[PGT] Flames 3 Stars 2 OT WIN!

[Robo]

Gaudreau looked incredibly fast last night

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Robo

Gaudreau looked incredibly fast last night

For all the complaining in the GT, I thought he was pretty good. The effort was there, he was being checked really closely. He was a beast in OT.

[slcrocket]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

This bizarre narrative about the Flames supposed dearth of forward depth is already very tiresome. They are one of the deepest teams in the NHL; it is an exceptionally well constructed roster. I just don’t get it.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Respectfully disagree. I think this is a team with a good first line, a good second line, and two lines of fourth liners.

I keep waiting for Bennett/Jankowski/Czarnik to prove some form of reliability, and I am consistently disappointed. Lucic, Rieder, and Ryan look decidedly like fourth liners at best (I would argue that Lucic is a net loss individually and there wasn't exactly a long line to sign Rieder, either). The dropoff from Tkachuk/Backlund/Frolik to what we have left under them is significant.

[Mr.Coffee]

Gaudreau is ####ing amazing and honestly anyone who criticizes him is an idiot. The guy carries the team.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

Gaudreau is ####ing amazing and honestly anyone who criticizes him is an idiot. The guy carries the team.

He is something special!!

[Firebot]

Originally Posted by slcrocket

Respectfully disagree. I think this is a team with a good first line, a good second line, and two lines of fourth liners.

And they had the 2nd best record in the NHL last year. I wonder what the rest of the NHL has.

[Roof-Daddy]

Nothing against Bennett, but what a disappointment he is.

Imagine how good this team would be if he was just half as good as Point, who was taken 4 rounds later in the same draft IIRC.

Funny how the draft works sometimes.

Tre has built a solid team no doubt, but it'd be a juggernaut had they not completely botched the 2014 draft. Bennett I can live with, he was pretty much a lock to go top 4 and we had the 4th pick. It's the crap they wasted the 2nd round picks on that really pisses me off. Never mind NHLers, they didn't even draft guys who could hack it in the AHL with 2nd round picks. Just terrible. Hopefully whiffs like that continue to become less and less common.

[icarus]

The first Flames game I've been to in about a decade that they actually won!

I was down at ice level next to the cameraman on the goal line, so got to see BSD's penalty shot save and Johnny's SO winner up close. Wow! I think I sprained my hand banging on the glass so hard.

I'm so glad I went! Lots of Flames fans around too, I guess there are a lot of oilpatch transplants down here.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by slcrocket

Respectfully disagree. I think this is a team with a good first line, a good second line, and two lines of fourth liners.

I keep waiting for Bennett/Jankowski/Czarnik to prove some form of reliability, and I am consistently disappointed. Lucic, Rieder, and Ryan look decidedly like fourth liners at best (I would argue that Lucic is a net loss individually and there wasn't exactly a long line to sign Rieder, either). The dropoff from Tkachuk/Backlund/Frolik to what we have left under them is significant.

Derek Ryan is at worst a third-line centre. He has not had a great start this year, but I am entirely convinced that he will be perfectly fine. I think the same can be said for both Mangiapane and Frolik, and probably also Bennett.

So, no. The Flames do not have two fourth lines. What I see is a team that from top-to-bottom is among the deepest in the entire NHL. The fact of the matter is that in a hard-capped League even the best teams have holes in their lineup: some of them bigger or more significant than others, and I think the Flames have done very well to manage and balance their lineup under these constraints.

[TheScorpion]

A lot of the discussions happening here right now are eerily similar to what we saw last year.

Ryan is terrible, Frolik is terrible, Jankowski is terrible, Bennett is terrible. All of them are fourth-liners.

Last year, the Flames had two wins and two losses through four games. This year, they have two wins and two losses through four games.

Ryan, Frolik, Jankowski, and Bennett had combined for three points through four games last year. This year, they've combined for two.

Those four finished the season with a total of 121 points. They helped the Flames to win 50 games.

The sky isn't falling. This team is a good team, and it has a ton of good players. Some players have started slower, but all of Bennett, Jankowski, Frolik, and Ryan have showed that they have the capability to be very effective depth players.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

...Tre has built a solid team no doubt, but it'd be a juggernaut had they not completely botched the 2014 draft. Bennett I can live with, he was pretty much a lock to go top 4 and we had the 4th pick. It's the crap they wasted the 2nd round picks on that really pisses me off. Never mind NHLers, they didn't even draft guys who could hack it in the AHL with 2nd round picks. Just terrible. Hopefully whiffs like that continue to become less and less common.

2014 was Treliving's first NHL draft. Given that every subsequent one has been a lot stronger I would say that is a sign of a young GM progressing and growing into the job. The timing was unfortunate, but I think the results are completely understandable.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

A lot of the discussions happening here right now are eerily similar to what we saw last year.

Ryan is terrible, Frolik is terrible, Jankowski is terrible, Bennett is terrible. All of them are fourth-liners.

Last year, the Flames had two wins and two losses through four games. This year, they have two wins and two losses through four games.

Ryan, Frolik, Jankowski, and Bennett had combined for three points through four games last year. This year, they've combined for two.

Those four finished the season with a total of 121 points. They helped the Flames to win 50 games.

The sky isn't falling. This team is a good team, and it has a ton of good players. Some players have started slower, but all of Bennett, Jankowski, Frolik, and Ryan have showed that they have the capability to be very effective depth players.

Ryan in particular. IIRC there was a lot of complain about him early last year. He steadily got better. I suspect he's a slow starter, plus he's got a new linemate who is quite a bit different than he had before.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

Gaudreau is ####ing amazing and honestly anyone who criticizes him is an idiot. The guy carries the team.

Carries the team?

He's a premier forward and all-star, but he's not playing with a bunch of schlubs that he carries like in the Iginla days.

He might not even be the best player on the team (Gio).

[Mr.Coffee]

He is definitely the best player on the team. Come on now.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

2014 was Treliving's first NHL draft. Given that every subsequent one has been a lot stronger I would say that is a sign of a young GM progressing and growing into the job. The timing was unfortunate, but I think the results are completely understandable.

Treliving was also pretty new in the job as of July 2014, so he probably relied on the incumbent scouting a fair bit more than otherwise, as well as Burke.

Look at his picks in 2015: Andersson, Kylington, Mangiapane. 2016: Tkachuk, Parsons, Dube, Fox (plus some more that seem promising still). 2017: Valimaki.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

He is definitely the best player on the team. Come on now.

Definitely? IDK:

[CroFlames]

via Imgflip Meme Generator

[Flash Walken]

Gio Vs Johnny is an interesting discussion

[CSharp]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

Nothing against Bennett, but what a disappointment he is.

Imagine how good this team would be if he was just half as good as Point, who was taken 4 rounds later in the same draft IIRC.

Funny how the draft works sometimes.

Tre has built a solid team no doubt, but it'd be a juggernaut had they not completely botched the 2014 draft. Bennett I can live with, he was pretty much a lock to go top 4 and we had the 4th pick. It's the crap they wasted the 2nd round picks on that really pisses me off. Never mind NHLers, they didn't even draft guys who could hack it in the AHL with 2nd round picks. Just terrible. Hopefully whiffs like that continue to become less and less common.

Sigh - every year it's the same old s--t with Bennett except for his first year when he did look very promising. Every year the ceiling is limitless but then the fog rolls in and remains for the whole season. The potential is there but you don't get to see any of it and you're left speculating. He was young breaking into the Flames lineup and is still considered young even to this date. Maybe in 10 years time, he'll still be the youngest, highest potential, highest skilled truculent, highest drafted Flames that'll ever be in a lot of peoples eyes. However, I do give him props in showing up in the playoffs when most of the team got shell-shocked in their own zone.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Gio Vs Johnny is an interesting discussion

Johnny is incredibly talented and easily the most gifted offensive player on the team. He has some issues though, defensively (he can do it, but he forgets sometimes) and, IMO, mentally (he sometimes takes too much on himself and one-mans it, or he gets too frustrated.

Gio is a complete player. He gives 100% every outing. He is elite or close to it, offensively, he's a shutdown D man, he's gritty and will drop the gloves. Off ice he is a beast in the training room and he is a leader. Also, as a number 1 D man, his position is simply more important.