[PGT] Flames beat Pens in SO 4-3

[butterfly]

Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden

The Flames Goaltending has been incredible! They are 6th league wide in goals against.

Meanwhile Markstrom is 29th in GAA between Anton Forsberg and James Reimer with a worse SV% than both.

[Funkhouser]

Originally Posted by Gaskal

Around the League Report




[spoiler][b]


Ready to be Hurt Again

As we only play them twice annually, I forgot how entertaining Pens fans are. If I remember correctly (Gaskal, please weigh in as the expert) the most entertaining online fan bases in terms of good material are (in no particular order):
-Penguins
-Dallas
-Vancouver
-Columbus

Who am I missing??
Maybe we need a fan base ranking?

[activeStick]

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts for these Flames and they're showing this season how even when players themselves aren't moping around and making it visibily obvious their motivations are to get the hell out of Calgary and the Flames, teammates know since teammates talk to each other and it leads to a dark cloud over the group until those elements are gone.

Wolf is looking like he might be the real deal. I had serious questions last season based on how he looked in the net and his results, but this year, he's continuing to look confident (he always has been confident with belief in himself) yet showing solid results.

One surprising thing for me this year is that even when the Flames aren't playing well (not good last night 5 on 5, terrible PP), they're finding different ways to contribute positively to the game even if it's building some momentum during a 20 second shift and as a result of these smaller things happening, they end up finding different ways to win games they shouldn't. This rarely happened with past versions of the Flames.

It's funny how in all of these ATL reports, opposition fans sound so much like us here when things aren't going well.

[Kipper_3434]

Originally Posted by dammage79

Bit of a Nostradamus call here.
But I think Wolfs Achilles heel is going to be shootouts the next few seasons. Just until he builds the book up on all the shooters, then there won't be any Achilles heels

His AHL shootout numbers would imply differently. Not sure he's ever lost a pro level shootout.

[Wastedyouth]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Not an easy schedule over the next 12 days.

Carolina
Winnipeg
@Vegas
@Utah
Devils
Oilers

Hopefully they can keep up the immaculate vibes but this is going to be a tough stretch.

It's good that we built up a cushion!

Just go .500 and ill be ecstatic.

[Wastedyouth]

Also, I literally laughed out loud at this ATL comment:

"Pospisil, does anyone have a more cat friendly name?"

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Shazam

I definitely thought the Flames had a bit of a easy schedule to start the year.

so did the Oilers

you still have to win the games

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

so did the Oilers

you still have to win the games

Difference is we don't suck like the Oilers do.

[shadowlord]

Originally Posted by Shazam

I definitely thought the Flames had a bit of a easy schedule to start the year.

Good teams bag the points during easier parts of the schedule, so that they can afford to not have every game against a tough teams be a must-win.

Let's hope this keeps up, because we know this team is going to start losing at some point. Maybe by the time a losing streak happens, the Flames will have built up a bit of a cushion.

[Geeoff]

Originally Posted by Funkhouser

As we only play them twice annually, I forgot how entertaining Pens fans are. If I remember correctly (Gaskal, please weigh in as the expert) the most entertaining online fan bases in terms of good material are (in no particular order):
-Penguins
-Dallas
-Vancouver
-Columbus

Who am I missing??
Maybe we need a fan base ranking?

Pens fans have seen the best players in the league and many Stanley Cups. EZ mode fanbase

[Fighting Banana Slug]

It hasn't been an incredibly hard schedule to start, but this 1 game home, 1 game away is really dumb and can't be great as a team to deal with. Obviously a great start by them.

[FlamesAddiction]

Obviously the powerplay was super frustrating last night, but I still like that they are mostly trying to enter the offensive zone with possession rather than dumping it in.

[NegativeSpace]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Not an easy schedule over the next 12 days.

Carolina
Winnipeg
@Vegas
@Utah
Devils
Oilers

Hopefully they can keep up the immaculate vibes but this is going to be a tough stretch.

It's true that it's not an easy row of teams. However, it is also playing every other day, which could allow the team to get into a rhythm more so than the stop and start that they have had to date. Feels like its forever between games. If they can get into a good rhythm then they could close out October with one of the better first months we have seen in quite a while.

[D as in David]

The early shooters for the Pens in OT found success shooting gloveside on Wolf; did Wolf adjust or did the later shooters go with their favoured move?

[YyjFlames]

Originally Posted by D as in David

The early shooters for the Pens in OT found success shooting gloveside on Wolf; did Wolf adjust or did the later shooters go with their favoured move?

Yeah, it looked like that was a coaching strategy -- all right handed shots, first three slight fake, glove side shot (Crosby didn't score only because he hit the post but he beat Wolf).

Then Letang, another righty, went backhand -- maybe to break the pattern as Wolf might have started to cheat, Wolf save. Then they went with Eller and Malkin, who are both lefties.

It seemed like they had a book on Wolf. Interesting that Letang didn't follow it and Wolf maybe gained some confidence, but Letang's move felt like a mistake.

EDIT - my mistake, Crosby is a lefty. Duh.

[direwolf]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

I'm not seeing a GIF, I'm afraid. When I try to copy the link from your raw post, I get ‘Access Denied’. Can you post the link by itself? Thanks.

Here's the gif. Not sure why it disappeared from my post.


Again, kudos to whoever made this. It's brilliant.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

Sharangovich will help them offensively. And if they pick up an upgrade at C it won't hurt them either.

Until then just keep swimming and finding ways to take points. Style points don't matter when no one expects you to have success in the first place. It's funny how they're drawing critiques from pundits on their last few games and yet none of them pegged a 5-0-1 start.

Just keep your heads down boys. The longer this goes the more vocal doubters and patronizing they'll draw, until it's no longer defying odds, but just who they are.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

Originally Posted by Wastedyouth

Also, I literally laughed out loud at this ATL comment:

"Pospisil, does anyone have a more cat friendly name?"

Lots of psspsspss?

[Wastedyouth]

Originally Posted by TrentCrimmIndependent

Lots of psspsspss?

Lol, yup.

Maybe you gotta be a cat guy to laugh.

[CroFlames]

Wolf looked small to me the first handful of times he played for the Flames. Really small.

He did not look small last night, nor in any starts this season.

He is a full time NHLer now. Let's see if he can become a starter, then a star.