Too early to panic about Markstrom

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by Inferno

If Sutter keeps his one game a week plan for Vladar that would make it 56 starts for Markstrom. So 7 less games than last season.

I think that plan is out the window he abandoned that fairly quickly and even changed his tone about it after one his starts earlier this season.

Sutter rides his goalies. Kipper was playing almost every game poor guy. He rode Quick. Nabokov was in the high 60s as well.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Locke

Dude. He's a goalie. Its hard to excel when you only play a handful of games and almost never in a run.

I always remember that quote from Engelland (defenceman) but he was saying that playing 5-7 minutes a night, you're not in the game. He looked terrible, but when his minutes tripled he was fantastic.

Goalies are not Yo-Yos. You cant just yank and throw, there has to be rhythm.

Most backups don’t get a run until they show they’ve done something to earn it. How does Vladar look in practice?

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

I think that plan is out the window he abandoned that fairly quickly and even changed his tone about it after one his starts earlier this season.

By one game a week I think he means more 26 starts.

We're seven weeks in going into the eighth and Vladar has played in six. You might as well count the Buffalo game as a start since he ended up playing most of the game. All Sutter has to do is play him twice in a busy week like he did last week and he's back on pace.

[Strange Brew]

So Vladar now will have started 3 of last 4. Are we still mad at Sutter about not playing him enough? The coach is rewarding performance.

[tony-soprano]

Not too early to panic, cause we have Darth Vladar.

[PepsiFree]

Too early to get excited about Vladar???

[I_H8_Crawford]

I think the Oilers broke Markstrom. Dude is awful.

[Goriders]

Markstrom has turned into Mike Smith the last season he played for us.

He is mentally wrecked.

[jlh2640]

He’s beyond brutal. And so is the entire team. My expectations now are finished. We are a bubble team at best.

[JohnnyB]

I've come to wonder if there's a possibility he's dealing with long covid. The way he's just not consistently sharp, makes weird and uncharacteristic decisions, and seemed in that interview unable to really explain what's going on with himself while frustrated that he's not like he used to be, all seems kind of consistent with long covid. It's also the kind of thing that could change him seemingly overnight without being easily recognized or diagnosed. Could it be he caught a mild/asymptomatic case of covid out celebrating after the round one win and the team weren't testing when players no longer had to cross the border? Seems plausible, and could explain the almost overnight change from Vezina candidate to what we see now.

[Erick Estrada]

Honestly I don't know if this is a Markstrom thing or a Flames thing. It just seems like every season after a successful one, things fall apart for the entire team. I fully expect Markstrom to find his game and the Flames to be a 100 point team again next season but for whatever reason everything just sucks this season and it's an ongoing pattern with the team every season following a successful regular season.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

I've come to wonder if there's a possibility he's dealing with long covid. The way he's just not consistently sharp, makes weird and uncharacteristic decisions, and seemed in that interview unable to really explain what's going on with himself while frustrated that he's not like he used to be, all seems kind of consistent with long covid. It's also the kind of thing that could change him seemingly overnight without being easily recognized or diagnosed. Could it be he caught a mild/asymptomatic case of covid out celebrating after the round one win and the team weren't testing when players no longer had to cross the border? Seems plausible, and could explain the almost overnight change from Vezina candidate to what we see now.

Nothing to do with covid or anything other than....confidence.

He just doesn't have any right now which is evident by the silly decisions he is making.

There is only one way out of it and that is to work his butt off in practice and wait for his chance to redeem himself next time he starts.

For now though its Vladars net.

[Toonage]

Markstrom needs to practice (and play) like its minor hockey. Nothing but basics. Get some solid no frills wins in down the road and work from there.

No word of a lie, he might not right the ship until next year.

[Goriders]

Originally Posted by jlh2640

He’s beyond brutal. And so is the entire team. My expectations now are finished. We are a bubble team at best.

Correct. There will be a lot of teams in that boat this year.

[jlh2640]

Originally Posted by Goriders

Correct. There will be a lot of teams in that boat this year.

Parity has never been higher. I agree. But man I am not optimistic that things will turn around.

[DeluxeMoustache]

I will say again that Markstrom’s puck stopping was fine last night

His decision making hurt. Particularly on the play 13 seconds in

The second one, he started with an unnecessary stick, but I agree with the guy that said the problem was when Mang went all Scrappy Doo

(Still chuckling at that)

[1qqaaz]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

I will say again that Markstrom’s puck stopping was fine last night

His decision making hurt. Particularly on the play 13 seconds in

The second one, he started with an unnecessary stick, but I agree with the guy that said the problem was when Mang went all Scrappy Doo

(Still chuckling at that)

And both of these decision-making errors were the products of aggression.

It's good that he's competitive, but there's a reason many of the best goalies tend to be calm, cool, and collected.

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by jlh2640

Parity has never been higher. I agree. But man I am not optimistic that things will turn around.

Well I'm not sure things can really get much worse and the team is only .500 ish right now.

They are bound to have a run where the puck starts going in with more regularity, and if this turns into a 5-6-7 game winning streak, things will look pretty good in a hurry.

This isn't last years group. If they can get firmly into the 6/7 seed and hold on to it, they will be a tough out.

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

His decision making hurt. Particularly on the play 13 seconds in

He's thinking too much. He's well aware he's not playing like he should and he's trying to do too much instead of just doing the simple things.

There's times where taking a chance to beat out the opposing player for the puck is worth it but that wasn't one.

[Vinny01]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Honestly I don't know if this is a Markstrom thing or a Flames thing. It just seems like every season after a successful one, things fall apart for the entire team. I fully expect Markstrom to find his game and the Flames to be a 100 point team again next season but for whatever reason everything just sucks this season and it's an ongoing pattern with the team every season following a successful regular season.

I had hoped that was a problem with Johnny/Chucky/Gio/Monahan and also due to having guys like Gulutzan/Peters/Ward as coaches. All of those people are gone and the team continues to take a step back when they take 2 steps forward.

More frustrating because the core turnover and the team being veteran heavy. Is Darryl losing the room with his demanding ways? Is Markstrom broken from the Oilers series?

When trying not to panic I look at the core turnover and things taking time to settle. Maybe this team will be among the best over the last 50 games? It is frustrating how old the team feels and there are several prospects having strong seasons which can make this team feel a lot younger.

This good year, bad year trend that started when Treliving joined the team is bizarre.