[PGT] Canes 4 - Flames 2 FML

[kyuss275]

Originally Posted by Da_Chief

Time to overhaul the lines.

It's not working. Quite honestly this team has 2 top 6 forwards. Then bunch of 3rd/4th liners.

Bennett's C experiment should be over. Also team speed is non-existent.

Gaudreau-Backlund-Frolik
Bennett-Monahan-Brouwer
Shinkaruk-Stajan-Chiasson
Ferland-Bouma-Hamilton
Versteeg

Tkachuk back to OHL.

On defence Hamilton has been awful. There are no options on D.

Giordano-Hamilton
Kulak-Brodie
Jokipakka-Engelland

No one plays more then 20 mins. Even time distribution.

I've been thinking this myself. If Bennett wants to continue trying to go through 3-4 guys and stay at center, you might as well put him on the 4th line till he learns not to do that. He has been the worst center by far. I have liked Brouwers game, but what's the point of having him if his center can't use him?

I agree with your forward lines. Mony is not clicking right now, probably because of back injury. Johnny might as well play with the 2 forwards that seem to understand the system and generate some chances.

I know we laughed at Edmonton when we signed Versteeg under their nose, but from the way Edmonton was going to utilize him, i think they had it right. They had him down on bottom 6 and would not be seeing action every night. I don't mind the signing, but i thought he was going to be brought in for bottom 6, not to play top 6.

I'll give props to Stajan because i thought his career might be coming to a close. Think he should be the 3rd line center.

On D i would change Jokipakka with Kulak, but agree with what you are trying to implement. Sadly because our PP has been so brutal i think Wideman is going to be coming in for Kulak. I don't think its the right move but i understand why they might go to that well.

Elliot has to come up with a couple of big saves. That's what goalies do in today's NHL. Johnson has come up with big saves when needed and is doing a good job as the back-up.

Maybe the system is not right for some of our players, but i have a feeling in this circumstance that the coach will out last some of the players. Brouwer , Frolik and Backs seem to get it. That's 2 of 3 players Trieviling as brought in. Obviously Mony and Johnny are going nowhere. Bennett better get his game together.

[automaton 3]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Though I do love Gulutzan's PP strategy of having the puck carrier rush up to the attacking blue line, only to drop the puck back to a player on our own blue line. Because gaining the zone when the opponent already has four player stacked and three or four of our own guys are now stuck standing around adding to that traffic jam sure is proving effective.

That is driving me crazy. Having 3-4 of our guys lined up up at the blueline standing still is laughably bad, and the results are predictable. This just can't be how they drew it up...

[FiveSeven]

I'll give it till game 10 but after that...
I've never cheered for any NHL team other than the flames, but I might have to find my second favourite team and jump on the wagon just to watch some decent hockey for the season.

Shame.

[automaton 3]

Bennett is trying to do too way too much imo. I'd put him back on the wing with Backlund and Frolik and tell him to drive the net and get back to what has made him successful.

I'd put Tkachuk with Stajan.

I'd put Brouwer with Monahan and Gaudreau.

The "system" is a mess. There were parts of Hartley's system that worked very well for this lineup imo. There was no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

[Firebot]

Originally Posted by automaton 3

That is driving me crazy. Having 3-4 of our guys lined up up at the blueline standing still is laughably bad, and the results are predictable. This just can't be how they drew it up...

It's so irritating to see. the Canes have a pretty bad forward group, yet had a proper zone entry system. They rushed with 3-4 players, passing to the open wing if there was one on the move, pushing it deep if there was none. The whole unit was moving. You have a power play, you have more guys than they have!

Meanwhile, the Flames have 4 guys slowly go up the ice and stop at the blueline, drop the pass to the trailer in Gaudreau or Bennett or whatever, and have him go through a wall that has been clogged up because every single team in the league knows how to defend 1 guy with speed and 4 guys that are pylons. It usually ends up with Gaudreau stick handling through 2-3 guys unsuccessfully and cause a turnover, or be successful and make a bad pass to guys who are not in position yet since they were standing still and cause a turnover.

[Heavy Jack]

Originally Posted by FiveSeven

I'll give it till game 10 but after that...
I've never cheered for any NHL team other than the flames, but I might have to find my second favourite team and jump on the wagon just to watch some decent hockey for the season.

Shame.

5 games... Really?? Come on man, it's bad but it's not that bad, they'll pick it up.

[MarkGio]

The Flames have been bad for a few seasons, and then before they made the playoffs under Hartley, they weren't a playoff team for many years. It's not just 5 games, it's a long term trend.

I think those who watch hockey free of fanaticism all knew this was likely a rebuild team. I'm not surprised by the results at all

[FBI]

Super frustrated.
What the hell is going on with Bennett? He was great in the preseason and this was supposed to be his breakout year sigh.
Our system looks like a joke so far. And it's borrrring.

[vicarious]

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by FBI

Super frustrated.
What the hell is going on with Bennett? He was great in the preseason and this was supposed to be his breakout year sigh.
Our system looks like a joke so far. And it's borrrring.

It's super duper boring.

We generate such low quality shots/chances, it's infuriating. Absolutely brain dead systematic "going through the motions" hockey right now. Our breakout through the neutral zone is incredibly slow. This makes it very easy for them to stand us up at the blue line, forcing either a dump in or Johnny having to try and skate through 2 defenders to gain the zone.

Absolutely horrific.

[cannon7]

Originally Posted by FBI

Super frustrated.
What the hell is going on with Bennett? He was great in the preseason and this was supposed to be his breakout year sigh.
Our system looks like a joke so far. And it's borrrring.

Same thing that's happening to every other player on this team. Trying to do what the coaches tell them, it doesn't work, they get frustrated, start doing too much, frustration compounded, rinse and repeat.

A lot of hockey fans say it's the players on the ice who are ultimately accountable for their play. But if they're surrounded by a broken system it can really end up being 4-5 against 1 -- I can't even count how many times Gaudreau tried to beat four Canes players by himself last night -- largely because his linemates were busy "playing the system".

Gulutzan is really showing immaturity as a coach making such sweeping changes so quickly. Utterly wasted the preseason and now we're five games into a slowly unfolding disaster.

I'll give Gulutzan some credit though, there's been a few periods where it looked like the system worked as intended. The Flames didn't score, mind you, but they didn't give up any goals either. So I'm not saying Gulutzan doesn't have any good ideas, he just doesn't appear to have any idea how to get 23 men on the same page. If he doesn't simplify his system drastically, his tenure will be short.

[FiveSeven]

Yeah maybe like 20 games. But if they don't at least get 2 of the next 5 we're in trouble.

The power play. Entries is one thing. That's the easiest thing to work on but once they get zone control..

They run an overload pp. The problem I see is they don't adapt at all. When you stay in overload the other team just runs tight point and rushes the point or cuts off the pass from halfboafds to point.

Overload is fine to start. It's the usual start to any pp. As you see in last nights game hurricanes started it but then quickly rotates to the 1-3-1 which looks like this.



As you can see it opens up a lot of deflection and rebounding opportunities and you're more likely to maintain control after a save baring a missed net. It also opens up short little cross crease tap ins. I find it to be better for creative players and snipers and good skaters, which our pp has.

I think the lack of adaptation is the key to the problem. The coach is clearly thinking, hey! We have some very good D so we should run overload and use the D as the primary shot generation unless there's an open halfboard player to rush it down low. But then they just either pressure points or clog up middle and block shooting lanes.

Just look at the canes pps when they 1-3-1 and tell me that doesn't look twice as dangerous and fitting for our players vs sending in point blasts?

[Henry Fool]

I really doubt there's anything wrong with the system they're trying to play, it's just that they're still at the stage where they're trying to play it.

That's also partly on the coach. He's the one who has to teach and explain and so on, and if the players aren't learning, he has to notice that in time and adjust his approach until the team is ready to play.

[FiveSeven]

There is really only 3 decent ways to run a pp. 6 if you wanna try weird stuff.
Entries are another thing. Controlled pp entries yield 20% more success then dump and chase but anything trumps faulting.

There was just a study attempting to rate pp formation success. 1-3-1 was the most successful among all. I haven't seen us do that formation in what 22 attempts?

[polak]

If by Game 10 they're still playing like this there needs to be a big shake up. We get to the 20 game mark and we're still playing like this we'll probably be picking 1st OA.

Treliving should be on the hotseat this season too. The only success this team has seen on his watch was Feasters team and a regression like that in year 4 of the rebuild is unacceptable

[belsarius]

Originally Posted by polak

If by Game 10 they're still playing like this there needs to be a big shake up. We get to the 20 game mark and we're still playing like this we'll probably be picking 1st OA.

Treliving should be on the hotseat this season too. The only success this team has seen on his watch was Feasters team and a regression like that in year 4 of the rebuild is unacceptable

Keep up this schtick for Patrick?

too soon?

[Henry Fool]

Originally Posted by polak

If by Game 10 they're still playing like this there needs to be a big shake up. We get to the 20 game mark and we're still playing like this we'll probably be picking 1st OA.

Treliving should be on the hotseat this season too. The only success this team has seen on his watch was Feasters team.

I don't think it will take that many games to start executing the game plan. By game 10 an NHL team should know how they're supposed to play. Hopefully they're not too far behind by then.

[kukkudo]

Originally Posted by belsarius

Keep up this schtick for Patrick?

too soon?

By the end of next month.

[Table 5]

It would be a pretty crappy year to tank. I'd much rather they just fix their problems.

[SofaProfessor]

Wondering what some think about Tkachuk and being with the club as they all learn a new system. Is going through this process with all the ups and downs a good thing for his development or is he better served going back to junior while the veterans he's supposed to be learning from get their act together?

This isn't a question of his ability. I think we've all seen that he has the skill, speed, and size to play in the NHL. Just getting people's thoughts on the young guy in the new system as I'm not really sure how to look at it but I'm curious.