Take away the captain, and leader, and nice guy...and even the chewer of defensive minutes....the biggest loss with him out of the lineup this year is his momentum changing abilities on the offensive side that has lead to so many comebacks.
Those are mainly the unorthodox pinching abilities in the offensive zone...and joining the rush actively. How often this year has he held the line, or gone in, 5 on 5, into the corner without hesitation to keep the puck in the zone? Or made it a 4 on 2? Either a goal or a solid chance out of it, it changed the energy of the game. Also, it's been effective because it's not in the text book, or expected by the opponent. He can do it because he's very smart, has that element of surprise, but also has the skating ability to make it back if things go sideways.
That pinching or jumping up directly created chances, and very often just changed the energy....this team feeds off that energy more than any other Flames team in a long time, given the lack of a proper second line.
Yes, Brodie posses some of the same qualities, so does Wideman in some regard. But with both Gio and Brodie on the same line doing that, it kept the other team on its toes. How many of those third period comebacks are started, maybe subtly, with a smart Gio offensive play to keep the play alive which ends up in a goal 15 seconds later on the 4-2 goal, where the Flames take the game over and score 2 more.
His ability to do those things is not going to be replaced by the guys left on the roster...Brodie will not be able to generate that dual threat ability all by himself and there is no one else on the defensive roster that possesses the smarts and ability.
Thus, the Flames offensive game is in HUGE trouble, at least without the forwards stepping up, past the first line, to generate a whole lot more than they've shown the last 2 or 3 weeks...and that's also assuming that the defensive side of the puck remains constant.
Also, maybe useful to revisit the play on the injury...a very dangerous play that was completely intentional, catching Gio at the top of his wind-up.
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Welcome to the rebuild, it will require more patience than two years.
How does it not set us back in the future to spend picks?
Because it's not going to require 6 picks in the first three rounds to draft someone promising in the area we need (top 4 projecting defenders). You could deal half of those to grab an established player to help lead the offense now and the next couple seasons and draft your d-man with the remaining picks. We have 80% of the core we need established, they just need to mature, it's not going to take boat loads of picks to find the rest at this point.
I wonder how serious is a surgery like this is? Is there a chance he will be adversely impacted long term? Am I worrying over nothing?
Not that I want to speculate without knowing any real info...
The repair can be easy or it can be difficult. The best case scenario is that the ends are not horsetailed and you can just sew it directly. Worst case scenario is having tattered ends that you have to retubularize... and if it's too short to pull to length, you may have to do a local autogenous graft (which can take a while to incorporate). Or if the tear is too close to the bone, may have to employ a mitek anchor.
Hoping for the best. The simpler, the better.
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Because it's not going to require 6 picks in the first three rounds to draft someone promising in the area we need (top 4 projecting defenders). You could deal half of those to grab an established player to help lead the offense now and the next couple seasons and draft your d-man with the remaining picks. We have 80% of the core we need established, they just need to mature, it's not going to take boat loads of picks to find the rest at this point.
And you aren't drafting a top-4 defensemen that will do you any good in the immediate/near future with ANY of the picks we've got.
If they don't package them for a top-5 pick, they likely are 5 years away from them developing.
We basically have to hope and pray that Wotherspoon/Kulak/Culkin can take a huge step next year or get outside help.
We are a better destination for FAs this year than we were last year, so that's good news.
Also, maybe useful to revisit the play on the injury...a very dangerous play that was completely intentional, catching Gio at the top of his wind-up.
The really unfortunate thing was that it was a completely freak play at the end of the game. I still remember watching the sequence live -- after Monahan wins the draw, Gio takes that huge windup, which I thought was odd because you don't really see that very often. If the draw is a tie, or the puck gets to Gio a half second quicker...
The really unfortunate thing was that it was a completely freak play at the end of the game. I still remember watching the sequence live -- after Monahan wins the draw, Gio takes that huge windup, which I thought was odd because you don't really see that very often. If the draw is a tie, or the puck gets to Gio a half second quicker...
Not so freak...Bernier sticks his stick under Gio's arm, basically intentionally trying to blocking/preventing a proper follow through from Gio. However, considering how torqued Gio's arm was on a big slapshot, and then the arm violently twisting unexpectedly thanks to his arm/follow through impeded by Bernier stick, something had to give in that awkward angle, and it was his muscle unfortunately.
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Haha. I was actually told a tear at the elbow was pretty rare. I assume that is Gio's injury as well. A tear at the shoulder is more common but less likely to be repaired surgically, but that probably doesn't apply to a pro athlete.
Me too. This is what they did for my repair:
Last edited by Buck Murdock; 03-02-2015 at 09:58 PM.
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What a tough season. No playoffs, no McDavid/Eichel/Provorov, Mason Raymond and Deryk Engelland over Sven Baertschi and Tyler Wotherspoon. No Sam Bennett. *sigh* now Ramo is gonna finish the season off on a Vezina tare and we're stuck with Hiller, I bet.
I think it's been a fantastic season, personally
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Because it's not going to require 6 picks in the first three rounds to draft someone promising in the area we need (top 4 projecting defenders).
This is great news, and somewhat of a revelation.
So what you're saying is... we don't need that many draft picks because we can just select the players that we're going to need with our own pics and then have them assuredly develop into roster spots eventually rendering the additional picks superfluous.
Why do we need more picks at all? Hopefully you can share your sure-fire selections with the scouts to be sure they put these single picks to good use.
Hopefully this secret doesn't get out to other teams.
Because it's not going to require 6 picks in the first three rounds to draft someone promising in the area we need (top 4 projecting defenders).
The object of the draft is not to draft someone promising. The object is to draft guys who turn into NHL players, and the majority of draft picks don't pan out.
Your attitude reminds me of the silly old joke about the stingy Scotsman who bought two lottery tickets. One of them won the big prize, and suddenly he was a millionaire; but he didn't seem very happy about it.
‘Sandy,’ a friend asked him, ‘why so glum?’
‘Hoot, mon,’ said the Scotsman. ‘'Tis the other ticket. Why I ever bought it I canna imagine.’
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Back in 2003, the Predators selected defenseman with their first three picks (wouldn't be a bad idea for the Flames to do the same this year)
their first pick was Ryan Suter, the 2nd pick was Kevin Klein, but the third pick was the best of the bunch, Shea Weber. You never know how things will turn out. Sometimes you'll get lucky and acquire 3 good players like Nashville did. Sometimes you'll strike out.
For the Flames, the 2011 draft's best player was our 4th draft pick and the first one got dealt today.
Nothing is ever guaranteed, all you can do is throw as many darts at the board that you can and hope you hit the bullseye every once in a while like they did with Brodie and Gaudreau.
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Not so freak...Bernier sticks his stick under Gio's arm, basically intentionally trying to blocking/preventing a proper follow through from Gio. However, considering how torqued Gio's arm was on a big slapshot, and then the arm violently twisting unexpectedly thanks to his arm/follow through impeded by Bernier stick, something had to give in that awkward angle, and it was his muscle unfortunately.
Bernier getting worked up on twitter being called out on it. P%$#y
The really unfortunate thing was that it was a completely freak play at the end of the game. I still remember watching the sequence live -- after Monahan wins the draw, Gio takes that huge windup, which I thought was odd because you don't really see that very often. If the draw is a tie, or the puck gets to Gio a half second quicker...
It wasn't a freak play at all. He was clearly winding up to rim the puck and Bernier just shoved in his stick with the ol' can opener.
