travel_dude

We are more in play for the latter part of the top 10

Well you can blame Covid for Gaudreau wanting out. Not allowed to visit his family or have them come. No need to rehash. Tkachulk was more around hormones. His old buddy Bennett telling him about the life. Past glories and past culture aside, the team that existed in 2004 wouldn't today anywhere. The teams want a piece of you for the community. The coach bag skates you if you don't show him what he wants. He talks about the team following the system when it wins and not following when it loses. Not a lot of smoke blown up people's butts, but some harsh words. Gaudreau joked when someone asked him what Sutter said about the series winning gola. Coach said good goal and moved walked away. Very few on this team execute the gameplan every night, if anyone does. Some nights there is enough done right to make it a win. Or the other team is in a funk. We dominate for 40 minutes and get a goal out of it. Not for lack of skill, you figure it out. I'm not talking about Minny. This happens nightly.

I watched a bit of the raw Poirier and Kuz, and yes there is a lot to be excited anout at least Poirier, but too soon. Kylington was a multi year pro before ever even playing in Canada. I think it's risky to just assume a player can't make it at any spot other than where he was in the AHL. Pelletier didn't look out of place on a 4th line, but the minutes weren't there for him. Strangely enough Lucic still manages 12 minutes even being a 4th liner with zero special teams time. Duehr gets sucked into the 4th line style we play, because Lucic plays that way. Not every team has bruisers for a 4th line. Low skill teams ice line like Lucic or Kassian, because they just try to hurt and wear down other teams. Wear them down by all the scoring they do against us and by skating laps around them. I believe it's somewhat pointless now, as we have 2 regular call ups remaining. We would have to go through a few to get emergency callups. So, no there won't be any callups unless its game 82. Even then I doubt it. We will just go through the motions of pretending that players will get a chance. And we will let walk guys we signed and never looked at. Didn't impress at camp? Too bad, see ya.

Doesn't have to be a new GM. Shipping out Backlund, Coleman, Hanifin, Markstrom, Lindholm, Dube, Mangiapane is an option for any GM. You need to do an honest evaulation of the impact they bring. Is it enough? Is the player going to be too costly to re-sign? Negotiations with the GM should detail that. The year left guys have to be known what the cost is going to be and whether we want to keep them. We can't really keep everyone, since we don't have enough for a full team.

Thanks for the laytman's analysis. Some obvious less special stats include team shooting %. We are the worst. We take the most shots and score on a smaller %. That makes a lot of sense when we shoot the most. League average shooting and we lead the league in goals for. So, Sutter preaches shot volume and getting to the net. The first one takes away from the second one since we are always shooting. You see a chance like last night and it shows how those also get blurred. Huberdeau going down the pipeline, is at abpout the top of the circle. Kadri is closer to the boards than the middle. Huberdeau sense he will not get a clean shot even though he is free and clear to shoot. He passes to Kadri, who is expecting shot. I think Kadri sorta got a shot off but he lost any advantage we had, having to adjust. How do you even measure that. And it's dozens more of these game after game.

And the 2004 Flames. Proof is not so recent, and seeding is more important than just getting in. If we managed 8th and DAL was 1st, then we might stand a chance for one round. Then face the top seeding from the Pacific if they get through. If it's LA or WPG or EDM or COL or MIN, we just get dummied in round 1. Last year we ended up with DAL in round one instead of the Preds. We wasted so much time and effort to win that we had nothing left. It's not the 2000 and teens. Just get in only works with flawless G's and perfect circumstances.

Publicly, Dutter has said he gives ice to the ones performing. You show something, you move and stay up in the lineup. It may be duos like Hibey-Pelts, but then you see Lucic getting extra ice with his line. Or sometimes gets a jump without actually doing anything. Backs just needs a finisher. He plays all situations. Mangiapane struggling isn't on him. But we can't be sure what others can do at this stage because we don't see them. Pelts with Lindholm and Toffoli? No idea. Huberdeau with Backlund or Lindholm? Only a few minutes of that last night. Even the idea of Pelts with Ruzie and Duehr is lost. I lean towards a captain as well. It's nobody's team right now. Should an aging vet with 4th line minutes have any say in what the team should be doing? They won a cup on a top team when? Does Backlund carry any weight when you have 18 other voices out there? A couple of guys know what it took recently to win a cup, but we aren't a contender to get to it. Not every game is part of a 7 game series. You play the same team that much you figure it out. Lack of a C means that the coach is calling the play. There is no MacKinnon saying "I want this to get back in the game".

Yeah, the alternatives seem bleak. Not that BT is the best GM, but he has done things he thought would work. Pro scouting maybe has a part in the targets. But the present coaching plays a big part in how they perform when they get here. Last night seemed like a night the players called it quits after two. They seem to get that the likelyhood of making the playoffs is close to zero. The gameplan called for them to be flawless defensively and in nets. Look for mistakes and capitalize on them. I'm not saying the players have quit on the coach. I think they are fed up doing the same things and expecting a different result. The only wins we have had is where a goalie sucks, the other team is on a B2B or we outshoot a lesser goalie by 2-1.

That was also Gio's team. He was the first to ignore the scene. When he was gone, Lucic stepped up. He squared off against Benn in the playoffs and told him he had to go through Lucic.

Has to be a certain level of frustration in the ranks. Zary and Phillips were scoring better than Zoh and Duehr, yet only Duehr gets an extended look? Zoh called up for longer than Phillips, Zary not at all. Pettersen should get a look no doubt. No chance Poirier does this year. Or Kuz. We have 1 extra D that has NHL games.

We have some guys down there that would love the chance of playing a meaningful game. Summer camp is the only time they even get noticed. It's about a month too late to see what we have, so the coach is going to keep it the same. Still looking for 19 wins. There is no reason why we couldn't go on a run. I don't believe we win, because there is no signal from the coach that we will. Something isn't working and we don't change anything. The PP isn't any different. The lines are the same. The play is almost exactly the same every game. The Minny game was an example of not adjusting to a different team. We have prospects and scratched players that can help. The level of frustration seen of the players is obvious they don't have faith. There is no sign that the coach sees any need for a change. Sit the 4th line, or go with 11-7 and insert Ruzicka. You don't need to play them 10 minutes. You can double shift the player who is going on a certain night.

+1 Maybe I agree because I have been saying it for too long. There is maybe one play per game of Hubey/Pelts/Kadri doing something together, but mostly it's one person. Like watching Gaudreau try to take the entire team on. Or Bennett trying to go through 3 players. Huberdeau maybe didn't fit with Lindholm to begin with. That was ages ago. Ruzicka got a short stint up there when Hubey was injured. That didn't last either. 4th line or scratch for you, mister. But there are no games where I think Huberdeau fits with Kadri. Doesn't matter who the winger is. I think it comes to playing style. Kadri is more like Mangiapane. Push, hit, drive, fall. I almost think you should go with Pelletier-Lindholm-Toffoli. Mangiapane-Kadri-Coleman. Huberdeau-Backlund-Dube. Leave the zone entries to Backlund. I don't know it gets you better defensive play, but the lines play to the strengths of the players. Instead of asking Huberdeau to play wrong wing, you have Dube where he is comfortable. Pelletier has a legit target that will actually shoot. Kadri plays with guys that push the play through. Notice I haven't mentioned the 4th line. That doesn't matter, since they should be 8 minutes. You put out players that push the pace when they are out there. Ritchie-Ruzicka-Duehr. No room for the others. They add almost nothing.

I would go one step further. Last year we saw that Valimaki was not a fit with the coach. He had no desire to work with the player, even though he had good things going for him. The GM didn't extend Valimaki because he was a bum. Sutter last year said that Mackey was more mature, so was more of a first choice. This year BT was forces to make a choice based on the coach's list of players he wanted; it didn't include Valimaki. It barely included Mackey. Camp basically had two streams. The vets that didn't need to show they were ready and the prospects/tryouts that had to blow the doors off. Admittedly, none of the prospects had great camps, but then again, they were played separate and not given much of a look with any of the vets. End results, we demote Zary and Pelletier, and eventually are forced to waive Valimaki and trade Mackey. That disconnect continued. BT calls up the AHL scoring leader, but he sits and sits. Sutter only played him because the noise was too loud. Not exactly much of a tryout. His comments leading up to being called up showed his bias. NHL players play in the NHL. The likes of Phillips only have scored in the AHL and he's too small. Lucic sits long enough to take some of the heat off coaching, then gets put on the 2nd line. We are in a bad state right now, and the GM knew any moves he made would not go over well if he moved Lewis or tried to move Lucic. He traded Mackey and Ritchie, who were on the outs with the coach for a tougher version of Ritchie and a better seasoned D. Any change to the losing lineup? Not at F. Unable to score through 2, the lack of scoring and emotion didn't seem to impact the coach. No urgency in the gameplan, even though he knew Minny would lock it down. No change to the process that wasn't working. It wasn't until late that he made one change. Swap Pelts for Mangiapane. The one player that was at least standing out was moved to a defensive line. That was it.

If we miss the playoffs and somehow manage to win the looot, we have to change the entire coaching staff. There is nothing to like about the gameplan, whatever it is. we will finally be rid of Lucic and Lewis, so we stand a chance of icing 4 decent lines. No way you subject a top prospect to this garbage design. There is nothing to be inspired with and no set plays that even look to be drawn up. The players know it and have given up. Can't say I blame them.

I will take the 22nd standings placement. This has to be the most boring style of hockey I have seen in many many years. What would you call it? Dump and chase? Shoot from the boards? Pass it until you lose the puck? But, hey we are a possession team. And we have the most cup rings for a non cup winner. Thos rings are awesome. You can see that high level of hockey from several of them. They knew what it took to win a cup (on a well coached team).

Oh, forgot to mention. Last year we didn't continually play Lucic after PP's. We had a shorter bench, and that was Lucic with much better scoring numbers.

Well, the same coaches exist. Markstrom plays a lot different than he did last season, so it could be the goalie coach making adjustments. Staying with the same gameplan when you lose 200 points from players perhaps is a bit odd. We went from playing a skill game to crash and bang, dump and chase. Is that the same system? The lines have shown to be bad, but we haven't changed anything since Pelletier played his first game. Before that it was Lucic on the 2nd line. 2nd year without a captain. Who is the leader? Backlund? Tanev? Lucic? Lewis?

They managed an OTL or 2.

CBC has a TV show named after the day after pill, Plan B. Available free in BC

Did I wake up in the wrong decade? Trap hockey.

They may know but won't say. Nobody even putting out rumors

Even up call. Seen a lot worse.

I wonder how different the standings would look with Hanifin out and Kylington in. We wouldn't have played Hanifin with Ras all season. Weegar-Ras Kylington-Tanev Zadorov-spare

Well to be fair, if he reaches for the puck at the blueline, he keeps it in, but Minny would just pressure him and it's a breakaway.

Kaprisov vs Lucic.. Yeah that's with last change.