travel_dude

Oh, you must be behind the live play.

Ref fest.

Make em pay. I just may.

Good goal. Stage 1 complete. Begin stage 2.

BS coming.

Nice greasy goal. I am sure they will challenge.

D having trouble with the top line.

Okay, relax. Penalties messing up the flow. Backlund needs to win D-zone draws or not bother taking them. What is is that Sutter said? Lose the draw but don't lose position. Make up for it there Backs.

Typical lost faceoff draw. Backlund is getting owned on the dot.

I was being cheeky. Best of 5 remaining. Win 3 to determine the winner.

Me, when I see Eric Francis on the broadcast....

I kinda feel like the winner of 3 of 5 determines the series.

At the very least the Flames need a split in the Dallas home games to maintain home ice advantage. I haven't really seen anything to be that concerned about. There's no real controversy.

NAS is in deep. Wasting 8 days or less. BSD got all of one game and the backup not much better. Had a OTL, but blown out in game 3. Get your brooms ready. FLA having a tough time with WAS. Curse of the President's Cup. Not getting enough scoring. LA in tough, but can't really tell if it's the goalie or way too many PP's. 23 penalties called in 3 games in total. LA looks good but can't score.

The biggest discussion was about Domingue and his spicy pork and broccoli. I mean the topic was related to the previous game, but so what. It was stupid to say, stupid to talk about and stupid to ask players/coaches about.

The side stuff should never be allowed to be talked about. So stupid, make something out of nothing. All it does is give some distration to the guys just wanting to make a difference.

Fans are freaking out because we aren't scoring. I admit it's a concern, but we are tied in the series only scoring one goal. Who would have predicted a total of 2 goals in 2 games and an EN goal? It's not like we are playing a team with goalie issues. Or a team that only made the playoffs because three Pacific teams had to make it. Bear down and go to the tough areas. It's what we played all year for.

I'm going to talk PP for a minute. The successful look the Flames have had is Tkachuk behind the net as the bumper. That takes away a body in front, so you can't go big shot with traffic. It puts a RHS on the left circle for the one timer. That puts Gaudreau on the right. Fine, but it puts the two best passer too far away to get the puck to Toffee. If we are using Gaudreau on the left, then you want a LHS on the RW. Tkachuk is still behind the net and Toffee on RW, with Lindy in the middle. The best person behind the net is a guy that doesn't take up space. When it's Gaudreau, he's a master at it. I know I am overthinking it, but we need to work on the PP units. Tkachuk is best in tight, not behind the net. Lindy finds quiet areas, but needs to creep in not just be there all the time. Gaudreau behind the nets is more situation than always being there. He's a target there, so he has to only go there at times. If you are using three RHS on the same PP unit (including Ras), then you better get one in the 2nd PP unit. Hanifin or Kylington is fine as the D, but need someone other than just Backlund and a couple LHS. And iof Backlund isn't winning faceoffs as much, it's a waste of 30 seconds.

Looking past? Not likely. Saving some energy for the next games? Maybe. The greatest weapon on the 1st line took to heart what Sutter said. Need more fight. Except he's just working on one guy. I think it got in his head that Klingon was the weak link to Dallas. Neutralize him and you are golden. There is Heiskanen as well. And Lindell. And Hakanpaa. Tkachuk has a fat enough Hash Rate to park himself and fight for territory.

EDM took a strange route to LA. Flew to Vancouver, then took a bus across the border. The flew from Washington to LA. Avoided the US air travel COVID protocol. Archibald has a medical exemption to travel without the vax. No other CDN team has done this. It sounds a little fishy. I'm assuming that the NHL is still doing testing.

You need to clear your mind of the bad karma stuff. LOL I was remembering that we haven't won a game 2 in 18 years. It's a meaningless stat, like the one that shows that when both McD and Draisaitl score, they are 0-4. Both observations played out, but neither had anything to do with Hanifin's early gaff. The thing about the offside goal was it was caused by Tkachuk in the wrong place to begin with, more concerned with jousting with Klingberg than paying attention to the play. The play were the puck was outside the blueline and your top playmaker is entering the zone with speed. Tkachuk felt the need to further escalate after the whistle. I get sticking up for Gaudreau, but nobody was touching him.

I don't think swapping Backlund with Jarnkrok is a major change. Backlund's defensive game is probably close to the best on the team. It's the guys he's lined up with. Both are solid defensively, but are also two of our secondary scoring weapons. I looked at the zone starts between game 1 and 2. In game 1, back's line had zero O-zone starts. In game 2, they had 66%. The latter seemed a bit odd, especially with Lewis's line starting 33% in the O-zone. Backlund had less than stellar faceoff%, but then again only Jarnkrok was above 50%. A more consistent faceoff guy with two snipers (Toff and Mange). Maybe it doesn't translate and maybe Sutter doesn't like it, but it's what I am thinking. In no way and I overly concerned. The PP hasn't looked good other than a few looks. A couple of minor tweaks and we are looking at a series lead. Without them, it's still anyone's game. Sutter needs to get the top line working hard again. And hammer home the idea that you score within 6 feet. Pretty is for the Oilers and Leafs. Only takes you so far until you face a defensive team.

I don't disagree with some of your lines, though Dube on the top line worries me a bit. The top line isn't playing like a top line, but part of that is needing Tkachuk doing more than just forechecking hard. He's not in the greasy areas enough when we have zone time. Nobody is. Zone entries and Gaudreau has few options. No trailer. Just get Backlund away from Toffoli and Bread. Simple. That gives you a duo of Coles and Dube. Backlund can play defensive hockey and let those guys battle. Jarny gives you the best possession chance of the C's. That means we start with the puck and can maybe do something with it. I'm not sure Rozie can do enough to change the 4th line. They weren't a problem in G1 and 2. They perhaps were used in the wrong situations.

Three things didn't work. Stage 1, Cowbell, and shutout.

Stone in for Guddy is a different animal. RD for RD. That works. I will be honest here. We didn't lose because we didn't defend well or get a cannon shot off. Yes, Stone has one of the best shots on the team. The tradeoff is that we lose a mobile defender and have to use Stone with Guddy. This comes down to players that are there, not one in the stands. You played a certain way all year and now decide you don't want to go to the hard areas. We were more desperate to bet NAS than win a playoff game.