CheersMan

I’m all for adding young defenseman prospects and I’m sure BT will address that at this year’s draft. We are not in panic mode on the blue line with our top guys at or just surpassing 30 yrs. I keep reading here that we need to add a top 4 dman that will step in right away, which I disagree with. This type of addition will also come with a 5m cap hit plus it messes with existing team chemistry which has been working out just fine. Let’s save those $$’s for the ones that are here already and require significant raises.

Similarly, I don’t get the lack of respect many here give our defense. We don’t need another top 4 dman, we have 4 already. It’s extremely unfortunate if our top dman goes down to injury. It would be similar for other teams as well if say Subban, Doughty, Karlsson, Keith or Weber got injured. You don’t replace these guys. You chip in by committee and do a little more until your injured player returns. Gio-Brodie (solidified) Wideman-Russell (solidified) Schlemko-Engelland-Diaz-Potter-Smid-Wotherspoon-etc-etc-etc (healthy competition, best 2) Removing Backlund in the offseason does not improve this team. Right now there is no one who can play those minutes better than he. When Bennett (or anyone else) proves they can play those minutes better, then we can have the discussion of trading Backlund.

Last year BB miscalculated at the TDL and ended up letting Cammy walking for zip in the off season. That is not very good asset management. How do you suppose this management would look if they again let another asset (GlenX) walk for zip the following year? There would be heads rolling, because I’d want one, and probably both. The pieces that BT has added (in his short time here) have been average at best. I pointed this out at the All-Star break in one of these threads. The pieces that are contributing the most to this years success were here prior to BT’s arrival……thank you Jay. It’s still too early to be crediting of discrediting BT for anything. In the meantime, it would not be entirely inappropriate if BT offered to press coach Hartley’s suit coats prior to each day’s media scrum. No disrespect to BT, but his showtime is fast approaching this offseason. Let’s see what this team looks like on opening day in Oct.

I like the respect you give Wideman, he deserves it and we see him in the same light. We are not a playoff team minus Wideman. I think Karlsson is now running away with the Norris votes. If Gio had played a full season it would have been an extremely tight race between Gio and Karlsson. With the Flames success post Gio injury, it all but seals the deal for Karlsson as Norris winner. Just imagine where the negotiation $$ begin if Gio had the Norris hardware. I guess it would be similar to the contract Subban recently negotiated. The Flames can now lock up Gio (pre Norris winner) next year at a reasonable and fair rate for both sides, saving $$ for the remainder of the “TEAM”.

Flames win vs Oil

6-3 win vs TML. The best defense is a good offense and tonight Gaudreau, Monahan and Hudler showed they are presently one of the hottest lines in the league with a combined 9 pts tonight. But in case you were wondering about the usual D suspects, they had a combined 4 pts, 17 blocks and +6.

6-3 win over the Ducks, 10 blocked shots for the D, Wideman and Russell with 6 assists combined and almost 28 min each.

My example was in response to MAC331 on post #399. I probably should have quoted him so that all could see my intent. I was simply demonstrating that blocked shots are contributing massively to our team’s success. On the extreme high end, 83 goals may have been prevented by the sum of our teams blocked shots. Your example shows 45 goals may have been prevented when comparing blocks between our D and Carolina D. I was about to do a similar comparison until I seen yours, nice job.

Ramo and Hiller have a combined 0.915 SA%. If our D stepped to the side and let those additional 977 shots go through then we would be looking at an additional 83 goals against to date. 0.915 SA% x 977 Blocked shots = 894 saves 977 additional shots – 894 saves = 83 additional goals against That would be more than an additional goal against/game. We would be dead last in the league, worse than the Oilers.

5-4 SO loss vs OTT at the tail end of a successful 7 game road trip. Amazing third period come back by the Flames from a 4 goal deficit to send it to the SO. Russell with 2 third period goals. Schlemko's was a goal post away from his second game winning SO goal in back to back games. Wideman and Russell played 30 and 29 min.

Gio, Brodie, Wideman and Russell are arguably the best top 4 dmen in the entire league right now. If you look at the sum our top 4 dmen here is where they stand today when compared to the top 4 dmen on all 30 teams. Pts, 1st +/-, 4th TOI/GP, 1st Shifts/GP, 1st Blocked Shots, 1st And they are doing all of this at an average annual cap hit of 3.5mil. With the addition of Schlemko, it’s quite likely we don’t see any changes coming to our D next year, and I'd be okay with that.

Getting hemmed in our own zone is not the fault of 2 dmen. I believe it is a lack of overall team defense and puck management and it starts in the face off circle. As Pyro demonstrated we have the second most inexperienced forwards in the league. Many of them have a ways to go before they reach peak conditioning and strength. Engelland was not a panic move, he was a large, physical dman BB and BT were targeting. Rumor had it the Flames got caught in a bidding war. Spoon is not equivalent to Engelland, not even close. I believe Russell and Wideman as third pairing dmen would be a waste of their talent.

I wonder if Murray Edwards is a stake holder in East Village? There is a nice big chunk of vacant land just south of railway tracks along 9 Ave SE. The SE LRT is proposed to run through here as well.

5-2 win in DET. Wideman and Russell have a combined 32 blocked shots in back to back games (BOS & DET). Plus the Flames subtracted the aging Glencross and McGratton (31 and 32 yrs) this year which helped bring the number down to 11 youngest.

The location that makes the most sense would be East Calgary Village. It's centralized, you step outside the arena and you can go north, south, east or west on the LRT. There is little demo that will be required and the area is in need of a major face lift and tenant. This area makes the most sense.

As much as I have liked Ramo's play on this road trip, he now needs a rest, I think they have to go with Hiller in DET leaving the options open vs OTT.

Win vs BOS, Schlemko with the SO winner. Russell with 15 blocked shots.

The team had a great first period but with 12 shots combined in the final 2 periods proves our offensive game dried up. Our top 4 dmen (above) and Ramo kept us in this one.

I missed that conversation as well. There is no way Ortio clears waivers, I guess that means subracting one of Hiller or Ramo. If a decision had to be made right now I'd keep the 27 yr old Ramo.

This option makes sense. Ortio is signed through next year and isn’t going anywhere. Maybe we should extend Ramo for 2 more seasons. That would set up Hiller/Ramo again next year and Ramo/Ortio the following year. I wonder what Ramo would be looking for in another 2 year deal?

The Dmen looked good tonight in a win. Engelland was finally given the opportunity (over 12 min) to step up and earn his paycheck, which turned out to be a great performance. Now that Baertschi is gone maybe some of you can refocus your attention to other members on this team who have been contributing to the team success.

I believe the Suter/Weber combo (NAS) was one of the best defensive partners in recent history. I was patiently waiting for Brodano to acquire 95 pts combined (another 12pts) before showing this comparison again. Brodano were on pace to surpass the other two in fewer games when looking at the pts and +/- stat. They actually still might but Brodie is on his own now. Lets wait and see.

You gotta feel for Ramo, he allows 1 goal in each of his last 3 road starts and he gets one win. It’s unfortunate our scoring has dried up because we should be talking about Ramo’s 3 gm win streak.

Here is an interesting stat I came across today. I never realized Wideman has been so steady on the penalty kill.

Here is a quote I found in an article written about Kessel today. Imagine the headache we would have if one of our star players was thought of in the same way. Quote: "Honestly, why would anyone (Kessel) want to stay in a place where people question his heart, his leadership, his conditioning, his consistency, his dedication, his accountability, his willingness to compete"? The article can be found here; http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/Toronto/2015/02/17/22242001.html