Francis: Tire Fire

[Ashasx]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Who is saying that?

Francis is blaming it on the young players not buying in. If he's not referring to Gaudreau, Monahan, or Hamilton, why would he mention it? Did he mean Jankowski?

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

Francis is blaming it on the young players not buying in. If he's not referring to Gaudreau, Monahan, or Hamilton, why would he mention it? Did he mean Jankowski?

But I don't think anyone, including him, is saying it is ALL Johnny

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Good question.
Early in his career I would have said he is more like Phil, but I think that was wrong. I think he is an elite offensive player who actually is also tremendously committed and a better overall player than people give him credit for.
If Johnny can be Kane that would be tremendous.
Part of the problem though is that Sean isn't like Toews.

One of the things that makes Toews Toews is his compete level.

One of the big reasons for their success is actually surrounding him with guys who can reel him in.

The two most competitive guys on the roster are probably Tkachuk and Giordano. The team needs a bunch more guys like that. I think for most guys, you either come by it honestly, or you don't got it. One thing I think team sports shows you time and again though is that if you can get enough of those guys, they will drag everyone else along with them. It was visible a bunch of times with Tkachuk this season and Hathaway last season. Dragging your teammates into the battle with you.

I think that's probably a reason hathaway has been getting icetime even though he's been a black hole.

Tkachuk being out of the lineup hurts bad in that regard.

[automaton 3]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

A confident resilient team for one out of three years. Yeah the talent was less, but his last year they were anything but resilient. I wasn't surprised that they took a step back from the "miracle year" but they also had nowhere near the grit.

I recall horrible goaltending as the primary issue in the 3rd year. I didn't see a fragile team like we see now with GG. Last night after the 2nd goal, you knew they were done.

[Beninho]

Losing Tkachuk hurt more than losing Smith. Smith has been awful at home all season, no reason not to say it.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

Bennett was supposed to be a more skilled Toews.

I honestly don't see a ton of hate to lose compete from Bennett.

I see a lot of happy to be here skate hard have fun from him.

For a guy who turns pucks over like he does or takes penalties like he does, he sure doesn't seem to be that upset about them when they happen.

I'm not trying to read too far into things here, but for a guy who was supposed to be a bulldog, I'm not seeing it.

[midniteowl]

Originally Posted by SportsJunky

I find Francis’ articles are usually pretty bang on. This article probably is too. It’s too bad he has forever sullied his reputation around these parts. It’s hard to find genuine discussion in a Francis thread.

*Disclaimer- I haven’t read the article yet.

Nope

[Corral]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

The two most competitive guys on the roster are probably Tkachuk and Giordano. The team needs a bunch more guys like that. I think for most guys, you either come by it honestly, or you don't got it. One thing I think team sports shows you time and again though is that if you can get enough of those guys, they will drag everyone else along with them. It was visible a bunch of times with Tkachuk this season and Hathaway last season. Dragging your teammates into the battle with you.
.

The 2003/04 Calgary Flames would agree with you.

[dieHARDflameZ]

I really dislike Francis for a number of reasons but I do agree with a lot of the stuff he mentions in the article.

I do think Johnny cares and hates to lose, you can see it on his face.

Tkachuk is obviously a no brainer and his post game media scrums speak volumes to this kids character.

However, I would like to see Monahan or Hamilton show that same emotion occasionally. I love both of these guys but I seriously question if they have the personalities to lead a team to a cup. There’s just no emotion there other than once in a while when they score a goal. I want to see some fire and passion from those guys, hell Monahan is a big boy, muck it up once in a while. Get angry, go give Kesler a face wash or grab McDavid and rough him up a bit during a skirmish or at least try to. Just do something, anything to show you care.

[delayedreflex]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

It indeed comes down to is he Phil Kessel (elite skilled player but not "the man") or is he an elite overall player that will lead a team to contender status.

Both are valuable. But which is he?

Gaudreau is only paid to be a Kessel, not a Kane. We don't have an elite overall player that will lead a team to contender status, but we also aren't paying anyone to do that. I guess the question is, can a team succeed if it just has elite overall players, but nobody who can carry a team?

Is Nashville's roster really that much more talented or gritty than Calgary's? Their depth forwards are definitely performing much better than ours, but I don't see guys on their team that are any more game breakers than the Flames. Are there some intangibles at play that makes that a roster full of winners and the Flames losers?

If only we could do a coach swap and see whether's it's really the rosters that is the root of the difference.

[Joborule]

I hate Francis, and typically avoid his articles, but what he saying here is not wrong.

This team lacks heart, or ironically, fire. Not gonna go over every point, but one that sticks out with me is that I find the leadership from Gaudreau and Monahan lacking. They obviously have the skill, but they also have warts in their play that withholds them from reaching their full potential.

Monahan just doesn't have the 1st line centre edge by his lack of drive. He doesn't go to war to win puck battles or create takeaways. His full 200' game is lacking, and why I feel he'll only be a 2nd liner at best unless he finds that edge in his play and brings it every shift.

And Gaudreau far too often makes bad decisions with the puck at non-ideal locations that end up biting his team in the ass. His stop at the blueline and dish the puck east-west move hasn't been effective, and seems to results in more odd man rushes back the other way, than leading to a chance for.

Those players two warts I feel applies to many players on the roster. The only two players on the roster that seem bring each and every shift is Gio and Chucky. And Smith is obviously a competitor too. That's not enough for a team that wishes to make the playoffs and make noise. There needs to be more players next season that tries to make a positive impact each and every shift.

Determination needs to be the theme for the club next year if they're going to be successful. The biggest fault in Gulutzan is that he doesn't inspire that out of his players, and is why the heart in the team died when he became the head coach. The next coach will hopefully be better in the leader department, and can inspire the roster as a whole to have much more drive and resilience.

Calgary Flames should have a roster with fire once again.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by delayedreflex

Are there some intangibles at play that makes that a roster full of winners and the Flames losers?

Nope, /tangibles/. One team's D are asked to participate offensively, the other team's D are asked to stick to the walls and support the forwards.

Nashville (72GP) D scoring leaders:
Subban - 51
Josi - 47
Ekholm - 31
Ellis - 24 in 34GP
Emelin - 9
Weber - 5

Calgary (75GP) D scoring leaders:
Hamilton - 43
Giordano - 37
Brodie - 32
Hamonic - 11
Kulak - 8
Stone - 6


Do the math. And the dropoff to our #4 is striking, because we thought leaders / defensive defenseman matter (they don't)

[topfiverecords]

“Tire Fire” is reserved for those rubberheads up north.

[Kybb79]

For the first time i agree with Francis and Kypreos. Most of this team has no heart!

[Flames Fan, Ph.D.]

I think the compete level is a big issue, especially when you're trying to tell a young 30 goal scorer or 80 point getter that they have to work much, much harder. Brouwer is never going to be able to deliver that message. Arguably Treliving identified that and tried to solve it on the cheap with Jagr. Wasn't the worst idea.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by automaton 3

Yep. That said, I don't know why they aren't using Monahan on the PK more often. He's pretty effective at it, and I belive someone posted stats confirming that.

As Rhett said (paraphrasing)- GG can't say he rode his best players.

Monahan's stats are skewed because of limited sample size. He's played only 22 minutes on the penalty kill, but his goals against/60 minutes played is 5.52. Among forwards, only Frolik (5.05 / 131 minutes), Jankowski (4.37 / 69 minutes), Hathaway (4.21 / 57 minutes) and Lazar (0.00 / 21 minutes) are better.

The worst forwards are Brouwer (10.19 / 141 minutes), Stajan (9.55 / 101 minutes) and Bennett (8.31 / 58 minutes)

Same thing with CA/60. Worst players are Brouwer (111.7), Bennett (109.0) and Stajan (107.4). Best players are Lazar (66.6), Jankowski (73.4), Hathaway (75.8) and Monahan (88.3)

Now, it's exceptionally likely that Jankowski/Hathaway are only getting the second pair minutes, but honestly, Gulutzan should have looked at this and tried them against the other team's top pairs. Also - and this is only very limited minutes - I didn't realize just how effective Lazar has been in a PK role. He also definitely deserved more ice time.

[Erick Estrada]

It's not like the Hawks are devoid of leadership all of a sudden. Mostly the same core and coaching staff that won multiple cups. Sometimes teams simply have off seasons which can be attributed by a combination of injuries, individual player slumps, locker room issues, coaching issues, etc. I do believe this team does need more of that "hate to lose" mentality and leadership is lacking but secondary scoring was never there all season and that's a management issue. Also the coaches made a lot of questionable decisions all season whether it came to player deployment or special teams, etc. The GM couldn't get rid of Brouwer and has created a roster that is pathetically weak on RW. I feel bad for any head coach that had pressure to make the playoffs and Ferland/Frolik to work with on his top two lines. The bottom line is that I don't disagree with most of what Francis said but this poor season isn't all on the players as this was a collective organizational poor season. It's the kind of season where you can make a case to fire everyone and that's not good.

[browna]

I’ve been beating this drum for a week now...while Francis and his hot takes may have some merit, mixed certainly with some bluster so he can use this article to kick off and do the national radio tours on why the Flames didn’t make the playoffs....

But...what was different about last year when they made the playoffs? You could make all the same talking points about this roster last year.so what changed?

The Flames didn’t lose any leadership or character over last year, they gained it in two players at least.

I take full issue with JG not caring about losing. Last year he seemed much less engaged and likely also due to the late signing. This year he’s going to set a record for assists and I’ve seen him smash his stick multiple times in game and post game after losses. SM is just a quiet guy but produces, and so don’t think a guy like Francis is qualified to dissect what constitutes “hating to lose”.

But again, these young guys have been in the payoffs twice, including last year, and the team is very similar to last year... so all his talking points, beside the Smith injury (wheeler BT made a calculated risk not to pick up a backup which could’ve helped out instead of the skid the backups went on), could’ve been talking points last year, as I said.

So why do those apply this year as opposed to last? IMO The team couldn’t finish games and didn’t trust their coaching staff this year...and the lack of finish and killer instinct in games is a direct result of that lack of ability of the coach to navigate the team to the next level within games, and game to game, and then the decline in faith of the roster in him as a result...imo.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Monahan's stats are skewed because of limited sample size. He's played only 22 minutes on the penalty kill, but his goals against/60 minutes played is 5.52. Among forwards, only Frolik (5.05 / 131 minutes), Jankowski (4.37 / 69 minutes), Hathaway (4.21 / 57 minutes) and Lazar (0.00 / 21 minutes) are better.

The worst forwards are Brouwer (10.19 / 141 minutes), Stajan (9.55 / 101 minutes) and Bennett (8.31 / 58 minutes)

Same thing with CA/60. Worst players are Brouwer (111.7), Bennett (109.0) and Stajan (107.4). Best players are Lazar (66.6), Jankowski (73.4), Hathaway (75.8) and Monahan (88.3)

Now, it's exceptionally likely that Jankowski/Hathaway are only getting the second pair minutes, but honestly, Gulutzan should have looked at this and tried them against the other team's top pairs. Also - and this is only very limited minutes - I didn't realize just how effective Lazar has been in a PK role. He also definitely deserved more ice time.

Bennett was our best PKer last year IIRC paired with Alex Chiasson.

I suspect both Stajan and Bennett's data is skewed by Brouwer. Teams keying in on Brouwer was exemplified last game on the replay where we saw how they just isolated him.

[timbit]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

Nope, /tangibles/. One team's D are asked to participate offensively, the other team's D are asked to stick to the walls and support the forwards.

Nashville (72GP) D scoring leaders:
Subban - 51
Josi - 47
Ekholm - 31
Ellis - 24 in 34GP
Emelin - 9
Weber - 5

Calgary (75GP) D scoring leaders:
Hamilton - 43
Giordano - 37
Brodie - 32
Hamonic - 11
Kulak - 8
Stone - 6


Do the math. And the dropoff to our #4 is striking, because we thought leaders / defensive defenseman matter (they don't)

Fake news and absolute cherry picking. Nashville’s D is elite offensively ... number 1 in the league.

Flames collective D scoring ranks very high in the league. ( top quarter.)

D scoring was most certainly not an issue with the team.