Ongoing thread for Neal/Lucic discussion

[djsFlames]

Originally Posted by VilleN

I don’t trust what a lot of the media are saying about this trade. They likely didn’t watch Neal last season. If they had, I don’t think they’d be singing the Oilers praises on this trade. We all saw. We all waited for him to turn it around. He sucked. Every. Single. Game.

Yup.

You can only possibly think "this will be great!" if you didn't purposely watch any of his last year of hockey.

Sit the oilers cheerleaders down and run the tape of his most recent hockey and watch their smug excitement drain from their faces. It was bad.

They'd rather live in lala-land though and pretend the season never happened or is somehow exempt when gauging his current potential because a finals hangover lasts a calendar year apparently.

There weren't even flashes of a good NHLer to show he was remotely close to turning a corner from some sort of prolonged fatigue. Nothing.

[ricosuave]

[TheScorpion]

The thing that I think I'm gonna really like about Lucic is his effort. Nobody ever says that Lucic floats. It's one thing that I was so sick of watching with Neal at the end -- he coasted everywhere. Lucic hustles, he clocks guys, and even if he isn't the most talented, I think he's gonna make up for it and become a fan-favourite.

Seriously, I think the Engelland comparison makes a ton of sense.

[stang]

Originally Posted by VilleN

I don’t trust what a lot of the media are saying about this trade. They likely didn’t watch Neal last season. If they had, I don’t think they’d be singing the Oilers praises on this trade. We all saw. We all waited for him to turn it around. He sucked. Every. Single. Game.

Same with Lucic. And even as a tough guy, he was frustrating. None of his hits impacted the game much. He dropped the gloves twice. Mcdavid still got slashed and hooked. He took stupid penalty’s.

I see Neal as RNH winger. I don’t personally see him with Mcdavid a ton. Unless mcdavid blows by everyone circles the net and can catch Neal who is just getting to the slot, I don’t think they play much 5v5 together.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Originally Posted by stang

Same with Lucic. And even as a tough guy, he was frustrating. None of his hits impacted the game much. He dropped the gloves twice. Mcdavid still got slashed and hooked. He took stupid penalty’s.

I see Neal as RNH winger. I don’t personally see him with Mcdavid a ton. Unless mcdavid blows by everyone circles the net and can catch Neal who is just getting to the slot, I don’t think they play much 5v5 together.

Neal on the PP, maybe. Neal on McDavid's wing? Not a chance. The guy looks like he's skating in cement.

Let's be real here........this is a trade of one guy on a bad contract who's underwhelming for another guy on a bad contract who's underwhelming. Both fan bases are hoping this trade will wake their guy up and make him not as useless. Chances are not much will change for either team.

[GullFoss]

The more this settles, the more I'm so excited to have Lucic and Bennett and Tkachuk on the same team. If only we could have one pickly ####### on each line, it would be amazing for the swagger.

Bennett
Tkachuk
Lucic
Lomberg

On the back end too, more than one prickly guy per pairing!
Giordano
Hamonic
Valimaki/Andersson

I think having Lucic will go a long way to changing the character of this team and letting everyone feel like they can and should finish their checks whenever given the opportunity. And where you have 2 prickly guys on the ice the entire game in a league that's gone soft, I think it goes a long way to winning a playoff series.

A guy like Lucic on Calgary against the Avs...maybe he gets 0 points. But he wouldn't have let the flames roll over like a bunch of sissies.

[Barca]

Originally Posted by GullFoss

The more this settles, the more I'm so excited to have Lucic and Bennett and Tkachuk on the same team. If only we could have one pickly ####### on each line, it would be amazing for the swagger.

Bennett
Tkachuk
Lucic
Lomberg

On the back end too, more than one prickly guy per pairing!
Giordano
Hamonic
Valimaki/Andersson

I think having Lucic will go a long way to changing the character of this team and letting everyone feel like they can and should finish their checks whenever given the opportunity. And where you have 2 prickly guys on the ice the entire game in a league that's gone soft, I think it goes a long way to winning a playoff series.

A guy like Lucic on Calgary against the Avs...maybe he gets 0 points. But he wouldn't have let the flames roll over like a bunch of sissies.

the Avs aren't even a tough team though... they have Zadorov, Ian Cole and now Kadri.

Colorado beat the Calgary with speed and skill. the Avs would just skate around Lucic and goad him into penalties imo.

now against a team like the Blues i think is where he can make a difference.

[Red]

Originally Posted by Barca

the Avs aren't even a tough team though... they have Zadorov, Ian Cole and now Kadri.

Colorado beat the Calgary with speed and skill. the Avs would just skate around Lucic and goad him into penalties imo.

now against a team like the Blues i think is where he can make a difference.

The Flames are a speed and skill team, that's how they won the conference. A broken Rantanen had no problems breaking through our soft team. Our top forwards didn't have any desire to fight through the checks, they stayed to the outside. Easiest playoff win Colorado ever had.

Maybe Lucic will bomb here, but IMO we need more players like him (not at his salary of course) than another Austin Czarnik. The Flames scored at will all season long. It all stopped when they faced a team that had a clear plan, intimidate Johnny and Monahan and you shut down the whole team.

[Strange Brew]

Guys like Lucic get more valuable as the playoffs go on IMO. Your first series is often about your stars and goaltending IMO.

[DeluxeMoustache]

Originally Posted by Red

The Flames are a speed and skill team, that's how they won the conference. A broken Rantanen had no problems breaking through our soft team. Our top forwards didn't have any desire to fight through the checks, they stayed to the outside. Easiest playoff win Colorado ever had.

Maybe Lucic will bomb here, but IMO we need more players like him (not at his salary of course) than another Austin Czarnik. The Flames scored at will all season long. It all stopped when they faced a team that had a clear plan, intimidate Johnny and Monahan and you shut down the whole team.

Not only that, but on the defensive side, when you see the videos from the playoffs of James Neal buzzing the tower, arriving late for a good view of a goal, and then on the OT winner in game 4. gliding back without even putting his stick in the passing lane, you wonder how this guy made it to the finals. Playoff games are tight, and if are in what could be a 1 goal game, you can’t afford for a guy who basically doesn’t bother to do his job.

It’s arguably even worse than being short handed, because when you are short handed, the team plays an appropriate structure.

I am even more glad to see Neal out than I originally thought I would be

[BloodFetish]

Originally Posted by jayswin

A lot of people don't know how to properly use 'worse' and 'worst'.

Meh. You shouldn't loose any sleep over it.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by The Cobra

Do you know what the words “even if” mean?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Yes I do, and it still doesn't help you.

[VilleN]

Originally Posted by stang

Same with Lucic. And even as a tough guy, he was frustrating. None of his hits impacted the game much. He dropped the gloves twice. Mcdavid still got slashed and hooked. He took stupid penalty’s.



I see Neal as RNH winger. I don’t personally see him with Mcdavid a ton. Unless mcdavid blows by everyone circles the net and can catch Neal who is just getting to the slot, I don’t think they play much 5v5 together.

If he plays with RNH, get ready for another 20pt season. Playing with McDavid is really Neal’s only hope to get back to being a 20 goal scorer IMO.

[Doctorfever]

Originally Posted by VilleN

If he plays with RNH, get ready for another 20pt season. Playing with McDavid is really Neal’s only hope to get back to being a 20 goal scorer IMO.

This is why I am glad Neal is gone. He simply is not a top 6 player anymore. If he plays with McD, he will drag that line down. He is not good enough defensively to play with RNH, so would drag that line down as well. Neal playing anywhere in oil top 6 is a win for flames fans.

Lucic is not gonna sulk like a 5 year old when he is playing in the bottom 6. He will give it 100 percent effort no matter what.

The Flames bottom 6 is better after this trade. And somehow, and I don’t even know if this is possible, but oil top 6 is no better, or worse.

[Vinny01]

Originally Posted by stang

Same with Lucic. And even as a tough guy, he was frustrating. None of his hits impacted the game much. He dropped the gloves twice. Mcdavid still got slashed and hooked. He took stupid penalty’s.

I see Neal as RNH winger. I don’t personally see him with Mcdavid a ton. Unless mcdavid blows by everyone circles the net and can catch Neal who is just getting to the slot, I don’t think they play much 5v5 together.

If you see Neal as a winger for RNH this trade will be a nice win for Calgary as Neal will be so useless for your team. Neal had plenty of games with superior linemates in Tkachuk and Backlund (not sure who the other winger on the RNH line will be but far worse than Tkachuk guaranteed) and Neal was brutal.

Only McDavid or maybe Draisaitl will be able to get out of Neal what you are hoping for.

[JTech780]

Originally Posted by VilleN

I don’t trust what a lot of the media are saying about this trade. They likely didn’t watch Neal last season. If they had, I don’t think they’d be singing the Oilers praises on this trade. We all saw. We all waited for him to turn it around. He sucked. Every. Single. Game.

I agree. I just watched a video on YouTube from TSN OverDrive, where Goes Miller said that Neal can skate and that he has a great shot, he also said he called the Flames/Avs playoff series. Not sure how you can call that series and come away anything remotely positive to say about Neal.

He was so slow that he couldn't keep up with the play, by the time he entered a zone the play was going the other direction. His great shot was non existent all season, I don't think I seen it once. I mean when the trade happened the best highlight that the sports networks could find was Neal fanning on a one timer and it fluttering over the Penguins goalies glove, that pretty much sums up the goals he scored last year, they were all pretty much fluke goals.

[mikeecho]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

Only McDavid or maybe Draisaitl will be able to get out of Neal what you are hoping for.

... at the expense of Alex Chiasson who just saw his 22 goal season last year drop to 10 (likely less) as the Oilers give Neal every chance to play with McDavid and Draisaitl to give their fans a moral victory.

[Huntingwhale]

The trade is garbage for garbage, no doubt. I struggle to even think of a single 'nice' sniper goal Neal had last season. Pretty sure he had none. Most of them were bounces or garbage goals. None of the nice snipes he's famous for. In fact, I can barely remember any clear cut chances he had where he would be wide open and have time and space to even try to pull of a shot like that. After seeing all the highlights from his previous teams, I struggle to think of a Flames' UFA signing who disappointed so much. Even Brouwer had his occasional flashes of good plays. Before Brouwer got injured his first season, he was actually on his normal career pace.

Neal just sucked....at everything.

At the very least Lucic should bring a few more intangibles to the table. I remember in the various BOA threads people talked about needing to be aware of Lucic when he was on the ice. Neal brought nothing even remotely close like that.

The best thing Neal did was the one game when Smith was sucking bad and he skated to the bench on a timeout, thinking he was going to joke around with the fellows. Instead it showed Neal ripping into him. That was literally his highlight of the season and the best thing he ever did. Sad to say the least.

I'm not expecting much from Lucic. But if he brings even 5% more intensity and intangibles that Neal brought, I'll consider it a win.

I'm cautiously optimistic this trade makes the Flames slightly better. I ripped into BT the day the trade took place. But I've calmed down since and am going to give the GM who got the team into 2nd place the benefit of a doubt.

[Vinny01]

The only Nice goal I remember Neal scoring was the beauty feed from Johnny during the epic comeback against the Avs early in the season

[Badgers Nose]

I'm going to look at this optimistically, if he isn't scoring I think Lucic can bring more to the game besides that. He is not one dimensional. His board play, net presence and violence has value - not enough tp account for his contract hit but more so than Neal when he isn't scoring.

I'd like to have seen whether Neal could bounce back, but it seems like the Flames really wanted to get rid of him so maybe he's not good in the locker room.

If this fails, it might be the deal we remember Tre for. We'll have a long time to regret it.