travel_dude

Well, the SB is the only big amont he would see without playing in the NHL. Getting a free degree from Harvard? Worth close to the amount of that SB. Fox gave it up to sign into the NHL directly. Don't get me wrong, I think he will be a Flame. I just don't know that the timetable for him playing will make a lot of people comfortable. He could sign this sprng, but the timing probably excludes him from the NHL Is that really going to make him want to sign this year?

Vladar plays well against tough teams. Markstrom has played well (wins) against most of the Pacific teams, not so much against the Central. Coming out of the break, the decisions need to be based on record against those team. Two weeks of Eastern teams. His performance is fine, just not the results. When you have a guy that has 10-0-3 record in his last 13, there is something to be said about running with the hot hand. The margin between Marky getting a win and a loss is so thin. The team not scoring when he's in isn't helping, but there has to be something about when he lets one in. Deflates team or something. Don't really know. All we do know is the team manages to get and hold leads with Vladar in nets. The first CHI game had the goalie switch with enough saves to give them a chance. The 2nd game was out of reach.

Vldar is getting starts against tough opponents. 2nd gme in a B2B. His worst performances were agains DAL, TOR and LAK. But he is also unbeaten in regulation since November 29th. The Flames don't do well when they get down a goal or two. Even though the numbe of goals against is similar, it's when those goals are scored that make a difference. Teams like NAS will shut down the D zone when they get a lead. We get desperate when we get down a goal or two later in the game; low % shots. Nobody is saying it from the room, but the team doesn't get overly worried about transition to offense with Vladar in nets. They just go ahead abd score. With Marky, they have to shut off offense to protect. Or so it seems. Like if we get a 2 goal lead, we stop looking to score. With Vladar, it seems like we just continue with the same plan.

The penalties were bad, but not the reason they scored 2. Vladar was good and allowed the Flames to score more often. The penalties messed up the bench more than anything. Good statement game. Could have perhaps used Duehr, but Lucic got better as the game went on. 4th line was not good at times, but you can guess why.

Funny, I had paused the game. Spoiler alert.

Ugg, the guy we could have picked up on waivers

Pelletier couldn't handle the pass. Difficult for a LHS

Need to finish off the PK. Has been good but too many penalties

My man Zaddy

Good finish by Toffee

Nice rush goal

Perhaps not a great idea to have the 4th line out there

Duehr out, Ruzie in. Mackey out, Gilbert in

I really doubt they ever feel that way. Guys like that were Gaudreau and Tkachuk. What I don't see is the same emotion every game, which makes sense. But a slow start to CHI makes it obvious. We aren't fighting them for a playoff spot. They can wheel and deal and not worry about it. We get in a rut and fear making any play that is anything other than safe. And then we make a mistake on the safe play. This team implodes too easy. Whether they get frustrated by a goal after a good shift or with the system not producing. It plays on you.

Sutter doesn't buy into chemistry. But anyway, now is the time to try out some things. Practice, then games. No good reason to sit out Ruzicka. He wasn't bad enough to be the one to sit. We could have a good 4th line with him in. Ruzie-Lewis-Dueher or Lucic-Ruzie-Duehr They would have some speed in the first case and 2/3 of the 2nd case. Camp doesn't show anything about how players are right the F now. Which is the problem with the team. Hubey and Kadri weren't good in camp. We tried lines out of the gate that got changed after 7 games. We had Ruzie performing on the top line, but bumped him to the 4th line. And now out. There is no player that hasn't deserved to sit after a game. But that's not how it works.

The ones we have missed out on are the ones that would have helped. Eichel, Stone are just two of them. Not including Valimaki, only to lose him to waivers.... I get that Stone would have been a difficult signing... Or that our offer for Eichel was not what they wanted, but it was a ploy by BUFF.

The D is using a 7th and 8th D, which is fine, but you need to shelter them. Not playing them with the recently demoted to 4th line Lucic. When you lose a top 4 D, you need to practice with different combos. Not just play the worst 2 together. Getting behind, you start pinching at the wrong time (Hanifin). Moving Weegar to RD, when he plays mostly LD, expect some confusion. In reality, we are missing the entire 2nd pair from last year, Kylington-Tanev. We haven't really figured out how to even replace Kyl, so the missing 2nd body is going to hurt. This year's team scores a lot in the first, so yes they look lost when they get down. It wasn't the case last night; they were tied and got down by two in less than a minute. There was no option to pull the goalie to get a rise out of players, since Vladar is playing SEA. But we do see a lot of one player trying to take the game themselves.

Erat for Forsberg. Picks for players a team can't sign, like Stone. Those trades happen, but they are rare.

Sounds like a post for the Positivity thread The West is all mixed up this year. Teams that missed the playoffs doing well. Teams that were firmly in playoff spots fighting for scraps. We need to go on a run like last year coming out of the break.

There are many ways to blow it up or at least change the direction. Giving up picks and prospects makes some sense if it's a future star. Would you not have offered a higher pick for Necas? Or some other piece we could really use? The number of teams that blow it up and improve is almost zero. The number that tank and blow it up, and are successful, well we can maybe say one or two.

Of course it's not Marky's fault we lost. Two goals he let in I didn't like. But those are two goals that he would always let in, so let's look at a PP that can't even get a shot on net. Inneffective offense. Dump and chase because we can't make a pass. The basics look like we have not played in months. Slow and plodding. Long passes because we don't skate. Oops, this is the positivity thread, which is looking like a blow it up thread. Pelletier was the story of last night. Backlund pointed him out and said he was doing it right. More like his inspired play. Duehr with speed. Mackey trying to get used to playing after a long long break. 2nd PP unit looking good. Can fix that 2nd line, but need to look at how they are playing.

Whether it was the Flames not being ready or not being engaged, the difference between the teams was too obvious. CHI was pretty crisp in passing the puck. Zone exits were simple one and done. Players got free and behind our D. We passed into feet, tried to pass to a guy in a croud of players. Zone exits were difficult to execute. Sutter saw that the lines were a mess, so he moved Pelletier into the top 9. Then he put him with Huberdeau. Awesome for the kid, but how about trying that in practice. How about trying some different looks. Lucic got played as a 4th line player and messed up any chemistry they had. I'm not blaming him directly, but if you make that decision, then perhaps you need to look at sitting him. Ruzicka did not do enough wrong to be held out. He came out so that Pelletier could come in. Anyway, this game is really on defensive play. Two or three mistakes by the D and it's in the net every time. Can't blames the goalie, but if your D is doing that, your goalie needs to be flawless in those chances. Screen shot. Blocker high. High crease, but down and out.

Just blow up the lines for one game, from the start. Yes please to Ruzicka

I enjoyed watching Oilers lose in OT more than I enjoyed watching the Flames barely take down th BJ's. Starte the period great, couldn;t score. D gets mixed up and two easy goals againt.