[PGT] Weird night in Ottawa. Flames lose 5-4 in SO

[Samonadreau]

Originally Posted by Dion

Hamilton looks like hes 8 feet tall here.

[Samonadreau]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

So we're going to shelter a 22 year old who had 42 points last season, but throw a rookie onto the 2nd pairing and sit/trade Russell?

Hamilton has his best game as a Flame but Nakladal is now ahead of him on the depth chart?

Last time I checked Nakladal wasnt a rookie - hes 27. Hes been playing pro hockey in Europe.

And yes sheltered means he isnt subjected to Widemans defensive shortcomings. Hamilton still gets all the pp time. As he gets more and more used to playing with this team you can expose him a little more. How does this mean Nakladal is ahead of him on the depth chart? Your words not mine.

And who said anything about sitting Russell? The whole point was if you could get some good forward talent in a trade(unless Russell is wiling to take a huge hometown discount).

I like that you totally missed the point.

[Bandwagon In Flames]

Originally Posted by calgaryblood

You'd be the first one complaining if he called a timeout and then the Sens scored a controversial goal we couldn't challenge.

Well don't hold your breath, because that's RARELY going to happen. And when your team loses momentum in the blink of an eye, you most definitely use that damn timeout. Dave Cameron used his when his team wasn't even crumbling.

If you can settle your team down and get them going in the right direction, the hope is that your team will be scoring the next goal and not having to worry about some controversial goal we allowed in addition to the other unanswered goals..

[Ashasx]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

I think you have to put the blame to the players that play the bigger roles. Blaming depth guys Engelland, Bollig, etc is foolish because no team pins their playoff hopes on their bottom pairing or 4th line players. If those players were fantastic it would barely make a difference in the teams fate as long as the top players are playing poorly.

Backlund has been terrible but to be fair he's not alone in that department as the goaltenders, Russell, Wideman have been horrible as well and Giordano, Monahan and Hudler haven't played as well as the team has needed. Of these players mentioned Backlund is the only one that also wasn't very good last season which means this isn't just a bad start this season and it's a trend. I just don't get how he gets so much rope as he's done very little in his career to show that he can be a core player to build a foundation with.

How was Backlund not better than Russell last season?

Russell gets the easiest zone starts on the team, easiest competition, while Backlund gets the hardest in all areas.

When Backlund gets on the ice, he's essentially asked to force the puck into the offensive zone after the Flames have been hemmed in their own end when he's not on the ice. And yet, despite all this, the team somehow holds on to the puck more when he's on the ice?

No other centre on the team can do that. None.

The team would, somehow, be even worse without him.

[Bandwagon In Flames]

And to anyone saying that Hiller had no chance on a couple of the goals, I'm pretty sure you are wrong. Hiller put controllable rebounds into the corner where none of his teammates were. That was responsible for one goal. He starred at a puck that was 1 foot away from him and instead of an EASY pokecheck, he just waits for the player to take control and fire it past him. Those were the 2 goals he 'had no chance on'. The first goal was a bad glove save attempt with no traffic in front and not even a hard shot. The other goal was bad reaction time.

He didn't have to save all 4 of those, but an NHL goalie should be capable of saving at least 1 of those goals.

[Armchair Quarterback]

Why all the freaking out? Look, that was a complete greaseball of a game by both sides. It's too bad we lost it but at least we didn't fold after being scored on twice with two consecutive goals!

Also,
-Calgary finally scored more than three goals;
-Hamilton had a great game;
-Bennett netted his first goal of the season;
-Brodie is back;
- there is a real, observable change on this team that bodes well for the near future.

Not a perfect game, not by a very long shot. But this team is gaining confidence and showed that it can play its game properly. Absolutely loved the effort and play by Colborne, Bennett, Stajan (of all people), Brodie, Frolik, Gaudreau as usual.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Originally Posted by Samonadreau

Last time I checked Nakladal wasnt a rookie - hes 27. Hes been playing pro hockey in Europe.

And yes sheltered means he isnt subjected to Widemans defensive shortcomings. Hamilton still gets all the pp time. As he gets more and more used to playing with this team you can expose him a little more. How does this mean Nakladal is ahead of him on the depth chart? Your words not mine.

And who said anything about sitting Russell? The whole point was if you could get some good forward talent in a trade(unless Russell is wiling to take a huge hometown discount).

I like that you totally missed the point.

Nakladal hasn't played a single NHL game. So........he's a rookie.

If Hamilton is 'sheltered' and on the 3rd pairing with Engelland, then yes, Nakladal would be ahead him on the depth chart.

[Bandwagon In Flames]

Originally Posted by Armchair Quarterback

Why all the freaking out? Look, that was a complete greaseball of a game by both sides. It's too bad we lost it but at least we didn't fold after being scored on twice with two consecutive goals!

Also,
-Calgary finally scored more than three goals;
-Hamilton had a great game;
-Bennett netted his first goal of the season;
-Brodie is back;
- there is a real, observable change on this team that bodes well for the near future.

Not a perfect game, not by a very long shot. But this team is gaining confidence and showed that it can play its game properly. Absolutely loved the effort and play by Colborne, Bennett, Stajan (of all people), Brodie, Frolik, Gaudreau as usual.

There are definitely a lot of positives about this game. But it was equally frustrating to watch us lose against a team who was on a 4 game losing streak themselves. In a game where the Flames clearly outplayed the opposition for 90% of the game.

This team won't go far unless they have more structure and a more reliable goalie. Just gotta hope Ortio can work some magic against Montreal.

[Armchair Quarterback]

Originally Posted by Bandwagon In Flames

There are definitely a lot of positives about this game. But it was equally frustrating to watch us lose against a team who was on a 4 game losing streak themselves. In a game where the Flames clearly outplayed the opposition for 90% of the game.

This team won't go far unless they have more structure and a more reliable goalie. Just gotta hope Ortio can work some magic against Montreal.

Oh yah it was frustrating but watching those young guys step up was a real privilege I have to say.

Baby steps! And Montreal lost to Vancouver so there is always hope

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Armchair Quarterback

Why all the freaking out? Look, that was a complete greaseball of a game by both sides. It's too bad we lost it but at least we didn't fold after being scored on twice with two consecutive goals!

Also,
-Calgary finally scored more than three goals;
-Hamilton had a great game;
-Bennett netted his first goal of the season;
-Brodie is back;
- there is a real, observable change on this team that bodes well for the near future.

Not a perfect game, not by a very long shot. But this team is gaining confidence and showed that it can play its game properly. Absolutely loved the effort and play by Colborne, Bennett, Stajan (of all people), Brodie, Frolik, Gaudreau as usual.

So what you're saying is we're visually better...

[Karl]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

It just blows my mind how much blame Backlund is getting here.

I'm not blaming Backlund for the whole team being bad, but really, he has been bad. It's not only that though. In fact, these last 2 games in particular, he has actually been standout bad even compared to the badness of the rest of the team IMO. Because of how bad he's been, both for his standards and compared to much of the rest of the team, I'm wondering if it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for Backs to be scratched for a game or 2 to be given a mental break, if nothing else.

I'd also like to think we can expect more from Backlund than what he's shown in previous years and not just be stuck as a guy who's mediocre offensively yet great defensively, but if he can't take his game to that next level then fine, he is what he is. Problem is, right now not only is he often not playing well offensively, but he's also been downright AWFUL defensively even compared to others that he should be better than.

[Bandwagon In Flames]

It's hard to argue that Backlund hasn't been terrible offensively. He is good playing 2 of 3 zones (maybe even great), but every time drives the puck into the offensive zone, he just stops up and turns it over within 2 seconds. In the last couple seasons you would see him driving the puck to the net pretty much every game. Now he won't even throw it behind the net unless it's shorthanded.

I think it's something that can be worked out of his game, but it's concerning that he's gone back to being a perimeter player after looking quite promising offensively 2 years ago.

[Samonadreau]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

Nakladal hasn't played a single NHL game. So........he's a rookie.

If Hamilton is 'sheltered' and on the 3rd pairing with Engelland, then yes, Nakladal would be ahead him on the depth chart.

Can he win the calder? Then hes not a rookie. Not much debating that one.Hamiltons obviously has way more upside and a much higher ceiling but if hes playing well with Engelland why would you mess with that, at least in the short term?

[Royle9]

I think most poster's here are worried/negative about last night results because we're starting to sound like oiler's fans and all the hype about "moral" victories.

We're beyond that point IMO, we need results. Wins = Results, sure having individuals have a good game is good news and we can celebrate that but lets not get complacent and start acting like its okay to lose because visually we looked a bit better out there.

Fact of the matter is we lost, we had weak goaltending again and lots of the player's that were singled out in the 10 pages of posts above this one nailed it on the head. (Backlund/Jooris/Bollig/Russel/Wideman etc)

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Samonadreau

Can he win the calder? Then hes not a rookie. Not much debating that one.Hamiltons obviously has way more upside and a much higher ceiling but if hes playing well with Engelland why would you mess with that, at least in the short term?

I believe the cutoff for the Calder is 26 years of age.

Nakladal is not eligible. But who cares about the semantics? This is potentially his first year in the NHL. To me he's a late bloomer rookie. That's all.

And a beauty too.

[Poe969]

Originally Posted by Samonadreau

Can he win the calder? Then hes not a rookie. Not much debating that one.Hamiltons obviously has way more upside and a much higher ceiling but if hes playing well with Engelland why would you mess with that, at least in the short term?

You're arguing semantics. The guy has never played an NHL game so he's a rookie to the NHL. He may have played in Europe but that isn't the NHL.

It's ridiculous that you'd want to have someone who's never played in the league on the second pairing as the NHL is faster and more skilled than anything Nakladal has ever played in. Not much debating that one...

[CaptainCrunch]

Bennett was awesome last night, he's slowly starting to get his confidence

[Samonadreau]

Originally Posted by Poe969

You're arguing semantics. The guy has never played an NHL game so he's a rookie to the NHL. He may have played in Europe but that isn't the NHL.

It's ridiculous that you'd want to have someone who's never played in the league on the second pairing as the NHL is faster and more skilled than anything Nakladal has ever played in. Not much debating that one...

I think it was more not subjecting hamilton to playing with wideman then it was putting Nakladal on the second pairing. Engelland is more of a stay at home guy that allows Hamilton to jump onto the rush. Nakladal is also a stay at home guy (with a cannon for a shot) that would allow Wideman to join the rush. Had a hard time putting Smid with anyone.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Bennett was awesome last night, he's slowly starting to get his confidence

Despite not being the prettiest game, I feel last night was the start of a turnaround. Guys who needed to step up did so. No one more so than young Bennett. What a great outing by the lad. I can see why Hartely calls him pittbull.

I think it's a matter of time before things start clicking again.

[hockey.modern]

This team is a great goalie away from winning games. I hope Ortio can bring that.