[PGT] Weird night in Ottawa. Flames lose 5-4 in SO

[Calgary4LIfe]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

All of them are responsible. Hiller's style keeps the puck in play in dangerous areas where most NHL goaltenders would have frozen the puck and the team would have swapped in Gio/Brodie and all would have been merry. Nothing he could have done on the first goal (well, other than make a great save) against but on the next two there's plenty of blame to go around.



I'm not saying all of those guys weren't goats tonight, because they were, but people are selling Backlund a bit short for the body of work in the whole game. Guy had a 33% offensive zone start and finished with 71.43% possession at even strength. Can't get too fixated on one or two plays.



Yes.

I think Backlund has looked off this year as well - but I also attribute it to the entire team being off. I find it difficult to really point at many players on this team and say: "you are the reason" - I expect more from everyone thus far (mostly - Gaudreau being the big exception thus far, and Bennett due to his experience).

The zone starts is one of the few enhanced stats that I think are really valuable, so thanks for bringing up those numbers. Backlund hasn't looked very great - but people need to stop throwing him under the bus to this level because of these zone starts.

Torts screwed up the Sedins last year because he felt that they should play against the other team's top lines, and in all situations. Sedins (and the entire team) had a down year. Next season, they go back to getting primarily offensive zone starts again, and voila - they magically return to near their offensive averages.

It is very difficult to score in this league when you are buried defensively. I give Backlund a little bit of leeway on that just because of his zone starts. Excuse him completely? No.

What does help quite a bit is that it allows other players to get more offensive zone starts. He essentially kind of 'takes one for the team'. Other centers benefit (or should be anyways).

Backlund HAS to get better. He hasn't looked nearly as consistent as the past couple of seasons out there. There is no excusing him. I just think with those kind of zone starts and finishes, he is still adding value. Needs improvement, but that value is terribly underrated.

Again, tough to point at any single player. Read the game-threads and PGTs, and pretty much half the team is a goat. Something is not right with the Flames and it becomes difficult to pinpoint exactly what that is.

Having Brodie back sure is nice though. First game back, probably not at 100%, barely any practice time either - and I thought he looked really good out there.

Tough game to lose. Flames just haven't been getting average goaltending thus far in the season, so perhaps it rattles the team? They also haven't received average defence either (which is so surprising as it should be a huge strength), so it becomes difficult to just blame the goaltending only. They also haven't received average scoring either, so tough to just blame the defence.

Everything looks off. Tonight was better. Ideally it results in a win, but at least there was some positive progression, and that is what I wanted to see tonight more than anything.

[crapshoot]

I want Miikka Kiprusoff back.

[Calgary4LIfe]

Originally Posted by crapshoot

Another thing about Hiller that bugs the crap out of me is how his body language signals defeat so clearly. Great Jonas, everyone knows how disappointed you are about letting in soft goals all the time. How about just sucking it up and go about you damn business instead of amplifying it for the whole world to see at every opportunity?

I started noticing that too. A bit like Luongo was in Vancouver for a while. Not quite to that degree, but you can see him being upset.

[Dion]

[stemit14]

Makes you really appreciate what a luxury it was having Kipper between the pipes all those years. Even when he let a goal in... Bad goal or good goal he always responded the same way: drink from the water bottle and got over it. What a star he was. Sure could use even a taste of that kind of goaltending right now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[AcGold]

Our team with Price or Lundqvist would be amazing.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Originally Posted by Samonadreau

Gio-Brodie
Nakladal-Wideman
Engelland-Hamilton
Smid

Russel nets a top six winger.
Hamilton is sheltered this year and ready for top 4 minutes/assignments next year.

So we're going to shelter a 22 year old who had 42 points last season, but throw a rookie onto the 2nd pairing and sit/trade Russell?

Hamilton has his best game as a Flame but Nakladal is now ahead of him on the depth chart?

[SHOGUN]

Originally Posted by AcGold

Our team with Price or Lundqvist would be amazing.

The Flames defensive game has been one of the worst....

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

So we're going to shelter a 22 year old who had 42 points last season, but throw a rookie onto the 2nd pairing and sit/trade Russell?

Hey, nothing's too weird to try when you're a fan in full panic mode.

[Flames_F.T.W]

Was it Jooris' wrist that was injured last year? I've noticed all season so far it looks like he's playing with weak or broken wrists. He has absolutley no strength on the puck and looks like he's always fighting the puck. It's painful to watch. I was at the game and his lack of puck strength led to the turnover on the Smith goal. I like Jooris' speed and tenacity, but he needs to be stronger on the puck

[FlamingHomer]

How did our goaltending get so bad over the off season right across the board? Maybe coach Jordan Sigalet needs to be replaced.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Top two lines played well tonight. I'd keep them together in the hope that they really get going and carry the team offensively for a while.

Backlund has been poor for a while now, and last night was probably the worst. No offense at all and a really, really awful check on the Ryan goal. Weaker than Mason Raymond. I think he has to sit if it keeps going like this. I'd let Stajan move up in the lineup (he had a pretty good game and has been solid for a while now), and I'd let Derek Grant play 4th line minutes. I don't know if Backlund is still hurt, or if it's in his head that he might get hurt playing a physical game, but it's just not working. I wonder how long before he's traded if it keeps going like this.

You have to sit Bollig again. 2 straight games taking horrible penalties at bad times. If you're going to take a penalty, make sure you intimidate the hell out of the other team. What he's doing is absolutely useless and he adds nothing to the 4th line. Brutal game from him again.

Raymond had a few spurts of decent play, but he still is just so weak. There was a sequence where the breakout went to him three straight times, and three times he was turned back or turned the puck over. I just don't see him on the team outside of the odd injury replacement, so maybe he should still be sent to Stockton and give a kid a shot for a while.

Hamilton looks like he's ready for top 4 duty again. He's definitely more capable than either Russell or Wideman at either end of the rink. I'd also like to see if Smid can handle more minutes since he looked very solid for the last few games. But credit where it's due, I thought Engelland played well too. Russell needs to sit and Wideman needs to be dropped to 3rd pairing. Brodie was excellent at calming the entire group down with some heads up play. Gio looked like he was trying to do too much again instead of trusting the game plan.

What I would do for next game:

Send Nakladal down since he's not playing anyways. Recall one of Agostino, Hamilton, Granlund, or Arnold. I want Agostino.

Colborne-Monahan-Hudler
Gaudreau-Bennett-Frolik
Agostino-Stajan-Jones
Raymond-Grant-Jooris
X-Backlund, Bollig

Giordano-Brodie
Engelland-Hamilton
Smid-Wideman
X-Russell

Ortio

[Poe969]

So Colborne scores and Backlund looks out of place. Colborne may not be a great top 6 player but I think he looked good out there and I've always liked how he and Monahan play together.

One of Wideman or Russell need to be traded for help up front. Russell might return more and it'll be harder to move Wideman's contract. At this point, both guys have positives and negatives to their game and both would "hurt" losing about the same. There just isn't chemistry between them anymore, the team needs help up front and both of them can be replaced from within (not the same caliber but it wouldn't be too bad).

Next game someone from CP could go in net and it wouldn't look much worse than what we've had so far. If we don't trade Russell, I think we could strap the goalie pads on to him and he'd be as good of a goalie as we've had so far this year. The team overall isn't good but goaltending has been turrible so far.

Johnny is this team's best player and it's not even close.

Bennett looked great especially after Gaudreau got hit. The kid needs motivation to get fired up. Bennett plays physical and skilled if motivated.

I'm starting to strongly dislike Bollig. Stajan plays with more of an edge and Bollig doesn't seem to do much of anything except take bad penalties. Raymond needs to go too, think we can all agree on that.

I like Stajan. Stajan will go to the net and do whatever is asked of him. I'd take him straight up over Backlund at this point.

Hudler is getting points but he doesn't seem like the "straw that stirs the drink" right now. I'd like to have him back next year at the same salary he's making now but if he's asking for more, I'd trade him.

I like Hamilton. He's slowly improving and we're starting to see flashes of who he really can be. It's still going to take time but I think once he figures out this team's system, he'll be great.

[Sample00]

has this team had anybody in the past that has the puck control skills of Johnny Hockey! Kenta Nilsson maybe?
The puck looks like its on a string when Gaudreau has it!
And I hope with the way that Bennett played last night, any rumours about him being traded (Stamkos) are put to rest. This kid is the real deal!

[Steve Bozek]

Originally Posted by Sample00

has this team had anybody in the past that has the puck control skills of Johnny Hockey! Kenta Nilsson maybe?
The puck looks like its on a string when Gaudreau has it!
And I hope with the way that Bennett played last night, any rumours about him being traded (Stamkos) are put to rest. This kid is the real deal!

Nilsson and maybe Makarov

[Ashasx]

It just blows my mind how much blame Backlund is getting here.

[burn_this_city]

I thought Brodie returning made a huge difference. Rusty and Wideman look terrible still, not sure what happened in the summer to those two. Overall a good effort, but Hiller sure sucks the life out of the team with the weak goals. I wish they'd run with Ortio for a bit he looked solid again in relief.

[cannon7]

Colborne and Bennett were great in the top six, hope that continues. Gaudreau and Bennett might be a better pair long-term than Gaudreau-Monahan.

Jorries might need a stint in the minors to regain some confidence or something, not sure what's eating him.

[adc]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

It just blows my mind how much blame Backlund is getting here.

Why he has been brutal this year and was directly responsible for the Bobby Ryan goal.

Not sure why he should get a free pass on here when he already seems to be getting one from the coaches.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

It just blows my mind how much blame Backlund is getting here.

I think you have to put the blame to the players that play the bigger roles. Blaming depth guys Engelland, Bollig, etc is foolish because no team pins their playoff hopes on their bottom pairing or 4th line players. If those players were fantastic it would barely make a difference in the teams fate as long as the top players are playing poorly.

Backlund has been terrible but to be fair he's not alone in that department as the goaltenders, Russell, Wideman have been horrible as well and Giordano, Monahan and Hudler haven't played as well as the team has needed. Of these players mentioned Backlund is the only one that also wasn't very good last season which means this isn't just a bad start this season and it's a trend. I just don't get how he gets so much rope as he's done very little in his career to show that he can be a core player to build a foundation with.