I just do not get the desire to play Connor Zary at center EXCEPT for the current lack of centers on the Flame's NHL roster.
Zary took just 109 FOs last season and won just 44% of them.
This season, he has taken 227 FOs and has averaged an embarrassing 36.6 win %.
Sorry, but I think that Connor is much better suited as a creative Middle 6 LW that can both dish off to his teammates and still be a threat to score. I love his skating; he is not the fastest in the league by far, but very deceptive in tight.
I would bet that he averages out as a 50 point winger during his career.
He is the type of player that is necessary to almost every team in the league, but certainly not anyone you want to pay more than $5 or $6M a season for.
I’m just saying that he should be playing centre. They can slot the centres however.
If they play him as a centre with Kerins, for example, I’d consider it at WORST a second third line.
Maybe something like:
10 91 17
27 16 76
6 47 70
86 11 20
Two “third lines”..and they can move wingers around.
I also want to see Zary back at centre. Conroy says he wants young players to play important minutes this season and down the stretch. I want to see that as well. I don’t like seeing Zary sit on the bench for most of the 3rd periods since he came back from injury. I’m hoping it’s just Huska trying to ease him back. Before his injury, Zary was given more and more opportunity and he was running with it as a centre. I’d like to see that resume. I would like to try forward lines based on these pairings of centre-winger:
Mix in the other players (Farabee, Sharangovich, Lomberg, Rooney and Klapka) in whichever way that seems to work. Farabee has looked good with Backlund and Coleman the last couple games but I’d be up for him with Zary/Coronato as well. Would like to also bring Klapka back up and put him with any of these pairings. I think he can be a really effective depth player if deployed with some skilled forwards. Would love him with Frost-Posposil. Start using Lomberg and Rooney as players that come in and out of the lineup rather than as regulars.
Sharangovich has struggled all year but he and Huberdeau did well together in the last half of last season. Zary and Coronato might spark some offence and can share the load on faceoffs. I’m sure there are weaknesses in these line setups but I think something needs to be tried to get some more scoring. It’s really tough to continue on with so few goals for. Let’s try something different to see if it’s a better mix for offence. These are line combinations that have not been tried yet and I think they have the potential to spark some more scoring - at least from players that I think have more scoring to give.
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That's a must win, that pick is too precious to let them go up in the standing with it!
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We need a regulation win. Flames are a hard working group. Let's hope they have the long road jitters in their 1st home game back.
Montreal moved up to 10th tonight with Detroit's loss. One point out; however Ottawa and NYR play at 12:30 pm tomorrow, so someone is getting 2 points, which means we'll be 2 points out by game start.
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If Newjersey continue to suck ass it could also help us
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So hard to predict what I want Calgary to do. But yeah for now it looks like we want them to pick up points.
Duelling Outlooks
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If u cannot beat the Flames by at least 3 goals...then u are not contending for a wildcard spot....Flames coming off a long 6 game road trip.
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We might get blown out.
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I'm expecting the Habs to now go on a losing streak.
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I just had rice with ketchup. I'm fueled up to watch the boring flames
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This is such a huge game for the future.
Canucks are 1 point ahead of the flames so this win would give them a game in hand as well, St Louis is hot on calgarys heels too.
Sounds About Right
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I'm asking to the experts here what are Flames today. My image of the Flames is a team that misses the playoffs often by a small margin. They are a team who works hard, it's been their identity for decades like the Bruins except they are always missing the top talent, the Pastrnak-Bergeron-McAvoy-Marchand of the Bruins. The best talent they had in memory was Monahan and a team like this is cursed, he was injured many times. Did they changed since? Am I missing a top talent that could be a game changer or this is a team that works hard every shift, every inch of rink, and they are unlucky, they don't make the playoffs.
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It might sound odd but I feel like you can always tell when we play in Calgary. The colors and camera angle are always the same.
Friendly Fire
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What the f*** Savard
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Did Gallagher take out another Hab ?
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Savard injuring teammates, should have traded him
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Ouch!
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SAVARD YOU f***ING DOLT
Can we leave Heineman alone god damn , amazing
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Heineman injured... good thing we didn't trade for anybody. That would have been silly. (And wouldn't have happen if we traded stupid Savard either.)
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Man that must hurt so f***ing bad
We've all felt something close to that or exactly that at some point or another in our hockey lives
Thx fat ass
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Glad our GM watched the Xhekaj/Savard intently recently and somehow thought it was acceptable for a team fighting for a playoff spot.
Paying the Farabee Fare
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Lol we are horrible.
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Just completely left him alone
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Flames screened Dobes. Montreal should try it on the other goalie once in a while.
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Damn we are playing like ####
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Just a matter time before it was 1-0 Flames
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....and Farabee. Crud.
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We should have cleared the zone at least 3 times on that shift.
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1 0 Flames.
That shift alone is proof that there is something horribly wrong with this team in their zone. How does a player get that much time!?
Game after game, play after play, shift after shift. ####ing ridiculous.
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One of the most frustrating game of the year in my opinion.
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Well, off to feed the horses, because unlike Montreal, they are hungry
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This is some ugly ass hockey
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You can see why Calgary has had a suprisingly strong season.
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1 shot in 10 min. Yikes
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Giving me flashbacks to periods 2 and 3 against Buffalo the other night, we look completely dead in the water.
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This is brutal. It's not even about the flames. The habs aren't just a step behind. They aren't actually creating anything when they have the chance
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Wake the f*** up man
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We're currently getting dominated by the Flames.
Staying Together for the Kids
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Yay our friends stayed now we can hang out some more and not show up
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Habs playing like they're completely distraught that Hughes traded away all their buddies yesterday. But he didn't.
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Kent sent the players a message at the deadline. This country club atmosphere isn’t breaking up no matter what the offer is.
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You’re not spending assets for that. Not at this stage of the rebuild.
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Would it really have hurt that much to trade a 3rd or 4th round pick?
They have tons of draft picks.
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Thanks management for keeping us all together! Here you go thank you
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We kept all these bums and the bums can't even bring anything as a thank you. Just more bull####.
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Thank god we kept everyone or else we would only have 1 shot this period instead of 2!
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Please start trying to play offense.
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Prevent defense from the MSL lead Canadiens. One guy forechecking, 4 guys plugging the middle, and still gave up half a dozen strong scoring chances. Good lord that was an awful first period.
The only forward that had a shot on net was Cole Caufield….. and that made up 25 percent of the shot total!!
Dobes was great. Everyone else was awful.
The Flames travelled all day yesterday after taking a complete ####kicking on their eastern road trip, so Marty’s game plan is to not try to provide any offense at all… I just don’t understand.
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Boring
I'm glad Nick said keep the band together
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Calgary is really clogging up the slot.
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Whiff on scoring chance. Break stick. Miss pass.
Frustrating game.
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They might not shoot often but at least the friendship is strong in the locker room
A Wolfy Shutout!
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Looking forward to seeing Wolf play tonight.
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Flames top end talent is Wolf. Doubt he gives up more than 1 tonight.
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Dustin Wolf is a solid goalie for Calgary
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Wolf is insane.
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It's been a minute since I've been this impressed by a goalie
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Sharp save by Wolf on Caufield after not seeing a shot in ages.
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Unless the Habs start to show any signs of offensive life, that could be the winning goal. Hey Wolf, SHUTOUT is on the way!
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Sure did, shutout, shutout, shutout
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Wolf is a hell of a goalie they gotta make some traffic.
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Any other season and he’d likely be a Calder front runner. But unfortunately for him he has to go against Hutson and Celebrini
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I hate Dustin Wolf. He must be really good.
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Well... Tonight I leaned that Wolf is legit.
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calgary about to live the price experience of never drafting top 5 cause your goalie is too good
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We hit a very hot and good goalie- he stole the game.
Next...
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Well, the silver lining is that I have Wolf and Weegar on my fantasy team.
Clinging to Hope
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I didn’t expect our playoffs hope being jeopardized by a mid Flames team protecting a 1-0 lead like it’s the cup final.
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There’s this new strategy where you direct the puck at the net. Still experimental, but I was hoping we could give it a shot
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“Big for Calgary to win the faceoff and clear the puck, always kills valuable time on the penalty kill” STUNNING ANALYSIS. These guys just talk to fill space. I wonder if TV ratings would improve if the commentators weren’t so robotic and dull
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Holy #### the Flames are boring. Now theyre gonna shut down even more. boring ass hockey #### this
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If we go by the law of attraction , Heineken should score tonight , just like ex habs score against us !
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I was out tonight and watched it on replay. After the first I just kept on hitting "10 second ff" button, and missed nothing. What a boring game. They wasted a great Dobes performance. Very little effort, very little life, on both sides. Waste of a Saturday night all Canadian match up. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
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Horrible ####ing game ! We create nothing some games , very offensively challenged ! And the shots we do take are right at the goalies chest or we missed the ####ing net ! Marty you were an offensive player ! Teach them a thing or two !!! Pathetic !!!!
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1-0 loss to Calgary is very on brand
Make it Make Sense!
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Cant wait for Skinner to continue to be scratched for useless janmark brown arvidsson pod hyman
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Oilers want more scoring on the wings and then don’t play the guy who scores on the wings.
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Knoblauch pushed all the right buttons last year and this year he seems to have wandered into the coaching graveyard.
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Klingberg turns like an ocean liner.
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Dubnyk never had the arrogance and lack of awareness Stu has. Skinner has convinced himself he’s an elite goalie and the reason he can’t stop a puck is someone else’s fault. I never saw that attitude in Dubnyk. Dubnyk had some good years after he left here, there was some talent there. Skinner relies on being big and hoping the puck hits him some times.
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Oilers just tanking a bit to avoid the Avs in the 1st round.
__________________
Until the Flames make the Western Finals again, this signature shall remain frozen.
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Hanley finished 2nd on ice time (2 seconds behind Weegar) with 23.55. He is putting in his reps and minutes. He is never noticeable on the ice which is good for a dman of his calibre.
Also, how elite is Weegar. 2 seasons in a row he has made a 7/8 defenceman look like a serviceable top 4.
Big shoutout to Farabee. He is playing like a ‘Coleman lite’. Finally seeing the jam and push the flyers fans were seeing in his 50 point season. If he keeps this up his contract and that trade will be a steal.
Wolf, just amazing to have a goalie back there that as a fan you can feel so calm about. Such a calming, elite presence. I’m sure it has been touched on somewhere but his stick handling is elite for a goalie as well. Passes the puck always to the right player in the right spot to get it out.
Go Flames Go!
__________________ Fantasy Team Names:
Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-Kadri
Huby Duby dooo
Baby Got Backlund
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offense needs to get going at some point. In the last six, we scored more than a single goal just twice (6-3 in Philly and the 3-2 OT loss v Dallas) ... that's not a recipe for success. I freaking love Wolf, but you can't rely on a rookie goalie to steal game after game for you. Offense needs to help him out.
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