[GDT] Preseason game #1 No Good @ Calgary 7 pm MT

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by zamler

How much.

I cannot speak for djsF, but I will pay you this ENTIRE stack of unused, blank DVD-Rs.

Spoiler!

[Britflamesfan]

Here we go again, how many years have we heard ' don't worry its only pre-season' and then 'I am not worried it's only the first 20 games'. This is where the Flames get it so wrong, yes it is pre-season but if you are a player you should care about every game and getting that winning mentality going. In all the years of playing sport I have never gone into a game of any sort thinking to myself it does not matter its just a friendly.

As for 'well if they have a losing record at least they won't get complacent' I would take going into a season with a winning pre-season record every time over a losing one. Its the coaches job to ensure the team stay motivated and ready. A bunch of Edmonton babies just gave us a thrashing and our defence looked awful. Our youngsters are not looking anything special and are not looking like they will be pressuring for a job. The club is a complete mess from top to bottom.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by Goriders

Goalies were good.

Our prospects are not good.

Bottom 6 aren’t going to score many goals.

Defense was brutal.

Hopefully things look tighter when the whole roster is together. D makes me nervous.

While the most important part of the team wasn’t playing tonight, going into the season, I would have guessed before tonight that are goalies are fine, are prospects aren’t particularly good, our bottom 6 won’t score many goals, and our 3-6 dmen are quite poor, especially with getting out of our own zone.

The lack of offence from our dmen will likely be concerning all year, and likely will affect our PP.


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[Saqe]

Well, I know it's a meaningless game but after watching Panthers-Predators and this one I can say the other three teams were somehow able to show up with much more intensity. Sutter needs to kick some ass.

[Flamesfan05]

Originally Posted by Saqe

Well, I know it's a meaningless game but after watching Panthers-Predators and this one I can say the other three teams were somehow able to show up with much more intensity. Sutter needs to kick some ass.

If the roster is no good, ass kickings wouldn’t help

[Bleeding Red]

Originally Posted by Saqe

Well, I know it's a meaningless game but after watching Panthers-Predators and this one I can say the other three teams were somehow able to show up with much more intensity. Sutter needs to kick some ass.

I don't think he cares how these first 3-4 games go. I think he has his team set and can't wait to dump all the extras to concentrate on the season.

Any rookie will have to be extraordinary or have an assoc./assistant coach really advocating for him to make the team. Good luck.

This is all just wasted ice time to him.

[442scotty]

This was probably the worst preseason game I have ever seen. Not even close. The only thing I liked was Vladar. The Oilers seemed to have a lot of chemistry out there while the Flames chemistry was almost nonexistent

[Saqe]

Originally Posted by Bleeding Red

I don't think he cares how these first 3-4 games go. I think he has his team set and can't wait to dump all the extras to concentrate on the season.

Any rookie will have to be extraordinary or have an assoc./assistant coach really advocating for him to make the team. Good luck.

This is all just wasted ice time to him.

I don't care about the result either but the effort sucked compared to the other teams I watched. I mean maybe it's skill too but at least guys should be playing for jobs like on other teams.

[Goriders]

Originally Posted by 442scotty

This was probably the worst preseason game I have ever seen. Not even close. The only thing I liked was Vladar. The Oilers seemed to have a lot of chemistry out there while the Flames chemistry was almost nonexistent

Flames looked like they hadn’t practiced yet.

[Toonage]

Can't recall which user here suggested Pitlick would be a good add - when he was healthy - suggesting he was always hurt. May have been one of the Coyotes fans? Either way, great call on their part.

Pre season ultimately doesn't matter. Thats true. Individual performances do. Even the coach said as much after the game. On that metric, this was a disappointing showing. The ones fighting for a job didn't give us much. The ones secure in their job played that way, and the ones sort of in the middle (ie: Valimaki) didn't show any flashes to make you think they were turning a corner.

Small sample size to be sure, but in a bubble this was a depressing outing.

Edit - Outside the goalies I should say. Really no complaints there. Werner's two saves near the end of the game, unsure if he actually saw the puck, but situationally that was superb.

[PepsiFree]

Caught up and watched the game. Very disappointing. Guys like Gaudreau, Tkachuk and Lindholm were completely invisible out there. I understand Markstrom can’t play every game, but he wasn’t even on the bench! You need your star players rolling if you want to do anything in this league. What’s Sutter doing?

Oh well, would’ve been nice to get the big 2 points against division rivals, even 1 point to stay in the playoff hunt. But at least we held McDavid off the scoresheet.

[Savvy27]

Really disappointing effort last night.

Phillips, Ruzicka, and Pospisil did nothing whatsoever to help their cause. One decent offensive rush in the game versus many shifts pinned in their zone. Unfortunate because that was a wide open opportunity to turn a game around and get noticed.

Zadorov and Gudbranson were pretty mediocre. I don't think Zadorov was playing with full intensity, similar to Backlund so I'm not worried. Gudbranson looked bad though... that signing remains indefensible.

Mackey, Valimaki, and Andersson weren't great either. Rasmus carried it a few times but mostly they all just got dominated throughout.

Welinski was atrocious with the puck. Multiple unforced icings and giveaways.

Richardson and Lewis didn't look very effective. Ryan played way better than either of them.

Pelletier looked fine but wasn't able to generate anything on his own. Don't think he's threatening for a spot out of camp, which is fine. AHL time will be good for him.

Goalies were really good. Flames vets weren't engaged enough and were taking penalties all night.

Not worth getting worked up over but it was an awful showing. Decided not to go to the dome yesterday and happy I held off. Hopefully tonight gets them on the right track.

[Bingo]

Went to the game, and luckily took a buddy that I haven't seen in a while. Was more fun catching up than watching the game.

Silver lining was Vladar clearly, shame he lost sight of the puck on the second one or he comes out with 1 against on like 25 shots.

Flames were terrible.

I see many are upset with that, and as a one off I get it. The Flames may be terrible this year, for sure. But that wasn't the Flames it was the bottom 1/3 and filler. So I'm personally not going to get all that worked up about it. Hopefully they are ready to start the year by getting better as the preseason moves along and the full roster is put together.

[Mindtravellee]

Radio didn't sound much better.

Thought Ruzicka and Gawdin would've been swapped on the lines to start

[TheIronMaiden]

No doubt about it the AHL vet forwards were the biggest disappointment.

No wonder BT loaded up of veteran roll players if that's who was going to fill the roster.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden

No doubt about it the AHL vet forwards were the biggest disappointment.

No wonder BT loaded up of veteran roll players if that's who was going to fill the roster.

Yep it's a short window for guys looking to make the team. Hopefully see a standout or two next game, or else there's always the waiver wire for depth too.

[Mitch]

Flames looked good in previous year preseasons only to suck in the regular season. I remember Dominik Simon looked pretty good in last years preseason only to be completely forgettable in the regular season. So ultimately I don’t think you can read too much out of preseason game 1, as disappointing as it was.

[DeluxeMoustache]

You can’t project the overall team results from the lineup put forth

But the game gives a first look on a player by player basis what some of the new guys in the bottom of the lineup will look like.

The “get off my lawn” line of Lewis Richardson and Lucic has a combined age over 100.

They may not be able to keep up to the young whippersnappers that they are playing against in the preseason, but they have their ways. They can always wear them down by telling them stories that don’t go anywhere.

[Toonage]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

You can’t project the overall team results from the lineup put forth

But the game gives a first look on a player by player basis what some of the new guys in the bottom of the lineup will look like.

The “get off my lawn” line of Lewis Richardson and Lucic has a combined age over 100.

They may not be able to keep up to the young whippersnappers that they are playing against in the preseason, but they have their ways. They can always wear them down by telling them stories that don’t go anywhere.

Skating with onions tied around their waists, as was the style at the time...

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Went to the game, and luckily took a buddy that I haven't seen in a while. Was more fun catching up than watching the game.

Silver lining was Vladar clearly, shame he lost sight of the puck on the second one or he comes out with 1 against on like 25 shots.

Flames were terrible.

I see many are upset with that, and as a one off I get it. The Flames may be terrible this year, for sure. But that wasn't the Flames it was the bottom 1/3 and filler. So I'm personally not going to get all that worked up about it. Hopefully they are ready to start the year by getting better as the preseason moves along and the full roster is put together.

I think the bottom-six forwards largely did what they will do for us this season. They'll hit, and be defensive (but not perfectly so). The players that will drive the offensive wagon for us this year just weren't playing last night (Gaudreau, Monahan, Lindholm, Tkachuk, Mangiapane, Coleman), so up-front last night didn't cause much reason for concern - although it would have been good to see some of the youngsters do a bit more.

The concerning piece is the inability to move the puck up the ice from what is effectively our bottom-4 everyday NHL defenceman, but it was also what we (should have) expected to see given who is in those spots. Gudbranson and Zadarov are both outright bad at moving the puck forward, and that cratered the team last night.

Hopefully Pitlick isn't out long-term, because I do like the potential of a Dube - Backlund - Pitlick as a 3rd line. Dube's speed was notable last night.

Hard not to be very impressed with Vladar last night. I also thought Werner looked quite good.

...I am afraid of the damage that Gudbranson and Zadarov will do to the team's ability to drive play.