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View Poll Results: Why have the Baby Flames fallen out of the playoff race?
rookie coach getting schooled 3 2.83%
injuries 2 1.89%
promotions to the Flames 22 20.75%
Ortio getting hurt (goalies .895 in his absence) 72 67.92%
Knight and Baertschi deals (chemistry) 2 1.89%
Schedule (gaps/no gaps) 0 0%
Other that this dude from Calgary missed? 5 4.72%
Voters: 106. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 04-04-2015, 08:59 AM   #1
Bingo
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Default QOTD: What went wrong in Adirondack?

A hockey team that looked to be cruising to a playoff spot when January came around.

They had a lot of changes since then.

Ortio went down.
Knight was dealt for Shore
Call ups
Injuries
Baertschi move
And that really odd schedule that had them watching for long periods

What happened to this team?
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Old 04-04-2015, 09:02 AM   #2
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For the record I went with Ortio going down as the team went from his .914 save percentage to a .895 in his absence, that's .6 goals per game on 30 shots and a lot of losses.

Interested to hear those with boots on the ground though.
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Old 04-04-2015, 09:26 AM   #3
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Combo of different things. Promotions and Ortio injury being the main ones. Ferland, Granlund, Shore(knight), Potter, all got promoted. At the same Arnold was hurt for a while. Sven got traded.

I don't really care about winning in the AHL (except when we play Utica). I want the top guys playing the same system and getting a lot of ice-time. That's the point of AHL club. Just keep pumping out Ferlands/Granlunds/Jooris' etc.
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Old 04-04-2015, 09:26 AM   #4
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Great QOTD!

Answer: lot's of things (obviously)

#1) is Ortio without a doubt - they wentfrom having Grade A goaltending to having ECHL tending. They were done the moment that happened.

2) Centre depth. When they had Granlund, Arnold and Knight, they were deep. Granlund getting called up, on its own, was probably withstandable. But then the Arnold injury really hurt them at a bad time. Then the Knight trade, which resulted in Shore, who got called up. Suddenly, not a single NHL-prospect up the middle.

3) scoring depth - primarily due to call-ups. Baertschi was back and forth and never really contributed much in Adi. Poirier was their points leader until he got called up, but after that he cooled off. Ferland was among the team leaders until he got called up, then the concussion derailed him. Wolf was on fire and so he got called up, and subsequently cooled off.

4) lack of experience on D - early, with a boatload of talented forwards and good goaltending, they got away with it. But as the roster was depleted, and then Ortio went down, the lack of depth on D became glaringly evident.

Those would be the biggest reasons IMO.
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Old 04-04-2015, 09:34 AM   #5
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All of the above?
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Old 04-04-2015, 09:51 AM   #6
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Oh, and another important one...

5) lack of AHL veterans. If you look at Utica for example, they are laden with career AHLers. Toronto under Eakins or Texas or Grand Rapids - they all have/had tons of AHL vets that can dominate the 20 year olds.

The Flames were seriously devoid of these types of players. And I have absolutely no problem with that. The Flames have tons of young prospects that need ice-time. I would rather them lose with a bunch of prospects, then win with a bunch of career AHLers.
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Old 04-04-2015, 10:36 AM   #7
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My impression was the team did great adjusting to whom ever they had in the lineup.
but losing Ortio really hurt the caliber of goaltending they got after.
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Old 04-04-2015, 10:41 AM   #8
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Yup combination of C and D
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Old 04-04-2015, 10:51 AM   #9
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Multiple reasons, in order IMO:

1. Young team with consistency issues
2. Ortio injury left them without a quality starter
3. Injuries/Call-ups/Knight trade left them decimated down the middle
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Old 04-04-2015, 11:38 AM   #10
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I have to say the combination of their top players getting called up by the Flames and the lost of their starting goaltender to injury. During the season they lost their top centre Granlund, Shore/Knight, Jooris, Ferland, Reinhart, Poirer and a veteran D in Potter. Then they lost a bunch of guys to injuries during the season but the worst part is losing their top goaltender Joni Ortio. I thought Ryan Huska did a good job considering.
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Old 04-04-2015, 12:03 PM   #11
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They aren't exactly a veteran laden lineup compared to some other organizations and mediocre goaltending will sink any team in any league. Flames also had some of the Heat's best player sitting in NHL press boxes so it's a combination of many things however missing the AHL playoffs isn't exactly a disaster nor does it correlate to prospect depth issues or anything.
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Old 04-04-2015, 12:06 PM   #12
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Ortio getting hurt is number one in my opinion, but they are a young team compared with teams that are filled with vets.

Making the playoffs would have aided development, but you can't argue with the development of the youngsters in terms of how they played with the big club-the number one priority of a farm club.
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Old 04-04-2015, 12:18 PM   #13
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injuries (expecially Ortio) and promotions....

Kids were playing for jobs at the beginning of the year. The elite moved up and the rest might have lost a bit of motivation.
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Old 04-04-2015, 12:49 PM   #14
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The abysmal start didn't help either. They were in a deep hole coming out of that first month.
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Old 04-04-2015, 01:09 PM   #15
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Even before Ortio got injured, almost every single player was performing worse than last year except maybe Elson and a few of the older guys. Even Ortio's stats are quite a bit worse than last year (in the AHL). The team isn't really any younger than it was last year. Hanowski, Granlund, Ferland, Reinhart, Ortio, Elson, Wootherspoon, etc are all a year older. I don't believe a lack of center depth is a problem, since almost all of the forward prospects can play center. The scoring depth should have been pretty good as well.

I think the high-end defensive depth needs work, but it needed work last year too. From what I've seen, Huska is in over his head. I don't know what's going on in the locker room or anything though, so I can't say for sure.
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Old 04-04-2015, 01:20 PM   #16
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Losing Scorch sure didn't help...

Losing Ortio was the death knell, though.
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Old 04-04-2015, 02:38 PM   #17
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I think the biggest factor is the team is young and it was pretty predictable they wouldn't do that well even with some great talent. Reinhart has been a big disappointment which I can't figure out. Has he run into the same wall as Baertschi where he no longer sees a future with the Flames or was he just misused?
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Old 04-04-2015, 06:05 PM   #18
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I say B & D. Culkin's injury really hurt too.
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Old 04-05-2015, 05:22 PM   #19
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Ortio injury and promotions. There is no doubt that was a playoff team before all the call ups and Ortio injury.
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Old 04-05-2015, 05:30 PM   #20
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Watching most of the games, none of the above.

Adirondack did not have any AHL forward veterans this season, it was mostly our own prospects with a couple of other guys like Vause and Hathaway (although they are prospect aged)

Because of that, when other things went sideways like injuries/trades/callups, there was no constants in the lineup. If you look at a good AHL club like Utica, they have a large amount of veteran forwards that are not NHL calibre guys. Their prospect pool is also a steaming pile of garbage at the AHL level. Injuries and call ups happen to everyone, but they did not have the constant guys that you can slot in on the 1st line or 2nd line and cycle the other guys through.

Add in a weak defense corp and losing an NHL calibre goalie and boom goes the dynamite.
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