[News] Treliving: This is deepest group since I’ve been here

[Badgers Nose]

They seem to be more balanced on paper. I'm not sold on Peters, but I'll happily eat my words when Flames make some noise in the playoffs spring 2019.

[Harry Lime]

The kind of depth that has been constructed here, I would think that they are considering a Vegas style deployment where even strength is fairly distributed, and the skill players make up time on the powerplay.

Against a disciplined team, everyone hovering around 15 minutes for the game, and the top players arnt completely worn out by March.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Yeah he was 6th in Carolina for ice time by a forward last year, and it wasn't particularly close.

He would have been 7th in Calgary tied with Lazar in PK time.

Derek Ryan was not brought in to kill penalties.

No, he wasn't brought in to kill penalties, but roles do change for players, and a coach has to utilize his players based on what he has on the bench.

And the fact is that Gaudreau, Monahan, Neal, Lindholm, Tkachuk, Backlund and probably Bennett and possibly Czarnik would be ahead of him for PP time.

So Ryan may end up on the PK roster list, simply due to the fact that there aren't any spots available on the PP.

Also, Ryan is an intelligent player, a hard worker with a constant motor, and a very good skater - all qualities that would make him a good PKer.

[TheIronMaiden]

Who gets PK time is a very interesting conversation.

Last year this was a big issue. The Flames were one of the worst penalized teams in the NHL. As a natural consequence there was a heavy load to carry.

The bottom line is that the Flames need to take fewer penalties. Peter's hurricanes were one of the leagues most disciplined teams over his tenure. That might be a function of his personnel. All the same, if his system does reduce to PK work load that will allow Backlund to perform better offensively.

If you look at average TOI shorthanded per game, the loss of Stajan 1:32 pergame and Brouwer 2:04 pergame might seem detrimental. Still, the introduction of Lindholm will alleviate that pain. He ranked 4th for forwards on his team with 1:20 per game average.

The problem is that the Flames are not exactly set up to have a fourth line that can effectively kill penalties. This will make it so that an offensive line will have to take lots of defensive zone starts. The practical solution to this problem is the Flames playing more disciplined. Which is possible considering that Peters has had disciplined teams in the past and that 4 of the Flames PIM leaders won't be playing 1- Hathaway 88 PIM, 4- Hamilton 78 PIM, 8- Brouwer 53 PIM, and 10- Stajan 28 PIM.

[Bingo]

Last year it was Backlund, Frolik, Brouwer, Jankowski, Stajan, Bennett and Hathaway.

Lindholm is a solik PK guy so I see him up the charts and likely with Backlund. Frolik will be part of pairing two with one of Bennett or Jankowski would be my guess.

But yeah hard to say for the third pair.

[TheIronMaiden]

All I can say is that if the 4th line can't kill penalties they better be scoring goals.

[Macindoc]

Originally Posted by shutout

Team needs to push the offense every shift by every line.
Each line needs to have some defensive conscious.

Gaudreau - Monahan - Lindholm
Tkachuk - Backlund - Neal
Bennett - Ryan - Czarnik
Frolik - Jankowski - Foo
Klimchuk Rychel

Lindholm, Backlund, Ryan, and Frolik can make sure the line is playing a smart 200" game. Allows for favourable matchups for younger players, and some speed and offensive from at least two players on each line.

Bennett does not prove he can push the play offensively and stay out of the box from being stupid you move him and slot in Mangiapane on the third line left side.

That second line has three left shots, and the third line has three natural centres. For better balance, I would swap Neal and Czarnik. You could also add Lazar on the fourth line, which would give all four lines a left-shooting and a right-shooting natural centre, and the Flames could take every single draw on the strong side (and would always have a centre taking the draw, even if someone was waved out).

[stemit14]

So many ways the lines could go. It makes me excited to get the season going. There’s lots of skill and young talent that could flourish with more opportunity. That means if any players are struggling/injured... young guys could get the chance to shine instead of the veterans of the past being the default choice (Brouwer, versteeg, stajan).

I also like that some chemistry between pairs of players has been established so that the third spot on different lines could be switched around to either create a spark or to manage the game properly (something we did not see enough of under GG). Of course everything could change but I think it will be these pairs for the first 3 lines:

Gaudreau-monahan
Tkachuk-Backlund
Bennett-Jankowski

Then there’s a huge list of guys to choose from to fill the right wing positions (weird saying that since this team has not been deep at right wing for more than a decade):

Neal, Lindholm, frolik, Ryan, czarnick, Foo, Lazar, Hathaway

I think the depth chart for right wing will follow that order but that there’s lots of options to find chemistry with the top three lines or to put guys on the powerplay.

Plus left wing has solid depth with guys like mangiapane, klimchuk, dube, and Rychel who could make the jump as early as this season.

The fourth line is completely up in the air I think right now. But there’s lots of centres to choose from and lots of speed for the fourth line to use as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Aarongavey]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Yes, down the stretch the Flames goalies were simply not god enough, but Smith and Rittich both did play play at a +0.915 SP level for 60 games between Oct–Feb. I interpret "the better part of the season to be well over the first half, and this most certainly qualifies.

I am a firm believer that with better management of Smith's time in games 1–50, he will be better off in games 51–82 and into the playoffs. I also think that Rittich showed last season that he is able to come in, play, and win his starts in a 4:1 rotation. It seems perfectly reasonable to expect that Flames goalies will be fine with a little more balanced workload.

I think it has to be a 3:1 rotation max, Smith playing 80 percent of the games still has him at 66 starts. I think it needs to be closer to 60 or less. I would love to see Smith with 56 starts and the backup with 26 starts, which would be closer to a 2:1 ratio.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Aarongavey

I think it has to be a 3:1 rotation max, Smith playing 80 percent of the games still has him at 66 starts. I think it needs to be closer to 60 or less. I would love to see Smith with 56 starts and the backup with 26 starts, which would be closer to a 2:1 ratio.

I totally agree, and have been advocating for some time now that Smith should not play more than 60 games.

[FlameX]

With a team like this there is no excuse for The Flames to not make the playoffs. I could see them potentially making the 3rd round. The Jets pulled it off I think we can as well but maybe I'm just pushing it.

[Wolfman]

Originally Posted by FlameX

With a team like this there is no excuse for The Flames to not make the playoffs. I could see them potentially making the 3rd round. The Jets pulled it off I think we can as well but maybe I'm just pushing it.

[djsFlames]

The only issue/hinderance at this point is California. Those teams have had the flames' number for years, except LA the last couple seasons. The flames handle central teams pretty well (impressively Chicago, St Louis and Nashville recently) and if they were in that division there would be a greater chance that they go a couple rounds. They have to turn the table on San Jose and Anaheim before they can expect to go more than a round playing in the Pacific cause the road will always go through cali. Ending the curse is a good start But it's not enough. And their record definitely isn't glowing I'm the shark tank. They have to gain some swagger and get in their heads, to where it spills over from game to game alike the kings and doughty. Otherwise those teams will be the same old stumbling block.

[---Hatrick---]

Originally Posted by FlameX

With a team like this there is no excuse for The Flames to not make the playoffs. I could see them potentially making the 3rd round. The Jets pulled it off I think we can as well but maybe I'm just pushing it.

I love your optimism, but the Jets core had multiple seasons to gel and get used to playing together. They had some growing pains before they got there.
Third round this year? Not likely but I wouldn’t be overly shocked if they can do it. I have big hopes for this year too!

[FBI]

Many of our core have had multiple seasons to gel and get used to playing together as well..

[---Hatrick---]

Originally Posted by FBI

Many of our core have had multiple seasons to gel and get used to playing together as well..

Yes, but adding two new players to the top 6 and two new players to the bottom six, and a new top 4 D man is a lot of change. Not to mention the new coaching staff. There may be some growing pains

[---Hatrick---]

But then again, look what Vegas accomplished last season in their first ever..

[djsFlames]

Originally Posted by ---Hatrick---

Yes, but adding two new players to the top 6 and two new players to the bottom six, and a new top 4 D man is a lot of change. Not to mention the new coaching staff. There may be some growing pains

You know CP will be a fun place when those happen.

Will be interesting to see how much leash people here will give Peters vs GG (hell game one and people were outcasting him for his d pairing experiment). Maybe roster changes will warrant a little more leniency. Hopefully they get off to a blazing start with the energy of a new group and then go through adversity further on when they have a cushion as opposed to what we're used to.

[Moneyhands23]

Originally Posted by djsFlames

You know CP will be a fun place when those happen.

Will be interesting to see how much leash people here will give Peters vs GG (hell game one and people were outcasting him for his d pairing experiment). Maybe roster changes will warrant a little more leniency. Hopefully they get off to a blazing start with the energy of a new group and then go through adversity further on when they have a cushion as opposed to what we're used to.

Omg CP will not be a healthy place if the boys stumble out of the gates. I think it'll be pretty dark in here with any start worse than 6-3-1.

[djsFlames]

I think anything above .500 in October should keep the lynch mobs at bay since we're not used to even that. But if there's a 3+ game slide in the first couple weeks I wouldn't even be shocked to see something as outlandish as "They should've stuck it out with gulutzan!" Crazier thoughts have circulated here