Practice Notes - January 31, 2020

[Toonage]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1223310005673299969

Lines today:

Mangiapane-Lindholm-Tkachuk
Gaudreau-Monahan-Robinson
Lucic-Ryan-Dube
Bennett-Backlund-Rieder
Jankowski-Rinaldo

Giordano-Brodie
Hanifin-Hamonic
Kylington-Andersson
Stone

A little surprised to see Rinaldo left out

[Toonage]

Flames also promising an update on Valimaki's status in about 30 minutes

https://twitter.com/user/status/1223311374995972096

[sureLoss]

Pat Steinberg @Fan960Steinberg
#Flames GM Brad Treliving with an update on d-man Juuso Valimaki.

Says Valimaki has started to skate on his own. At some point in the next little while he’ll join the group for practice. Still no timeline for a return.

Derek Wills @Fan960Wills
#Flames GM Brad Treliving just told us that defencemen Juuso Valimaki has started to skate on his own. Next week, he’ll start to work with skills coaches as he ramps up to join the team. No return date at this time.

[Toonage]

sureLoss'd!

I'm not sure playoffs are out of the question for Valimaki.

[TheIronMaiden]

Would Valimaki's protection status in the expansion draft change if he played in the NHL this season?

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden

Would Valimaki's protection status in the expansion draft change if he played in the NHL this season?

If he plays 10 games. I can't see BT being that stupid he would allow that to happen.

[Unknown]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

If he plays 10 games.

Only regular season, or both, regular+playoff games?

[Samonadreau]

Originally Posted by Unknown

Only regular season, or both, regular+playoff games?

either/or

[Boblobla]

Originally Posted by Samonadreau

either/or

Hopefully he is back for the playoffs and plays 10+ games then.

[Komskies]

Originally Posted by Unknown

Only regular season, or both, regular+playoff games?

If you recall it happened to Sam Bennett. In 14/15 he played 1 regular season and 11 playoff games which used up his first year.

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by Boblobla

Hopefully he is back for the playoffs and plays 10+ games then.

If he's already skating ahead of schedule, I'd say it's fair to assume he's on a 2-4 week timeline now (purely guessing) to ramping up to full practice with the team.

That would leave roughly a month of regular season games to consider suiting him up for legitimate action. It's quite fair to assume Valimaki could skate in 8-10 regular season games, so long as he doesn't suffer any setbacks.

[FBI]

2020-2021 defense:
Giordano, Brodie, Hanifin, Andersson, Valimaki, Kylington, Stone

That's a winner for me.

[Torture]

Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus

If he's already skating ahead of schedule, I'd say it's fair to assume he's on a 2-4 week timeline now (purely guessing) to ramping up to full practice with the team.

That would leave roughly a month of regular season games to consider suiting him up for legitimate action. It's quite fair to assume Valimaki could skate in 8-10 regular season games, so long as he doesn't suffer any setbacks.

If he's ready to go and Tre thinks he's an upgrade on one of the D currently playing I can't see them holding him back just for the sake of expansion draft eligibility. Especially in the playoffs.

[FlamesAreOne]

@WesGilbertson

#Flames GM Brad Treliving: “Any talk that there’s a malicious intent on the Gio hit (on McDavid) is complete garbage.”

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by Torture

If he's ready to go and Tre thinks he's an upgrade on one of the D currently playing I can't see them holding him back just for the sake of expansion draft eligibility. Especially in the playoffs.

Realistically, he'll need to play some conditioning games before that analysis can be made. 3-4 AHL and 6-7 NHL games played this season would be a huge win considering the severity of the injury.

[TheIronMaiden]

It wouldn't bother me is Valimaki played the remainder of the season in the AHL.

[activeStick]

Looks like the Flames will get Mike Smith tomorrow with Koskinen playing tonight against the Blues. Flames need to shoot early, often and from everywhere Saturday and chip pucks in such that Smith will venture out into the corner and make the same mistakes he always does

[Fan in Exile]

Watching Smith play the Flames and almost giving away two goals, does anyone still buy how valuable it is to have him back there handling the puck? That was the most overblown hype job for a goalie I've ever heard, and there were scores of analysts and posters here pushing it all last season.

So much happier with BSD and Talbot backing him up.

[Torture]

Originally Posted by Fan in Exile

Watching Smith play the Flames and almost giving away two goals, does anyone still buy how valuable it is to have him back there handling the puck? That was the most overblown hype job for a goalie I've ever heard, and there were scores of analysts and posters here pushing it all last season.

So much happier with BSD and Talbot backing him up.

I noticed Gaudreau was often in perfect position to pick off his pass. Almost burned him a couple times.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Fan in Exile

Watching Smith play the Flames and almost giving away two goals, does anyone still buy how valuable it is to have him back there handling the puck? That was the most overblown hype job for a goalie I've ever heard, and there were scores of analysts and posters here pushing it all last season.

So much happier with BSD and Talbot backing him up.

Last season convinced me that a goalie's puck-play abilities are not especially useful to them he team. Not only did Smith's puck-handling cost the Flames on occasions, but I believe it also had an unintended effect on how the defense played in their own zone. With the expectation that the goalie was going to catch dump ins and move the puck up quickly, I think there is an instinctive response to slow down and to turn up-ice sooner. This really looked to me to be a problem in the playoffs, when Colorado amped up their forecheck to disrupt the Flames's defensive zone play rather effectively.

Even with Rittich and Talbot, I find myself cringing every time one of them (most frequently Rittich) attempts to fake out or move the puck past forecheckers when in the trapezoid. Either just leave it for your defenseman, or find the quickest, most low risk outlet out.