[News] The NHL is back! Almost! (Practice Notes for Feb 18)

[Gordon Bombay]

Originally Posted by Toonage

https://twitter.com/user/status/1891957007885779325

Love those lines.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Which one of Frost/Kadri/Zary will take on the hard matchups? Backlund is the best shot we have in that role. Until they decide otherwise he will keep lining up against the other teams top players.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Reminds me of the time Peter’s and Ward turned Backlund into a winger lol.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by Caged Great

Bahl-Andersson
Solovyov-Weegar
Bean-Pachal

Love these D pairings.

[Bingo]

I personally love the idea of a demoted Mikael Backlund playing three more seasons on the fourth line when he's less effective.

That isn't today.

He's needed as a shut down center.

[kehatch]

Lines are good. I don't love having Rooney on the active roster, but the Flames don't have any better options. Especially on the PK.

[Yanda]

Hopefully Zary takes another step and then we can trade Kadri in the offseason/deadline if they want to roll Zary/Frost/Backlund as the top3 centers.

[Paulie Walnuts]

This team up front and the defence is going to be interesting next year but I’m looking at the next 2-3 we could see some huge turnover.

That defence is going to see a big push coming from the AHL and Zayne. But we have a big grouping of middle 6 forwards that will come into the organization shortly as well. Some of the younger roster players may get pushed out as well.

Plus we have 2 more drafts with 2 1st round picks if we somehow find our #1 center things could look interesting quickly.

[Yanda]

I think were going to regret the length of the Sharingovich contract. I could also see Pospisil being the next Walker Duehr and getting pushed out of the lineup. Agree that Coleman should be traded in the offseason/deadline, we wont be able to develop players if we dont have ice time to give them.

Would Rooney even be on the team if Kirkland was healthy?

[PaperBagger'14]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

Which one of Frost/Kadri/Zary will take on the hard matchups? Backlund is the best shot we have in that role. Until they decide otherwise he will keep lining up against the other teams top players.

Whoever excels at it, rotate through until a candidate emerges. What exactly does Backlund give us the best shot at? Winning the Stanley cup? This team has bigger worries than Backlund playing 3rd or 4th line minutes. Backlund offers us the best shot at barely making the playoffs or missing them by one spot. Not a gleaming review.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by Yanda

I think were going to regret the length of the Sharingovich contract.

I could have told you that. He couldn't crack the lineup in NJ for a reason.

[OldSam]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

Reminds me of the time Peter’s and Ward turned Backlund into a winger lol.

And Peter's insisted his D weren't playing their off side, even though TJ had played that way his ENTIRE career. So his worst season was due to stupidity.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by PaperBagger'14

Whoever excels at it, rotate through until a candidate emerges. What exactly does Backlund give us the best shot at? Winning the Stanley cup? This team has bigger worries than Backlund playing 3rd or 4th line minutes. Backlund offers us the best shot at barely making the playoffs or missing them by one spot. Not a gleaming review.

Well yeah I agree they should be more focused on feeding ice time to the younger guys and focused more on development. But that’s not what they are doing. We go and add 2 more middle 6 players and insiders say they keep looking for another center to add to the middle 6. Not enough room or ice time as is.

They will need to start moving guys out soon. But Backlund also gets the most out of the young players and helps bring them along.

The offseason will be interesting. It was easier to move on from guys with expiring contracts but we need to start to seriously look at moving out Kadri/Coleman and Andersson.

Whatever happens this season really should have zero bearing on it. That too me includes what Wolf is doing. Make the playoffs don’t make it or just barely miss.

[getoverit]

Sharongovich 8 pts last 10 games. Whatever ailed him he seems to finally coming around. Bigger concerns than him at moment

[Yanda]

Whats your guys cut off point at the trade deadline? For me if the Flames are more than 3 points back at the trade deadline then I hope were sellers. (+/- 1PT per game in hand)

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by Yanda

Whats your guys cut off point at the trade deadline? For me if the Flames are more than 3 points back at the trade deadline then I hope were sellers. (+/- 1PT per game in hand)

If you look at the schedule we have what should be 4 easy points and Vancouver has 6.

But I can’t see us selling at the deadline regardless of standings.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

I could have told you that. He couldn't crack the lineup in NJ for a reason.

Lol this guy

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Lol this guy

He played 75 regular season games for the Devils year before trade.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Yanda

Whats your guys cut off point at the trade deadline? For me if the Flames are more than 3 points back at the trade deadline then I hope were sellers. (+/- 1PT per game in hand)

This team doesn’t really have any pending UFA’s of value. There is not much to sell.

You could trade guys with term I suppose, but no rush to do that.

[Party Elephant]

Originally Posted by Bingo

I personally love the idea of a demoted Mikael Backlund playing three more seasons on the fourth line when he's less effective.

That isn't today.

He's needed as a shut down center.

Agree on the shutdown center minutes for sure, but I don't think he needs PP minutes. I would even argue being off the PP would mean he has more energy for his shutdown role.