Practice notes May 12 - Adam Ruzicka joins main practice group

[Vinny01]

I don’t agree this was supposed to be a team fighting for 4th they should be fighting for 1st or 2nd. Only the Leafs looked better on paper and while the Flames don’t have the high end forwards the Oilers or even Jets have they had a superior blueline and supposedly had depth that would be enough to have them compete with the top heavy teams.

This team failed because they could not score goals and we saw their top players take a step back or side step instead of step forward. Markstrom was far too inconsistent in year 1 of his deal but the goal scoring is still the biggest issue

[Max Cow Disease]

A few embarrassing questions in that presser - no wonder Darryl was grumpy. The intro goes something like "so, uh, you're like saying you want to win these next few games?". In the words of the venerable Olli Jokinen, "what kind of f***ing question is that?". What's he supposed to say?

I'm glad he wants to win. You can't expect a guy like Sutter to come in here and be coy or shifty about the notion of whether or not the team's going to try and win every game. He's a straight shooter - which is why he's admitting that the team has deficiencies that need to be addressed, but as part of that package deal you have to always expect him to shoot for the W.

I know everyone's somewhat in meltdown mode right now, but Darryl basically just got here. The team will make some changes in the offseason, Darryl will get a full camp with the team, COVID will be largely behind us - things could look quite a bit different by next year.

[Erick Estrada]

Yeah the first question about expectations of winning the last four games was not very good. Not sure exactly what the expected answer was there as no coach is going to say winning isn't the goal. It is weird how he's downplaying the skill of the team vs other teams in the division as IMO it kind of lets the players off the hook for having a poor season.

[ah123]

I fully expect some significant changes with an emphasis on speed and skill. Sutter has mentioned a number of times that they don’t have the skill and he keeps emphasizing tempo.

The other thing that stood out today, is that he is not impressed with some players (“straighten the team out”)...I would love to see who those players are...

[flamesrule_kipper34]

No issue with how the presser went on either side. But Leslie was not trying to put words in Sutter's mouth, he literally called out people for thinking this team could be better than 4th. Kind of comical really.

[Savvy27]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Darryl does contradict himself though as on one hand he's saying he was brought in to straighten out the team which alludes to an underachieving team. On the other he's saying the team was never that good, not a top 3 team in the division and would fight for the 4th. Going by his low expectations the team didn't really underachieve so I'm not exactly clear what he was brought in to straighten out?

Also throws a big of shade on Ward and Treliving when saying there was a lot of work to do to get the team to play the right way and keeps talking about how mediocre the roster is and as said above his and Treliving's expectations of the roster seem to be totally different.

My guess on how he would reconcile this is that given the superior quality of players on some of the other teams in the division, the only way for the Flames roster to have a chance to compete in and to actually win in the playoffs would be to play such good defense that the superior skill was neutralized and every game would be up for grabs. That's what I think he meant when he said that the players had to commit to "total team defense" and what I hope that means is that if the team has comparable skill, they can focus more on offense because total team defense seems to require a lot of dumping it in and cycling down low without generating much.

[Itse]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

It is weird how he's downplaying the skill of the team vs other teams in the division as IMO it kind of lets the players off the hook for having a poor season.

It's fair though. The team just isn't good enough.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Itse

It's fair though. The team just isn't good enough.

Nobody thinks they are true cup contenders (maybe the GM and owners do?) but they are better that what they showed this season.

[Itse]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Nobody thinks they are true cup contenders (maybe the GM and owners do?) but they are better that what they showed this season.

Are they significantly better though, relative to others? Two coaches with essentially the exact same results after all.

Did Montreal have a great season? Did Winnipeg play over it's head? Is McDavid not gonna McDavid?

We're going to finish the season something like 6-8 points out of the playoffs, so we'd have to be a LOT better to be relevant.

[Aarongavey]

The best chance they have to tank is to play the team that Brad put together. Younger players could possibly make them better, the existing roster is quite capable of losing out.

[Toonage]

No call ups today huh?

Do they have some available still?

[868904]

Originally Posted by neo45

I respect that Darryl isn’t the kind of guy to tank and not try to win every game

But he also needs to learn from his mistakes when he was running this franchise. He wasn’t giving young players chances, room to grow etc, and it cost him his job eventually.

This org has sunk a ton of resources into developing players like Kylington, Phillips, Ruizcka. There eventually needs to be a “sink or swim” opportunity at the NHL level to see what you have. Otherwise you’re drafting and developing talent to rot in the press box or lead an AHL team nowhere?

Let's be honest here, the Flames don't have any young players at the pro level worth playing.

Darryl will play young players if they are good. Look through his coaching record and rosters.

In SJ, Friesen, Marleau, Sturm, Zyuzin all played significant minutes in Darryl's first year. Marleau, Sturm, Zyuzin were 18 and 19. In subsequent years, Brad Stuart stepped right in as a teenager. Also other slightly older guys like Rathje, Korolyuk, Hannan, Kozlov.

First tenure in Calgary, Lombardi and Saprykin played significant roles as 21 and 22 year olds. Regher, Leopold, Kobasew, Ference, Montador were all young guys. That Flames team was a young team.

In LA, Doughty was only 21 his first year and he took a big step under Darryl. Voynov was 21, Martinez was 24, the role guys like King, Clifford, Lewis, Nolan were all young. In subsequent years, he integrated young players like Toffoli, Muzzin, and Pearson.

This view that Darryl doesn't like young players is another myth just like the myth that he doesn't like skill players. If you really look at his history, what you realize is Darryl actually likes young rosters and it makes sense considering the high energy tempo and forecheck he expects.

The fact is, the Flames young pro prospects just aren't that good. It's what prospect rankings all say and the stats and record of the prospects in the AHL support this assertion. Every team has a bunch of prospects like Phillips and Ruzicka. They are decent, but they aren't bluechip and you don't just throw decent prospects into the water and hope they swim, they need to be nurtured and marinated for a LONG time. Ruzicka has potential, but his weakness is his skating and game pace which is already a weakness for the NHL team; what's the point of having him come in and fail miserably? Give him some bottom six minutes to get a taste first, if he does well, feed him some more.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Ruzicka has made huge strides even in the shortened season and deserved a call-up, so its a bit of a reward if he gets into a game or two. I think he goes back to the AHL next season with the expectation that he dominate at that level (the over-cooking strategy makes sense).

[Hockey-and_stuff]

Don't think Ruzicka is ready for the NHL yet. I agree that he should spend another full season down in the AHL.

Reward him with 4 games now though. Give him a chance to see how big the step is.

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by Toonage

No call ups today huh?

Do they have some available still?

I think they have 1 regular call up remaining.

Even with the Monahan and Hanifin injuries they still have 14 forwards and 7 d-men on the NHL roster.

They need to have less than 12 forwards and 6 d-men available on the NHL roster to use emergency recalls.

[Super-Rye]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Darryl does contradict himself though as on one hand he's saying he was brought in to straighten out the team which alludes to an underachieving team. On the other he's saying the team was never that good, not a top 3 team in the division and would fight for the 4th. Going by his low expectations the team didn't really underachieve so I'm not exactly clear what he was brought in to straighten out?

Also throws a big of shade on Ward and Treliving when saying there was a lot of work to do to get the team to play the right way and keeps talking about how mediocre the roster is and as said above his and Treliving's expectations of the roster seem to be totally different.

I don't think Sutter contradicts himself at all.

This team is both underachieving, and not that good.

Homer glasses aside, it would probably be fair to say that a realistic expectation for this team going into the season was to be a top 4 team in the division, with an outside shot at being a top 2 if everything clicked. The truth is they didn't really come close to that. The team was unprepared to play this season. It looked like the team was ready to play their first 5-10 games and then they just basically spiraled until these last couple weeks in the season.

Being a playoff hopeful isn't being a good team and the Flames failed to live up to that very mediocre bar.

Sadly that sentence can be used to describe the last 30 years of Flames hockey. But hey, at least '04 and '15 were an absolute blast!

[FanIn80]

I liked Leslie's follow up questions. Didn't care too much for the "how deflated are you" stuff, but I sure liked the "OK, so you're saying you think this is a bottom feeder team" stuff.

I'm so friggin tired of pansy-assed "wouldn't you agree" and "how do you see" garbage questions. I want "You said x would happen. X didn't happen. Why?"

[FanIn80]

If I'm in the media, the first chance I get to ask Treliving a question, I'm pointing out to him where this team was when he took over, where it is now, what's been accomplished in between and then asking for his plan moving forward.

Hi Brad, you took over this team with a five year plan that you've alluded to many times. Well, it's been five years and here's where we were, here's what we've done, here's where we are. What now? Each of your offseasons have failed to produce positive playoff results. What are you going to do differently this offseason to rectify that?

The fans are the stakeholders of this team. We should have access to real answers to real questions about the present and future of this team. Just like any other enterprise in this country is required to do for its stakeholders, so should the Calgary Flames.

[TheScorpion]

Hasn't it been seven years?

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

Hasn't it been seven years?

It probably has, but has anyone ever asked him about it? Nope.

"Hey Brad, we just lost in the first round again. How did you like Sam Bennett's energy though?" "Hey Brad, another year out of the playoffs. Have any good golf trips coming up? I think I might have a couple spots open on some of my cards."