[GDT] Ongoing 2025 WJC Game Day Thread

[Calgary4LIfe]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

And where did the media have this team at the start of the prior season? In the playoffs with one of the best D groups in the league. What happened? The team was crap and players left in droves. It's amazing how this team can't produce the same offence as much less talented teams and everybody says nothing to see here because Wolf and Vladar have stood on their heads. No elite talent? The team has a winger that always dangled around 100 points and hit 115 and suddenly he forgot how to play hockey and turned into a 50 point player under Sutter/Huska ( same system). Dave Cameron and Ryan Huska are basically the same guy system wise, Huska is just more personable. Neither can coach worth a ####.

I am not sure anyone had the Flames in the playoffs going into last season after the previous season happened. Treliving bolted, Sutter was extended and then promptly let go. Tonnes of rumours of players wanting to leave... but willing to stay if they were highly paid. It was a gong show from the start, but Huska held that team together with scotch tape until the final blows to the roster were dealt.


I can't fathom how you can blame Huska for result of last season, much less players bolting.


Sutter's and Huska's system are not the same. Huska has this team playing zone defence, and Sutter had them playing man-to-man defensively. Offensively, Sutter was an uptempo, high volume shot team, while Huska is up-tempo but less volume and allows for more creativity (and we are tentatively seeing Huberdeau start to re-emerge here). I liked both systems for different reasons, but I have to say that defensively, this system has been MUCH better defensively than Sutter's has.


By all accounts, Huska is very well respected on the team. Maybe Kuzmenko might have a different opinion of him now, but that's on him. Huska on his worst day is miles better than Cameron on his best day.

[FlamesAddiction]

They had Misa, Sennecke, Yakemchuk, and Parekh to put on the team and said; "No thank you". Now they are having trouble scoring.

Nothing against the kids they picked because they don't deserve the hate for the decisions the managers and coaches made.

Maybe it comes together and Canada goes on a run now that the round robin is over and all the critics look dumb. We'll see I guess.

I have always been pretty indifferent when it comes to international hockey and who actually wins, but I never want to see Canada embarrassed either.

[Goriders]

Hard to win games taking 8 or 9 penalties

[Roughneck]

Originally Posted by midniteowl

Is this the least talented team, also have the least heart?

The 2003 team in Halifax was probably the least talented that I remember seeing, but they had a lot of heart (and Fleury had an insane tournament in net with his yellow Screaming Eagles pads). It's kind of weird because the number of regular NHLers the team would go onto have is actually quite high compared to a lot of other teams I would consider more talented. But they played hard and the Halifax crowd was fully behind them. Also probably my favorite era of Canadian jerseys were that 02/03 set. But there is the elephant of the sexual assault allegations that cast a pretty heavy shadow on the nostalgia of that team.

That era of Russian teams just really clicked. In '02 it was Chistov, Frolov and Svitov who looked like men among boys (which is funny for a guy like Chistov, but Svitov truly looked like the second coming of Bobby Holik and worthy of his 3rd Overall selection). Also a lot of Flames reserve list players like Trubachev, Taratukhin (who both scored in the 03 gold medal game) and the infamous duo of Andrei Medvedev and Ruslan Zainullin. Which is weird to think about when we went for so long without any Russians in the system after that.

The 03 Russian team lost their big line but a lot of experience carried over (and the debut of Ovechkin) and were just a really, really good team. I still remember people groaning that Detroit looked to have another breakout star in Igor Grigorenko with how great a tournament he had (also one of the big 'what ifs' of the 2000s given the freak injury and subsequent complications basically derailed his NHL trajectory).

[Aarongavey]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

And where did the media have this team at the start of the prior season? In the playoffs with one of the best D groups in the league. What happened? The team was crap and players left in droves. It's amazing how this team can't produce the same offence as much less talented teams and everybody says nothing to see here because Wolf and Vladar have stood on their heads. No elite talent? The team has a winger that always dangled around 100 points and hit 115 and suddenly he forgot how to play hockey and turned into a 50 point player under Sutter/Huska ( same system). Dave Cameron and Ryan Huska are basically the same guy system wise, Huska is just more personable. Neither can coach worth a ####.

Nobody thought a Flames team that had a significant downgrade in offensive talent going into last season from the year before and failed to make the playoffs the year before was going to make the playoffs last year. No “media experts” that I remember had losing Toffoli from a non playoff team and replacing him with a 13 goal scorer as the missing piece for the Flames.

If you think the players “left in droves” because of Huska you know nothing about the reasons why any of the players left, save the great Zadorov. The players left in droves because Conroy came in with a plan that he has consistently articulated that he would not be caught with his pants down and lose assets for nothing anymore. He has been a man of his word.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by midniteowl

Is this the least talented team, also have the least heart?

Right, they don't even have a hard hitter like Phaneuf ('05) or Tootoo ('03 team mentioned above) running Russians into the boards.

And if they picked 20 responsible and defensive players, that'd be ok too, except they lead the tournament in penaties!

[midniteowl]

Originally Posted by Roughneck

The 2003 team in Halifax was probably the least talented that I remember seeing, but they had a lot of heart (and Fleury had an insane tournament in net with his yellow Screaming Eagles pads). It's kind of weird because the number of regular NHLers the team would go onto have is actually quite high compared to a lot of other teams I would consider more talented. But they played hard and the Halifax crowd was fully behind them. Also probably my favorite era of Canadian jerseys were that 02/03 set. But there is the elephant of the sexual assault allegations that cast a pretty heavy shadow on the nostalgia of that team.

Yeah, I remembered watch Fleury and his pads with my nephew. We ended up calling him Banana Boy because of his pads. And yes, that team played with a lot of heart! IDK is it because of my distaste of Dave Cameron, I just don't see heart with this team.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Look, they deliberately brought an entire team of players who can kill penalties. What sense would it make to not take advantage of your biggest strength by spending a bunch of time on the PK?

[midniteowl]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Right, they don't even have a hard hitter like Phaneuf ('05) or Tootoo ('03 team mentioned above) running Russians into the boards.

And if they picked 20 responsible and defensive players, that'd be ok too, except they lead the tournament in penaties!

Exactly! They can't defense, they can't kill penalty, they can't score PP. They are just a bunch not so talented individuals playing an individual game.

[Reggie Dunlop]

They should all be stripped of their citizenship.

[FBI]

Dis if the flames make the playoffs would you concede that Huska is not a bad coach?

[Groot]

N/m

[Groot]

Originally Posted by FBI

Dis if the flames make the playoffs would you concede that Huska is not a bad coach?

If this Flames squad makes the playoffs he should be a Jack Adams nominee.

[SutterBrother]

Originally Posted by Groot

If this Flames squad makes the playoffs he should be a Jack Adams nominee.

Kiss of death.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

And if they picked 20 responsible and defensive players, that'd be ok too, except they lead the tournament in penaties!

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Look, they deliberately brought an entire team of players who can kill penalties. What sense would it make to not take advantage of your biggest strength by spending a bunch of time on the PK?

I know you're kidding CHL, but that's the thing, they tried to build a team that could play a 200 ft game. Turns out that not only can the team not score, but they are extremely undisciplined and have taken 22 penalties in 4 games, by far the most, and 7 more than the average of the other teams. But the cherry on top is that they also can't kill penalties, running 6th in the tournament at 77%.

They scored 3 PP goals and gave up 5 shorthanded goals - I wonder how often they have been under water on special teams in the round robin portion of the tourney? Not often, that is a certainty.

[Royle9]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

They scored 3 PP goals and gave up 5 shorthanded goals - I wonder how often they have been under water on special teams in the round robin portion of the tourney? Not often, that is a certainty.

The stat I heard was worst team in over 2 decades.
Just an absolute dumpster fire.

I fully expect Cameron to land a job in Edmonton soon.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by Royle9

I fully expect Cameron to land a job in Edmonton soon.

Don't threaten me with a good time!

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Aarongavey

Nobody thought a Flames team that had a significant downgrade in offensive talent going into last season from the year before and failed to make the playoffs the year before was going to make the playoffs last year. No “media experts” that I remember had losing Toffoli from a non playoff team and replacing him with a 13 goal scorer as the missing piece for the Flames.

If you think the players “left in droves” because of Huska you know nothing about the reasons why any of the players left, save the great Zadorov. The players left in droves because Conroy came in with a plan that he has consistently articulated that he would not be caught with his pants down and lose assets for nothing anymore. He has been a man of his word.

Both TSN and SN had the Flames as a WC team making the playoffs.

[Aarongavey]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Both TSN and SN had the Flames as a WC team making the playoffs.

Are there any links to that? I certainly do not remember that.

I do remember Huska basically having them in the playoff hunt until the Hanifin trade though.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Aarongavey

Are there any links to that? I certainly do not remember that.

I do remember Huska basically having them in the playoff hunt until the Hanifin trade though.

The TSN and SN pages I can't seem to find. Here is NHL.com results though. I definitely remember both networks on their preview show picking Calgary as a WC team.
https://www.nhl.com/news/stanley-cup...-24-nhl-season