The Good and Bad early on this season

[dino7c]

more good than bad...people praying for a .500 start shouldn't be scoffing at much. Sure they could clean some things up but really who can't at this point?

They freaking won in Anaheim...

[nik-]

I was expecting sub .500 so this is a good start so far. I'd be happy with 6-4 to start, but hopefully it's better.

[Rtown]

I'll put this here cuz I don't want to start a new thread or derail an existing one.

Very disappointed in Ferland. Been following this kid since the Blades traded for him and am really pulling for him, but the problem seems he's almost scared to play his style for fear of loosing his top line spot, when it was his style that got him onto the top line.

Case in point, The LA game, not sure exactly when it was in the game but Ferland was behind the Kings net protecting the puck and D-bag Doughty came up to him to play the body and gave 2-3 good shots in the upper back/neck area. And I thought here we go, someone's finally gonna give Doughty his due, and Ferland woulda been full rights to do so, as like I said they were some pretty good whacks. but Ferland just turned around looked at Poughty and just skated away as if to say "I'm not gonna retaliate cuz I don't wanna lose my first line gig"
The sooner he realizes he's the Brawny one, not the Pretty one on his line, hopefully he can turn it around.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Caged Great

Flames were lucky that Mason in the WPG game and Vancouver were equally terrible. An average team deals the Flames a loss in the Vancouver game with all the PP time they did nothing with. Similarly if the Jets had a decent NHL goalie, the Flames probably don't come back in that one.

Ridiculous.

I recall that the Flames fired +40 shots at Mason last Saturday night, and there was no chance in hell he was stopping all of them. In any event, any time a team allows 6 goals in a game, I think it is fair to say the team played poorly. But the fact of the matter is that every team is going to have games like this every year. Good for the Flames to take full advantage of the situation, and to produce a resounding victory. You cannot take that away from them unless you are ready to discount +6-goal outbursts from every NHL team.

The fact they had the benefit of facing some mediocre teams helped them get to their hot start and believe me I'm not complaining about the results. I just want to see those results continue once the team starts facing quality.

Each of the WC teams the Flames have defeated presently rank 1, 7, 9, and 12 in the Conference; two of them currently occupy playoff positions and the most recent conference finalists are tied with the second wildcard team in points.

Yes, the Flames have some issues to sort out, but they deserve full, unreserved credit for winning four of their first six games. Hell, they just swept S. California for the first time in twenty years!

[Samonadreau]

The Good: Smith

The Bad: Penalties

The Ugly: Janko stuck in Stockton

[jonkaupp]

Lots of good, some bad, but most importantly of all....

Sweeped the southern Cali road trip for the first time in what.. 20 years? It’s been a very nice start. Winning at the Honda center early on was big for these guys. This is a good team and it should be a fun year.

[Beninho]

Everything has basically been said, just wanted to point out that I think Tkachuk is by far the most consistent forward on this team. By consistent I mean he does something every shift and never floats. He's been so good for this team that I think some people forget how young he is. I also think it's great that this team hasn't even put its best team on the ice yet. Think Jankowski not being on the team is bad but also we know that this current team can get even better. Overall satisfied with being 4-2 considering how other seasons have started but still think a lot of improvements are needed! Good team we have tho!

[Huntingwhale]

The Good: Can't believe this was barely mentioned...but the win in Anaheim!! Pretty much a tier lower than a cup win for me personally. Easily the crappiest ''curse'' in all of pro sports and the Flames finally broke it. I didn't like the Flames chances vs Anaheim in the playoffs, but I genuinely feel good about our chances if it comes to that this this spring.

The Bad:The parade to the penalty box. I was expecting an uptick given the new mandate to call stick infractions. But not to this extent. I never bought into the Wideman effect. Still blows my mind that with Hartley we were the least penalized bunch for during his tenure. And literally the day GG steps behind the bench we are amongst the worst. What happened???

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

The Good: Can't believe this was barely mentioned...but the win in Anaheim!! Pretty much a tier lower than a cup win for me personally. Easily the crappiest ''curse'' in all of pro sports and the Flames finally broke it. I didn't like the Flames chances vs Anaheim in the playoffs, but I genuinely feel good about our chances if it comes to that this this spring.

The Bad:The parade to the penalty box. I was expecting an uptick given the new mandate to call stick infractions. But not to this extent. I never bought into the Wideman effect. Still blows my mind that with Hartley we were the least penalized bunch for during his tenure. And literally the day GG steps behind the bench we are amongst the worst. What happened???

It's not the penalties against the Flames, its the non-calls against their opposition that grinds me. There's no way it has anything to do with Hartley v. GG, though.

[DazzlinDino]

Originally Posted by Rtown

I'll put this here cuz I don't want to start a new thread or derail an existing one.

Very disappointed in Ferland. Been following this kid since the Blades traded for him and am really pulling for him, but the problem seems he's almost scared to play his style for fear of loosing his top line spot, when it was his style that got him onto the top line.

Case in point, The LA game, not sure exactly when it was in the game but Ferland was behind the Kings net protecting the puck and D-bag Doughty came up to him to play the body and gave 2-3 good shots in the upper back/neck area. And I thought here we go, someone's finally gonna give Doughty his due, and Ferland woulda been full rights to do so, as like I said they were some pretty good whacks. but Ferland just turned around looked at Poughty and just skated away as if to say "I'm not gonna retaliate cuz I don't wanna lose my first line gig"
The sooner he realizes he's the Brawny one, not the Pretty one on his line, hopefully he can turn it around.

Can't really knock Ferland for not taking a retaliation penalty' IMO he has been more careful at picking his spots since he had those concussions and being injured at one point while being an agitator. I don't think it's fear as much as it is him finding a constant style that includes some skill and physical presence to his game. Put him on the 3rd line and you might see him finishing checks and wearing down the opposition but I would expect that the first line expectations are a little different?

[jlh2640]

Smith, Brodie and Johnny have been unreal good.

Hamonic, Gio, Monohan, Lazar, Tkachuk have all been good.

Hamilton, Stone, Backlund, Bartkowski, Brouwer and Frolik have been average.

Bennett’s game looks ok. At times. But not great.

Jagr still figuring things out.

Ferland, Glass, Stajan have been bad.

Freddie is horrible and should be in Stockton.

Lack and Kulak we’ll see.

Coaching average. PP and PK up and down.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by jlh2640

Smith, Brodie and Johnny have been unreal good.

Hamonic, Gio, Monohan, Lazar, Tkachuk have all been good.

Hamilton, Stone, Backlund, Bartkowski, Brouwer and Frolik have been average.

Bennett’s game looks ok. At times. But not great.

Jagr still figuring things out.

Ferland, Glass, Stajan have been bad.

Freddie is horrible and should be in Stockton.

Lack and Kulak we’ll see.

Coaching average. PP and PK up and down.

Nope to all the bolded. There's been nothing wrong with Glass or Stajan. Freddie played in one game, took a o-zone penalty but was otherwise just fine. The PK has been very good.

[ForeverFlameFan]

For me, the good has been Smith, Hamonic and Jagr all joining the team and making an impact. That's pretty awesome that all of the offseason moves have been great.

The bad has been Bennett not being able to get out of that slump. I have high hopes for him, but I expect a little better production out of him. Jankowski not getting a roster spot is on the bad side for me, but I'm not worried that he'll crack the lineup soon enough with how he is doing in the AHL.

[shadowlord]

The bad: First PP unit zone entries solely rely on a drop-pass to Johnny.

Once they get into the zone, the results are okay, but basically if an opponent wants to kill off the first minute of the PP, win the faceoff, clear the puck down the ice and just cover Johnny. We need more options for PP zone entries. Too predictable, just like the start of last season.

[Roof-Daddy]

I think this team for the most part is off to a similar start as last season.

Luckily though Smith has vastly outperformed what Elliott did to start last season, and the special teams has also been much better than it was to start last season.

Thankfully because of that they haven't dug themselves another hole to have to climb out of.

They need to get the 5 on 5 play ironed out, and I'm sure they will.

As long as injuries don't get out of hand, I expect this team from about game 10 on to really show what they are capable of.

[Jore]

they've had a scrambly start but have been buoyed by some good individual performances. hard to tell much at this point

good:
3m line again
top 4 defense
johnny seems to be feeling it. hope he stays this effective all season
the game against anaheim
smith for the most part

bad:
bartkowski
glass
the fact that jankowski is somehow still in the ahl