Monahan is so intriguing.
He's not fast, mean, or huge. He's also not the greatest at passing.
But somehow he gets it done. I don't know.
He has been remarkably consistent this year. And he has always been great in front of the net.
Most of Monahan's skills are just merely good, with only his shot and his intelligence being great. It's weird though that he doesn't really have any areas of weakness in his game. That's why he's so boring because he does everything well, albeit unspectacularly so. It's so deceptive because he doesn't have the normal characteristics for a star forward. He doesn't have Gaudreau's slick hands, Ovechkin's booming 1 timer, McDavid's speed. He's always just in the right spot, ready to pick the corners with his shots.
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I have long thought that Monahan's passing skills are badly under-rated. And his shot is deadly.
This. Mony has been so under rated at times especially his playmaking abilities abs vision. If you look at his career stat line he proves to be a balanced scorer up until this point in his career:
Oh, come on. He was fine. I really like Kulak, but there was NOTHING wrong with the Flames defensive play tonight, Bartkowski included.
I am very happy with the response in an excellent game, but two things:
1) The Flames miss the net a lot.
2) The Flames looked MUCH tighter defensively tonight than in any game with Smith in goal. Does the team feel too confident with Smith in goal?
Re: #2 - could it be that the D is more focused on moving up ice for the breakout pass from Smith than coming back to clear rebounds, provide short pass options or take space away from opposing forwards?
Anyway - it was great to see the team play that well in front of a backup. Seems to me the biggest thing with finding that backup to spell Smith is finding a guy who is steady and who the team will play well in front of, and in that last game, Rittich fit the bill
these refs need to do their job and call the game and not decide who should get penalties based on what they think of the player.... a ref that wont call a game properly because he is picking based on the player needs to be turfed.
So they should turf all of them? Sounds good to me.
I'm just watching him closely trying to figure out what the hell is going wrong. The more you watch the uglier it gets.
Anyway, I'll lay off Bennett if he's deemed a sacred cow.
Just brought it up because nobody's mentioned it. But two games on a row colliding with your linemate and that linemate shaking his head after? Seems like a notable point of discussion no?
I'll come to your defense a little. It bothered me too.
What I notice is that Bennett doesn't always read the play well with Jagr and clearly doesn't know where Jagr is going to end up. I often see Bennett go to the same spot on the ice as Jagr instead of moving to an open area and wait for a pass from him. The collisions are a result of him not thinking the game well enough and just going after pucks. He still has all the tools, but it seems that the mental part of the game is escaping him so far.
Conversely, Jankowski has fit right in with Jagr and always seems to know what to do with him. That high hockey IQ is the reason why I think Jankowski is going to be a helluva player in time.
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The most under rated thing about Monahan is how well he plays with Gaudreau. A big bodied guy with a top notch shot who can get to scoring areas is the perfect complement for a player like Gaudreau.
Nice to see a backup come in and only give up 2 goals.
For a team that seems to be spinning it's wheels, they've still started out okay. If the lower end of the lineup can start contributing this could be a good squad.
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For a team that seems to be spinning it's wheels, they've still started out okay.
This isn’t directed at you but I sure see a lot of this type of narrative. Calgary is 7-3-1 in November. They are a very good team. I sure wouldn’t say they are spinning their wheels. I don’t understand what people expect from the team and the coach and the GM. It’s like we can’t be pleased around here to have a legit contending team. So many posters want to focus on the negative. I’ve had enough negative times being a Flames fan. I’m enjoying the hell out of this team.
Unless people feel that Calgary can’t contend for the cup this season? I believe that they are going to be a scary good playoff team and I sure wouldn’t want to face them.
Enjoy it people.
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This isn’t directed at you but I sure see a lot of this type of narrative. Calgary is 7-3-1 in November. They are a very good team. I sure wouldn’t say they are spinning their wheels. I don’t understand what people expect from the team and the coach and the GM. It’s like we can’t be pleased around here to have a legit contending team. So many posters want to focus on the negative. I’ve had enough negative times being a Flames fan. I’m enjoying the hell out of this team.
Unless people feel that Calgary can’t contend for the cup this season? I believe that they are going to be a scary good playoff team and I sure wouldn’t want to face them.
Enjoy it people.
100% this!
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I thought Bart was actually have a solid game right up to the point where he took the delay of game and cost us the lead, at which point I wanted to strap him to a rocket directed at the sun.
Up until then though he was pretty decent. Battling hard on the boards, didn't make any stupid passes, minded his own end. But then clears the puck over the glass... SMH.
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Rittich has been rock solid since the Flames plucked him out of the Czech leagues. What a find. I know a lot of people on CP are high on Gillies, but this guy has only impressed in a Flames uniform.
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For those that didn't get to see his interview on after hours
This clip led me down a YouTube wormhole that included the 2005 Canucks series( thank you AC) There observations:
1. The game has changed substantially in the last 3 years with stick infractions.
2. Ferland was an absolute wrecking ball with Stajan and Jones. Some really great chemistry among them.
3. Lack did not get his "too deep in the net syndrome" from Carolina. He challenged more aggressively back then, but was still prone to being too deep in his net.
It's funny how in hindsight and based only on highlights teams appear a lot better than they seemed at the time. Somewhere in there, there is likely a good lesson for those (myself included) that get too high after losses and too low after wins.
This isn’t directed at you but I sure see a lot of this type of narrative. Calgary is 7-3-1 in November. They are a very good team. I sure wouldn’t say they are spinning their wheels. I don’t understand what people expect from the team and the coach and the GM. It’s like we can’t be pleased around here to have a legit contending team. So many posters want to focus on the negative. I’ve had enough negative times being a Flames fan. I’m enjoying the hell out of this team.
Unless people feel that Calgary can’t contend for the cup this season? I believe that they are going to be a scary good playoff team and I sure wouldn’t want to face them.
Enjoy it people.
This!! At the end of the season outside of 3-4 outliers on either end, all teams will be separated by 6-8 points. That is a 3-4 game swing over an 82 game season. Each team will have their ups and downs. There will be games where it feels like your team isn't at their best and it will be the result of the other team finding a way to put together a game where everything goes right. There will be games where you dominate, but it will be the result of more plays working out than average. The whole reality of a league with parity is that in most cases all teams fans will feel: unlucky, cheated by the Refs, like every rookie dominates them, like every steak gets broken against them etc. While there are some statsical anomalies, the reality is that the difference between being on the outside looking in and on the inside looking up comes down to those same 3-4 games.
A 6-3-1 record for every 10 game segment would put us at the top of the division with 106 points. It is easy to lose sight of that in the emotion of a loss. Great Post SportsJunky!!
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This!! At the end of the season outside of 3-4 outliers on either end, all teams will be separated by 6-8 points. That is a 3-4 game swing over an 82 game season. Each team will have their ups and downs. There will be games where it feels like your team isn't at their best and it will be the result of the other team finding a way to put together a game where everything goes right. There will be games where you dominate, but it will be the result of more plays working out than average. The whole reality of a league with parity is that in most cases all teams fans will feel: unlucky, cheated by the Refs, like every rookie dominates them, like every steak gets broken against them etc. While there are some statsical anomalies, the reality is that the difference between being on the outside looking in and on the inside looking up comes down to those same 3-4 games.
A 6-3-1 record for every 10 game segment would put us at the top of the division with 106 points. It is easy to lose sight of that in the emotion of a loss. Great Post SportsJunky!!
Well said sir.
For myself i break everything down 10 game segments so it reflects overall scope. If your on the plus side of 5 to 6 segments you should make the playoffs.
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