rickross
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Posts posted by rickross
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7 minutes ago, travel_dude said:
Flames get the first goal.
Woof.
Are we bracing for another “frustrating” loss to a team here? Early lead is great but 60 mins has been a challenge for this team all year! These Ducks shouldn’t be a problem!…right? 😬
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2 minutes ago, travel_dude said:
Good thing we have that Jack Adams winning coach, playing all the Cup Ring winners.
Yep, that's the team.
Blame the GM all you want, the on ice product is all on the coach.
He designs the play, the lines, the strategies....
Other coaches do better with less.
That’s the thing, Treliving was tasked with getting players Sutter wanted. We have no dynamic skaters, just North and south. No élite playmakers or finishers this year, just a bunch of 3rd and 4th liners putting up a ton of harmless shots. Hubby, Lindholm and Kadri’s numbers have fallen off a cliff because they’re surrounded by average to slightly above average players top to bottom. Players are being taught to simply outwork opponents rather than outsmart them.
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Do the owners even care? I could see them dumping Treliving and giving the GM keys to Sutter this off season….again because why not? I have no clue who or what this team is right now….other than bad. This franchise is built on stilts
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It’s a wrap folks! Let’s not bother with this fake push for the playoffs. It’s a very off season for the Flames, Sutter has lost the room. Now we put all the weight on the shoulders of Coronato, Wolf, Pelletier…$10.5M for Huberdeau 👀 , it’s about Flames time for a coaching rotation..watch us rehire Gulutzan or Wardo because why not? The cycle continues. This is the way.
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Wow…just cannot close out these 3rd periods this year. Let them right back in…again
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1 minute ago, travel_dude said:
He's a 3C on this team. If you can't replace a 3C on any team cheaply, then you aren't doing it right.
Had we spent the (useless) year getting Dube or Ruzicka up to speed, then we would be closer to that.
He's a luxury for this team, but unfortunately, he's the 2nd best C right now.
The Flames have struggled at the C position for decades now. They tried Conroy, Jokinen, Langkow…thought Monny was finally that true #1 C, nope. Lindy is easily our best C, we drop off a cliff after that…in reality this team has 3 top forwards, Lindholm, Huberdeau, Kadri…the rest of the team are 3rd and 4th liners, it’s pretty sad!
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1 minute ago, travel_dude said:
I think I remeber a stat saying that we were one of highest (if not the highest) first period scoring teams.
That suggest that we tail off (2nd one of the worst for us), have shaky goaltending, or shut it down.
We have started games where Marky let in a goal in the first 5 minutes or less a ton of games.
Or where we get goals and immediately give up one.
We play the best when we have put the foot to the floor.
The tendency is when we get a lead, we shut it down.
Vegas was not one of those games, nor FLA.
Exactly, this team doesn’t have the skill, execution nor the will to find different ways to win games. Once they lose momentum, they end up chasing the game the rest of night. No resilience in the team this year, they play hard but don’t know how to respond when things aren’t going their way. I guess having a #1 line in the NHL masked a lot of that last season.
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4 minutes ago, travel_dude said:
Cheaper is the point. We have one season left of him at this cost.
I don't expect his next deal to be long term, but it's not going to be $3M; he's done everything asked.
Stop expecting him to defy the aging process and sell the asset while it's worth something.
Have we not learned from Iggy, Gio, etc.?
I wanted to trade Backs prior to him signing his extension, he had peak value then but Centres aren’t cheap and he checked off a lot of boxes. I guess a comparable could be RNH contract extension he just signed with the Coilers. We’ve seen Backs peak already, you’re right…he’s not going to defy age anytime soon. It will be tricky replacing his value for a cheaper price …so we’re stuck with him. I believe he retires a Flame 😩
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2 minutes ago, travel_dude said:
They have shown up for almost every game this year, just not for 3 periods.
We play a game that you have to be perfect.
When we have stretches where we have a bad shift or couple, it's in the net.
The recent wins we have had may not exactly be our game hitting stride as much as a bad goalie.
Only thing consistent about the Flames this year has been outshooting opponents and taking the loss. It’s pretty much been out MO this season, it’s bad luck , it’s an inability to play 60 mins or get timely saves or goals. If we HAVE to play a perfect game to get a win, we have zero room for error. For a team so snake bitten and with poor goaltending for 75% of the season that’s a recipe for disaster, we need to be damn near better than perfect to win games.
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1 minute ago, travel_dude said:
I do think that there is a critical mass for Markstrom. 9th in a row is too much to expect.
Ruzicka (or Lewis) blew the coverage on that 4 on 1. Somebody has to cover when your D skates in deep.
It didn't result in a goal but Ruzie will pay the price.
On a side note, I would prefer to trade Backlund and sign Domi.
Not that Domi is better, just that he is much cheaper (if he has few takers).
We have to clear salary. Backlund has to be worth something good.
Get younger, get cheaper.
Backs is still one of our best defensive forwards, Domi would be a higher liability out there for sure. I’m not even a big Backs fan but he’s easily one of top 2 way players behind Lindholm. This team isn’t a Max Domi away from being competitive….we’d need a lot more than just him to fix this mess
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2 minutes ago, tmac70 said:
I still don't understand why this club neve shows up when they have to... Its so sad how nobody plays with any urgency on this team.
They haven’t shown up all year , no point holding our breathes and expecting anything else at this point. This is a team in the hunt for a playoff spot?? 🤣
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Already looking like your typical Flames game after a big win. They love laying a steamy hot turd in bed after any significant win. This team is done folks, they can try and push for the playoff spot but we know they don’t deserve a spot. Back to win 1 , lose 1….
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1 hour ago, Heartbreaker said:
Oh yeah, that one pisses me off, actually. Local kid, too. He's done literally everything they've asked of him except for grow six inches and forty pounds. I think he deserved a good look, and I can't blame him if he splits after the season. That's not to say that he'll go on and have an excellent NHL career elsewhere, but for a team that couldn't score a goal this season as though their playoff hopes depended on it, it couldn't have hurt to give him a legitimate shot.
Love.
42 minutes ago, travel_dude said:Gee, we seemed to do okay with Gaudreau, who was about the same size when he played his first game.
Different game though. Phillips attacks the net more.
Those 18 minutes define your career in the NHL, at least as far as the Flames are concerned.
Valimaki, a work in progress, lost some of his development time to injuries.
But no time to use him here.
Sutter didn't like him, don't like Ruzicka, the others have a fat chance at ever getting played.
Better to waive him and possibly lose him for nothing.
Undrafted player showed promise, but let to rot and eat popcorn.
Our one waiver pickup traded for an AHL player for depth.
When we needed quality players to step in, the choice was made to stick to marginal NHL players.
When we needed scoring, we chose to elevate Lucic to the top 6.
When we had a backup goalie playing well for 13 in a row, we sat him until he was cold again.
It's actually better to just leave the AHL in the AHL for the rest of the season.
Not much point is eating popcorn.
Kill their incentive by playing them for a few minutes on a 4th line. With Lucic.
Oh, you didn't hit anyone or score a goal. Back to popcorn land.
This season has been nothing but torture to watch…it’s like they’ve cut off our eyelids and fed us nothing but sleeping pills!! Just painful to watch!
I’d like to think the stigma of size isn’t as prevalent in todays game. Gaudreau, size was always his biggest knock and he proved it matters not. Not saying Matthew Phillips is the saviour this team needs but what a way to suck the life out of your future prospects. For awhile there it looked like the Flames finally had a decent development program in place, now we’re barren and right back to questioning this franchises intentions when it comes to drafting and development. I’m pretty sure this thread was started just for that reason 😂.
It’s bizarre looking at this franchise right now as it feels as if we’ve gone nowhere this entire time. Some successful seasons and playoff births but they yielded nothing in the end. Somehow we still cannot make the playoffs consistently. 1 year we’re in..the next we’re out by a country mile. It’s ridiculous at this stage.
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On 3/13/2023 at 12:45 PM, cross16 said:
No, that time is passed already. There are not enough games left in the season to give him a meaningful shot and I think it's basically a given at this point he'll walk as a UFA at the end of the season.
Seems like more mismanagement and failure to develop on the Flames part. He’s been one of the top scorers in the AHL for a couple years now …his still one of the highest skilled prospects we have, I thought he showed well in the exhibition games…to let him walk after investing this much time would be a typical Flames move.
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18 minutes ago, travel_dude said:
No, I was thinking the Wranglers are a much more exciting team to follow.
If they were on TV (free), I would just watch them.
Oh yeah I got what you were saying, my post wasn’t in reference to your Wranglers shout outs, I hadn’t even seen your post yet. I was just saying there is no real fix for this team. The Wranglers have been the far better team and success story this year. Not even close
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We can’t bring up too many from the minors as the Wranglers are in the thick of things. BT wants his extension so he can’t tank for the higher draft capital. Lose this game and they might as well just leave the remaining 28 pts off the table, it’s just not the time for this team right now.
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The Flames are just a crew of hard workers that get little accomplished
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Will the Flames ever give Matthew Phillips a fair shot at the NHL? I get the idea of letting players over ripen in the minors but he’s been down in the system for ages. Sure he’s on the smaller side but for a team desperately in need of skill and speed he has to get in for a couple games this year, at least help boost his confidence, give him some hope!
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5 hours ago, travel_dude said:
There isn't a single line I can point to and suggest that they have the right mix.
2nd line Ritchie or Pelletier or Lucic or Lewis or Coleman or....
Use Hiberdeau on RW because we need another LW.
Kadri has been the common demoninator.
Backlund's line is the best defensive line we have, but offers little scoring most nights.
Backlund has one of the best entry rates of the C's.
But the line has few finishers.
We have guys shooting at above 12%, but few are taking shots.
Toffoli has 210 shots to Lindholm 138 to Dube 115.
Kadri has 220 to Huberdeau 103.
Backlund 218 to Mange 146.
Huberdeau is actually shooting at 11.7%.
Pretty hard to evaluate this team's foundation.
We haven't had a stable top 6 for longer than a year.
Perhaps the closest was the end of the Wardo year through last year.
Even that was plagued by inconsistent goaltending.
If we had Gibson we would know a bit more.
Like it or not, we have a coach that had success with elite scoring players and elite goaltending.
We have neither, so we always look mediocre.
We can't score our way out of a bad goalie game.
We can't play a 2-1 game.
Only way we have a chance is if we score first and score 2-3 goals in the first.
So, moving forward, sit down with the great hockey minds and figure out what we need to be.
Look at what we have and decide what needs to go and what you need to get there.
Find the coach that matches the style you want to play.
I would rather miss this and next year's playoffs than a cycle of in one year and out the next.
As long as it's not just the result of bad play and is an actual re-tool.
Exactly! Sutter was brought in to carve out an identity for the team and instill discipline. Without a steady foundation to this franchise , the minute Sutter leaves we’re right back to purgatory searching for a new identity and sense of direction. We are baseless. The ask of the ownership group are the playoffs, when they should be investing in growth and sustainability if they want any form of continued success.
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2 hours ago, conundrumed said:
No playoffs and a strong finish would be the worst outcome. Then they'll try to sell us that, "you can see by how strong we finished, this is a good team". Like we don't have eyes. Without spectacular goaltending every single game, we are Anaheim. But without lots of young talent.
I swear if I hear more stats painting us just as bad luck I'm going to rip my eyes out.
"That Andersson chance was an xGF and high danger". So what? Who cares? He tried to pass the puck instead. It's over. That stat means <zero. And the heat maps mean zero. They show how the opposing goalie might need to replace the crest on his jersey. But we have set an NHL record for most losses after outshooting the opponent by 10+.
Now that stat tells me something. Shooting attempt and ability is <mediocre.
One of the most frustrating Flames seasons on record. This team cannot get it done. They don’t even deserve a playoff spot tbh. This really does fall on the players, ultimately they’ve failed. A 2 game win streak is an accomplishment for this team, thats where we’re at now. We still lack a proper foundation to this team, playoff team one year..non playoff team the next. Zero traction. Here we are again looking at the Pelletier, Walkers and Coronatos to save this team as the high paid vets collect their cheques for underperforming
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Clearly we are not a playoff team, a push for the playoffs could be good for morale and a strong finish to the year but it would be pointless. 1st rd exit all day, we can’t even beat Anaheim at home in a must win situation. Season is already over folks, would be more prudent to go for a higher draft pick and do another full review of this team in the off season.
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Wonder if winning for Wild fans is as fun when you have to get through 60 mins of boring hockey every game? 🤔
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2 hours ago, travel_dude said:
Nope, we had the lead
We HAD then lead then we lost it but comeback to win. Not a come from behind win but we won the game after losing the lead! Reach for the straws!
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Is that our 1st 3rd period comeback win all year then?
GDT Flames vs Blackhawks April 4.
in Flames Talk
Posted
Ah yes…the unnecessary struggle! 5 mins in and it’s already another come from behind must win game.