Pat Steinberg @Fan960Steinberg
#Flames assistant coach Ryan Huska, with us this afternoon, with high praise for newcomer Conner Mackey:
“There’s no doubt in my mind he’s going to play in the NHL next season. Whether it’s two games, 20, or the entire season, he’ll play NHL games next year.”
The Following 26 Users Say Thank You to sureLoss For This Useful Post:
Pat Steinberg @Fan960Steinberg
#Flames assistant coach Ryan Huska, with us this afternoon, with high praise for newcomer Conner Mackey:
“There’s no doubt in my mind he’s going to play in the NHL next season. Whether it’s two games, 20, or the entire season, he’ll play NHL games next year.”
If he can graduate to a full-time role next season, it will definitely help with our loss of our UFA d-men.
The Following User Says Thank You to agulati For This Useful Post:
Looks like Tkachuk let it slip in this interview that Backlund was indeed "injured" that caused him to miss the last couple of practices. Hopefully it isn't anything serious.
Looks like Tkachuk let it slip in this interview that Backlund was indeed "injured" that caused him to miss the last couple of practices. Hopefully it isn't anything serious.
In that situation I’d call it a precautionary muscle acting up and being safe.
Yeah, Backlund himself said it was basically the result of trying to go from zero to 100 too quickly.
----------
Also, here's Johnny's conference call with the media from Thursday. Right at the end, Leslie asks about his hair and he mentions that he needs "to get this quarantine out of my condo" so he can go out and find a barber shop and get a haircut.
That basically confirms he's in an isolation scenario right now, likely due to a close-contact exposure to someone who tested positive. That would allow him to still participate in practices, but otherwise limit other outside contact.
__________________
Turn up the good, turn down the suck!
The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to getbak For This Useful Post:
Yeah, Backlund himself said it was basically the result of trying to go from zero to 100 too quickly.
----------
Also, here's Johnny's conference call with the media from Thursday. Right at the end, Leslie asks about his hair and he mentions that he needs "to get this quarantine out of my condo" so he can go out and find a barber shop and get a haircut.
That basically confirms he's in an isolation scenario right now, likely due to a close-contact exposure to someone who tested positive. That would allow him to still participate in practices, but otherwise limit other outside contact.
Well, maybe then the easy answer is in all this that his condo building has a bunch of cases. There are a couple in town that have had outbreaks iirc.
So he does not have it, tested probably daily, but his condo building is high risk, so they are limiting his exposure to other top players on the team to be safe.
Also, here's Johnny's conference call with the media from Thursday. Right at the end, Leslie asks about his hair and he mentions that he needs "to get this quarantine out of my condo" so he can go out and find a barber shop and get a haircut.
Someone at the end there asked about whether or not he is concerned being away from his line mates for so long. Maybe the time apart for Monahan and Gaudreau is a good thing. My complaint about Monahan is that he defers to Gaudreau too often, and my complaint with Gaudreau is that he carries the puck too much. I think there is an opportunity here for Monahan and Lindholm to develop more of their own game together—if they are stronger contributors on that line, the Flames become substantially more difficult to line-match.
__________________
Dealing with Everything from Dead Sea Scrolls to Red C Trolls
Quote:
Originally Posted by woob
"...harem warfare? like all your wives dressup and go paintballing?"
It blows my that a player gets moved to a 9 man group in training camp, during COVID, and the first assumption from Dreger and Francis is that he's out of shape.
It blows my that a player gets moved to a 9 man group in training camp, during COVID, and the first assumption from Dreger and Francis is that he's out of shape.
Francis gets dumped on a lot here, and often for good reason. But this was NOT his assumption as far as I can tell. In fact, he was actually among the first to quash that idea. All the speculation about Gaudreau's shape came from out of market—from Dreger in Toronto and from Scott Rintoul in Vancouver. And In suspect Rintoul was silly repeating a talking-point he had heard either directly or indirectly from Dreger.
__________________
Dealing with Everything from Dead Sea Scrolls to Red C Trolls
Quote:
Originally Posted by woob
"...harem warfare? like all your wives dressup and go paintballing?"
SO much for the NHL being a good corporate citizen.
The NHL is doing a very structured case study on COVID and establish what hopefully best practices on how the manage covid spread and is keeping this information top secret.
Already the unlimited mandatory testing of a large sample without symptoms has shown that the covid infection rate is far higher than what any public heath agency has published
The last report I could find was that as of July 13 46 positive tests on 600 players An infection rate of 7.6 %
The 315,775 positive tests in Florida's 21,480,000 people come to 1.47% infection rate.
It seemed like this was pertinent information to include in this discussion. This release came from the NHL yesterday:
Francis gets dumped on a lot here, and often for good reason. But this was NOT his assumption as far as I can tell. In fact, he was actually among the first to quash that idea. All the speculation about Gaudreau's shape came from out of market—from Dreger in Toronto and from Scott Rintoul in Vancouver. And In suspect Rintoul was silly repeating a talking-point he had heard either directly or indirectly from Dreger.
Well, except Francis's hit piece article on the first day of camp saying how disappointing it was that Gaudreau was no with the main group and that it was a bad way for Gaudreau to start camp, etc. etc.
Well, except Francis's hit piece article on the first day of camp saying how disappointing it was that Gaudreau was no with the main group and that it was a bad way for Gaudreau to start camp, etc. etc.
He's a hack.
Here is Francis's article from Day 1:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric Francis
Alas, Gaudreau’s return was simply delayed a few hours by an odd decision to put him, Cam Talbot, Milan Lucic and Andrew Mangiapane with the remaining group of nine that still included two absences...
No more upper or lower-body talk, opening up daily chatter over whether absent players will ultimately appear as stats in the league’s weekly COVID-19 count.
“I have a feeling that’s going to come up, but once games and practices start happening, guys block shots and miss games,” said Matthew Tkachuk, when asked if he was prepared for the obvious whispers following even routine maintenance days.
“I know it’s human nature to speculate, but I’m going to advise people not to over-speculate. I was just made aware we’re not saying anything. That’s not my call. If I were to say anything it’s ‘don’t speculate.’”
Hard not to when the coach added this fascinating response when asked why the main and secondary groups had such unconventional looks.
But what about his Day 2 article, which featured the headline (that Francis almost certainly did not write himself) "Flames Gaudreau not off to an ideal start as playoff proving grounds loom"?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric Francis
Day 2 of camp still has the Flames top line winger separated not only from his linemates, but from the main group.
For the second day in a row Gaudreau skated in a group of nine players, while his regular linemates — Sean Monahan and Elias Lindholm — skated together in the main group of 23...
The reason for the split?
Well, read into interim head coach Geoff Ward’s clandestine comments from Monday any way you want, when he explained the odd groupings by saying they were due to “circumstances that became apparent last week.”
He said he couldn’t elaborate...
Monahan downplayed Gaudreau’s absence from the big boys, hinting that whatever COVID-19 constraints have been placed on the team would end soon enough.
“The big thing is timing and game situational stuff,” he said when asked of things they’d normally be working on as a trio.
“At the moment we’re in two different groups. I think it’s good they’re broken down so you’re getting your work in and your reps. I’m not really too worried – individually you’ve got to be prepared and be ready for whatever will come. I’m sure we’ll be back together soon.”
Francis said it was not ideal that Gaudreau was skating with the second group, and he was right about that. But at no point did he say anything about disappointment, nor did he ever implicate Gaudreau in the decision.
I think you are being unfair.
__________________
Dealing with Everything from Dead Sea Scrolls to Red C Trolls
Quote:
Originally Posted by woob
"...harem warfare? like all your wives dressup and go paintballing?"
But what about his Day 2 article, which featured the headline (that Francis almost certainly did not write himself) "Flames Gaudreau not off to an ideal start as playoff proving grounds loom"?
Francis said it was not ideal that Gaudreau was skating with the second group, and he was right about that. But at no point did he say anything about disappointment, nor did he ever implicate Gaudreau in the decision.
I think you are being unfair.
If you find yourself reading an Eric Francis article or tweet. Its a re-evaluation point. Put it down and go do anything else. You'll never get anyone better if he keeps getting clicks.
The man has had a grade A platform for his voice gifted to him for 20+yrs and he's said nothing at all.