The losing streak - optimist vs. pessimist: which side are you on

[badradio]

I’m a bit of a pessimist… I don’t think the Flames have the skill they had last year. I think Vladar is the better goalie right now, but won’t get the starts he deserves. It will take time for Huberdeau he played his whole career with one team in the East, that said, that contract is a bit of an albatross… Our one line really carried the team last year… it seems that Sutter is having them play like a team with less skill as well, relying on shot volume, rolling lines, dump and chase, low percentage hockey trying to squeak out W’s… it’s worked before, but the way special teams are now, maybe it isn’t the right method anymore. Shorten the bench and rely on the top end skill seems to be working now days, as it did last year…

[14Roman14]

Optimist.
They will be 5 games above 500 by Christmas.
Their play hasn’t been awful in the 7 losses. Just got on a streak and couldn’t shake it. Thankfully it’s gone now and they can get onward and upward.

[Finger Cookin]

Originally Posted by Yikes

Move Markstrom for high pick(s), his salary to the kitty, Vlader is our starter, bring up Wolf. Give Backlund the C, keep sniffing around re: trade Noah for a high end winger. A decision has to made re: Kylington (LTIR?). Salary to the kitty? Let Sutter and his "show" go back to the ranch, bring in a coach that has the game to coach this kind of talent because the Flames are loaded with top end talent.

[CalgarySames]

Originally Posted by Yikes

Move Markstrom for high pick(s), his salary to the kitty, Vlader is our starter, bring up Wolf. Give Backlund the C, keep sniffing around re: trade Noah for a high end winger. A decision has to made re: Kylington (LTIR?). Salary to the kitty? Let Sutter and his "show" go back to the ranch, bring in a coach that has the game to coach this kind of talent because the Flames are loaded with top end talent.

This is quite the knee jerk reaction!

[Kasi]

Nice win last night but still concerned about the delta between shots and dangerous chances. We won one but not the other. I don’t think that’s a winning formula unless you have a top goaltender which Markstrom doesn’t look like this year. So they need to become more dangerous. I still think they have to bring up a skill player like Phillips or Zary to bolster the top nine and get more offense. Say if our top nine was:

Lindholm - Ruzicka - Toffoli
Kadri - Huberdeau - Mangiapane
Backlund - Coleman - Zary/Phillips (perhaps flip this with Mangiapane)
Dube - Lewis - Rooney/Lucic (rotate them maybe)

Shuffle the third wingers around as needed to find the right fit but still that would be a better fourth line and the top 3 would have more skill.

[blankall]

Meh. The Flames losing streak included two BS penalty calls in OT. Turn those into wins and no one is talking about anything.

The Flames have a lot of wrinkles to work out, but nothing that can't be worked out. Injuries and major roster changes are causing havoc. The Flames have also had a horrendous schedule. Top teams and huge breaks.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Kasi

Nice win last night but still concerned about the delta between shots and dangerous chances. We won one but not the other. I don’t think that’s a winning formula unless you have a top goaltender which Markstrom doesn’t look like this year. So they need to become more dangerous. I still think they have to bring up a skill player like Phillips or Zary to bolster the top nine and get more offense. Say if our top nine was:

Lindholm - Ruzicka - Toffoli
Kadri - Huberdeau - Mangiapane
Backlund - Coleman - Zary/Phillips (perhaps flip this with Mangiapane)
Dube - Lewis - Rooney/Lucic (rotate them maybe)

Shuffle the third wingers around as needed to find the right fit but still that would be a better fourth line and the top 3 would have more skill.

Except in all the losses, we were getting the majority of the dangerous chances, just not converting.

The stats may have given the Jets the edge in dangerous chances, but that's misleading, IMO. The Flames' chances were pretty high end too. At no point, while watching that game, did I feel that the Jets were the better team and deserved a better result.

[Kasi]

I still don’t think the publicly available metrics are very accurate. They just do a narrow set of criteria. Some of the games in that streak has Flames winning those metrics but eye test didn’t match. Even Sutters comments seemed to confirm that. To me if they want to play four lines they need to make them better and bring up a skill player. I’d be fine playing a Dube/Lewis/X line 10 minutes. But not a Ritchie/Rooney/Lucic line that much. So either bring up a player and roll four lines or don’t and roll 3 and limit those fourth line minutes. This lineup today of spreading the sucky players around isn’t going to work I think.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Kasi

I still don’t think the publicly available metrics are very accurate. They just do a narrow set of criteria. Some of the games in that streak has Flames winning those metrics but eye test didn’t match. Even Sutters comments seemed to confirm that. To me if they want to play four lines they need to make them better and bring up a skill player. I’d be fine playing a Dube/Lewis/X line 10 minutes. But not a Ritchie/Rooney/Lucic line that much. So either bring up a player and roll four lines or don’t and roll 3 and limit those fourth line minutes. This lineup today of spreading the sucky players around isn’t going to work I think.

Sure, but the same is true last night. And that was the basis of your argument.