018-19

[Sofa GM]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Nice try but the Oilers were the losers in that fiasco...Flames won the game and the Oilers signed Kassian to a ridiculous contract

The whole fiasco is because Kassian can’t skate with his head up and Tkachuk basically called him on it over and over and then he threw a fit like a 3 yr old. The Caveman’s brain is only capable of doing a small amount of things simultaneously so if you asked him to carry the puck with his head up he would probably stop breathing….

How’s that Lloyd Christmas looking dudes contract looking now?

[stang]

Originally Posted by Sofa GM

Why don’t we talk about the ‘dream team’ that we hear about every year at this time up north and how this is the year. 40 yr old Smith and the worst D-core in the league and the newly minted Nurse who apparently now has officially added getting speed bagged throughout the year (this is nothing new) sticking up for Mavi and Raisatl to earn his contract. If one of those two princesses get hurt you miss the playoffs no question.

How’s James Neal working out?

Thought this thread was about the Flames 2019 season?

I mean I’m glad you can’t stop talking about the oilers in a flames thread.

I was just correcting his 2019 lineup is all.

[Sofa GM]

Originally Posted by stang

Thought this thread was about the Flames 2019 season?

Well it is until the Coil Fanboys pop in with comments that aren’t really relevant to that season.

[stang]

Originally Posted by Sofa GM

Well it is until the Coil Fanboys pop in with comments that aren’t really relevant to that season.

Your inferiority complex is showing.

[Sofa GM]

Originally Posted by stang

Your inferiority complex is showing.

Sorry confused, what does Lucic joining in 19/20 have to do with the 18/19 season. There is no inferiority to the Coil, worst professional sports team in North America for over 20 yrs

You always come on here stirring up crap and then play innocent, own your comments. You want to talk trash own it.

[stang]

Originally Posted by Sofa GM

Sorry confused, what does Lucic joining in 19/20 have to do with the 18/19 season. There is no inferiority to the Coil, worst professional sports team in North America for over 20 yrs

You always come on here stirring up crap and then play innocent, own your comments. You want to talk trash own it.

Original post said Lucic was on the “Dream team” he wasn’t. That’s what I was correcting.

You have 5 posts in here and 4 are about the Oilers.

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by Flamesfan05

The ‘dream team’ actually was a bad team with a hot streak

They over-performed most of that season, but had stretches where they showed fantastic skill and chemistry. I would say they’ve under-performed since then and rarely showed glimpses of their best. I don’t know what to expect this year, hoping for better than last but not expecting miracles.

[Sofa GM]

Originally Posted by stang

Original post said Lucic was on the “Dream team” he wasn’t. That’s what I was correcting.

You have 5 posts in here and 4 are about the Oilers.

Yes, because the fan boys are out in full force.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by edslunch

They over-performed most of that season, but had stretches where they showed fantastic skill and chemistry. I would say they’ve under-performed since then and rarely showed glimpses of their best. I don’t know what to expect this year, hoping for better than last but not expecting miracles.

Maybe I am putting too much emphasis on it, but Giordano's Norris season really elevated the team that year in my opinion. Since that year, we have basically been down one elite star player. It wasn't obvious in the next 2 seasons because the name was still there on the roster, but he wasn't the same player. I mean, he was still a good player of course, but not the same level as 2018-19, especially for most of last season.

If you remove the best player from any team, especially one that was the best in the league at his position, it will take them down a level. We lost a Norris caliber defenseman after 2019 and no one was able to pick up the slack.

And don't take this as a knock on Giordano. He shouldn't have had to bear that burden.

[TheSquatch]

Brodie was far, far more important than many gave him credit for. What we saw without Brodie was a defense that was short on time, uncomfortable with possession, and beaten by the fleet of foot.

Brodie's one of the only guys in the league who can skate with McDavid, and never got enough credit for doing so here. He stops a lot of things before they start.

And yeah, Monahan scoring every time a puck was flipped his way. You turn that tap off, and what remains is a very moderate centerman (although his faceoff numbers continue to improve). He plays with no physicality, no presence in the D zone, no one fears him in any way except his uncanny ability to find a 1/2 inch of open ice and score from it, but that really went away this year.

This team needs a monster center to do any damage in the playoffs. And the defense has to be better at leaving the zone with control. The Flames were slow and played a chip-and-hope sort of game last year, very little tape-to-tape neutral zone play. And you watch a team like the leafs who leave their zone seemingly effortlessly (goddam Brodie again!) and play so fast doing so... it's a world of difference.

I think Gaudreau and Monahan went from playing with a guy like Hudler, who'd been there, done that, was a legit talent, to having to do a lot of heavy lifting alone, and the league kinda figured them out. And nothing's changed since in either of their games (exception being faceoff work for Monahan).

[Sofa GM]

Originally Posted by TheSquatch

Brodie was far, far more important than many gave him credit for. What we saw without Brodie was a defense that was short on time, uncomfortable with possession, and beaten by the fleet of foot.

Brodie's one of the only guys in the league who can skate with McDavid, and never got enough credit for doing so here. He stops a lot of things before they start.

And yeah, Monahan scoring every time a puck was flipped his way. You turn that tap off, and what remains is a very moderate centerman (although his faceoff numbers continue to improve). He plays with no physicality, no presence in the D zone, no one fears him in any way except his uncanny ability to find a 1/2 inch of open ice and score from it, but that really went away this year.

This team needs a monster center to do any damage in the playoffs. And the defense has to be better at leaving the zone with control. The Flames were slow and played a chip-and-hope sort of game last year, very little tape-to-tape neutral zone play. And you watch a team like the leafs who leave their zone seemingly effortlessly (goddam Brodie again!) and play so fast doing so... it's a world of difference.

I think Gaudreau and Monahan went from playing with a guy like Hudler, who'd been there, done that, was a legit talent, to having to do a lot of heavy lifting alone, and the league kinda figured them out. And nothing's changed since in either of their games (exception being faceoff work for Monahan).

I agree with all that for sure. I am one of the small percentage that thinks Sean Monahan is going to have a bounce back year.

[ricardodw]

Originally Posted by Badgers Nose

107 points is one hell of a ####ing streak. Ffs

They scored 62 more goals than they let in. At least half the team had career best years

[Sofa GM]

Originally Posted by ricardodw

They scored 62 more goals than they let in. At least half the team had career best years

Not sure where I have seen career best years recently….. hmmm

[Goriders]

Originally Posted by ricardodw

In 2018-19 the Flames had 107 pts in the standings that gave the the # 1 seed in that years playoffs. They won the 1st playoff game against the 2nd wild card team that was 12 regular season wins and 17 pts behind the Flames the standings. 4-0 Flames.. Then the Avs swept them 4 straight.

The same team was brought back to play the 2019-20 season

The opening day roster was:

FORWARDS
A. Czarnik - 2nd year of a 2 year contract with NYI $750k
A. Mangiapane
D. Ryan - 2 yrs @1.25 M with Oilers
E. Lindholm
J. Gaudreau
M. Backlund
M. Frolik - unsigned UFA
M. Jankowski unsigned UFA (No qualifying offer from Pittsburgh)
M. Lucic
M. Tkachuk
S. Bennett 4 yrs x 4.425 w/ Florida
S. Monahan
DEFENSEMEN
M. Giordano - Kraken
N. Hanifin
O. Kylington - unsigned w/Flames has qualified offer
R. Andersson
T. Hamonic 2 x 3M with Canucks
T.J. Brodie 2nd year of 4 x 5M with Leafs
Goalies
D. Rittich 1 x 1.250 with Nashville
C. Talbot yr 2 of 3 x 3,666,667 with the Wild

The last game played before the Covid shutdown, with the Flames still playing for pts in the standings was:

Forwards
A. Mangiapane
D. Dube
D. Ryan
E. Lindholm
J. Gaudreau
M. Backlund
M. Jankowski
M. Lucic
M. Tkachuk
S. Bennett
S. Monahan
Z. Rinaldo unsigned UFA
DEFENSEMEN
D. Forbort 3 x 3 in Boston
E. Gustafsson unsigned UFA
M. Giordano
N. Hanifin
R. Andersson
T.J. Brodie
Goalies
D. Rittich
C. Talbot


The players left from the 2018-19 "dream" teams are:

Forwards
A. Mangiapane
D. Dube
E. Lindholm
J. Gaudreau
M. Backlund
M. Lucic
M. Tkachuk
S. Monahan
DEFENSEMEN
N. Hanifin
R. Andersson
O. Kylington - unsigned w/Flames has qualified offer

11 of the 23 roster players left

The Flames never make any moves. Fire Treliving!

[djsFlames]

Feel like I've turned into a dusty skeleton waiting for Sean Monahan's resurgence to a 30 goal scoring beast.

Each time he talks he sounds so sincere about turning it around and I'm suckered in every time. I really hope the loss of form has been primarily due to his lingering injury issue that is now sorted.

[bizaro86]

The first D pair on that team (Brodie/Giordano) is gone. I don't think our current D has a top pair close to that quality.

[djsFlames]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

The first D pair on that team (Brodie/Giordano) is gone. I don't think our current D has a top pair close to that quality.

Either way, that top pairing was soon hitting its expiry date.

They would need to be replaced regardless. At least now we're forced into looking into our talent pool there and giving guys the opportunity to step up and fill those holes.

You just never know what you have at your disposal until you give guys a shot. I think Hanifin took a massive step this past season. He's pretty close to #2 territory in my mind.

I'm also really excited by Kinvall, and Mackey to a lesser extent. I think we'll be pleasantly surprised by how deep we will come to realize we still are on the blue line.

[Hackey]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

The biggest difference in my view is going from having a Norris quality defenseman to not having one.

I wouldn't even know how to go about looking for this information, but I would bet that teams that don't have a single defenseman that would be even in the top 10 for consideration, do not tend to win conference or division titles.

Only team that comes to mind is Carolina. When they won the cup their d-core didn't have a top end dman from what I remember.

You could also say the Penguins. Gonchar wasn't really elite anymore. Letang maybe but don't think he was top 10 for sure.

[Vinny01]

This was the best regular season Flames team I have ever watched and gave me a ton of hope that the rebuild was going to yield a long run as a top team. Treliving had a transformational summer with his free agent signings and blockbuster deal with the Hurricanes.

While that team did lose to the second wildcard they also faced an emerging elite team in the Avs who have since proven they were on the path to being a top team in the league with a player on the same tier as the best in the league and they also debuted a superstar Dman in the first round who got a $9M AAV after his ELC in Makar.

The Flames have been peeling back members of that core over the last few years 3 out of 4 of their veteran D are gone but they still have 5 of their top 6 forwards and that is the biggest problem in my opinion. Whether it was Mark Stone, Jason Zucker, Nazem Kadri, Taylor Hall, Pierre-Luc Dubois, or now actually Blake Coleman they have been searching for a legit top 6 scorer. Coleman is an upgrade on Frolik but is he a huge upgrade on the peak Frolik we saw as a Flame?

This team still needs the shakeup move upfront

[the-rasta-masta]

Talbot also wasn’t on the team that year, Mike Smith was.