Sarasti

Oh I'm not saying its wrong. But when McDavid and Wilson both get a penny fine for being repeat offenders you have to wonder.

Bennett suspended. Consistency is nonexistent in this league. Truly laughable how shameless they are with it.

That was a hell of a hockey game and its going to be a great series.

I tend to look at Tampa as a good model of how to draft and develop talent. Some of their best players were picked after the 1st round and just developed really well. The thing they always seem to do though is go BPA. Regardless of handedness or size or other intangibles. Guys that can skate and straight-up play the game the proper way.

Always been a Bennett fan, was hoping he would get this chance in Calgary but he was grossly mishandled IMO. Put directly into a position of responsibility on both sides of the puck for the Cats and absolutely looking like a 4th OA pick. I too will be following FLA come playoff time. Fun team.

Say what you will about Beniers' potential ceiling but watching lots of video I am super impressed at his compete level and high end motor. His 200 foot game is also really impressive for his age. As many of us have said, Mangiapane has been our most consistent battler all season. If we want more of that drive and work ethic and are fortunate enough to have him available whenever we pick I think Beniers would be an excellent choice.

Big difference is that he's playing with that talent along with being the center. He never really got that shot in CGY with someone like Gaudreau on one wing and a Dube or Lindy on the other. Hes also getting consistent PP time in FLA.

I like these lines as well and think they should've been tried weeks ago.

Is there a consensus #1 for the upcoming draft?

Perhaps a full rebuild is unnecessary, but missing the playoffs after winning the division 2 seasons prior is cause for change IMO. If we miss and the identity of this team is still that of an inconsistent group that can't play a full 60, I believe that aforementioned change needs to be more significant.

I agree with most here that this is the final chance for our current core before we go at it again with another rebuild. Its been almost 8 years and 1 playoff round win is not good enough. I'm optimistic the team can get it going under Sutter but if they don't im fully on the rebuild train. We have the talent IMO more talent than we've had in years where we were more successful (2004, 2015) they just lack consistency and determination.

When Phaneuf is picked over guys like Weber, and Suter, or Getzlaf, and Perry. All of whom are still relatively effective players in their own right. I wouldn't consider it much of a win.

You'd be right in your assessment that you've been a fan for longer than some of us (me) have been alive. Very sad to see that its come to this for you. I have never seen a Flames championship in my lifetime, and I was very young when they made the run at it in '04, so it may be a little easier for me to remain as positive about the club as I have, for as long as I've been watching. But even then I am getting a little tired of the phoned-in efforts and lack of consistently that has plagued this club since their post-season showing in 2015. Back then it seemed as though they were on an upswing after the Iginla/Kipprusoff era, and would bring a do or die effort every night. Hope to see you back again soon. All the best!

I'm pretty encouraged by the effort this team has put out the last 2 games against Toronto. I believe we will start to see a turn around if they continue to play this way. Especially with 5 of 6 coming against Ottawa. Sure they still have some details to work on, but its been a much more consistent game all around than it was in our ganes against Vancouver and Edmonton.

If we had him at Nordstroms cap hit I'd be all over that replacement for sure.

Good news. Hope he draws back in today.

I watch my fair share of Carolina games and while Dougie is talented offensively, he's still a soft player and much less engaged in his own end. With how well Hanifin has played this season, being younger and more cost controlled, and taking into consideration how Lindholm just keeps improving, I'd still do that trade every day.

Id like Hathaway back personally. But, like others have stated, I don't like the contract

Agreed. Valimaki, in particular, seems to have been playing with loads more confidence since the pair of rough games he had a short while ago.

I'm not entirely sure which D pair has been getting the most minutes 5v5 this season but, to me at least, it seems as though the Hanifin - Tanev pair is our new number one. And my goodness has Hughes struggled mightily so far this season. I knew he has had a rough start but I didn't think the analytics were that bad.

I too would like to see Bennett at center with quality wingers. That said, he looked much better when he was playing with Backs.

These are valid concerns. However I will mention, we actually did fare better against the eventual conference Champs better than we did last season against Colorado. Sure it was only one game, but to me it looked as though we stood a greater chance of winning, as opposed to getting absolutely handled by the Avs in games 2-5. Less stretch pass, and more attention to detail is never a bad thing.

Fair point. I do believe its time to give Bennett the opportunity he hasn't been getting so far. I just know Ward wants to really give Lindholm a fair shake at C and Backlund is way too expensive for the 4th line. Backs also cannot provide the same value at wing and im not so sure Monahan can either. Though with Mony it might be worth a shot to potentially deploy him on the RW with Backlund and Gaudreau. That way you have a triggerman and two guys who drive play well. This line has been tried before with the difference being Backs was the RW. Him being a better two-way guy it might make a big difference if he's the C instead.

I think the plan is to roll four lines more consistently and thats why Tre went out and really solidified the bottom 6. Helps us rely less on the Monahan line to do all the scoring and the Backlund line to play defense all the time. Time will tell. All this said. I just want to continue to see Bennett on the PP.

To add to this, Dube looked really good on RW so this could potentially have us run him in the top six instead of someone with more of a limited offensive upside like Leivo or Simon. TD mentioned Kane earlier and having watched a lot of Hawks games he actually tends to play on the second line with a lesser center than Toews. Be it Anisimov for a couple seasons and Dylan Strome the last two-ish. Toews tends to draw the tough matchups against the opponents top line. Ours could look something like this Tkachuk - Lindholm - Mangiapane Gaudreau - Monahan - Dube Lucic/Leivo - Backlund - Ryan/Simon Nordstrom/Lucic - Bennett - Simon/ Ryan/Leivo I'm really liking how deep our bottom 6 is looking in this scenario, Just have to hope Dube and Mangiapane continue to improve (which imo is pretty likely). If not we still have options with Lindy being able to swap back to RW. Having lots of players capable of playing C is a good problem to have.