[PGT] Flames 3 Ennis 4

[DOOM]

Originally Posted by GoJetsGo

Only thing worse than the result was listing to Polak whine in the game thread along with Doom's incesent troll-complaining

Says the banwagoner who cheers for two teams.

[442scotty]

Originally Posted by DomeFoam

I know it was his first game back, but Colborne was hot garbage tonight. Hopefully he can piece it together quick. Even though Ferlands stint was short his presence was felt in his tryout and I feel like we could've used him out there tonight with Buffalo's bigger defenseman

???

For a first game back he played pretty good and got a nice assist IMO

[Murph]

Originally Posted by sa226

Hey! Actual adversity for the first time this year (injuries notwithstanding).....I like it.

This. It was going to happen sooner or later.

Now we get to see what this team is really made of. The tale of this season will be told in the next 8-10 games.

[jiginla12]

Raymond's play these last two games has been soft. He is getting bullied out there by much smaller guys and hasn't found his game yet. If he continues this type of play, I hope that Hartley takes notice and sits him for a game (it has done wonders for others). Colborne, on the other hand I thought was solid tonight. He had a few ups and downs, but definitely more ups than downs (his puck handling was on full display tonight). We need not worry about defense lapses, we knew the time would come when other teams would start to take notice on how we play. It will take time for us to adapt when other teams adjust to our style of play.

[dammage79]

I liked the Diaz signing initially but he's either not getting enough games consecutively played to get any sort of momentum going or he's a scary fill in for an injury on D. Wotherspoon should be brought up and can anchor that third pairing.

He and Smid would actually be great together like they were last year (IIRC). The extra RH shot sucks to lose though.

[GoJetsGo]

Originally Posted by DOOM

Says the banwagoner who cheers for two teams.

I've been a Flames fan first since the Jets dissolved in the mid 90s. Look at my join date. There were no Jets at that point.

That, however, doesn't make you any less of a useless troll just trying to bring attention to yourself.

[JJ1532]

Positives for me: Monahan, Johnny, Byron, Bollig, Colborne, Jones and obviously Jooris had good games. Plenty of hustle from all of them, Bollig dropped the mitts which I think did help things in the 2nd period. But for me, thats where the positives end.

Negatives, sorry but they exist. Not saying blow it up, not saying fire anyone, send anyone down, make drastic decisions etc etc. But some things have to change.

1. Hartley has to stop putting the 4th and 3rd on the ice together. Win or lose, they have been costing us goals all season and that combination is awful. Whether we want to make the play offs or we want to go for McDavid, those 3 5-7 defence guys are simply not good enough for the NHL. Either we accept their below standard play for the rest of the year or Hartley has to look at either making a call up from the farm or trading for some help.

Either way, he has to stop putting the weakest combination of skaters on the ice at the same time. That is something he can solve quite easily.

2. Brodie was f***ing brutally bad tonight and he's been slowly getting worse for a while now. 1 point in his last 5 games, some really poor plays and decisions. I'm not sure what Hartley can do to snap him out of this, because unlike the forwards, he can't really chop Brodies ice time down or put him on an easier/less responsible line. We have to hope he plays through this rough period, but things won't get any easier for him. Hope he can get through this sticky patch, because he was tied up in knots by the Ennis Buffalo line. They made him and Gio look like chumps repeatedly.

3. We didn't do enough or play well enough to win. Enroth? Pfft, made 1 or 2 decent saves, but most were simple shots either straight at him or he had no screen which meant he had a good look at them. Our shooting tonight was pitiful, wasn't great against Reimer on Tuesday either. We don't screen goalies enough or get traffic around the net enough. We do and look dangerous. Our shooting recently has often been ineffective as well. Clear open shots straight at the goalie, not even remotely put to either side. Our shooting accuracy(as in, into the corners, not just hitting the target) needs to improve.

4. Our all round game needs to improve. Look, some of the wins we've had recently have been really fun to watch and we've probably deserved to win most of them. But how many leads have we actually held in the last 10 or so games? How many times have we been behind? We are giving away ridiculously sloppy goals game after game and whether we are a 30th team or a play off team, thats not good enough. Look at tonight, you can't give up 19 shots and concede from 4 of them. Our game management and our general play recently had been very poor.

I'm happy with Hartley and I'm happy with everyone so far bar the 5-7 defence guys. They aren't whipping boys, but you can't deny those 3 have been consistently poor all season where as even the likes of Bollig have had their moments. It looks like our winning was unsustainable, which we probably all knew deep down to be true. But this IS NOT a bad hockey team and we do not have bad coaches.

I do think the returning players have disrupted things slightly, but they are not the reason we've lost the last 3. Because lets remember that before they came back, Byron, Granlund, Ferland, even Jooris before his hat trick against Arizona, were all going through dry spells. Byron still is whilst obviously Ferland is back in Addy. Couple those dry players with the fact that, as we expected, Hudler has seen his points dry up a bit and the other top forwards were never going to score every night.

Whilst my post does maybe seem a little OTT and a little bit of a rant, I only feel this way because I genuinely believe we are good enough to make the play offs and I genuinely believe this team is better than how its played in these last 3. We could all swat it off with excuses like us being in the 2nd year of a rebuild, but I think we are better than that. We aren't a Buffalo or an Edmonton.

Well, we're gonna have to improve tomorrow, because if we play like we have done in these last 2 games, the Pens will blow us away, Crosby or no Crosby. Same with the Hawks on Sunday. Come on Flames, we're better than this.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

No more insults please guys.

Just discuss the game.

[DOOM]

Originally Posted by GoJetsGo

I've been a Flames fan first since the Jets dissolved in the mid 90s. Look at my join date. There were no Jets at that point.

That, however, doesn't make you any less of a useless troll just trying to bring attention to yourself.

Yup, I'm a huge season ticket holder troll.

[polak]

Originally Posted by JJ1532

Positives for me: Monahan, Johnny, Byron, Bollig, Colborne, Jones and obviously Jooris had good games. Plenty of hustle from all of them, Bollig dropped the mitts which I think did help things in the 2nd period. But for me, thats where the positives end.

Negatives, sorry but they exist. Not saying blow it up, not saying fire anyone, send anyone down, make drastic decisions etc etc. But some things have to change.

1. Hartley has to stop putting the 4th and 3rd on the ice together. Win or lose, they have been costing us goals all season and that combination is awful. Whether we want to make the play offs or we want to go for McDavid, those 3 5-7 defence guys are simply not good enough for the NHL. Either we accept their below standard play for the rest of the year or Hartley has to look at either making a call up from the farm or trading for some help.

Either way, he has to stop putting the weakest combination of skaters on the ice at the same time. That is something he can solve quite easily.

2. Brodie was f***ing brutally bad tonight and he's been slowly getting worse for a while now. 1 point in his last 5 games, some really poor plays and decisions. I'm not sure what Hartley can do to snap him out of this, because unlike the forwards, he can't really chop Brodies ice time down or put him on an easier/less responsible line. We have to hope he plays through this rough period, but things won't get any easier for him. Hope he can get through this sticky patch, because he was tied up in knots by the Ennis Buffalo line. They made him and Gio look like chumps repeatedly.

3. We didn't do enough or play well enough to win. Enroth? Pfft, made 1 or 2 decent saves, but most were simple shots either straight at him or he had no screen which meant he had a good look at them. Our shooting tonight was pitiful, wasn't great against Reimer on Tuesday either. We don't screen goalies enough or get traffic around the net enough. We do and look dangerous. Our shooting recently has often been ineffective as well. Clear open shots straight at the goalie, not even remotely put to either side. Our shooting accuracy(as in, into the corners, not just hitting the target) needs to improve.

4. Our all round game needs to improve. Look, some of the wins we've had recently have been really fun to watch and we've probably deserved to win most of them. But how many leads have we actually held in the last 10 or so games? How many times have we been behind? We are giving away ridiculously sloppy goals game after game and whether we are a 30th team or a play off team, thats not good enough. Look at tonight, you can't give up 19 shots and concede from 4 of them. Our game management and our general play recently had been very poor.

I'm happy with Hartley and I'm happy with everyone so far bar the 5-7 defence guys. They aren't whipping boys, but you can't deny those 3 have been consistently poor all season where as even the likes of Bollig have had their moments. It looks like our winning was unsustainable, which we probably all knew deep down to be true. But this IS NOT a bad hockey team and we do not have bad coaches.

I do think the returning players have disrupted things slightly, but they are not the reason we've lost the last 3. Because lets remember that before they came back, Byron, Granlund, Ferland, even Jooris before his hat trick against Arizona, were all going through dry spells. Byron still is whilst obviously Ferland is back in Addy. Couple those dry players with the fact that, as we expected, Hudler has seen his points dry up a bit.

Whilst my post does maybe seem a little OTT and a little bit of a rant, I only feel this way because I genuinely believe we are good enough to make the play offs and I genuinely believe this team is better than how its played in these last 3. We could all swat it off with excuses like us being in the 2nd year of a rebuild, but I think we are better than that. We aren't a Buffalo or an Edmonton.

Well, we're gonna have to improve tomorrow, because if we play like we have done in these last 2 games, the Pens will blow us away, Crosby or no Crosby. Same with the Hawks on Sunday. Come on Flames, we're better than this.

Yeah i should probably post when im done being angry at the game. This is exactly what my post should have been
...

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by DOOM

Yup, I'm a huge season ticket holder troll.

Its not a competition for who has more fan credibility.

[jiginla12]

[activeStick]

Losing 3 straight is bad enough, but having to listen now to the advanced stats supporters say, "we told you so" is going to be the worst!

[ben voyonsdonc]

Losing streaks happen. We played very well for the majority of the game but those defensive lapses really need to be addressed. If we clean those up, we can beat any team.

The returnees are not looking fantastic. Colborne made a nice play on Monahan's goal but wasn't particularly strong otherwise. Raymond was more or less invisible. Let's hope they get better with more game action.

[Table 5]

I think the last few games serve as a bit of a reality check for us. While I don't think that us slumming it with the gomers of the league for McDavid was that realistic, neither was being at the top of the standings for the whole season. We're a rebuilding team, and all rebuilding teams have ups and down. But hopefully it puts things a bit into perspective to all those who are busy making plans to trade away our youth for a playoff drive.

[-TC-]

Originally Posted by polak

Judging by the GT we're back to the CP where any badmouthing of the Flames is not allowed.

... even though exactly what I said was happening when everyone was saying "calm down were dominating" is the reason we lost.

What are you a 12 year old girl? Enough already.

[Roof-Daddy]

First three game losing streak since when ....? ......like January or something no?

...and other than the terrible, terrible D in this one they actually played pretty solid in all three games.

Unfortunate.

[ben voyonsdonc]

Winning covers up a lot of warts. It is hard to learn from mistakes when you win. Losing, on the other hand, magnifies them.

Early on, we won some games that we didn't deserve to win and recently, we've lost some games that we didn't deserve to lose. We need to keep focusing on progressing in our development and tightening up the mistakes that allowed the Sharks, Leafs, and Sabres to opportunistically capitalize.

People need to keep a cool head right now. We are still doing great.

[northcrunk]

I think this is exactly what Flames fans feared with Stajan, Colborne and Raymond coming back to take the spots of the young guys who were up busting their butts. There need to be some trades made because we were much better with the young guys in abby than the tired old vets coming back from injury and rusty.

[stemit14]

The flames drastically outplayed their opponent again. Just didn't get any big saves from ramo on the breakdowns (aside from the nice wraparound save).