travel_dude

I'm not really sure if that was the answer or not. Can't just get cap relief because you don't want to play him. He was "recovered" by NHL standards. Perhaps they could have evaluated him mid-season and determined that shutting him down was the only answer, but I am not convinced he's suffering from the rehab or surgery. It's not like he missed games. I do think they should have waived Ritchie at least to give us cap flexibility. No options now unless they put him on IR. And there is still nothing to suggest that he is suffering. Ineffective? Yes, in most of his game. But he's winning faceoffs, so that part is working for him. Does he shoot like Ritchie at times? Yes, but he does get a textbook shot away now and then. Not scoring, but still strong.

Most of the time Sutter talks it's the exact opposite of what the reporters are saying. "No, Eric, it's not that way"...."You guys keep saying Gaudreau can't play under the system, now you are saying he can.".

The coach sets him straight when he's at a presser. The guest stuff he does or even the SN pieces he does during games doesn't really allow for someone to put the boots to him. Sit him down with Button, and he would leave in tears.

I wasn't going to say that. Was thinking it though. LOL

SOme differing info from two different sources. Steinberg has: Gaudreau-Lindholm-Toffoli Tkachuk-Backlund-Dube Mangiapane-Jarnkrok-Coleman Lucic-Carpenter-Ritchie Monahan-Lewis Hanifin-Andersson Kylington-Stone (Tanev maintenance day) Zadorov-Gudbranson Markstrom Vladar Whereas Kristen Anderson had the following changes: Fourth line is Lucic-Carpenter-Ritchie by the looks of today’s line rushes. Otherwise, Toffoli is still on the top line. Tkachuk with Jarnkrok and Coleman.

Supposedly missed an open net three times.

Eric Francis talking about Johnny Gaudreau on Kyper and Bourne: “If he has a playoff like he’s had in the past, I don’t think anybody in Calgary would miss him a bit.” The absolute disrespect, but do you expect anything else? #Flames

Gaudreau won't beat out Matthews or McD for Hart. Marky may (and should) win the Vezna. Lindholm should win the Selke. Sutter should win the Adams. We should win the Jennings. But a win against NJ and the Leafs are unstoppable.

It makes sense to integrate the player. This might actually be the line for Saturday against the Oilers. Not sure which set makes sense for which game. I think it would be a good idea to sit Lucic for a single game, just to give him a breather.

The Jolly Rancher sure knows what he is doing, eh? We armchair coach a lot here. We don't see the effort in practices or study the game tapes (MPEG). We tend to focus on the small picture a lot. Sutter reads the room. He manages icetime according to what he sees. Uses MacLean on the bench and in the box to give him feedback. Very few games could we point to a single player impacting the game for the bad. A line or pairing or goalie, yes. But again, not the only reason. We sometimes overlook the impact of a key faceoff win (or loss). Dube's win a few games ago was key. Against the Sharks, the first goal came (IIRC) from a simple clearing play that changed possession. A weak shot and it's in. The tying goal came off a rough shift and bad change by the 4th line. Can't really blames Monahan for that. Take him out? Perhaps. Take Lucic out against ARI? Perhaps. But that is load management, which is key in B2B's. This isn't a tough week for games, just the B2B.

That part has always confused me. In the past, we have waived players but not assigned them to the AHL. I thought their salary was taken off the books once the waiver period elapsed. I can understand the AHL not wanting non-playoff teams to dump players into the AHL after TDL, but I don't get why a salary would have to remain on the books. Just me, I guess. No worries. I wish we had a bit more flexibility to swap Ritchie for Ruzie, but whatevs.

Not say this is true, but can we not waive Ritchie or Stone and bring in Ruzie? I get they can't be assigned to the AHL, but I think it takes them off the roster and removes their cap hit. If not, the only way is an emergency loan. I'm hoping we don't get there.

Dressing rooms can be pretty fragile. Since he's not sat out a game all season, there may be some underlying reasons why. Sutter isn't afraid to bench a guy that is not playing the right way, but two vets that have had strings of bad games continue to dress every game. Both are part of the leadership group. It's a tough call for me. We might be better off with Ruzie in the lineup and Carpenter/Lewis out there. Not sure how either of those guys play on the off-wing, but it would be a faster line that could put the puck in the net more often. Adding in Ruzie gives us some decent options. Jarnkrok has been pretty good defensively, but he is not exactly helping Mange score. For most games, I could see the use as follows: Top line Coleman-Backlund-Jarnkrok Mangiapane-Ruzie-Toffoli Carpenter/Lucic-Monahan-Dube/Lewis/Carpenter Switch it up for some: Johnny-Lindholm-Toffoli Tkachuk-Backlund-Coleman Mangiapane-Ruzie-Jarnkrok Carpenter/Lucic-Monahan-Dube/Lewis/Carpenter I'm probably over-reaching here. Most likely we don't see Ruzie until next season. I don't think his play got him sent down, it was a numbers game. Dube has picked up his game recently. Carpenter is a special teams option. Sutter would probably prefer to be able to us Ruzie in the lineup to help the 3rd line, but it doesn't work with the extras we have and Monahan/Lucic playing. I'm not even sure Ritchie gets games unless Lucic or Lewis comes out.

Lucic is good in parts of his game and bad in other parts. He's a good forechecker. He can cause the other team to rush passes. Where he struggles the most, it seems, is defensive structure and neutral zone play. If we are using him to advance the puck, then that is a mistake. He's about 50/50 on that. Will make a good play and follow it up with a bad one. Sutter needs to watch very closely. A B2B set is not a great thing to play him in. Probably gassed in COL. Didn't look to bad against BUFF, but we lost a close game. You can see how Sutter is using him less these days. 4th line minutes cut if they are getting hemmed in. No PP time for him or Monahan. But, I think sitting for one game doesn't hurt him. He loves the BOA games. He's there in case Kassian runs a player. Can't always send in Guddy to tune a player up, since we need him for PK and 5v5. But Sutter needs to look at where Lucic struggles. Game type 1. Plays well in game type 2. Plays okay but needs less minutes in game type 3. We have depth for a reason. You can't play a niche player in 82 games if he's ineffective in 30 of them. Will need him for the playoffs when games have more edge.

We got spoiled with the February run. It opened a lot of eyes to the team's success and dominance in games. We all fall into the trap of getting excited. Nothing wrong with that, as this team is the most exciting (and boring at times) team we have had to cheer in so many years. Just remain wher you are. A game of inches is sometimes going to go the other way. Frustrating to watch if something bad happens and we lose a game like that. But we need it to reinforce the opinions of the coaches. This is what happens when you let up a bit. Don't get me wrong. I think they played well. Some things I didn't like. Maybe the entire team let up a bit, or a bad combo of little things. Any one of them fixed mid game and we get a win. But that's not the best thing, since the bad things crept in, in the first place. Better to work as if everything went wrong and need work. In other years, we have been okay with a win becuase we won. Poor habits and we still won. Outscored the mistakes. I like scoring goals, but would rather we dominate and get a 2-0 SO than dominate and win 5-4.

First the bolded. The team is nothing what the previous teams were. Not even close. So the last part is correct. Really, I don't think it was 30 minutes of good then 30 of bad. I think it was one of those game where momentum shifted at time. We dominated. They get a lucky bounce. We go up again by 2. They get a lucky goal. They start smelling blood (pun) and we get trapped after a poor line change. Tie game. A poor pass and they go up. Not a lot of time left, but we apply pressure and almost tie it. The most noticeable thing for me was the number of missed net shots by the Flames. I mean besides the obvious bad game by Marky. Yes, a number of poor giveaways, and a lot if the D-zone time was due to weak attempts to get out. Watched one sequence (seen the same thing many times) where the puck passed up the boards to Lucic. He turns it over to a Shark. Or the shift leading to the 3rd goal.

In some way, we need a game like that to send a message. The goalie let the team down a bit, but you can't play that crappy in front of him on those goals. Marky has a bad one now and then. Shilly was really mad after the tying goal, which he should be. An OT win would be okay, but just gives the players an out they didn't deserve. Live and learn. We will see a team or two that jams up the middle. Solve the problem.

One thing I will mention is that Lucic has been brutal recently. The late line change. Giveaways. Last night they credited him with just one giveaway, but I think he had two on one shift, let alone the entire game. His an Monahan's TOI down to the lowest of the team. No special teams time for either. There wasn't a lot of special teams play as it was, but the TOI really stuck out. Not sure how we bring in Carpenter. Somebody would need to sit. Perhaps Lewis or Lucic. Maybe Monahan really should. Tough to do with a team leader, but in a B2B coming up, we can't have tired players. We saw that in COL.

I get that, which is what I meant by the luxury. in terms of roster, cap and runway to get him up to speed. When they do have the space, it would be even harder. I think they almost need to sit him for a game and watch from overhead. Work with the coaches on the finer points. If he looked good during the season at all, then he can play like that. Just get back to doing the things that worked.

They were always a tough matchup for us. Doesn't matter if they are a playoff team or not. Meier and Hertl and Couture are tough to play against. Big team that doesn't allow much in the middle.

I will say this. The number of shots from the high slot and point that missed the net was extremely frustrating. I can live with blocked shots, but not even being close to the net is bad. Maybe someone snuck in and warped all of the sticks. The turning point for me was the missed PS. After that, the team only looked really dangerous in the last minutes of play. Somehow, all that pressure and we didn't force them to take a penalty. Move on. Sutter didn't even want to talk after the game, which means he was hopping mad. Didn't want to talk about goaltending. Or the frustrating to watch D-zone play on the 2 quick goals.

It's a tough call. Kylington earned the trust of the coach and Valimaki didn't. I'm sure Sutter is seeing the same things as you, but doesn't have the luxury of disrupting a pairing to bring in Valimaki for a tryout. I agree that he is making decision too quickly and not reading the ice the right way. When he slows the game down he is more effective. Not looking for shooting lanes and just blasting the shot. East-West movements in traffic. Puck watching maybe a bit much and losing an assignment. Unfortunately, the alternative is using Valimaki in that situation. You could probably move Kylington to play with Guddy, and the impact to the 3rd pair would be positive. But, I'm not sure you see an improvement in the 2nd pair. We can speculate, but the reality is Valimaki hasn't played top minutes here for most of the season.

Overreaction perhaps, but we need to get Mangiapane going again. Something just not right. Mange seems to be off a bit, perhaps by not having Backlund. Toffee seems to have lost his edge. Maybe too many lines, not enogh time to adjust. Top line Mange-Backlund-Toffee Coleman-Dube-Jarnkrok 4th line Or should it be: Coleman-Backlund-Dube Mange-Jarnkrok-Toffee

Sutter really should have called a time out after the 3rd goal. The team was mad and had just finished routine that blew up in their faces. This is like the losses in Anaheim we used to have. Winning the game and somehow give it away. Almost like we have some mental block. Can't really put my finger on it. At some point Sutter reverted to old lines and we got a little stale. Need a third option.

Goal 1 - nothing shot from the wall. Not screened or tipped. Goal 2 - on the goal line and left a big gap. Goal 3 - terrible change left the players out of sorts, got a piece. Goal 4 - not a lot of chance, but he stopped it. Just trickled in once he snow angeled.