travel_dude

Didn't really have a place to post this, but Calgary signed their pick William Stromgren to an ELC. He will report to the AHL and sign an ATC. His NHL deal starts in 23/24.

If we only win 4, I think we are done. 91 points. 93 is a long shot to get in. Even 95 is not guaranteed.

Responding to the above: 2) I don't know that. Maybe some suggestion by players, maybe not. 3) The coach is responsible for the players that play in any given night. BT is responsible for the roster based on who the coach will use. Valimaki waived because Sutter did not want to play him and the cap used was prohibitive for eating popcorn. Mackey was traded because Sutter would not play him. BT brought up players to play and some played limited while other not a all. BT didn't sign any PTO's because Sutter didn't want them. 4) Coaching changes and players changes are not really linked as such. We have to make changes just due to the cap. We are losing 2+ players that are Sutter types. We have to be careful if we are making a coaching change to not get rid of players that could thrive. We do need to do better asset management with player aging, or just in terms of having too many of one type of player. Regarding team success, even a winning season like last year and a last ditch effort to get in this year does not justify keeping the coach or systems. Dallas and the coach moved on. Trotz has moved on a few times. Other teams do it all the time. It's not just that the coach fails. It's what they are looking to do in the future.

If we make the playoffs and win the cup, the noise is going to be quiet. Make the playoffs and lose? Not sure, depends on the reasons. Some see last playoffs loss as a combination of coaching and other factors. If the big plus for this coach is winning in the playoffs and he doesn't get it done, then what? Systems are only as successful as the results show.

It would be about the same as when we played Gaudreau. Why would you think that a signing in the NHL only suggests it's a publicity stunt. The "burn a year" part is an offer to eliminate one year of the RFA eligibility. That's gives him an extra incentive. Every game and every NHL pre-season game has risk of injury. I don't see the end of the season as being a big deal. He's not likely to be in the playoffs should we get in. If we are eliminated after three or so losses from making the playoffs, then we do what we always do. Call up players, play them, play the kids.

That's the negative side of me coming out. Probably should have stated it as one WPG win against us and a CGY loss to another team. If you combine the two things, we would only get to 93 points. I haven't seen the "magic number" for the playoffs yet. VAN and STL would be hard pressed to finish above us and even harder to make the playoffs. I think they can only get 91 max. I doubt 91 would be the cutoff. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer, but I haven't seen enough to think we will be winning 6 of 7 games.

I'm no longer sure of anything. We have 4th line and Zaddy/Stetcher pairing out for a goal against. Then they get a timely rebound goal on a nothing shot, because of a Lucic hit and a fast skating Duehr. Weegar and Gilbert out with them. LA was bad last night and still kept it close (overturned goal on offside and missed 2004 goal not withstanding). Sutter almost gives the game away with his dumb start of the 4th line players on the end of a PP. I believe LA hit the post on that shift. Markstrom deserves a lot for this win. LA was sluggish and had a lot of turnovers and we scored on goals Korpi had no chance on. Possibly because of the first game at elevation on a road trip. VAN and NAS will decide our fate. They are the two teams that have the most to play for and have beaten us. No wins in 2 games against NAS. Even in the games against VAN, but we play 2 in their barn. WPG seems to be imploding but still play us tough. Playing flawless hockey for the last 7 games seems next to impossible. If we managed that, we would either be unstoppable in the playoffs, or so burnt out from the fight that we waste 8 days.

This is our 2nd two game win streak this month. Our next spoiler is VAN, but they will fight for a spot until they are eliminated, then just be a spoil sport. Markstrom has not fared well against them in the past. I'm not convinced that we can take 12 of 14 points in the games remaining. And to me, it's all or nothing. Markstrom has been the reason for our wins (all but 1 this month) and the reason for our losses. A dominant win is followed by a multi-goal against game. Playing in VAN is not a great place to try to get the 3rd in a row. If we lose to VAN, we might as well pack it up. WPG is weird, where they had Vezna goaltending all season until this month. They look like a broken team. No idea if they can get back to winning. NAS is a tougher call. They are winning despite trading away players. Josi was out for the most recent run, yet they manage to get points. They will be facing some tough teams, but their last 2 games are against Minny and COL, who are likely to be sitting players.

I would tend to want a bigger C, like Ruzicka. The trio that will never play together with this coach.

They did manage to use the 4th line prior to the end of the PP and a shortie chance almost went in. So, yeah the stupidity continues.

In many a game, that would be a foul. We got away with the marginal non-call. In the Bedard cup, the Preds just passed us for 16th. They have one game in hand, but will have two once we finish tonight. So far, it seems like we can only win Pacific games.

Mangiapane..... Only waited till the end of the season to get a PP goal again.

Good news. Markstrom made the first save. PP time

The Kings Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff: Byfield – Kopitar – Kempe Fiala – Danault – Arvidsson Iafallo – Lizotte – Vilardi Grundstrom – Kupari – Moore Anderson – Doughty Gavrikov – Roy Durzi – Walker Korposalo

The Flames Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff: Mangiapane – Lindholm – Toffoli Huberdeau – Backlund – Coleman Ritchie – Kadri – Dube Lucic – Lewis – Duehr Hanifin – Andersson Zadorov – Weegar Gilbert – Stecher Markstrom

LInes shortly

I think we went after him because he was a winger. We need C's but also need RHS wingers.

It doesn't take two years of pain. You begin to see the change immediately, sometimes called the new coach bump. You see the coach and players adjust to find the right balance. In the current one, we see my way or the highway. There is no adjustments, only benching. Play my way or don't. If you look at last year, you see some things that were allowed for. Top line given a lot of rope. If something doesn't work, they stopped doing it all the time. Some things may not exactly match the coach's desires, but he wouldn't stop them. To me, that is the biggest change. My way worked last year, so my way is the only way. I don't care if you found something that worked, it's only my way. If you are going to make changes to either the coaches or the team makeup, or both, you need to make the right decisions. Define what the team should be, get the right coach in place and make the roster fit that. I don't personally care who the coach is, just make sure you aren't just recycling the same garbage.

I think the AHL doesn't like teams sending their NHL players to flood the teams. In other words buying a Calder Cup. There was a cutoff for that very reason, since the AHL playoffs start at roughly the same time.

#Flames tonight vs. Los Angeles: Mangiapane-Lindholm-Toffoli Huberdeau-Backlund-Coleman Ritchie-Kadri-Dube Lucic-Lewis-Duehr Hanifin-Andersson Zadorov-Weegar Gilbert-Stecher Markstrom Why does this sound so familiar?

There is an adjustment from one league to the next. I think the speed is less of a factor myself. I see the NHL as a place that you don't have time and space to make decisions. You get hit if you hold the puck or you have to move. Gaudreau was able to transition because of his edges, not so much his skating speed. He got out of situations. Smaller players tend to be harder to hit because of the lower center of gravity and how they learned the game. IMHO, Phillips plays too much like a bigger F. Coronato is thicker, so maybe more like a Debrincat. Have to see him at the NHL level to really know how he compares. Anyway, excited to see him get a NHL game in. He will find it to be a blur, but instincts should kick in and he should be fine.

There is a cutoff for the AHL playoffs. I believe that the new signings for the AHL team don't allow them to be in the playoffs. It's regular season depth, to allow them to sit Wolf, etc. We had to assign Pelletier and Duehr there to allow them to go back down for the playoffs. Really the NHL playoffs is not the issue, it's playing in the NHL. You have to sign an ATC to play in the AHL, but can't also play a NHL game. That's my take. I know Cross has a good handle on it.

I applaud you for spending the money to watch. Saying that, it's not something enjoyable. The inability stems from seeing the current as being sustainable. We all know it isn't. Winning teams make the hard choices and move on. We define a core based on fond memories. I am okay with including Hubie, Weegs, and Kadri in the new core, since they bring things we need. Also Ras and Lindholm. Beyond that, each player should have a best before date. And each change we make has to take into account what we are trying to achieve. No point in just trading for picks. Think about prospects (scout them) and other players that bring other things to the game. Also, how do we use what we have on the farm. We have to stop with this idea that we have to have a beefy player throughout the lineup. Or have a 4th line that has little offense and is just there to physically wear down the other team by hitting them over and over. Give me 3 Duehr's over what we currently have.

I suspect this was a hasty change due to Pride Night. The Blasty night games always went to Dark Mode and there was no impact to GUI. Regular games the same thing. This seems like a confused bunch of settings, which has two themes applied at the same time. Maybe they should put Golf pics on the border now.

Well, actually we lost two wingers not a center and winger. And to be more accurate, we lost one winger and replaced another. In that replacement, we told them they would play a position they haven't before, because it shouldn't matter. Our top line last year was successful because they were a combo of "go to the net" with superior zone entries and a C that found quiet areas and hit the net with shots. That fell apart in round 2 of the playoffs. The increase in goal against may be attributed to giving up the blue line early and bad goaltending. The lack of scoring for seems to be rooted in constant cycling of the puck and shooting from bad angles. The PP is a lot of that. We don't attack the net as much, and I don't mean avoiding the greasy areas. I mean we don't cycle down low, we cycle high to low and back to high. We tend to score more on direct shots with rebounds and players walking in directly. The PP hasn't been very successful for two years now. The zone coverage gets a wrench thrown when players criss- cross. Dump and chase doesn't work very well when you are sending in one. The D skating it in, then simply skating around the net and back to the blueline makes little sense. Shoot from every angle and drive the net for a rebound that may not be there makes little sense. I don't know if the message is lost or the wrong message. Maybe the messenger is past his expiry date. The coaches alone or the players alone is hardly the reason the season is a fail. Have to address both. But you need someone with a holistic view to figure out the path. It can't just be about the next year. It has to be a long term view.