[PGT] Sabers 2 - Flames 1 (OT)

[Tinordi]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Paging Sam Bennett, Sam Bennett to the ice surface.

1 point in his last 10 games.

On pace for 31 points on the year. 3 less goals than this time last year after being switched to wing for the last ~25 games.

But he "looks" so much better out there.

[Ashasx]

This season has been really frustrating because, for the most part at least, the Flames have been a very good 5 on 5 team. There are a few little things with the system that bug me, but the Xs and Os seem to be far more a strength than a weakness.

But special teams are so dreadful they may drown us themselves. Add onto that, objectively bad player deployment is putting this team's worst players on the ice too often and during the team's most important sequences.

That's completely on the coaches. If you can't create a good powerplay with the tools on this team, you are an awful powerplay coach. If you can't identify that Brouwer should be playing zero minutes a night (instead of killing a penalty for the entirety of overtime), then you are a fool.

It's frustrating because these fixes are so obvious and so simple that you have to begin questioning what it is this coaching staff actually does during the game.

[Bingo]

Sabres 2 Flames 1

- Top six dominant for the Flames
- Smith on top of his game again
- Flames can't finish and two late penalties do them in.

[djsFlames]

Originally Posted by Otto-matic

Pat Steinberg
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Verified account

@Fan960Steinberg
3m3 minutes ago
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Gulutzan on leaving out the same 3 PKer’s in OT tonight said: “I looked at our guys a couple times, they told me they were fine. I don’t think that had anything to do with the goal going in.” #Flames

What does he think they're going to tell him?? "No take me off coach, I don't want to help finish a huge kill"? A bit too much trust in what players say or think. Main issue with GG.

Dude's gotta be assertive and make the change that's entirely necessary at that point. Be like "Alright but we need fresh bodies and a center on that faceoff, so come get a rest."

[FiveSeven]

Originally Posted by djsFlames

What does he think they're going to tell him?? "No take me off coach, I don't want to help finish a huge kill"? A bit too much trust in what players say or think. Main issue with GG.

Dude's gotta be assertive and make the change that's entirely necessary at that point. Be like "Alright but we need fresh bodies and a center on that faceoff, so come get a rest."

100% this. Something so simple to do. Such an easy choice to put Janko out. Scared there might be two centers out after the pk? only logic I can think of...? :\

[#22]

Originally Posted by 4X4

I was at that game, 14+ years ago, on my birthday, when the Flames last lost to the Sabres in the Dome. For some reason, I recall it being a 3-0 loss, but Google tells me it was 2-0. Either way, it was a pathetic effort that night as well. The only time I ever booed my team off the ice. Had I been there tonight, I would have booed again.

Well, I was there today on my birthday, so I guess we're sharing that pain.

Obviously not a great game, but from what I could see there was a lot of hustle from both teams. Flames just seemed a little out of sink. Not enough real heat towards Johnson, a brain fart of a shift after scoring and two late penalties (one of which was a weak call).

Definitely a treat watching Mike Smith live & up close. What a battler.

While the loss stings, we got a point and in the end I got to watch a NHL game from row 3 with my daughter and my brother, and that made it a great birthday.

[81MC]

I get Buffalo is not a good team, but holy cow some of you make it sound like they're an ECHL squad out there. They've taken at least 9? games to OT against other teams in the league, and outright won 12. Yes, that's terrible and they aren't expected to be much of a fight, but treating as a gimme win, day at the office victory team seems extreme. End of the day, teams will lose to other competing teams.
Still, Jesus, Flames, let's win those :0

[Lanny_McDonald]

nice to see Gulutzan take advantage of the last change. Guy is a real tactician and proves time-and-time again what a smart coach he is. Said in the middle of the streak that the true test of the coach would come after the break. Said that the challenge would be to get the team prepped and focused on getting back to winning coming off the break. So far we have two piss poor performances, one against the 2nd worst team in the league. Team is it prepared, has no answers or adjustments during the game, and the defuse behind the bench continues to make stupid mistakes in deploying his personnel. The home ice record is very telling. Changes still need to be made.

[Toonage]

We're all missing the most important part of the game last night.

Curtis Lazar knocked a guy out. Think about that.

[Huntingwhale]

Fan 960 AM show ripped on the decision. T-Bro stays out for the entire PK, takes 3 draws...vs the #1 faceoff man in the league in ROR.

Mind blowing decision. I hope Brian Burke stormed his way to GG's office, windshield wiped everything off his desk, and asked him WTF kind of boneheaded decision that was.

Most of us thought the Brouwer signing was bad at the time. I figured he was overpaid, but meh he's really the only bad contract on the Flames so I can live with it.

Well now it is a horrible contract simply because Brouwer gets so much ice time. GG can't resist playing him. I get that he's likely doing this to get him going and get him out of his funk. But it's been 1.5 seasons now where Brouwer has had maybe 10 good games total. And he gets put out for 3 draws in a row. Against the league's #1 faceman. In OT. After ''asking'' him if he's still good to go.

I want to like GG. I really do. But it's decision like this that often result in us losing games, where I throw my hat into the fire GG crowd.

And God help us if the team loses to the Oilers on Thursday. May Yaweh Jesus help us. Cause it's gonna be ugly around here and I doubt you'll find a single coach supporter left.

[locsofblu]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

Fan 960 AM show ripped on the decision. T-Bro stays out for the entire PK, takes 3 draws...vs the #1 faceoff man in the league in ROR.

Mind blowing decision. I hope Brian Burke stormed his way to GG's office, windshield wiped everything off his desk, and asked him WTF kind of boneheaded decision that was.

Most of us thought the Brouwer signing was bad at the time. I figured he was overpaid, but meh he's really the only bad contract on the Flames so I can live with it.

Well now it is a horrible contract simply because Brouwer gets so much ice time. GG can't resist playing him. I get that he's likely doing this to get him going and get him out of his funk. But it's been 1.5 seasons now where Brouwer has had maybe 10 good games total. And he gets put out for 3 draws in a row. Against the league's #1 faceman. In OT. After ''asking'' him if he's still good to go.

I want to like GG. I really do. But it's decision like this that often result in us losing games, where I throw my hat into the fire GG crowd.

And God help us if the team loses to the Oilers on Thursday. May Yaweh Jesus help us. Cause it's gonna be ugly around here and I doubt you'll find a single coach supporter left.

Well said.

[metal_geek]

Been racking my brain over why he left brouwer out there for the full kill. Only rationale I can come up with is it was gonna be a shooting gallery with the 4 on 3 and he didn’t want to risk an injury to one of the other Centers. No doubt any other situation but Backlund in the box that was Backlunds draw.

A time out would have been nice there regardless.

[Toonage]

Originally Posted by metal_geek

Been racking my brain over why he left brouwer out there for the full kill.

Yeah I've done the same thing. No matter what scenario I concoct it always breaks down when you apply logic to it.

He wanted 3 big bodies on the ice, as they only had 3 against Buffalo's 4.
Well, Jankowski is a big body, and a natural centre.

In that same vein, he wanted 3 guys that would block shots
Jankowski would do that too.

He wanted to keep every single other player available fresh for the remaining 2:30 of OT when the penalty expired.

Nothing makes sense.

[burn_this_city]

I posted this in the Gully thread, what happens when these poor personnel decisions cost us a playoff game or a series?

[flambers]

Flames looked off last night, for some reason they are just not sharp at home....

Weird coaching decision to keep the same PK unit for 1:30....

Flames need to play at a higher level.... especially at home...

Disappointing effort and game for sure

[burnitdown]

This loss hurts. People can say it's just a meaningless point in January but those points all matter...especially when it seems like there'll be a good chunk of teams finishing between 90 and 98 points this year, and not all of them will miss the playoffs. You give away another 4-5 pts over the remaining games and that's the difference of missing the playoffs and potentially having home ice in the first round.

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by burnitdown

This loss hurts. People can say it's just a meaningless point in January but those points all matter...especially when it seems like there'll be a good chunk of teams finishing between 90 and 98 points this year, and not all of them will miss the playoffs. You give away another 4-5 pts over the remaining games and that's the difference of missing the playoffs and potentially having home ice in the first round.

Flames went on a 7 game winning streak, and then lost two games in OT due to awful performances on home ice...and guess what? After LA beats Vancouver tonight, the Flames will be on the outside of the playoffs.

I liked what Rhett and Boomer went on about today - what does this team want to be? Are we supposed to excuse the awful performance on Saturday because they were coming off break? How about last night? When can you expect to, and actually, beat the worst team in hockey? It's not like we got beat while playing well, because then you can excuse it. The last two games were poor efforts and lacked focus/execution.

This team hasn't been able to keep it together. It's still an uphill battle to make the playoffs, and they're going to kill themselves in the standings if they continue to put out efforts like they did on Saturday and last night.

The effort level over these last two games are how you fall out of a playoff race that you just pushed hard to get into.

[IamNotKenKing]

It was OK to keep the PK unit out for the full 1:23.
The mistake was keeping Brouwer out for the last faceoff. I know those sound diametrically opposed, but they are every so slightly different. It wasn't the time, but the situation, which was wrong.
I believe Brouwer sometimes takes PK faceoffs when they are on the right hand side of the ice, even when he is out with Backlund, so perhaps Gully was wanting to keep him on his strong side? It still makes no sense.
Perhaps he wanted to keep Backlund and Brouwer together for part of 4 on 4, so as to be able to put out Johnny and Mony next? Even still, have Mony win the draw, then control the puck until Backs changes for Johnny. Seems simple.
I just don't understand why Brouwer was out for that faceoff. He did a great job on the PK, but don't push it...
Arrrggghhh!

[Locke]

Originally Posted by djsFlames

What does he think they're going to tell him?? "No take me off coach, I don't want to help finish a huge kill"? A bit too much trust in what players say or think. Main issue with GG.

Dude's gotta be assertive and make the change that's entirely necessary at that point. Be like "Alright but we need fresh bodies and a center on that faceoff, so come get a rest."

Who cares what the players say? You're the coach, you make the intelligent tactical decision.

Its encouraging that the players are willing to battle but you still have to do the smart thing like have a centre on the ice to take a defensive zone faceoff on a PK.

Its embarrassing that a fan should have to say that about a Professional NHL head coach.

[Otto-matic]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

Flames went on a 7 game winning streak, and then lost two games in OT due to awful performances on home ice...and guess what? After LA beats Vancouver tonight, the Flames will be on the outside of the playoffs.

I liked what Rhett and Boomer went on about today - what does this team want to be? Are we supposed to excuse the awful performance on Saturday because they were coming off break? How about last night? When can you expect to, and actually, beat the worst team in hockey? It's not like we got beat while playing well, because then you can excuse it. The last two games were poor efforts and lacked focus/execution.

This team hasn't been able to keep it together. It's still an uphill battle to make the playoffs, and they're going to kill themselves in the standings if they continue to put out efforts like they did on Saturday and last night.

The effort level over these last two games are how you fall out of a playoff race that you just pushed hard to get into.

Like I said before, the team gained zero ground on the west with the 7 game win streak. Zero. Its not like they had a comfy cushion ahead of the teams and they come out completely flat for two straight games. With the pace the West is going, it may take more then 96 points to clinch. Sportsclub stats is giving 96 points a 65.9% chance to make the playoffs.