travel_dude

Well that was a strange one. Kadri tips it and it would have gone in. But, Lewis deflects it by mistake and it hits the crossbar. Must have been a delayed change to have Lewis out there.

What's the over on this game? 10?

Equally bad rebound for Otter. Lindy with the finish.

Well that escaled quickly. That second goal was a really bad rebound.

Good job Deedsy.

And I know this is off topic a bit, but Jarnkrok was a decent goal scorer before he went to the Flames. And again now that he is away from the Flames. Milano couldn't succeed here (not that he is some kind of great player). Monahan was back to what he was like before he got injured (and Suttered). Point of this is that when we target players in trade, we have no idea how they will work here. Toffoli is doing good, but he's playing he's playing with the top C on the top line. Either we need to better take into account the coach's style/game style or replace the coach.

Big leap there.

Well, NAS just passed us with 2 games in hand (tie breaker), and they lost a 3 point game to WPG. Now down 5 from the last WC spot. And WPG's schedule just gets a little easier. The many little reasons why we are where we are. Goaltending, lineups, lack of scoring, sitting on one goal leads. When we play the way we do in the first period, we win a lot more games. Even taking better goaltending out of it. But the most we play is 2 periods like that. Get a lead, go into a shell. Down a goal, volume shooting instead of quality.

Part of the problem is that when we sign UFA's we sign them for too long. When they have value, in a losing season, they have too many years remaining. So, we never get those prospects or additional picks even when we are out of the playoff run. Klingburg was the prfect add for a non-contender. Sell when you can. I don't blame the Rooney signing; on most teams he would be more capable. He was expected to drag along Lucic and Lewis. Small potatoes. We should have signed Milano to a one year deal. Could have flipped him. Or he was young enough to re-sign next season. Anyway, the thing about this team is having too much loyalty to the players. The owners love the community involvement (see Gio). When teams have great seasons, they don't stick with everyone. They move on when players have value. Not the only smart thing they do. They scout the other teams that have players they may want.

When you have players here for 3,4,5 years and you aren't advancing, there is a cry from fans to add to the team. We needed a stud D-man and spent draft on Hammy. The Hammer one was not well thought out, but he was a lot better before the trade. We needed a C so we traded a D. Ended up wasting him at RW for a few years. What I am getting at is that any team in the latter stages of rebuild (or over the rebuild early) needs to show the current team that they are supporting them by adding top players. How many years of crap depth did EDM go with their top 2 needing more depth scoring? Other than going after the lesser Reinhart, they horded draft picks and wasted 8 years of McD. Instead they fixed one problem by creating another.

If you look at the amount of times his line is on for a goal against, you probably would wonder why they waited. He's not necessarily bad, but his lack of movement and times he gives the puck away is a bad thing. The design of the line is the bigger issue to me; most teams have gone with a faster type. Duehr is a good type to have. No issue with Ruzie playing C there. It's forcing them to just grind out plays that's the bigger issue. Put Pelletier or Dube or Mangiapane there and you have a modern line. One you don't worry about rolling.

Lineup alert..... #Flames tonight vs. Dallas: Mangiapane-Lindholm-Toffoli Huberdeau-Backlund-Coleman Dube-Kadri-Duehr Ritchie-Ruzicka-Lewis Weegar-Andersson Hanifin-Tanev Zadorov-Stecher Hard to really complain too much about a decision that should have been made when the odd of making the playoff were >50%. I do think that Coleman would be better with Kadri and Dube with Huberdeau, but that's minor. The Pelletier thing is getting on my nerves though. Oh well, he won't be injured when he goes back to the Wranglers after the Flames season is done.

Well, it's hard to tell, isn't it. When they come up, they have a role that might not fit them. That's the coach that think he knows what's best. We see you as this, and you may not agree. Phillips? Well don't even see it. Doesn't fit the mold and I won't even bother. Not every player is going to light it up in the AHL; it's what they can do when they get here. There are many examples of gems, but they were given a chance out of need or smart talent evaluation. But, I will also suggest that we ignore some players in the draft. They may not be can't miss ones, but they sure looked good in Draft year, D+1, D+2. What I think we don't do well is trading for prospects. But that's an area that is hard to tell, since teams only do that to win now.

If you look at a point in time, yes. Awesome streak. But for the month of March.... Lose 2, win 2, lose 1, win 1, lose 1, win 1. Markstrom is on a roll. Like the pregnancy thing really messed him up. Once his child was born, he has been really good. Didn't Talbot have the same type of issues, but in reverse? Game fell off after his kids were born? Anyway, next up the team we have had no trouble with. Except that we let in a lot of goals. Wonder if Otter will be in good form or what we last sae from him.

I had read about the same thing but was too lazy to go look. I figured you had the deets but just mixed up the name. I think BT is thinking long game. I think he had some question in the summer that some of the decisions being made in other parts of the org would hurt the team. Yes, he was the GM, but wasn't calling all the shots. I don't think he ever wanted to waive Valimaki. And I think he would have preferred not to waive Meloche, seeing as he just signed him. The same is true to releasing Milano. There was no obvious choice for top 6 winger, and Sutter is making it impossible to find one. I don't think Milano was either the solution or had that great a camp, but hard to tell when you are more critical of him than a useless vet.

The last time we faced him we scored 6. This time 6. It was a glorious win over a goalie we seem to beat frequently.

Well, we do face Dallas, Vegas, LA (x2), WPG, NAS. We play 7 against the weak (tougher) teams. I'm guessing another 12 points the rest of the season. 88, just enough to be best of the worst, almost. Not enough to get in. I really think it's pointless to expect us to come close. We have 2 home wins since January 26th. 8 of the final 13 games are at home.

Quick was not the level of goalie we have lost to. It was a win and I will cheer that on, but we put them down on plays he normally would stop.

You mean BT, right?

It is. It hasn't happened much in the last 20 years that a team has more than 10 losses.

One might also notice that NAS is one point back with three games in hand. They own the tiebreak should we have the same points.

The reminds me of the win with Lucic on the 2nd line. Must be genious. Keep it for next 10 games. Actually, the positive I saw was Huberdeau away from Kadri. Maybe switch out Ritchie and Lucic and play Duehr and Pelletier? I would still jst go with: Huberdeau-Lindholm-Toffoli Pelletier-Backlund-Coleman Mangiapane-Kadri-Duehr Dube-Ruzicka-Lewis

4-3-1 in March, plan the parade.

I would have maybe picked have the score, not the result.

I see what the coach is doing.... Whoever makes a mistake in a loss gets the healthy scratch, if they are a kid. If you are a vet, you are forced to play with Lucic.