[PGT] Avs 3 Flames 2 on the brink

[calgaryfox]

Men against boys - Gaudreau and Monahan were both scared shirtless and anyone who still wants to quote regular season stats as the reason to keep playing them, give your head a shake. Neal was an embarrassment and don't get me started about Backlund the bonehead.

If we go down in 5 games, which seems highly likely, at least show some pride and fight for every puck.
Mangiapane Lindholm Bennett for the first line.

[FireGilbert]

At least we have the 26th overall pick to look forward to

[Mr.Coffee]

You look at that game, and then the OT. Aside from the fact Calgary did not deserve it- the 3rd line was the same old AHL BS and the 4th line had jam, skating, hitting, scored and had another Grade A chance.

So in OT we put on line 3, which has been AWFUL??????

Why not line 4? Line 4 needs WAY more ice time. Like- whatever ice time Johnny and Mony are getting, give to line 4. Only if you want to win I mean.

[FaFaFlamey]

Originally Posted by Nelson

I don't buy it. I don't think he has the horses.

I agree. How many ####ing coaches do we have to go through before we look at the personnel? Time to pull a Toronto Raptors-esque off-season trade. What you see is what you get with Johnny, #####, Neal, Janks, Backland, Brodie. Pull the trigger! Get faster, bigger, and meaner.

[timbit]

Originally Posted by mitt31

sorry but i know even with a win if you continue to play johnny money and neil in the game we will just get owned in game 6

colorado has shifted into a playoff gear while those players haven't changed their game from game 1 of the season.

Johnny - cry, cower when the game is too tough
money - great shot but never skates
neil - not the neil we signed .... Maybe he is and thats why vegas didnt resign him

playoffs are and always will be a different game, and we dont seem to have guys with that extra gear for this time of year. (we have a couple but their limited in ice)

nm

[Moneyhands23]

Originally Posted by FireGilbert

At least we have the 26th overall pick to look forward to

Hopefully we have more than 1 1st rd pick

[Jore]

Originally Posted by Beninho

Valimaki and Andersson should’ve been bumped to the second pair. Both Hanifin and Hamonic looked gassed and had poor games. Coughed up pucks all night and had no fab control on the winning goal.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

they've had no gap control the whole night. backing way up to the circles when the forwards barely get the line. same story as last game. hamonic was a giveaway machine whenever he had the puck in his own zone and hanifin is just a mentally weak mess.

as for the trade gaudreau talk: i don't think trading your best offensive player right now is the best move. try to get an upgrade on monahan and see how gaudreau does when he has a centre who can play in the defensive zone and carry the puck.

[greyshep]

This series has been so demoralizing. Johnny and Monahan have no playoff gear at all. What can Treliving do to fix this? Who would give good value for either of those guys considering the playoff resume they have put together?

Most of us had hope but they've pretty much crushed that and thrown it to the curb. Ugh.

[CSharp]

In the good old Flames days in the late 80's with Mullen and Fleury, who are fairly small players. These guys get slashed and checked hard, but still go to the boards and the front of the net with bigger player twice their size. Frickin Gaudreau with so much skill wasted on wincing and avoiding checks in the attack zone. Once he stops being afraid and stop complaining about the oppositions slashing his hand and start going into the hard areas and start dumping in the puck, the better he'll actually become. Just tired of him being a little boy playing a big man's game. This team seems to have skillful but soft, fragile, players.

[VANFLAMESFAN]

Amazed by the amount of people completely turning on Gaudreau.

I get the frustration but I don’t get turning on him the way people are.

Not saying it’s wrong, just amazed by the complete 180 of opinion of our top forward by so many.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by GullFoss

Remember when Francis questioned Monahan's heart?

#MonaPuss

To be fair to Monahan tonight he actually showed some heart. Thought he was actually strong on the forecheck and was getting back defensively. Plus he’s always taking a beating in front of the net and goes to the dirty areas. Drawn a couple penalties in the series by doing so too.

Gaudreau, Backlund, Tkachuk, Neal, Janko, were all way worse than Monahan tonight.

Team overall just can’t win a board battle or make a clean pass to save their live though. Timid and scared hockey and while they were better tonight than in game 3, they weren’t really that much better overall.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

Meh, they're not great, but it's been a hard fought series against a team with nothing to lose. 2 OT losses after last minute goals in the 3rd period to tie it. One awful performance that they had no business winning. This series could still easily be 3-1 for the Flames, even with how bad they've been.

I'm not looking at anything through rose-colored glasses here. It's been far below expectations.

And yet, I still fundamentally like this team and I think there are great things in their future. I'm not going to hand in my fan card because of this series.

Is it handing in your fan card to expect more of your top players making over $6Million a year?

Don't come in here with your high and mighty nonsense acting like anyone upset is a lesser fan than you. Probably the opposite, people who have watched the Flames a lot longer and have reason for frustration.

[flames_fan13]

If there was a game that Neal was signed for was this game and he's been one of our worst forwards in the playoffs. That cross ice pass is blocked if Neal has stick on the ice. That is a play that would have been acceptable if it was Lomberg playing but as a veteran you have to get your stick in the way.

Although Peters has done a lot of good this season, not finding elevating Bennett on to the top 2 lines for longer periods is a failure. He's been our most consistent positive player for the series.

I'd like to see something along the lines of this:

Gaudreau-Monahan-Bennett
Tkachuck-Backlund-Lindholm
Mangiapanie-Ryan-Frolik
Neal-Jankowski-Hathaway

Switching Frolik and Hathaway at times to get some minutes out of Hathaway. Although I am a fan of Jankowski and think he does fit the PK role well, the third line outside of Bennett has been disappointing to say the least. Our depth was supposed to win it but for most of the series it's been two players who have shown up all 4 games so far and that is Bennett and Smith.

It's odd that for the season it was Smith being the question mark and the team bailing him out. Now when the going gets tough Smith has been amazing and probably kept the team from being swept like Tampa was.

[soulchoice]

On one positive note, as much as we can malign Backlund for the goal against and penalty, full props to him for taking the blame during the post game interview. No excuses and no woe is me. But pure accountability for his play from his own statements. Even when things go bad, he is still showing leadership.

[Since1984]

Congrats NHL... You get what you want... Me never spending a cent on you ever again

[Manhattanboy]

Just brutal not to be able to lock down third period leads.

[the2bears]

Best season in decades and they look to be going out with a whimper.

[Caboose]

It sucks.

I'm disappointed, but not mad. Gaudreau and Monahan have been invisible, but I still have hope for them learning from this mess of a series. This isn't a disappointing last hurrah for this team, it's a faceplant at the beginning of what is hopefully a string of playoff appearances.

I don't blame anyone on here for being ticked off at how they have been playing, but I hope once we all cool off a bit we can see how talented this team is and hope that this plays out as a big time learning experience for our super young d-men, and a lesson for our top line about preparing for big games.

[Sainters7]

Originally Posted by Joborule

At least we've got the Saints and Broncos. Seen the team's have a few playoff run, and won it all.

Yep, agreed, I've felt that feeling. Haha though I'm not ready to talk about Saints playoffs yet..the last two may be the most painful two ever!

[nik-]

Originally Posted by greyshep

This series has been so demoralizing. Johnny and Monahan have no playoff gear at all. What can Treliving do to fix this? Who would give good value for either of those guys considering the playoff resume they have put together?

Most of us had hope but they've pretty much crushed that and thrown it to the curb. Ugh.

That would be the crushing realization that our rebuild failed.