[PGT] Flames lose 2-1 to Red Wings

[skcli]

Originally Posted by Goriders

This team is not making the playoffs. There’s something fundamentally wrong with it.

Reshuffle in the offseason and try again next year. Still have some good pieces. They just don’t work well together.

Good take. This team is going nowhere. They should tank now and see how high they can pick.

[Goriders]

Originally Posted by NewFan

Next game, please put Pelletier with Dube and Lindholm. Pelletier may work with Lindholm as he plays like Tkachuk but less physical.

I think they should put Vladar and Markstrom on D and roll some of the skaters through the goal so they can get a taste of being hung out to dry.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

They can still cash in on Lindholm, Hanifin, and potentially Mangiapane if they wanted to

Kadri will be a nice leader for the young kids

Huberdeau.... well hopefully he improves so we can ship him out for nothing

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

I think Treliving is a good at assessing present and past play. Can’t manage or predict future play. And that will not be exclusively his fault, but that’s why at the time all his deals make sense but as time goes on they almost never work. Gotta be a bit of a fortune teller in this industry.

Flames are not making the playoffs and need to try and collect picks now. Face reality time.

And wow, that Huberdeau contract could be in contention as the worst of the decade. Yikes. Dude is the Russell Wilson of the NHL. He honestly could be benched, and we wouldn’t skip a beat. He actually should sit for a couple games and pull his head out of his ass.

Yeah, he's proven two or three too many times to be a poor predictor of future trends

There are a handful of guys around the league who have a sense for player trajectories. Like the folks that signed Tage Thompson to 7x7 a year before he broke out

[Burning Beard]

Watch this team squeak into the playoffs and go on a cup run. I'm calling it now so you can quote me when it happens.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

Originally Posted by Burning Beard

Watch this team squeak into the playoffs and go on a cup run. I'm calling it now so you can quote me when it happens.

That's probably exactly what will happen... as soon as everybody tunes out/gives up

[Burning Beard]

Originally Posted by TrentCrimmIndependent

That's probably exactly what will happen... as soon as everybody tunes out/gives up

The bandwagon will be hilarious.

[skcli]

Originally Posted by Burning Beard

Watch this team squeak into the playoffs and go on a cup run. I'm calling it now so you can quote me when it happens.

LOL! i I admire your optimism.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

Originally Posted by Burning Beard

The bandwagon will be hilarious.

I'll be mad, then be kissing Daryl's feet moments later

watch this rag tag group of misfits sneak into a WC on the back of OTLs, then Kylington pops out of nowhere, they dethrone the first place, then avenge the BOA in convincing fashion, and then looch and zadarov bully the Avalanche as they pull off a 2012 Kings run

[dammage79]

I still hold to my opinion that it's okay for this year to be a write off. Still too much upheaval to get over in a single season. And there's still more big change coming.

The tightrope walk will be navigating this coming off-season. I'm putting a lot of my faith in the Flames for next year.

[Goriders]

Originally Posted by trentcrimmindependent

that's probably exactly what will happen... As soon as everybody tunes out/gives up

100%

[Classic_Sniper]

Originally Posted by Kasi

Yeah I’m sure that checking like fiends worked when Johnny took a look at checking Drai or at least shadowing him and curled back up to the blue line and let McDavid go in unopposed for the series winner. Fiend like play for sure.

The line was a collective +182, numbers that haven’t been seen since Gretzky in the 80’s. They checked well collectively as a trio and Johnny especially so in the offensive zone and the neutral zone.

We don’t need to pretend that Johnny was elite defensively in his own zone though, his weakness was always the half wall. Lindholm and to a lesser extent Tkachuk drove the bus in the dzone. These guys obviously weren’t perfect as individual plsyers, but as I said constantly last season, the trio hid each other’s weaknesses while enhancing each other’s strengths, that’s what made them special.

[memphusk]

Originally Posted by Classic_Sniper

The line was a collective +182, numbers that haven’t been seen since Gretzky in the 80’s. They checked well collectively as a trio and Johnny especially so in the offensive zone and the neutral zone.

We don’t need to pretend that Johnny was elite defensively in his own zone though, his weakness was always the half wall. Lindholm and to a lesser extent Tkachuk drove the bus in the dzone. These guys obviously weren’t perfect as individual plsyers, but as I said constantly last season, the trio hid each other’s weaknesses while enhancing each other’s strengths, that’s what made them special.

Yeah everyone has some weak spots and those guys worked for each other also.

[Kasi]

I think there is some of that and I think some good puck luck and also some farming on lesser competition. I agree they were special but I certainly don’t think they were the best line in thirty years or the best line in the league last year.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

I think they were pretty special

Turns out Matthew and Johnny were pretty exceptional in their own right given what they've shown now on different teams

Both guys were catalysts who could stir the drink, which is why that line was going much more often than not

And lindholm an exceptional complementary piece for two players like that

I can't really figure out why they were pedestrian vs a soft Oilers team that routinely made defensive blunders when pressured though

Tkachuk beating himself up vs Dallas fighting probably had a lot to do with it

[Classic_Sniper]

Originally Posted by Kasi

I think there is some of that and I think some good puck luck and also some farming on lesser competition. I agree they were special but I certainly don’t think they were the best line in thirty years or the best line in the league last year.

Personally, I think they were the best line last season and it wasn’t even close. If Gaudreau and Tkachuk played as many minutes as Connor McDavid last season, then Johnny would’ve easily lead the league in scoring with 137 points and Matthew at 128 and both would’ve been in the +70’s. It’s absurd what these guys did with the limited ice time they were given.

Obviously their playoff stats would’ve been less spectacular, but that duo would easily have the Flames sitting in the top seed of the Pacific right now instead of outside the playoffs battling for the last wild card spot while losing to garbage rebuilding teams.

[zamler]

Originally Posted by Burning Beard

Watch this team squeak into the playoffs and go on a cup run. I'm calling it now so you can quote me when it happens.

Avatar bet, loser sports winners choice for 1 year.

[Kasi]

I don’t think you can just scale a players minutes and expect them to get their stats prorated like that. We’ve seen with McDavid that even he gets gassed when they’re playing him 25-30 minutes a game. Sure they would have scored more but likely not too much more. I do agree they’d be battling for the top right now with those two but that’s partly because the gap between 1-5 just isn’t that big right now. Still I think that line was a bit too one dimensional to really compare to other top lines like Colorado or a couple others. I agree it’s likely the best line Calgary has ever had and they were likely a top three line last year but too many warts in their game for me to call them the best.

[Goriders]

I listened to the barn burner episode.

Flames outshot the Redwings 28-7 in 5 on 5 play. Redwings had 6 scoring chances. The Flames had 5. That pretty much sums up the season. The Flames have to put way more work in to get a similar result. It’s a hard way to play.

Thanks to all of the other losses tonight they are still in the race. Minnesota and Colorado keep propping up their chances. So you never know. But for many different reasons this team doesn’t instil a lot of confidence that they are going to come through when it matters.

[Azhouse]

Originally Posted by Kasi

Yeah I’m sure that checking like fiends worked when Johnny took a look at checking Drai or at least shadowing him and curled back up to the blue line and let McDavid go in unopposed for the series winner. Fiend like play for sure.

Ugggh. That I don’t miss. Tkachuk padded his stats in the first game of the Oilers series but other than that he was a ghost as well.