[PGT] Calgary Flames 2 Washington Capitals 3 (OTL - Shootout)

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Bonded

Put Huberdeau on the Blue Jackets last season and +/- is probably the same. They were second last in the league while the Flames were a bubble team. +/- is only useful when comparing teammates and all the regulars got smoked. Jenner was -32. Peeke was -41.
Kadri is a good example from last year on the Flames. Worst +/- on the team.

Huberdeau would have had more points and more minuses there in all likelihood.

just saying people are having delusions of grandeur when it comes to Gaudreau...he was equally poor to Huberdeau last season
"Second last in the league" is supposed to be a pro Gaudreau argument lol? I thought he went there to help them win not make them worse

Huberdeau played a pretty solid defensive game last season...Gaudreau floated and cheated for points, his coach even called him out on it multiple times

[Manhattanboy]

Flames might very well scratch and claw their way to a playoff spot this year only to run into the same problems in Round 1 - can't hold a lead, can't get a timely power play goal.

Those two issues alone, which have dogged this team for so long now, are going to drive me nuts.

[dino7c]

Flames need to absolutely put teams away when they dominate a period like that...that is where they lost the game, not by hitting the post/crossbar in the shootout

[AFireInside]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Yeah the team doesn't drive the middle of the ice.

Huberdeau has the talent to hit a guy who was driving to the net in full steam. That's how he got a lot of his points in Florida.

None of the Flames drive the middle of the ice, it's actually a bit annoying at this point, that's where you score the goals.

This is exactly it. They don't really have any players that drive the net, it's one of the biggest problems, Everyone is floating.


Mangiapane has never really worked anywhere but with Backlund. At this point I'd rather see Coronato, or even Duehr with Huberdeau than Mangiapane. I was hoping that Mangiapane's shoulder issues were his biggest problem last year but it doesn't seemt to be the case, granted it's a limited sample and I'm hoping it's just growing pains with a new coach system.

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Huberdeau would have had more points and more minuses there in all likelihood.

just saying people are having delusions of grandeur when it comes to Gaudreau...he was equally poor to Huberdeau last season
"Second last in the league" is supposed to be a pro Gaudreau argument lol? I thought he went there to help them win not make them worse

Huberdeau played a pretty solid defensive game last season...Gaudreau floated and cheated for points, his coach even called him out on it multiple times

I think both are flawed and neither will be the ones to lead a team to victory but Gaudreau really ran into problems in playoffs when the games got tighter and it was harder for him to create space. Whereas I haven't seen Huberdeau come anywhere close to driving a line and creating offence. The Flames have a Tanguay with no Iginla.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

People loving Johnny now that he is gone, and only remembering his 115 point season is hilarious.

Many nights he wasn't lifting anyone out of their seats and if they did get it up it was to curse the screen for his turnovers or poor effort.

It wasn't always rosy and he was here for what 600 games.

Huberdeau has been here for 85 games and you get all this moaning and dumb comments calling him James Neal. Neal was shipped off as soon as possible. Huberdeau is wearing a letter.

You never watched any games then. The Dweeb was one of the most entertaining players in the league when he was here. Way more exciting than Mc1stspeed.

[SeanCharles]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

People loving Johnny now that he is gone, and only remembering his 115 point season is hilarious.

Many nights he wasn't lifting anyone out of their seats and if they did get it up it was to curse the screen for his turnovers or poor effort.

It wasn't always rosy and he was here for what 600 games.

Huberdeau has been here for 85 games and you get all this moaning and dumb comments calling him James Neal. Neal was shipped off as soon as possible. Huberdeau is wearing a letter.

I still remember everyone wanting him and Tkachuk gone the season before. If we would have handed out big deal contracts after that season everyone would have lost it.

The perception of things changes very quickly in the minds of most fans.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by SeanCharles

I still remember everyone wanting him and Tkachuk gone the season before. If we would have handed out big deal contracts after that season everyone would have lost it.

The perception of things changes very quickly in the minds of most fans.

Yep, we do have post history lol

Colorado series, Canadian div season, heck even their last division title season they lost the first two games and it was "bottom five team"

[HighLifeMan]

We are three games into the year. We found a way to win game one despite being heavily outplayed for 2 1/2 periods, yet that is all but forgotten now since we easily outplayed a team and lost. "Same as last year", well, no, not really - the results have fluctuated in each game, it's far too early to say one way or the other.

The negativity is insufferable amongst this fanbase at the moment. The team played well - much, much better than it did when they beat Winnipeg. We are three games into a season under a new (rookie) head coach and have gotten better in each game. Is it a dream start? certainly not, but let's not act as if we are 0-3.

If you want to complain about something or somebody it should be Nazem Kadri who has flat out has been a complete liability and this teams worst forward by a significant margin through three games. Now, usually you don't want to put too much emphasis on a three game sample size, but it's seriously concerning considering his finish to last year. Quite frankly, he looks like a player who has no interest in competing on a nightly basis. I'd seriously considering moving him to the wing if his efforts and attention to details don't seriously improve in short order.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Beninho

I was only 11-12 years old when Tanguay played on the team but I am incorrect in saying Huberdeau is like a carbon copy of him? Definitely not the player the Flames thought they were getting.

It's worse, Tanguay never made Gaudreau money (the highest played player on the team). What an over-reaction because Treliving got kicked in the balls. Kadri was an additional over-reaction.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Manhattanboy

Flames might very well scratch and claw their way to a playoff spot this year only to run into the same problems in Round 1 - can't hold a lead, can't get a timely power play goal.

Those two issues alone, which have dogged this team for so long now, are going to drive me nuts.

At least the 'giving up a weak early goal backbreaker' problem has been solved, for three games

[Strange Brew]

I'm not sitting here pining for Gaudreau. Now the fact that he is making $750K less and 2 years less term on his deal would be something I'd like.

[Bingo]

Looking at Kadri's early deployment there could be some good news ...

Kadri with Coronato, Sharangovich or Huberdeau is a disaster (35-50% decrease in expected goals for those players with #91

But upticks for Ruzicka, Dube and Lindholm (limited minutes)

Maybe they've found a mix.

[Heavy Jack]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Looking at Kadri's early deployment there could be some good news ...

Kadri with Coronato, Sharangovich or Huberdeau is a disaster (35-50% decrease in expected goals for those players with #91

But upticks for Ruzicka, Dube and Lindholm (limited minutes)

Maybe they've found a mix.

I’d like to see something like

Huberdeau - Lindholm - Coronato
Ruzicka - Kadri - Dube
Sharangovich - Backlund - Mangiapane
Greer - Duehr - Coleman

The flames have to utilize Coronato’s nhl release and Huby has looked like he has some of his dishing skills back so far this year.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

People loving Johnny now that he is gone, and only remembering his 115 point season is hilarious.

Many nights he wasn't lifting anyone out of their seats and if they did get it up it was to curse the screen for his turnovers or poor effort.

It wasn't always rosy and he was here for what 600 games.

Huberdeau has been here for 85 games and you get all this moaning and dumb comments calling him James Neal. Neal was shipped off as soon as possible. Huberdeau is wearing a letter.

It is definitely true that people were very down on Gaudreau. He was a “complementary player only” and couldn’t get it done himself.

[Heavy Jack]

I remember when posters were tabling Gaudreau for Konecny in the off-season prior to 115. Good times lol; I wish Gaudreau had 1 more large season in between the 99 and 115 point seasons but sadly it didn’t happen because of a number of reasons.

[boogerz]

If we look at Tanguay's first Flames deal, he was making 13.3% of the Flames' cap space. By comparison, Huberdeau is only making 12.5% of the Flames' cap space.

Huberdeau is a lot like Tanguay, but he's also not nearly as soft and he's quicker at moving the puck. If the Flames can find a good RW that can reduce the amount of coverage on Huberdeau, we should see him flourish.


Maybe the Flames can try putting Kadri at RW or something.

[Mitch]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Not at all.

In fact complete opposites.

One mailed it in. The other likely tries too hard.

Not 'complete opposites' in my mind.

Both wingers with a terrible contract. Both heralded as top offensive players before falling off a cliff in Calgary. Both players struggle to find a line to build chemistry with.

I wonder how many years till flames start considering a buyout.

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by boogerz

If we look at Tanguay's first Flames deal, he was making 13.3% of the Flames' cap space. By comparison, Huberdeau is only making 12.5% of the Flames' cap space.

Huberdeau is a lot like Tanguay, but he's also not nearly as soft and he's quicker at moving the puck. If the Flames can find a good RW that can reduce the amount of coverage on Huberdeau, we should see him flourish.


Maybe the Flames can try putting Kadri at RW or something.

Difference was that it was for three years

[gvitaly]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

This is a team full of good support guys that know how to play a great team game and dominate their opponent. They play defense, they know how to move a puck, they're good at takeaways and battling fof 50/50 pucks, and they can create lots of pressure in the offensive zone.

But they don't have enough finishers.

All Swedish, no Finish as they like to say. Coronato will eventually be a good finisher, but he's a raw rookie. We lost Toffoli who's a pretty great finisher if not mediocre player in every other way, and we didn't really replace him.

It's going to be another frustrating year with good expected goals and nothing to show for it. If I'm Conroy, I get a king's ransom for the elite talent like Lindholm and Hanifin and rebuild by focusing on guys who can score.

I actually somewhat disagree here. It's not the lack of finishers, but the lack of chemistry between the top players on the team.

Lindholm scored 42G, Mangiapane 35G, Kadri 32G, Huberdeau 30G. Both Kadri and Huberdeau hit that 30 mark a couple of times. Lindholm's 42G are an outlier but he still had a ~30G pace in half his seasons in CGY.

Then you have the next wave of forwards that might take a step in Dube, Sharangovich, Coronato, and Ruzicka. All of them could be 25G scorers in the league.

What this team is missing is a dominant top line. A line that would make the other team defend for 2/3s of the time they're on the ice. That's why I want to see Huberdeau - Kadri - Lindholm together for 5-10 games.

Kadri was absolutely dominant when MacKinnon went down and he had to play with Landeskog and Rantanen. Huberdeau was a beast with Bennett and Duclair. We all saw Lindholm with Gaudreau and Monahan/Tkachuk. The skill is definitely there.

Now the coach just needs to create 1 great line, the rest will do just fine at defending, stealing pucks, and closing out games.