The Eternal Optimists Thread

[Strange Brew]

If this is as bad as it gets, we should be good. A little test of mental strength at this point in the season could yield dividends down the road.

[djsFlames]

Go in pissed off, take the home and home, and you're probably in sole possession of a playoff position afterward.

Hopefully the players and *raises volume* coach take some lessons away from the last two.

But thankfully the teams they need to catch are having their own inconsistency issues. That's not unique to the Flames and not only is playoffs but a home ice berth is also well within reach still (though i think at this point we'd rather start on the road lol).

[ForeverFlameFan]

We’ll be on the road soon.

[Philly06Cup]

Flames played well against Vegas. Kept pace with the best team in the West; just a couple bad breaks in the last 2 minutes.

Flames played really well against Tampa. Kept pace with the best team in the league. Unfortunately, a couple softies got the best of them.

I find it so crazy how when they lose, everyone just wants to pile on all the negatives. There is so much to like in these last two games. I'd imagine if they happened after a 3 game winning streak, people wouldn't be wanting to jump of bridges. Take things one game at a time. In this one game, the Flames played pretty damn good by my estimation. Same with the Vegas game.

Similarly, when they win, everyone wants to ignore the mistakes. Flames blew a 3-0 lead to Chicago on NYE, but won in OT. People just wanted to celebrate. Its best to try to evaluate each game on its own.

[Duffalufagus]

Just checking in from NYC. Missed both games (and haven’t seen the highlights either). On biz.

Box score looks bad.

4 points in last 6 is wretched.

Yikes

[Jiri Hrdina]

They had a lot of good luck during the 7 game winning streak, and have had a lot of bad luck during the 6 game skid.
So I guess it all evens out but the net of it all is a team that is still rather average.
But I also agree with the notion that the underlying metrics suggest the team should have a better record than they do. I also don't see anyone scary in the West. If they faced Las Vegas in the first round I don't see why they couldn't beat them. At some point that Vegas luck is going to run out.

So get in. Just get in.

[Robbob]

Like I said in the PGT, 2 points back of both SJ and ANA for the 2-3 slots in the Pacific and we have a game in hand on ANA (plus we currently would have the ROW advantage with them). LA exactly isn't setting the world on fire of late as they actually have a worse record in the last 10 than the Flames.

Also 2 points back of the final WC card spot, although COL has a game in hand on us. The flip side of that is their MVP and Hart candidate is out 2-4 weeks. Chicago is trailing the pack and without the services of Crawford for the foreseeable future and are in tough down the stretch.

It sure hasn't been pretty this last stretch of games, but here we are still in the thick of things.

[IamNotKenKing]

Originally Posted by Duffalufagus

Just checking in from NYC. Missed both games (and haven’t seen the highlights either). On biz.

Box score looks bad.

4 points in last 6 is wretched.

Yikes

Wrong thread Duff.

2 points out of 2nd in the division, after these last 6 games, is still a good place to be.

[442scotty]

With a little bit of good fortune they might make the playoffs. They need to at least stay within 2 points till the last 10 games then step on the gas and hit playoffs while playing their best . It seemed like last year they peaked too early and ran out of gas just as they hit the middle of the first round.

[Robbob]

The thing is a lot of the teams are in the same position struggling in the dog days here. It will be the teams that are able to get back on track sooner rather than later that will help make the difference. LA is struggling, Chicago isn't the same without Crawford, and Colorado just lost Mackinnon. 30 games is still just over a third of the season so there is lots of hockey left and they still control their own destiny.

[Classic_Sniper]

I know everyone is freaking out right now, but I'm going to look at things from a more positive, albeit slightly optimistic standpoint. Even after a 6 game losing streak, we're still in a good position to land a playoff spot with 4 potential open positions. 2 wildcards and 2 pacific spots.


- Central Division Has it Tougher: This division is deep. Filled with tough competitive teams and they'll be playing each other a lot until the end. That'll help when they start taking points away from one another. They have 5 teams vying for 1 Central spot and 2 wild cards.

- Strength of Schedule: We still play the Coyotes 3 times, Sabres 1 time, Senators 1 time and Panthers 1 time. No guarantees we win these games but, we have the higher end talent and goaltending that gives us a chance to win. If this team can manage to do so, they will need to go roughly .500 against the rest which is doable.

- Push Back Against Elite Teams: After watching us play games against the truly elite teams in the league (Lightning, Knights, Capitals, Predators, Penguins, etc), I think we've held our own against these teams and have shown that we can make a competitive game out of it. That gives me some confidence that we won't be seeing any automatic loses on the schedule unlike in years past.

Room for Improvement: It's not like this team is firing on all cylinders and we're still losing games. There's still room for improvement on the powerplay, depth scoring and finishing out games. We've shown in the past and last season that we can do all things. If this team can figure it out in the final stretch here, I like our odds.

[SuperMatt18]

Think there is something else that is somewhat promising.

16/17 Nashville Predators - GP: 51 W: 25 - 18 - 8 58 pts
17/18 Calgary Flames - GP: 51 W: 25 - 18 -8 58 pts

16/17 Nashville

ESGF: 104
ESGA: 101
GF%: 50.7%
CF%: 51.1%
HD%: 51.7% (10TH)
PP: 18.1% (18TH)
PK: 83.1% (8TH)

17/18 Calgary Flames

ESGF: 108
ESGA: 103
GF%: 51.18%
CF%: 52.17% (6TH)
HD%: 53.70% (7TH)
PP: 17.3% (23rd)
PK: 80.3% (17th)

Last year at this time a lot was made about how Nashville was underperforming and that their advanced stats were better than they were showing.

Well this year the Flames have an identical record to what the Preds had last year, have even better 5v5 stats (both advanced & counting) and are also underperforming.

The only real major stat difference between the two teams after 51 games is special teams.

[Corral]

looking like Calgary v California for the 2 division spots - and likely Calgary v SJ and LA for one spot.

The Central has owned the wildcard spots for a while now - and IMO will continue to do so.

[Phaneufenstein]

Originally Posted by Classic_Sniper

I know everyone is freaking out right now, but I'm going to look at things from a more positive, albeit slightly optimistic standpoint. Even after a 6 game losing streak, we're still in a good position to land a playoff spot with 4 potential open positions. 2 wildcards and 2 pacific spots.


- Central Division Has it Tougher: This division is deep. Filled with tough competitive teams and they'll be playing each other a lot until the end. That'll help when they start taking points away from one another. They have 5 teams vying for 1 Central spot and 2 wild cards.

- Strength of Schedule: We still play the Coyotes 3 times, Sabres 1 time, Senators 1 time and Panthers 1 time. No guarantees we win these games but, we have the higher end talent and goaltending that gives us a chance to win. If this team can manage to do so, they will need to go roughly .500 against the rest which is doable.

- Push Back Against Elite Teams: After watching us play games against the truly elite teams in the league (Lightning, Knights, Capitals, Predators, Penguins, etc), I think we've held our own against these teams and have shown that we can make a competitive game out of it. That gives me some confidence that we won't be seeing any automatic loses on the schedule unlike in years past.

Room for Improvement: It's not like this team is firing on all cylinders and we're still losing games. There's still room for improvement on the powerplay, depth scoring and finishing out games. We've shown in the past and last season that we can do all things. If this team can figure it out in the final stretch here, I like our odds.

I would add that Flames haven't only held their own, but actually done pretty well against good teams, which is a great sign for me.

I know we are on a 6 game losing streak and everyone's losing their mind, but if you look at how the team has played it's more unlucky than anything for me.

Yeah yea, our coach sucks, no killer instinct, our PP sucks, we've overpaid for Hamonic, we should be first in the division with our talent. What else do these whiners got?

Does anyone really think that there are teams in this league that don't battle inconsistency?

Flames will be fine, I'm looking forward to the playoffs.

[Classic_Sniper]

Originally Posted by Phaneufenstein

I would add that Flames haven't only held their own, but actually done pretty well against good teams, which is a great sign for me.

I know we are on a 6 game losing streak and everyone's losing their mind, but if you look at how the team has played it's more unlucky than anything for me.

Yeah yea, our coach sucks, no killer instinct, our PP sucks, we've overpaid for Hamonic, we should be first in the division with our talent. What else do these whiners got?

Does anyone really think that there are teams in this league that don't battle inconsistency?

Flames will be fine, I'm looking forward to the playoffs.

That's what being a fan of a wild card contender is like I suppose. Every team in this league experiences ups and downs and every fan puts on the blinders and thinks they're the worst team in world and everyone needs to be fired and 50% of the roster needs to be shot into the sun.

What's really happening is that the competitive balance has never been better and standings are tight every year. Unless you're a basement dweller, talk of firings and major roster changes don't happen. We're still in it, weird loses and bad streaks happen. We played the 2 best teams in the league and lost. Ok, that'll happen, maybe not in the way we lost, but these aren't divisional or conference rivals who can take a playoff spot from us.

[the2bears]

This thread is my safe place

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Corral

looking like Calgary v California for the 2 division spots - and likely Calgary v SJ and LA for one spot.

The Central has owned the wildcard spots for a while now - and IMO will continue to do so.

Great, thanks for bringing your negative b.s into the optimism thread.

[Corral]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Great, thanks for bringing your negative b.s into the optimism thread.

Relative to the other CP threads active at the moment, i'd say my view is optimistic.

[Classic_Sniper]

The Ducks lost to the Canadiens, the Avs lost to the Jets and looks like the Stars-Wild won’t be a 3 point game. That’s a positive! Now we just need to beat the Blackhawks and the Kings need to lose to the Coyotes and it’ll be the best case scenario for the team today.

[Strange Brew]

Lazar is growing on me. Getting a Byron vibe. Remember how with Byron how frustrating it was watching him fail to convert on breakaways. After a while it was like what’s the point of a breakaway if you can never score. The guy turned into a helluva player who started to score a little more.