JTech780

I wonder if it might be time to move Lindholm off of center, he isn't really driving play, he looks disinterested. Maybe moving him to the wing will allow him to just focus on offense. Guys like Ruzicka, Zary, Dube, Sharangovich can play center, even Pospisil played some center in the AHL.

Through the first 15 games last year we had 16 points and had a CF% of 54.8. This year through 15 games we have 12 points and CF% of 53. I am not seeing this clear step back. Yes they are 4 points have the pace and have a slightly lower CF%, but it’s pretty clear that the team is preforming in a similar manner to last year. Again this isn’t a coaching issue, it is a team construction/ chemistry issue.

Huberdeau with Backlund and Coleman at practice today. Backlund is the best center on the roster for Huberdeau IMO. Zary might be that guy soon, but not yet.

I would say most of the issues that lingered from last year have remained. It is becoming painfully obvious that the issue is with the players and the room. Till you sort out the problems with the team, it won't matter who the coach is.

I do wonder that if part of the equation with Wolf coming up is that they probably want to see how he looks in more NHL games before they are comfortable moving Vladar. There isn’t exactly a whole lot of depth past Wolf, so you want to make sure he can compete at this level before you move out your depth. If you look around the league it’s not like there are a ton of quality goaltenders.

Hopefully he gets a game, missing out on a California trip for a California kid means not getting to see his family. Though I am sure the NHL paycheque makes up for it.

At this point you leave the Zary-Kadri-Sharangovich line alone and in tact as they are the best line by a mile. Somehow you have to find a way to get Huberdeau going though, and I think after benching him last night, you have to put him out there a lot and in a lot of offensive situations. I just don’t think it will ever work with Lindholm. Put him out there with Backlund and Coleman. Zary-Kadri-Sharangovich Huberdeau-Backlund-Coleman Mangiapane-Lindholm-Dube Pospisil-Ruzicka-Duehr Swap Ruzicka and Dube depending on who is going that night. I get that putting Huberdeau with Backlund causes some issues with how you deploy your best defensive forwards, but I think Backlund is the best center on the roster for Huberdeau and right now you need to get your $10.5m forward going at any cost.

I can get behind this. Though I might even put Zary in the middle and move Lindholm to the wing. Though it really doesn't matter too much after the initial faceoff anymore, it just turns into F1, F2 and F3. So far this year Dube has looked like a 4th liner, so that's where I would play him. Defensively he hasn't been what I expected him to be coming out of junior. Being reliable at both ends of the ice was his calling card in Kelowna and he just hasn't been that in the NHL.

Coronato was looking lost, so him going down to the AHL and getting games in will be good for him. Hopefully help him re-ignite the offense. One thing the Flames won’t have to worry about with Pospisil is his compete. He will bring some fire to the lineup.

I think Gilbert has been serviceable in his time with the Flames. Oesterle has been absolutely horrible in the games he has played in. Now the Andersson is back though, I would rather Gilbert get the 10-12 mins a night that the 6th defenseman is going to get and have Solovyov get top pairing minutes in all situations in the AHL, for the time being at least. I think once the team commits to selling off some assets then you will see some of the younger guys come up and get key ice time.

Zary with a goal today, is now up to 9 points in 5 games with the Wranglers. This is the year where he is going to force the Flames’ hand and get him some games with the big club.

Interesting, I wonder what the cap implications are with this move. Glad to see the team living up to it’s word about letting young players play, hopefully he gets into the lineup tonight.

Especially after they laid an egg versus Detroit, and Zadorov called out the team.

This is where things turned for the Flames. No answer for this hit.

Just meant in general.

Oesterle has been really bad. It’s too bad we don’t have cap space to call up Poirier or Solovyov.

I am really liking the info available with the player tracking data on the NHL Edge site, though I am not a fan of how the website displays the data. One thing I found interesting is that we are 2nd in the league for shots with 202 and 3rd in the league foe percentage of time spent in the offensive zone at 43.7%, but we are well behind the pace when it comes to high danger shots. The site doesn't show a list of every team just the top 10 in each category, Nashville is 1st with 63, Tampa is 10th with 46, Calgary has 38. That tells me that we are doing lots things well, but we are settling for perimeter shots too often or aren't driving the net and looking for rebounds. They need to play in the middle of the ice more.

I know Zadorov isn’t the best defenseman out there, but he showed he wants to be here and will play hard for Calgary. Instead of trying to get an extension done with him, they prioritized trying to convince guys like Hanifin and Lindholm to stay here and now it sounds like Zadorov isn’t willing to talk extension. I am starting to question the culture in that dressing room again.

I was just checking out the new NHL Edge player tracking stats, it is pretty interesting. A lot of talk has been on the speed of the team so I made a list of the top speed for each Flames player so far this season. Forwards (NHL average top speed is 21.31mph): Duehr 22.03 Kadri 22.01 Coleman 21.82 Mangiapane 21.66 Coronato 21.61 Lindholm 21.20 Greer 20.83 Sharangovich 20.78 Dube 20.76 Ruzicka 20.58 Backlund 20.53 Huberdeau 20.34 Defense (NHL average top speed is 20.72): Zadorov 22.54 Weegar 21.74 Tanev 21.03 Hanifin 21.02 Gilbert 20.66 Andersson 20.58 Oesterle 20.30 Zadorov clocking the fastest top speed on the Flames this year is surprising. Dube being below average is surprising, but also lines up with his rough start. The fact that only 5 forwardds have posted above average speeds sums up this teams troubles last year and to start this year.

I wouldn’t bring up Wolf till they have their defense sorted out. Wouldn’t have mattered who was in net tonight. If Huberdeau is no longer the difference maker he once was, then this team needs to play as a team to have any success as they don’t have a difference maker on the roster, or in the minors for that matter.

This team is struggling to defend off the rush. Really tough to showcase Vladar for a trade if they are going to hang him out to dry all game.

Missed the first two periods but watching the highlights Dube has been really soft on the puck today. I would move him to the 4th line.

I would like to see Sharangovich be given more time on the top line, push him to be more aggressive at driving the net or getting to spots to use that release. I also don't like Lindholm with Huberdeau, I would go with Backlund there. I think Huberdeau is best when he is passing to guys on their one time side aka left shots. Huberdeau/Backlund/Shargovich On the other top 6 line I would go Ruzicka on the left side with Lindholm and Coronato. Ruzicka has underrated playmaking abilty, but puck retrival isn't his strong suit. With Lindholm and Coronato you have two shooters and two guys who can go get the puck. Ruzicka/Lindholm/Coronato Mangiapane, Kadri and Dube are all tenacious on the puck and all are a pain to play against. Magngiapane/Kadri/Dube This is where things get tricky as Greer and Duehr have given you everything you could want on the 4th line, but they don't play center. Coleman is a wingerand hasn't really played center since he was with NJ, but that's where I would try and shoe horn him into this lineup. Greer/Coleman/Duehr

Ok great let’s see the 3 to 5 other promising goalies, and then you can explain where they will play.

Except he isn’t 21 and he hasn’t excelled in the Czech league, in fact he has only played 5 games in that league and is in the middle of the pack in save %. A quick look and the last young goalie to come out of that league and be in be a starter in the NHL is Karel Vejmelka, and Hlavaj’s numbers aren’t close to Vejmelka at the same age, and Vejmelka’s NHL numbers leave a lot to be desired. Hlavaj’s numbers are not competitive.