travel_dude

Yeah, I was kinda alluding to that. If he gets it right, then he could be a force, but a limited force. For every bracket, the number of players is small. So much faith here in the Flames going long. I love it, and hope we are all right!

Habs will go for MSL. It's so obvious. WPG would make sense, but I think they look elsewhere to fit the team they want. Defensive is boring to them, they want goals.

Tough choices, but two guys leading the league in scoring and goals for their positions is awesome. Marky, Shesterkin, and Saros are the three for Vezna. Also three obvious choices.

You would almost think I was tracking points and knew I was gaining. LOL Saymzies is killing it. Smart playing the odds on round one being mostly tied.

Some big swings in games. EDM looked like they didn't need to play. And they get owned. LA played like they wanted to win, while EDM played like they wanted to use coach's challenge on goals against. Some weird goals scored/

RD, maybe it's just me but I can't see the reults. Looks like the link is broken. Hate to be a pain.

Fair assessment. They have as good a PK as us during the series. No team is really dominating on the scoresheet. We hit the post way too many times. The last game, Kylington's postie hits Otter in the back of the pads and stick to his equipment. I hate that we have played to the point of a bad bounce or misplay costing the games.

Heat play Bakersfield in the BOC. Just kidding. We have the better team by a long shot, so it will be an interesting series. Only 5 games max in this round. We got the buy into round 2.

That's just so wrong. Probably one of the top 2 coaches in the league. A smart team will scoop him up, but he would work best with a team that can actually play defensive hockey.

Pucks in deep, pucks on net. Really, this should have Sutter's eyes light up. His game plan should win out. The team bought in all season long and one game that got away should have been expected. Win the next game. Score the next goal. Sow some seeds of doubt, because Dallas loves to play close games, as long as they score 2. Put them down by two instead of down by one or up one.

Glad to still have this thread in existence. It seems the unconditional negativity has crept in. SN panel blaming Markstrom for two goals kicked out to Joe P. Mistakes made in our zone or Johnny missing the one breakaway he had this series. Yeah, it all adds up. We lost 2 games we had a chance to win. We lost two close games we didn't score first. We should be up 2-1. I get it. The Flames don't take the easy route, and can't really playing a defensive team. 3 goals is the maximum so far to win. We should be used to it, since we have played this way all year. Cut the brawling for minor offences. Punish they when they go after a player or a goalie only. Tkachuk needs to be on the ice. Trading him for Klingberg isn't a fair trade for us, since we lose a 40 goal guy. I think we see a different start to the game tonight. We haven't been using the D in the O-zone much, as they are playing very conservatively. Many opportunities passed up, because we aren't ready to back up the D. That is so unlike us.

2-1 series lead in both the Leafs and EDM series has the "panel" talking about the next round. A dominating win (by score) means that these two juggernauts will be heading to conference finals. The panel is really just talking about the way the wind blows. But anyways. Last week they predicted a Flames cup final. This week it's something else.

I think both Lindy goals were quick strike, nobody near him. I hear what you are saying and maybe we play 7D and double shift a forward with Lucic and Lewis. Other than losing coverage, there is no D I would take out. They have played well covering the Stars. 2 tipped goals, which means that none of the big 2D are getting anything threatening through. Stone would be hard pressed to beat the goalie as well. But, I don't really want to overthink an otherwise tight game where we haven't seen a typical Flames team play.

I don't think the regular season plays into the way they are playing so far. You may have been right in your assessment then, but keep in mind they rarely played that way for more than a game at most. The Flames ere consistent the regular season. Outplaying teams on a regular basis. Dominant. Some games they had to use the goalie to steal one, but not that many. In this last game, the heat map shows a lot of shots from poor angle on his blocker side. It doesn't show how the shots came. Probably not many high blocker, since he was better down low. Low volumes from the LD or middle of the ice. The shots from the RD inevitably go to the glove side, so not difficult because the angle doesn't give you much to work with. The slot shots were mostly on the glove side. Lindholm scored on blocker side high. Just saying.

The PP goal was sad. Whether it was Ras or Hanifin, the most dangerous player walks in. The first goal was a faceoff loss and guy that wins the draw beats to the net the player that lost the draw. Not really sure if that's Backlund's guy or not, but he immediately let him go and was in no-man land on the goal. You can probably blame a bit on Kyl for not tying up Faksa's stick. He seemed like he went after the same player as Backlund. In theory, they both should know their assignments.

Interesting development from game 3. Benn fined $5k for high stick on Mangiapane, but no penalty was even called. Yet, he gets away with the slew foot on Tanev (also not called) and no discipline.

I would suggest that Otter was not playing lights out, but that he made a few good saves. Not a lot of scoring chnaces, whereas Markstrom had to be at the top of his game. Faced less quantity, but way more quality. Scoring chances were 36-16 in favor of the Stars even though we had way more shots. We were stingy in game one then decided to change it up for the next two. Top pair getting burned by what was behind their backs. First goal at 4v4, Backlund loses the draw then loses his man. 2nd goal, we don't take care of business in the D-zone and leads to extended time, resulting in two high danger chances,, one being a goal. The PP goal was a mixup with the D not sensing the threat on a juicy rebound. Two covering one gut and the trailer popping it in. Joe P got the slashing call because he's Joe P. The refs gave him a freebie. Was it a penalty? Sure, like about 15 other slashes that happened. Whistles away for the rest of the period.

I never panick, even when it's down the final minute. I sweat like a pig in that situation, though. I can't figure out how we managed to collide twice with the goalie pulled. That was weird. For sure Johnny needed to bury that chance. I thought he had time to pick his spot, but it came off his stick funny. Never seen him go low pads on a shot. Sutter mentioned the slashing penalty as being "who the slash was on" as being the reason for it. It's a penalty regular season 60% of the time. In the playoffs 40%. He wasn't exactly callingout the refs, but getting a dig in. The after whistle stuff is wearing on Sutter. Enough already. Push if you want, but stop scrapping to the point where a ref calls it. Stars scored on one of the 4v4 situations, while we did not. Time for a bit of a blender. Sutter suggests that it's close games and one comes out with the win, but we shouldn't be that close. We have more gears the 4WL. On 3 on 2's, we go in with the puck on the wing and never get it to any other player. No D activated, no support for the puck carrier, so it's grind it out on the boards. Doubtful we see much change. Stone isn't coming in for this type of game, even though he adds grit. Grit isn't the problem. Kylington made several deft takeaways and blocking out players. They might just roll Toffoli on the top line to see something different, since Tkachuk is taking zero shots on net. Try him out on the old MMA line. Leaves you Dube, Coleman and Jarnkrok. Have Dube as a C option or play RW. Let Jarny take the draw then switch spots. Dube can stay at C if he's winning most draws.

It isn't even doing the same thing over and over that bothers me. It's doing the same thing while seeing the team play their worst offensive hockey in weeks. If any of the games were really solid 2 way games, then you might think there is a chance. None were games you pin to the boards and say, "we did that 100% correctly".

There were three key moments in the 3rd that spelled doom. A tie game is anyones to win. Good shape going into the 3rd tied. But then, the penalty. Ill timed and gave the ref no real choice. It wasn't a scoring chance, so they could have let them play. That set up the kick out to Joe in the latter stages. Unlike the Flames, the Stars understand kick outs. The other two were the missed breakaway chance and the non-call on the high stick. A high stick is much more obvious than a slash. But, anyways. The missed breakaway is just that. He gets two in a game, he scores on one of them. But he got one chance.

3 games should be enough. The top line really is only Gaudreau and Lindholm making anything happen. But the 2nd line is messed up. Top goal scorers on the team are playing with a defensive C that doesn't seem to keen on kicking it up a notch.

I think he was going high blocker, which was the right spot. It whiffled on him and he didn't get the shot he wanted. He never goes low pads. 5 hole maybe, but not low pads. The unfortunate thing is we get a call for a monor slash (obvious, but not brutal). Coleman gets a stick to the face and they let that one go. That too was obvious. It probably would not have made any difference, but it puts us on the PP. Instead Dallas gets to bitn the clock. Anyway, I going positive. Way too much negativity for me right now. I have trashed Backlund for his iffy faceoff play. And Hanifin for his bad giveaway. Just gonna stow that away.

Don't remind me of Joe P.

I'm not reading anything from Francis.