We'll be fine

[Cobra Jet]

Don't worry....dont worry

Im not going to do what everyone thinks Im going to do and FLIP OUT!

All I gotta say is who's coming with me.....who's coming with me man!

[Johnny Rotten]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

Everything is positive. Great teams simply aren't built overnight. We are showing a hell of a lot of promise now. Last season we showed that we can skate with the best teams of the league, this year? We're showing not only can we skate with them, but we can beat them. All teams will have their ups and downs throughout the course of the season, and our team should rightfully have more downs than ups at this stage of their development - patience is key.

Things are getting better. Even nights where we lose games, it's not for a lack of effort. It's usually tied to mental lapses, or skillset deficiencies.

Couldn't agree more for the most part. If someone would have told me at that the Flames would be 17-13-2 at this point at the start of the season, I wouldn't have believed it.

I want them to start winning again, for sure, but as I long I keep seeing improvement (on the whole), especially with the young guys (in Calgary, Adirondack, and anywhere else Flames property plays), I think that we should be positive, and that things will be fine.

I think it goes without saying, organizationally, things are looking much better now than the past few years.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Kidder

I'm just seeing a difference in opinion between what makes a team "better".

I agree with you. These weren't lucky caroms or seeing eye shots beating the Flames. These were defensive breakdowns allowing Sabres easy goals. Hard to annoint the Flames better in this case. They were better at puck possession and generating shots no doubt. But it was no fluke they gave up four and lost the game.

No better example than the 4th goal. Beauty passing play almost nets the Sabres an open net tap in. But winger misses and the puck, it rebounds up the boards where Ennis collects and passes across for another open net tap in. This one they convert.

Giving two open net chances in a span of 5 seconds are not indicators of a team playing better than their opponents.

Didn't the puck go off his skate and in? and the Sabres 3rd goal was their 1st shot in the entire period...they got lucky that game big time

[heep223]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Just quit while you are ahead here. The Sabres were the better team that night as the score indicates.

Man, I apologize for beating this to death....but you and Polak cannot be serious. I appreciate that you are not wanting to sugar coat losses and that you don't want to become naive like the Oiler fan base has been for the past 5 years, and I agree, but come on. It's like you're wearing anti-rose coloured glasses.

The fact is, Calgary has been generating more offence in recent games and that’s why the signs are encouraging, despite the results. In the first three games of this skid, Calgary spent more time in the offensive end than not. In fact, in those losses to San Jose, Toronto, and Buffalo, the Flames generated 181 even strength shot attempts for as opposed to just 126 against for a shot rate of 59.0 percent. Plain and simple, in terms of how offensive zone time is divided, Calgary got almost 60 percent of it, peaking at 62.1 percent against the Sabres.

Here’s a good, somewhat cruel, idea of how things balance themselves out. Following the 4-3 overtime win over the Colorado Avalanche on Dec. 4, the Flames were at a peak record of 17-8-2. In those first 27 games, they were shooting at 11.7 percent overall and 9.6 percent at even strength -- both were second highest totals in the NHL at the time. In the five games since, those percentages have dropped to 4.9 percent and 5.0 percent, respectively.

I don’t think it’s being overly simple to say spending more time in the offensive zone than your opponent and defending really well are pretty big precursors to prolonged success. Yes, the Flames need to focus on making fewer mistakes at key times, and yes, they could stand to sharpen up a little of late. But, the fact is, over the last five games Calgary has done the things they need to for success more often than not.

http://flames.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=744181

[GoJetsGo]

Originally Posted by polak

We were not the clear cut "better team" in any of the 5 games we lost. Thinking that is just burying your head in the sand.

Either you suck it up and say that you're okay with this being a rebuild year as originally expected or you admit that something is wrong with this team and a change is need to right the ship.

I'm putting myself in the rebuild group but to tell yourself that we're playing great and that we'll be fine is just fooling youself.

What a load of a**-backwards garbage. It's black and white is it? Either a rebuild year or a good team?

This is exactly why your beating this drum is unbearable in game threads.

Very simply put, a rebuilding team is a young team and there's going to be ups and downs. Trying to label us as being definitively good or bad during these ebbs and flows is painfully obtuse.


At least Estrada is keeping with his penchant for being nothing but negative. But your failure to grasp what's happening yet spamming game and post-game threads like you're the only one who has it figured out is beyond annoying.

[zukes]

I'm not sure why I ever read certain people's posts, just makes me want to cringe. Some people aren't happy unless they can be negative, and they always have to be smug and superior sounding.

If everyone saw the game the same way, it would be pretty boring so I guess that's good to get differing opinions, and everyone is allowed to have one, but the smugness and the I'm right you're wrong attitude of some from the Flames to video games is really hard to take.

I'm sorry for daring to be optimistic and seeing the good things that are happening and thinking a bounce or two would have changed any of those games.

Once again, I was at that Buffalo game so I know which game I was watching. There wasn't a fan in the place that though the Sabres were the better team. They capitalized on almost all of their chances. Had the Flames done that they would have scored in the double digits.

[bobbylouie]

Originally Posted by FBI

Can somebody put together our player stats over the past 5 games? I'm interested in who is still playing well despite the losing streak and who has crapped the bed.

[djsFlames]

Our luck was ####. We were as unfortunate as we were fortunate in first half of October.

Can't believe how many goaltenders kept us a goal away from getting well deserved point/s. Niemi, Bernier, Enroth, Fleury and Raanta all stole regulation wins for their teams (Raanta I only say because of those near goals early in the game that would've put Chicago in a hole).

Astounding how a team can play decent hockey and be robbed of even loser points in that many games in a row. Our luck HAS to change very soon. There's no way this can go on much longer with the way we're actually competing. Bounces have to start coming. I can't put my finger on it, but it's like someone has stolen away that unspoken belief that was flowing within the group, or at least shaken it. It's been strange and frustrating.

But we don't deserve to be 0-5-0 in this stretch and that pisses me off as a fan. Someone please sacrifice a goat in Oilers attire to appease the hockey gods. Cause I think there's some divine intervention going on here.

[djsFlames]

Originally Posted by zukes

I'm not sure why I ever read certain people's posts, just makes me want to cringe. Some people aren't happy unless they can be negative, and they always have to be smug and superior sounding.

If everyone saw the game the same way, it would be pretty boring so I guess that's good to get differing opinions, and everyone is allowed to have one, but the smugness and the I'm right you're wrong attitude of some from the Flames to video games is really hard to take.

I'm sorry for daring to be optimistic and seeing the good things that are happening and thinking a bounce or two would have changed any of those games.

Once again, I was at that Buffalo game so I know which game I was watching. There wasn't a fan in the place that though the Sabres were the better team. They capitalized on almost all of their chances. Had the Flames done that they would have scored in the double digits.

Such is the behaviour of most devout sports fans. That's why when we were on a tear the PGTs would be but 3-5 pages.

When it comes to most things non Flames related, I now go to other forums for better quality discussion, where there are differing opinions still but people can actually be civil about it. The smugness and arrogance in here can be overwhelming at times.

[Cobra Jet]

We slipped out of a playoff position. These next two home games are huge.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by djsFlames

Such is the behaviour of most devout sports fans. That's why when we were on a tear the PGTs would be but 3-5 pages.

When it comes to most things non Flames related, I now go to other forums for better quality discussion, where there are differing opinions still but people can actually be civil about it. The smugness and arrogance in here can be overwhelming at times.

It would help if the responses were more than this player sucks or this group of players are scrubs. Nothing to back up why they posted that, just a few one liners and that's it.

[heep223]

Originally Posted by bobbylouie

Spoiler!

Johnny leading the team in SOGs with 17 over the last 5 games.

[Stay Golden]

Horrible road trip. Hopefully some wins at home will get the boys back on track.

[GioforPM]

If those stats show anything it's what happens when Brodie has off nights. 10 pms, -4. Only 2 points. Aside from the Chicago game, he wasn't as good as he was in the games beforehand. The goal in Buffalo was really a bad one on him. Luckily, his Chicago game was good and I think he's back.

[FBI]

Yup the interesting ones on there are Brodie, Byron, Bouma.. all quite bad. Also Monahan hasn't done much

[PsYcNeT]

This team has outperformed literally everyone but apparently some delusional fans expectations.

They are still playing very very very good considering.

On that note, you always wait til Trade Deadline to call playoffs a lock (or, unlock?).

Probably wasn't very smart for Flames fans to strut around like #######s when we were winning crowing all that "unsustainable hurr hurr" stuff however.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by FBI

Yup the interesting ones on there are Brodie, Byron, Bouma.. all quite bad. Also Monahan hasn't done much

Monnie was concentrating on dealing with Toews, Malkin, et al this trip. That's why is FO % dropped some. I think a -1 is pretty good against the lines he was dealing with.

Speaking which, I think the Flames also got a little unlucky in that they hit all these teams playing their best hockey of the year, except maybe the Pens.

[CliffFletcher]

Jooris only has one point - as assist - during the streak. He scored several goals during the winning streak. And I'm not saying that to lay blame, but to point out that relying on guys on a hot streak who aren't proven NHL scorers will eventually catch up with you.

[Cobra Jet]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

This team has outperformed literally everyone but apparently some delusional fans expectations.

They are still playing very very very good considering.

On that note, you always wait til Trade Deadline to call playoffs a lock (or, unlock?).

Probably wasn't very smart for Flames fans to strut around like #######s when we were winning crowing all that "unsustainable hurr hurr" stuff however.

Just a little devils advocate...

I wouldn't call being behind going into every 3rd period "outperforming" any thing

Also lets not forget that our goalies have won us most of our games by keeping it close and giving us a chance....Chicago game 1....

Im not saying we are terrible, I like the young guns and obviously Johnny is a franchise player, but after this road trip I think its easy to see the difference between a real playoff team (Pitts, Chicago, LA, San Jose) and us. We are still years away from being a real contender.

[heep223]

Originally Posted by Cobra Jet

Just a little devils advocate...

I wouldn't call being behind going into every 3rd period "outperforming" any thing

Also lets not forget that our goalies have won us most of our games by keeping it close and giving us a chance....Chicago game 1....

Im not saying we are terrible, I like the young guns and obviously Johnny is a franchise player, but after this road trip I think its easy to see the difference between a real playoff team (Pitts, Chicago, LA, San Jose) and us. We are still years away from being a real contender.

Our goalies won us most games in the first 10 games of the year. Since then they have been average to slightly above average. For the most part we played toe to toe with Pitt Chi and SJ, and we didn't even play LA, so really not sure what you're talking about. Clearly we're not Stanley Cup contenders but we have been playing with the big boys and are possibly a playoff team in a tough division/conference in year 2 of a rebuild.