Yost: Grading each team's blue line depth

[Major Major]

Oilers way too high.

[1qqaaz]

The Flames are often at their most disappointing when they have great defense on paper and expectations are not tempered.

Reminds me of 2009-2010.
Or 2015-2016.

I'll be happy if the Flames remain as a top 10 GAA team. Defensive responsibility should be near the core of the team's identity.

[djsFlames]

Originally Posted by Major Major

Oilers way too high.

- Keith
+ Murray?

I'd say they're around 25th. On paper they're worse than that, but they do have a thing with getting these #6-7 d-men playing in their top 4 to overperform there.

[Macho0978]

Interesting that he has Florida way down the list (behind the Oilers) and justifies it because they lost Weegar yet does not give the Flames more credit for adding Weegar.

[VilleN]

Some of the teams that are higher than the Flames are shocking… we should at least be in the Carolina/Vegas tier.

[Macho0978]

Originally Posted by 1qqaaz

The Flames are often at their most disappointing when they have great defense on paper and expectations are not tempered.

Reminds me of 2009-2010.
Or 2015-2016.

I'll be happy if the Flames remain as a top 10 GAA team. Defensive responsibility should be near the core of the team's identity.

The demise of Dion Phaneuf is why the 09/10 Flames d corp was overrated. He quit playing for whatever reason and it cost the Flames big time

[Macho0978]

Originally Posted by VilleN

Some of the teams that are higher than the Flames are shocking… we should at least be in the Carolina/Vegas tier.

Top 5 are pretty stacked IMO and I'm ok with 6th. But I do believe that Weegar has it in him to be a star and he could very easily put us in the top 5. But 6th is ok for now

[djsFlames]

Originally Posted by Macho0978

Top 5 are pretty stacked IMO and I'm ok with 6th. But I do believe that Weegar has it in him to be a star and he could very easily put us in the top 5. But 6th is ok for now

I've never been comfortable with dubbing the Flames D best in the league based on history, anyways.

Best to shoot low. 6th sounds good!

[AustinL_NHL]

Flames D last season (including Weegar/excluding Gudbranson):

- all 6 D in the top 57 for 5v5 points (CAR was the next highest time with 4 D, while COL & NSH only had 2 in the top 57)

- all 6 D in the top 48 for 5v5 Points per 60 (CAR & COL only had 3, while NSH only had 2)

- all 6 D in the top 25 for 5v5 xGF% (CAR was next highest with 4, while COL had 2 & NSH only 1)

Yea, don't mind me for taking the Flames' 1-6 D-core over any in the league every day of the week and twice on Sunday's.

With our incredible two-way play down the middle, best 1-6 D in the league, and Markstrom... my God are the Flames going to be incredible defensively

[iggyloob12]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

Thanks for the link. But this is a crappy web-page full of click-baits and a really shallow meaningless snippets presented as "analysis". There is nothing there even resembling the analysis.

I've always assumed the Hockey Writers was created as a home for "aspiring" hockey writers, not people who are actually employable as hockey writers. This content supports my suspicion.

[NegativeSpace]

Originally Posted by iggyloob12

I've always assumed the Hockey Writers was created as a home for "aspiring" hockey writers, not people who are actually employable as hockey writers. This content supports my suspicion.

They literally re-post other news agencies takes and twitter posts as their own news content. There is nothing original on that site. They seem to have good SEO to get Google to promote their pages.

[EVERLAST]

If only we had the wet Nurse from up North. Oh he's so dreamy that Darnell....with those long arms and knuckles that drag on the ground. He's better than all the Giordanos combined that's just how awesome he is ....he's gonna own us this year......
Bwah ha ha ha ha ha .....not. I love how much they are paying that absolute clown.

[USflamesfan]

Darryl Sutter said in an interview with Francis that Weegar is very similar to Rasmuss Anderson in the way they play. He was very positive about that. So is Tanev and Kylington going to be the 3rd pair?

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by EVERLAST

If only we had the wet Nurse from up North. Oh he's so dreamy that Darnell....with those long arms and knuckles that drag on the ground. He's better than all the Giordanos combined that's just how awesome he is ....he's gonna own us this year......
Bwah ha ha ha ha ha .....not. I love how much they are paying that absolute clown.

Yikes.

[saillias]

Originally Posted by Macho0978

The demise of Dion Phaneuf is why the 09/10 Flames d corp was overrated. He quit playing for whatever reason and it cost the Flames big time

I don't think he quit playing he just lost his skating and hands earlier than usual, perhaps due to injury, we are familiar with this story with Monahan. He was always an offensive D with a mediocre defensive game and when the good part of that equation dried up he was not very effective

[Major Major]

The thing about the Oilers D is that they have been boosted by having a puck moving goalie to help a big weakness of theirs which is transitioning from below their own goal line. Keith was actually their best player at making plays down there. They are going to have a tough time dealing with good forechecking teams. Doesn't help that their two generational centres like to play high in their own zone.

[djsFlames]

Originally Posted by Major Major

The thing about the Oilers D is that they have been boosted by having a puck moving goalie to help a big weakness of theirs which is transitioning from below their own goal line. Keith was actually their best player at making plays down there. They are going to have a tough time dealing with good forechecking teams. Doesn't help that their two generational centres like to play high in their own zone.

I think it's going to be quite a transition for them and it's likely to go poorly. Retrieving pucks themselves and making consistently effective zone exits without Smith there to be a pinball paddle is likely to expose their team D against dogged forecheckers and we know Leon and Conna aren't changing their approaches any time soon to help with that.

Don't tell the Edmonton media that though.

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by 1qqaaz

The Flames are often at their most disappointing when they have great defense on paper and expectations are not tempered.

Reminds me of 2009-2010.
Or 2015-2016.

I'll be happy if the Flames remain as a top 10 GAA team. Defensive responsibility should be near the core of the team's identity.

Those teams were noticeably weaker at forward...the balance wasn't there. I feel like this year's team is pretty well-constructed end to end.

[Sandman]

I wouldn't trade our D core as it stands for any other in the league. Weegar is going to be a much bigger star on this team.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Sandman

I wouldn't trade our D core as it stands for any other in the league. Weegar is going to be a much bigger star on this team.

I would trade ours for Colorado for sure. Because Makar.