cross16

Flames are totally on their heels right now. Islanders coming at them in waves and they are panicking against just not a team that is settled. A lot of mental errors and poor decisions in this period.

Hey Siri… show me a bad thread. thanks

More poor in zone defense. Just not reaching off each other well to start the season. 3 players went to 2 and left another wide open. The wide open player scores

Zary at a PPG pace early and 19th in the league in goals is the biggest positive for me so far this season. I wasn't necessarily concerned about his progression but he needed a breakout year offensively or you would have questions about his future. So far so good. Porier another good early story. Top 15 in rookie points and tied for the lead for Dman with a player who was a top 6 pick. I was very impressed with Porier in the one Wrangler game i've seen so far this year

I've been curious about this in the light of Huberdeau's slow start so wanted to see what Johnny did when Sutter took over. These are 5 on 5 numbers used over 60 mins. Gaudreau IxG/60 0.5 8.63ICF 6.82IFF 5.15 ISCF 1.67 IHDCF 0.28 rush attempts XFG 2.47 XGA 2.13 Huberdeau IxG/60 0.6 7.88 ICF 6.89IFF 4.42 ICF 1.97IHDCF 0.49 Rush Attempts XGF 2.79 XGA 2.56 A lot of similarities and Huberdeau doesn't have Tkachuk as Gaudreau did. Gaudreau's sample size is also around 30 games so this would account for preseason too.

Good catch by Pike here. Looks like the call ups are more cap motivated than anything as Meloche makes almost 200K per more than both Gilbert and DeSimone. Flames would need LTIR in order to call up Meloche as they needed 2 dmen.

Huberdeau and Weagr both mentioned this but Florida last year was a zone team and flames are more of an aggressive man to man team. They are having to play pretty different styles. Leads to thinking and thinking at this level tends to leads to hesitation and errors. I agree Huberdeau is fighting it snd probably actually trying too hard but this shouldn’t be a shock. It’s a big change for him.

this is well said. I think before the season staged no one would have batted an eye about a 5-4-1 record at this point. I bet 80% or more would have taken it. Losing the forest through the trees right now for this fan base imo.

10 games in is a terrible time to worry let alone panic.

I’ll disagree. I thought that was a terrible call on Lindholm. Marino embellished that imo. No way does Lindholm sticking his arm out take down a 200lb dman. Made worse by the fact that they let everything go in the 3rd

Pretty questionable coaching to bench Backlund for the 3rd period and then use him on the PK in OT. Backlund is the one who can’t stop the cross ice pass. flames really need to find themselves on this road trip but not a lot going right for them right now. They were better tonight but the devils were the better team overall

Huberdeau is really struggling. That guy just need a break

Much better game for the flames but neutral zone and puck management continue to be big problems. Markstrom the key reason why they are still in this one.

I do not get why people rip on Toffoli so much. Been off to a great start so far and is on a pretty small list of players who have been pretty good, and consistent, since game 1. makes no sense to me.

First 12-15 games of the season are just an extension of the pre season IMO so I don't have a problem with a coach trying something, especially when it's not like it was clicking before (results were kind of there but process wasn't). Wasn't a fan of some of the lines but I think it's pretty clear it's not fixing what wasn't working, hopefully Sutter sees it too.

Getting mad about anything prior to about the 12 game just makes no sense to me. Most of what you are seeing is noise as you outline here. The lack of energy in back to back games is for sure frustrating, but the little things going on ae pretty typical of a team that went through as much change as the Flames did.

Better 3rd but this team just needs to find a way to play with some energy here. You expect chemistry issues and you expect mistakes but the lack of energy has to the most frustrating for the coaching staff I would say. Devils are gonna stomp them if they come out flat on Saturday

Team is just really flat. Over thinking it, looking pass instead of shot, reaching for pucks. Just a team that is not feeling it nor mentally sharp. Huberdeau doesn’t let a shot go from that far out if he’s feeling good about things. hopefully a road trip can give them some energy because that’s what missing right now. It happens.

It has nothing to do with the results of the game but flames need to go back to the lines from the start of the year. this has definetly not worked and has looked brutal doing it.

No real point in assigning blame in a game where literally no one has come ready to play. whole team is off tonight.

Just not into this one. Don’t know if it’s just too long at home or not but back to back really flat efforts. no energy around this team at all right now.

Mackey once again doing nothing with his opportunity. Flames are not as deep on D as we thought. Going to he a problem I think

Kylington also had the 2nd highest turnover rate on the Flames blueline last year and 5th highest on the team.

Vladar could have had more help and he also could have played better and stopped 1 of, or 2 of, those opportunities. Both statements can be true. At the end of the day 5 goals on 26 shots against, 19 scoring chances against, and 7 high danger chances against isn't a good performance.

It's early so zero concern here, but despite their record I actually don't think the Flames have played very good hockey to start the year. They've had moments for sure but their d zone game has been off since the start of the year. More positives then negatives but given how they have played I had no problem trying different lines. It's a long season and really outside the Kadri line no line was knocking it out of the park. Takes time to find your footing and really the first 10-12 games of the season don't really matter so having a team taking time to find their game is not a big surprise, nor a concern. Just need to start getting puck management and d zone coverage squared away. I will say while it isn't his "fault" if Vladar wants to take a step he needs to find a way to make saves that impact the game. It's part of the reason why I don't love the extension the Flames game him. As I said not his fault and for sure you want the team playing better in front of him but at the same time 5 goals isn't ok.