cross16

the defending is for sure the most concerning. I’m not sure I can point to something there doing well there. Philly has a lot of open ice to skate into today

Flames have been pretty poor today. This is probably the biggest mirage win streak I can remember for a while. Finding ways to win but their game doesn’t look good right now

That’s not even a penalty imo. Lindholm was going to deliver a legal hit and York ducked. What is Lindholm supposed to do? I get the result was bad but that’s more of an unfortunate outcome rather than an illegal action

im not sure what to do. Oh ill go stand right in front of my goalie.. perfect!

Man I cant stand watching Osterle. Flames have more than enough depth to make sure he doesn’t play again.

Interesting. I like the fact the Flames want to give him a shot and so far I think this is my favorite thing about this season. Flames are willing to apply a "let's see what happens" mentality as opposed to needed to fit everything into s specific box. Be honest I've never really liked his game when I watch him but hoping he can prove me wrong. I like Solo better as well but I can understand the decision here.

I too don't think the Kylington news relates to the roster at all. The Flames will let Kylington work as he needs to and do whatever he needs. The roster and any changes made to it I don't think will impact how and when Kylington plays. Good for Kylington to continue to work to come back. Hope it continues to go well.

5.8 for Mang is hardly an anchor. Not a steal of course and for sure you want more, but it isn't an anchor. Only 1 more year left on it also

Wouldn't shock me if they are in the final. This is as wide open a World Juniors as I can remember. Your typical names are there of course (Can,SWE, US) but i'm not sure there is a clear favorite so far. Slovakia has looked as good as any.

I don't disagree. I agree with Kehatch earlier that Poposil isn't a good fit for a top 6 role but right now that line is doing some great work so I woudln't be in a rush to change it. I mean with the direction this team is going it's unlikely your going to get to a point where you should say "ok were good". Roster will likely be unsettled all year IMO.

If i were Huska my number 1 priority would be doing anything I could to get Huberdeau going. I get the counter point of "well he's only 1 player and you have a team to worry about" but we've seen over the last 2 years this team is going to get into the playoffs without an effective Huberdeau. By no means his fault but i've been surprised at the lack of creativity when it comes to Huberdeau. I agree Huberdeau playing better. was actually surprised to see that over the last 12 games he is the Flames number 1 (or 2) player at 5 on 5 in most chance based categories. He's also one of the worst when it comes to on ice shooting % so there is definitely a element of bad luck here too.

pretty logical change at practice today

I think you have to switch Huberdeau and Mang. Both aren't given you what you need so you got to try something. That would also allow Huska to burry the Backlund line more and give more favorable matchups to Huberdeau. Don't really understand why they are not trying that honestly. Think Huberdeau had a good game last night and crated several really nice pass plays only to have them go nowhere. I know he and Lindholm were not great but I think you've got to see what Sharangovich can do there. Huberdeau needs more pace on his line. I'd leave it at that for not because the Kadri line was excellent last night and the 4th line was pretty decent to I thought. Keep Ruzicka scratched and start shopping him towards the deadline if you can find a taker.

Save for a few turnovers I didn't mind how the Flames played. Thought they did a lot of goof things and really lost the game because they just are not good enough of a team and don't have the high end talent you need. As a team I thought they played well and sure they could have gotten more quality chances in better areas but part of that is your roster construction too. I just felt last night was the type of game where you needed a player to step up and make a play and that type of player just isn't on this roster.

That's not the way it looks on replay. Rozie appears to sit in the zone and wasn't driving the net anymore.

That's fair and if I had a better angle I could check. Live, and on replay, It looks like Ruzicka didn't handle it well but I can't see if there was a tip or not. The defender was not in the way of the pass, but was playing Ruzicka, so to Hubie it would have looked open for sure. You could for sure argue he should drive and take the one on one chance but I would argue that a cross cease pass to an open player has a higher percentage than a 1 on 1 net drive. This is also a play that you would see him make in Florida routinely and often wide up in the back of the net. Wasn't a poor decision for me is all.

I liked Huberdeau's game and actually think he make the right call on the pass to Ruzicka. I get he'll get ripped because he had a path to the net but Ruzicka had a wide open cage to put that in. I thought it was a good call as he has been shooting all night and got the goalie bought into his shot to open it up for a teammate. Just too bad Ruzicka fumbled it. I think we'd be praising him if that was Lindholm or Yegor. I thought that play was a good example of why he's found it so tough here. He's just not getting the teammates to bury those because he processes the game so differently than most he plays with.

I agree and I seem to recall that was the rationale for making the switch to zone for Huska. He commented about how the skill level is up, the o zone size is up, and with how quick the puck moves playing man to man just left to many gaps and players falling off their check. It was what we saw a lot of last year. He seemed to believe that a zone system would aim to limit the middle of the ice and cut down on some of the high danger chances the Flames gave up last year. Concept of zone d is pretty straightforward. Draw the d zone up into 4 zones. D take their respective zones (on their sides), Forwards take the high zones (on their sides) and the center backs them up and covers up the gaps in the zones (ie back fill the D if they case to the corners - cover the center high point). Normally, teams can vary how much pressure they want to apply and what area of the ice they want to prioritize (ie cover points, cover slot/collapse) but the principle is stay in your zone and attack the puck when it comes in. I agree with conundrumed that the Flames play too passive of a zone and it hurts them on the breakout. I think the Flames are almost always having to breakout the full 200, or at best like 175, feet because they don't pressure high to create those turnovers. They also seem to struggle with communication. They seem to be a step behind where the puck is going, and it makes it easier for team to move the puck around on them. First one I question Huska on, but now the second one.

The only goal I would say there was no chance on was the Colton one. Of course you can't expect a goalie to make a save with a puck ping pongs through the slot. Every other goal I thought ther was a chance to make save on, of course to varying degree of difficulty. This doesn't have to be either or. Vladar wasn't good, neither was the team in front of him and both need to step up. It's really as simple as that and that was the point of the initial post. If your D is bad and your goaltending is bad you give up leads and wins turns to losses. One of the 2 needed to step up last night when it matters and unfortunately neither did. I don't see the need to point the finger at one or the other when both were poor.

End of a day an NHL goalie needs to make a save. Yes there were breakdowns but 6 goals against on 38 shots is poor. No big saves when your team needs one is poor. not his fault, but he wasn't good either.

Flames were thrilled to get this guy when they did and I think he is probably your biggest wild card in their prospect pool right now. He is raw but he has immense talent, especially for a 3rd rounder. While it's been an up and down start he was just named the Hockey East's rookie of the week due to his 6 points in 2 games performance on the weekend. some pretty impressive skills in this clip. He's going to be fun to track. The upside is high here

I wasn't a fan of the Huska hire either for the reasons we are seeing. I think Huska is smart as heck and a good honest communicator but he seems to lack passion, desire and that ability to hold a team accountable. Has always struck me as a guy who was going to have a hard time getting a team going and so far that is what we are seeing. Don't like to blame and certainly don't think Huska is to blame for much here as even experience coaches would struggle with this roster. i think the only thing I'm disappointed in so far with Huska is they talked a big game about creativity, passion, fun etc but have done the opposite. The flames are boring, stale and don't do anything exciting in terms of their schemes. Everything they do is about as vanilla as it gets, and that's tough to watch.

Thought the flames were finding their way but they’ve played really poorly in the last week.

Poorly coached D in front of poor goaltending is how you collapse like this. brutal.

Even when they were struggling the oilers weren’t playing that poorly. McDavid is now being McDavid and their goaltending hasn’t been god awful. They were always going to play better. Sustainability, particularly for skinner, will be interesting to see.