Crow Eating Thread

[FBI]

Anything you guys need to eat some crow over this year?

The biggest one for me is that I was dreading watching Sutter hockey just because it was going to be so boring watching us lose 2-1 every game with no offensive creativity at all.

WRONG. I am loving watching this team this year and the close games aren’t boring at all. The longer the game goes 0-0, the more confidence I find myself having in the flames taking the win. I am enjoying the play of our goalies and the defensive responsibility of players like Johnny. I have watched every single game this year except the 2-1 SJ loss and find myself very excited for the games.

Long live Sutter hockey!

[GioforPM]

Positive Crow: Gaudreau is having a good year under Sutter and has learned a couple new tricks.

Negative Crow: I thought Dube would take a step and Monahan would start producing pretty quickly. I think these are related.

[Enoch Root]

I was going to start a thread about what people are most surprised about.

I am surprised at the lack of growth for Dube as well, but there are a few things I would put above that. Here are my top 5 surprises

1) Kylington - it is incredible how much he has blossomed
2) Mangiapane - I expected more progression, but not this
3) Vladar - what a bonus
4) Gudbranson - I was one of the few non-haters, but he has been a very positive surprise
5) Tkachuk - wasn't sure what to expect

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

I was going to start a thread about what people are most surprised about.

I am surprised at the lack of growth for Dube as well, but there are a few things I would put above that. Here are my top 5 surprises

1) Kylington - it is incredible how much he has blossomed
2) Mangiapane - I expected more progression, but not this
3) Vladar - what a bonus
4) Gudbranson - I was one of the few non-haters, but he has been a very positive surprise
5) Tkachuk - wasn't sure what to expect

Yours are pretty much mine. Not straight crow for me, because I expected good things from all of them, just not as good.

Tkachuk is still a "jury's out" for me. IMO he just hasn't looked as dominant as in his first couple years. And it's not because he was reined in and now has been let go. I think Sutter likes a disciplined game from a structure perspective, and Chucky still makes the odd high risk/blind play. His production is OK but he's been benefiting from Gaudreau a lot - as much as Monahan used to.

[TheIronMaiden]

I was really doubtful that Killington was a impact player. I figured we can just another legendary prospect.

Glad to be wrong.

and as an aside I hope that the patient approach with valimaki breeds similar results.

[Heavy Jack]

One could say Kylington has been ‘Killington’ it!

[EVERLAST]

Eating delicious crow.
Thought #44 would suck...he's good.
Thought #58 wouldn't be as good either.
NEVER thought Sutter could cure the weird mental disease this team suffered from .
Turns out whatever poison was being put in the purple drink wasn't sugar,water and purple it was laced with something else making this team play slow, uninspired dumb dumb hockey.....new ingredients are much healthier.
Richardson, Zadorov, Lewis have been a surprise as well.
Vladar coming out of nowhere and being as good as he is....damn good crow.
GFG.

[dino7c]

Kylington is actually a good NHLer and could be a great one...I thought he was a tweener at best. As did every NHL GM it seems.

Darryl is probably a big factor here

[Erick Estrada]

I wasn't sure Kylington was going to be an everyday NHL player. I thought Gudbrandson would be a regular scratch. He's been pretty decent.

[Goriders]

Kylington for me. He has surprised me.

Otherwise no.

[gvitaly]

Positive Crow:
1) Sutter - I thought people were giving him too much credit. I knew he was a good coach, but I didn't think he could fix most of our problems this quickly.
2) Puck movement/ offense / Kylington - I didn't think we would have an offensive D-men, and wanted us to get a PP QB. I thought goals would be very hard to come by.
3) Gudbranson - I remember watching him in Ottawa and him constantly losing his man, or getting caught up in no-mans land when defending the net. Essentially how he looked in the first game of the preseason. I didn't expect him to be a rock for this team on D, and on the PK.
4) Lucic - I thought we were helping EDM out when we made that deal. I thought that contract was the worst contract in the league, that was also buyout proof. I thought we'd be stuck with Lucic, meanwhile EDM would buy out Neal. It worked out quite well in the end.
5) Tanev - Have I underestimated that guy when he came here. I thought he can't stay healthy, and his shot blocking often ended up with him out of position. I was worried he would slow down from all the injuries. We got our best D that deadline, so that's some good crow.

Negative Crow
1) Zadorov - His gaffes in the defensive zone. I didn't expect him to make that many boneheaded plays, and be that bad at passing the puck. He's getting better, but his time with Colorado and Chicago showed me a better D than we're getting. As a result I was expecting him to be a staple in the top 4.
2) Dube - I was looking for him to follow Mangiapane's trajectory, instead of Jankowski's, so I was sure he'd be a contributor in the top 9 this year.
3) Mackey - I really liked how he looked at the end of last year, so I was looking forward to him competing with Valimaki for a spot... they're doing it now but in Stockton.

[Moneyhands23]

I for one thought the team would suck this year. I will happily eat my crow pie!

[Dion]

I was certain that when Sutter was hired, his style of hockey would not fit with the game of today. Shows you how much I know about coaching styles. That said he has given this franchise the much needed boost it sorely needed. I did not see this coming.

Sutter also has Kylington playing his best hockey of his career. Not sure what he did but Kylington has been a responsible player at both ends of the ice and has eliminated the mistakes turnovers that had him on waivers last year.

[activeStick]

For reference:

https://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=184402

[neo45]

Rasmus and Markstrom both bouncing back big is the most important thing for this year and not something I fully expected.

Thought the org was done with Kylington based on his usage last year. Great to see him get opportunity under Sutter and exceed any and all expectations

There’s no one saying I told you so about Gudbranson because everyone hated it at the time but he’s been solid

[Something_Special]

Originally Posted by FBI

Anything you guys need to eat some crow over this year?

The biggest one for me is that I was dreading watching Sutter hockey just because it was going to be so boring watching us lose 2-1 every game with no offensive creativity at all.

WRONG. I am loving watching this team this year and the close games aren’t boring at all. The longer the game goes 0-0, the more confidence I find myself having in the flames taking the win. I am enjoying the play of our goalies and the defensive responsibility of players like Johnny. I have watched every single game this year except the 2-1 SJ loss and find myself very excited for the games.

Long live Sutter hockey!

As an Oilers fan, I think "Sutter hockey" is a lot of peoples fear, but when you play good sound defensive hockey, you will get a lot of chances to score.

It is hard to get a whole team to buy that. Sutter is probably coach of the year thus far.

[1qqaaz]

Lewis has been better than I thought he would be.

I thought Zary was a better prospect than Pelletier but it looks like I'm wrong.

I was criticizing the Boltmann pick, but he's better this year.

Other than that, most of my predictions, both the positive and negative ones, have been correct.
I was fine with the Gudbranson signing, which I think was right. I hated the Coleman signing, which I also think was right.
I thought the Flames would make the playoffs this year, and it looks like they will.

I often call the Flames mediocre, but they're definitely a lot better than mediocre this year. So I'll eat crow in that regard.

[FlamesAddiction]

I personally thought Kylington was ready even last season. It's a shame he only got in 8 games last season, because the season prior, he was already starting to show a lot of promise IMO. I am still a little surprised that Seattle didn't take him, but I guess by only getting in 8 games last season (and very little ice-time), there were not a lot of recent viewings.

I am also only mildly surprised about Markstrom. I didn't expect the stats to be what they are, but I thought some fans were a little hard on him. He was never the reason why the team lost games.

I will eat crow about the current record though. I thought for sure that offense would struggle more and this would be a bottom 10 team in the league.

I said it before, that for an elite team, you need at least one or more players in major awards territory. The Flames were peaking when Gio was playing at a Norris pace, and without other players emerging in that top 3 or 5 among their peers in the NHL, I didn't think there was much hop. Having Lindholm (Selke terrirotiry) and Markstrom (Jennings and Vezina territory) in that realm has been a the difference maker IMO. Not to mention Sutter who has to be an early candidate for the Adams.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

The Flames will win a game in Las Vegas in 2021.

Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk

You bastage

[Monahammer]

Kylington is someone who I had given up on 2 seasons ago now. I thought he would never get it in the league.

MORE CROW PLEASE!