[PGT] 4-3 Pens over Flames in OT

[browna]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

If tre had acquired a goalie for a pick or prospect how many people would have slammed him for giving up more assets instead of giving the youngsters a chance?
Be hoonnnesst!

There won't be honesty. Treliving would've gotten roasted even if the new goalie won all 4 games.

And let's face it, the Flames play and rely on Smith to make the save, and take chances as a result. Perfect example tonight. Gio, who has been a beast all year, played the third goal to aggressively cut down Malkin from going up the middle, and more or less giving the pass to Letang on the far wing. Gio is trusting that the goalie will have to make a decent save. The goalie doesn't, his 6'7 frame getting beaten up high over the shoulder, not really close to an off the post and in shot, not a good goal. No traffic, able to set himself, and he whiffed. Thus after the debacle second goal and the first he didn't track properly.

[cannon7]

That 195' dump-in that Gillies almost let in makes me think he might be nearsighted. Probably affects his ability to track the puck in other situations, too. Surprised he's gotten this far without that being addressed.

[joejoe3]

I missed ATL reports

[dino7c]

Its really a shame the Flames put themselves in this position...pissed away so many points this season.

It was actually a very solid effort tonight but can't really enjoy it because of the situation. Hope to hell they remember this and start showing up every night starting in October next season.

[blender]

Tough loss, obviously, but getting a point is better than nothing. As has been said, take care of business in the next 3 and see how things look then.

It is easy to isolate specific plays and point fingers, but the team actually played an exciting game and fought through some serious adversity. Would be a lot happier if this was the product we got as fans consistently, albeit with better goaltending.

The last 3 minutes looked more like some pretty solid D by the Flames on the road against one of the best teams in hockey. When Crosby gets that drive like he had in the last shifts it's not easy to contain him.

Don't want to come off as too much of an apologist, but spent the last two days reading about all the Flames ills this year which are real and myriad, yet tonight's game wasn't typical of them, so I'm going to try and at least be ok with that.

Win on Wednesday.

[81MC]

I try to feel apathetic, but the reality is I’m heartbroken.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Half this place at least wanted Rittich to play more when Smith was perfectly healthy...people were even saying things like "he's got better numbers" and talking about a 1A/1B situation

Same posters are now on the GM for not giving up assets for some un-named solid goaltender that was supposedly available.

I know a lot of people are down on Rittich as well as Gillies, and it's true Jon wasn't very good tonight, but I'm going to point this out: there's a lot of recency bias at play, but here is the quality start percentage of our three (er.. four) goalies:

Mike Smith - .638 (47 GS)
David Rittich - .615 (13 GS)
Jon Gillies - .600 (4 GS)
Eddie Lack - .000 (2 GS)

Compared to last year:
Brian Elliott - .578 (45 GS)
Chad Johnson - .500 (36 GS)
Jon Gilies - 1.000 (1GS)

And the year before:
Karri Ramo - .541 (37 GS)
Jonas Hiller - .304 (23 GS)
Joni Ortio - .474 (19GS)
Nik Backstrom - .667 (3GS)

and the year before:
Jonas Hiller - .523 (44GS)
Karri Ramo - .438 (32GS)
Joni Ortio - .500 (6GS)

When you have THREE (!) goalies giving you over a .600 quality start percentage over 66 aggregate starts, you have only your goal support and/or shot suppression to blame for your record. Goalies go through hot streaks and cold streaks - all goalies do. You have to capitalize on the hot streaks of your goalies and this team has pissed away a ton of strong goaltending performances all year. Suddenly a Rittich pisses away maybe one strong team performance (I'm referring to the Vegas game here, because I think he gave us more than a chance to win the Boston and Colorado starts, and I never watched the Florida game) and the blame for the season falling apart is put on the goaltender. I mean, look at the quality start % we got in 2014-15 - and we made the playoffs that year.

[Ryan Coke]

Is it just me or did the D seem more active this game than the last 140 games or so? They seemed to be jumping up all night, playing like the D we expected. I wonder if there has been some relaxing of the limits placed upon them.

Funny how our slow team didn’t look as slow tonight either.

Brodie looked more like we expected from him tonight. Would it ever be nice for him to play like that consistently. A couple of years ago he looked like a #1 in the making, this year he’s barely hanging on as a top 4 guy.

Feel bad for Gillies, but he was fighting it all night. I would’ve pulled him after the first 2. Hopefully Rittich can get back to how had played most of the year behind Smith.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by Ryan Coke

Is it just me or did the D seem more active this game than the last 140 games or so? They seemed to be jumping up all night, playing like the D we expected. I wonder if there has been some relaxing of the limits placed upon them.

Hence why I joked that Gulutzan has lost the room.

[blender]

^^^^^What does that stat mean?

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

If tre had acquired a goalie for a pick or prospect how many people would have slammed him for giving up more assets instead of giving the youngsters a chance?
Be hoonnnesst!

The costs were clearly too high for a backup that wasn't any guarantee to be better then what we thought we had.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by blender

^^^^^What does that stat mean?

QS -- Quality Starts
Starts with SV% > average SV% for the year, or at least 88.5% on nights with 20 or fewer shots against.
Developed by Rob Vollman in the Hockey Abstract.
QS%
 -- Quality Start Percentage
QS/GS
> 60% Good, < 50% Bad, ~53% League Avg
Developed by Rob Vollman in the Hockey Abstract.

[Delthefunky]

I don’t know but it sounds fancy!

[blender]

Is that > league average?

[Corral]

Originally Posted by blender

Tough loss, obviously, but getting a point is better than nothing. As has been said, take care of business in the next 3 and see how things look then.

It is easy to isolate specific plays and point fingers, but the team actually played an exciting game and fought through some serious adversity. Would be a lot happier if this was the product we got as fans consistently, albeit with better goaltending.

The last 3 minutes looked more like some pretty solid D by the Flames on the road against one of the best teams in hockey. When Crosby gets that drive like he had in the last shifts it's not easy to contain him.

Don't want to come off as too much of an apologist, but spent the last two days reading about all the Flames ills this year which are real and myriad, yet tonight's game wasn't typical of them, so I'm going to try and at least be ok with that.

Win on Wednesday.

Wow your standards are pretty low. That was anything but solid D in the last 3 minutes. Pure chaos with the Flames chasing the play in their own end.

[blender]

Originally Posted by Corral

Wow your standards are pretty low. That was anything but solid D in the last 3 minutes. Pure chaos with the Flames chasing the play in their own end.

Disagree. That was holding off strong pressure from a great offensive team. There were lots of good blocks and sticks in lanes, good body position. High compete level and very few good chances for the Penguins despite strong cycle pressure. It's Crosby, Malkin, Kessell, Letang out there.

[Psytic]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

QS -- Quality Starts
Starts with SV% > average SV% for the year, or at least 88.5% on nights with 20 or fewer shots against.
Developed by Rob Vollman in the Hockey Abstract.
QS%
 -- Quality Start Percentage
QS/GS
> 60% Good, < 50% Bad, ~53% League Avg
Developed by Rob Vollman in the Hockey Abstract.

So the answer was actually Backstom instead of Mike Smith according to this?

[Corral]

Originally Posted by blender

Disagree. That was holding off strong pressure from a great offensive team. There were lots of good blocks and sticks in lanes, good body position. High compete level and very few good chances for the Penguins despite strong cycle pressure. It's Crosby, Malkin, Kessell, Letang out there.

i saw lots of good giveaways, failure to clear the puck and desperate sticks to deflect shots from players who were otherwise out of position and chasing the play. And for some of that it was our so-called best defensive forward line and D-corp. I'll give Gio full marks, but that's it.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Corral

i saw lots of good giveaways, failure to clear the puck and desperate sticks to deflect shots from players who were otherwise out of position and chasing the play. And for some of that it was our so-called best defensive forward line and D-corp. I'll give Gio full marks, but that's it.

Calgary played a solid defensive game and would have won 3-1 with NHL caliber goal tending IMO

Flames could have had a penalty at the end...Pens could have had one right after that.

Worst call of the night went against the Flames so I wouldn't consider them lucky

[blender]

Originally Posted by Corral

i saw lots of good giveaways, failure to clear the puck and desperate sticks to deflect shots from players who were otherwise out of position and chasing the play. And for some of that it was our so-called best defensive forward line and D-corp. I'll give Gio full marks, but that's it.

Not necessarily pretty, but they kept it away from the net, and Gilles didn't really have to make any great saves.