[PGT] Flames 5, Sabres 2

[taxbuster]

Originally Posted by Bonded

They are in a tough spot. Buffalo isn't a desirable city for players and management/ownership has been a bad gongshow.

Originally Posted by traptor

I've bee a huge Huberdeau hater. But he had a great game tonight and he's putting a good (not 10.5m good though) season

Originally Posted by Sec214

It’s crazy but environment matters for these young players. This league is a tug of war and if you aren’t pulling together even the best players in the world look like ####.

Someone needs to free this kid from Buffalo. I can’t wait for his redemption arch when he gets out of that dump. The ownership group gives zero ####s about this product.

I fully expect he will follow the path of Sam and Jack.

Originally Posted by sch19lks

If Buffalo trades Cozens, he’s gonna go nuclear. He’s a great player in a ####ty environment.

Buffalo has some great pieces, their D looks set for years. Plus, Cozens, Peterka, Quinn, Thompson, Tuch upfront. They’re doing Oilers. Give the keys to the kids and let them figure it out. That’s not how this works. They should have thrown the bag at guys like Lomberg in the offseason.

They need some leadership and direction. Until they get that, they’re going nowhere

Above comments highlight what I really like about Conny’s approach: he’s kept leadership guys in the room and in the mix. Apparently it works.

Huby? Maybe not $10.5M in pure on-ice performance, but the fact that, as a PRO, he’s somewhat reinvented himself…THAT is value for the kids. And for us.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Calgary

J. Huberdeau with one of his best games as a Flame? Amazing how much more involved he looks this season.

Exactly what I thought. He was engaged every shift, good defensively, and made several terrific plays. He is also shooting the puck a lot more, which is creating space for himself and his line-mates.

The way he is playing this year, if he was on a team that could score goals, he would easily be over a point per game, and naybe even have a 100 pt season in his sights.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

Pelletier, Zary, Coronato...

Three straight mid to late 1st round picks looking not only like NHLers, but top 6 contributors.

Really, Valimaki was the only real first round miss in the last 10 drafts. You could argue Bennett is not a top 4 pick even with his success in Fla I guess.

[Calgary4LIfe]

I believe Ruff was hired just to get first-hand insight into the roster construction. I believe it was speculated that he is going to be moving upstairs - probably replacing Adams, or overseeing Adams.



I see a team in Buffalo that has a culture problem. Bring in 2-3 solid vets and a GOOD coach. You know what coach that team needs IMO? Darryl Sutter. It will never happen, but a coach like Darryl would go in there and make them all accountable, and change that culture in half a season.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Exactly what I thought. He was engaged every shift, good defensively, and made several terrific plays. He is also shooting the puck a lot more, which is creating space for himself and his line-mates.

The way he is playing this year, if he was on a team that could score goals, he would easily be over a point per game, and naybe even have a 100 pt season in his sights.

3 points and could have had a couple more. But let him have a bad game and certain posters will be ready to pounce. It's funny - Huberdeau's trajectory here kind of mirrors his trajectory in Fla, only compressed. It took seven years for him to become PPG there, before that he was a 50-60 point guy. Then he got 69 and then jumped to 92 a year later.

Pelletier is a fit on that line because he has decent speed and is a very energetic forechecker. And not afraid to try and make a play. He also could have had a couple more points easily.

[Royle9]

Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe

I believe Ruff was hired just to get first-hand insight into the roster construction. I believe it was speculated that he is going to be moving upstairs - probably replacing Adams, or overseeing Adams.

This is accurate, he was an ownership hire to try and right this ship.
They wanted him to coach this year to get an idea of the roster situation, I fully expect he takes over for Adams very soon.

[SuperMatt18]

They needed a GM willing to take a little risk this past offseason to bring in some pieces that fit in the age of Tuch/Thompson (27/28), even if maybe they lost the trade on total value.

They have pretty good depth at C: Thompson, Cozens, McLeod, Krebs, Kulich

They have skill on the wings: Peterka, Tuch, Benson, Quinn, Zucker, Greenway

They have a number 1 dman: Dahlin

They have high potential young d-men: Byram, Power, Samuelsson , Jokiharju

What they need is one more veteran forward, and one more veteran dman

Peterka - Thompson - Tuch
Benson - Cozens - Kulich
Zucker - Mcleod - ???
Greenway- Krebs - Quinn
Lafferty, Malenstyn

Dahlin - ???
Power - Jokiharju
Samuelsson - Byram
Clifton

That team has a Blake Coleman like forward, and a Rasmus Andersson like #2 RH dman and they are easily a playoff team.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

They needed a GM willing to take a little risk this past offseason to bring in some pieces that fit in the age of Tuch/Thompson (27/28), even if maybe they lost the trade on total value.

They have pretty good depth at C: Thompson, Cozens, McLeod, Krebs, Kulich

They have skill on the wings: Peterka, Tuch, Benson, Quinn, Zucker, Greenway

They have a number 1 dman: Dahlin

They have high potential young d-men: Byram, Power, Samuelsson , Jokiharju

What they need is one more veteran forward, and one more veteran dman

Peterka - Thompson - Tuch
Benson - Cozens - Kulich
Zucker - Mcleod - ???
Greenway- Krebs - Quinn
Lafferty, Malenstyn

Dahlin - ???
Power - Jokiharju
Samuelsson - Byram
Clifton

That team has a Blake Coleman like forward, and a Rasmus Andersson like #2 RH dman and they are easily a playoff team.

What do they have to trade for those things though? Just picks?

[Wastedyouth]

You guys are welcome for me negging them into winning.

[Wastedyouth]

I could be wrong with this feels like one of the first games where Huska was double shifting his top players or rolling top two lines shift after shift. Feels like he likes to roll four lines pretty typically and I think that that's to the detriment of the team sometimes.
Felt like every second shift Coronato or Pelletier on the ice

[robertsfanatic]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

What do they have to trade for those things though? Just picks?

free agency?

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

What do they have to trade for those things though? Just picks?

Helenius, Rosen, Ostlund are recent 1sts. Some other prospects like Wahlberg, Kleber, Strbak that were recent 2nds.

They have all of their 1st and 2nd round picks for the next 3 seasons.

And some of the pieces on the roster could probably be moved in packages for upgrades too (Krebs, Jokiharju).

They have all the assets they need, they just need to be using them more effectively.

[CroFlames]

The Flames are going to make the playoffs mostly due to the Canuck and the Blue being in absolute shambles right now.

This is the 2015 Flames all over again. Prepare for a fun season boys and a 1st round upset!

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Helenius, Rosen, Ostlund are recent 1sts. Some other prospects like Wahlberg, Kleber, Strbak that were recent 2nds.

They have all of their 1st and 2nd round picks for the next 3 seasons.

And some of the pieces on the roster could probably be moved in packages for upgrades too (Krebs, Jokiharju).

They have all the assets they need, they just need to be using them more effectively.

The problem is no one will go there. Adams himself has pretty much said he's had deals in place, and the player won't go.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

LA outside of Kuemper look bad too.

There's an outside chance at a 2-3 BOA match up in round 1.

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by Wastedyouth

I could be wrong with this feels like one of the first games where Huska was double shifting his top players or rolling top two lines shift after shift. Feels like he likes to roll four lines pretty typically and I think that that's to the detriment of the team sometimes.
Felt like every second shift Coronato or Pelletier on the ice

Being a well-rested team after four days off might have had something to do with it.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Wastedyouth

I could be wrong with this feels like one of the first games where Huska was double shifting his top players or rolling top two lines shift after shift. Feels like he likes to roll four lines pretty typically and I think that that's to the detriment of the team sometimes.
Felt like every second shift Coronato or Pelletier on the ice

I think he's shortened the bench in quite a few games. He did it earlier in this one because they were so terrible in the 2nd.

[NegativeSpace]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

They needed a GM willing to take a little risk this past offseason to bring in some pieces that fit in the age of Tuch/Thompson (27/28), even if maybe they lost the trade on total value.

They have pretty good depth at C: Thompson, Cozens, McLeod, Krebs, Kulich

They have skill on the wings: Peterka, Tuch, Benson, Quinn, Zucker, Greenway

They have a number 1 dman: Dahlin

They have high potential young d-men: Byram, Power, Samuelsson , Jokiharju

What they need is one more veteran forward, and one more veteran dman

Peterka - Thompson - Tuch
Benson - Cozens - Kulich
Zucker - Mcleod - ???
Greenway- Krebs - Quinn
Lafferty, Malenstyn

Dahlin - ???
Power - Jokiharju
Samuelsson - Byram
Clifton

That team has a Blake Coleman like forward, and a Rasmus Andersson like #2 RH dman and they are easily a playoff team.

They are one of the worst teams in the league right now. I agree that a couple good vets to help change the culture would do wonders, but they are not a couple players away from easily being a playoff team.

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

The problem is no one will go there. Adams himself has pretty much said he's had deals in place, and the player won't go.

Any good vet doesn’t go there. They really only have options like Byram for good players.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by NegativeSpace

They are one of the worst teams in the league right now. I agree that a couple good vets to help change the culture would do wonders, but they are not a couple players away from easily being a playoff team.

And a better coach should have been the other thing I guess.

NHL is such a fine line right now IMO. Their is no team in the East that are Chicago/San Jose bad.

Add another top 4 d-man and a solid 200 ft forward and I personally think they'd be ahead of Ottawa and Montreal in their division and likely in the playoffs.

They went 0-8-0 with Dahlin being hurt - but with Dahlin in the line up they are 18-16-5 which would put them at .520 and right in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race before even adding those other pieces.

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

The problem is no one will go there. Adams himself has pretty much said he's had deals in place, and the player won't go.

I'm sure that's part of it but not everyone in the NHL has a NTC or NMC. I actually question if they would even be on Andersson's 6 team list.

I think part of the problem they have is they don't want to make moves without term, and they don't want to take a risk of moving for a guy like Andersson who has 2 years left but might not re-sign...but I think they need to take a little more risk now. Adams seems very risk adverse to me.

Like Utah isn't an attractive place either but Utah was able to take a risk to overpay to get Sergachev...They could have been super aggressive like St.Louis was to add Holloway and Broberg. They probably should have been all over trying to add a piece like Trouba as a veteran RH dman that cost nothing (considering the rumour was Trouba's preference was to stay closer to NYC I feel like he'd waive for Buffalo).

Take a little more risk, be a little more creative.