I enjoy seeing that video of Francis, pretty funny. I'm not going to crucify him for predicting that would end up being Gaudreau's highest point total. Every player has a career season and not preposterous that could have been it.
Of course it looks stupid now but I didn't see this kind of season coming from Gaudreau.
I thought Gaudreau would be at least PPG this season with top end line mates...his "poor" seasons were still really high end on teams that couldn't score to save their lives. My fear was the Flames trading him and him putting up 110 elsewhere.
His pro season in Sweden left everyone thinking he was going to transition to North American pro seamlessly.
Alas, development is rarely linear and he had a terrible injury. There's still hope for him (d-men develop slower) and I think the Flames should stick with it.
Andersson is a top-pair d-man now and spent tons of time developing.
He did more than I expected him to do. Fully capable just figured he would be more tentative.
Having Mackey playing with Tanev in my mind is a much better pairing. Stone is just too slow to be playing the same minutes Tanev does. Add in the lefty righty d pairings it just makes even more sense.
As for Stone and Valimaki? Rough night for both of them. Stone for being out raced to the puck on a few occasions. Valimaki covered for Stone a couple of times. Valimaki for coughing up the puck far too often with bad passes.
This is why this team is where it is. Sutter clearly has not been liking the play from the bottom pairing and this is why they sat last night. Zadorov has been hot garbage for way too long and Guddy hasn't exactly been at his best either. Going into the playoffs, that bottom pair needs to be way better and back to the way it was playing in January.
I wouldn't bet against the Flames rolling with the exact same lineup next game before making further tweaks. If it motivates and rests the bottom pair somewhat, or even forces a guy like Mackey into the rotation the rest of the way - great.
Darryl clearly knows what he's doing in terms of pressing this teams buttons so there's no reason to panic. If this team is going to go deep, which should be the goal, they are going to need 8/9 D that can step in and not miss a beat.
Really liked Mackey. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he looks great playing with Tanev though, Tanev just makes everyone look good. Would like to see more Mackey-Tanev at least until Kylington is good to go again.
So do we call them Tanny-Mack or is it Mack-Tanny?
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So were the Flames just resting Gudbranson and Zadorov?
rumor has this there is a bug running through the team...no way they purposely rest both guys and have 3 non regulars in on D. A loss last night would have had the Oilers within four points, Darryl does't let up until there is an X
rumor has this there is a bug running through the team...no way they purposely rest both guys and have 3 non regulars in on D. A loss last night would have had the Oilers within four points, Darryl does't let up until there is an X
Yeah, that's what I was wondering. Especially with Jarnkrok being out sick already. Probably making it's rounds now whatever it is.
Stone was not bad for the few games he's been in. Love his shot from the point!
Valimaki - I can't wait until G and Z gets back into the lineup!
I think this is 3 different games where Sutter had polite at best, less than glowing things at worse to say about Stone- despite a guy who seems like a 'Sutter soldier' many of us seem to be enjoy his (Stone's) adventures more than the coach
with that in mind Valimaki (who of course definitely struggled) was paired with the other guy Sutter isn't all that trusting of- on the other hand Mackey earned the trust to play with the better guy, but also got to play with the better guy (who we know can make others look good). Valimaki and Stone were destined to struggle- could have been worse, for both them and Vladar so I'll take the outcome
Pretty good game, especially the top line and vladar. I liked the 4th line and our top d pair as well.
I am definitely concerned by the 2nd line scoring, or lack thereof. I realize backlund can go hot/cold for lengthy stretches , but it's definitely not great to see the team's 2nd line C barely getting to 15 goals in this big year.
Backlund is all over the place right now. He's not the same player he was earlier and that's why Mangi was scoring in the first half of the season and now he's not. I'm not sure if it's Toffoli or Backlund or both but that line currently has no jive with each other. It's like first line jives with each other and they make plays for each other. Seems like all other lines are more concerned with dumping the puck in, send the puck around the perimeter, try to cycle the puck in the offensive zone, or backcheck.
Mangi is still playing great though and he's able to keep pucks in the offensive zone and make plays. But holy smokes, it's like Backlund and Toffoli have hands made of stones lately. I think Sutter needs to move Coleman or Dube to second line with Backlund and Mangi.
