travel_dude

Honestly, the only team I see beating Tampa is Colorado, which has probably the 2nd best goalie in the league. He actually had a better GAA this year. Can't believe they got him for a 2nd rounder. All they needed to do was take on Orpik. And then buy out one year.

In the 4 games played in the Q Final, Pelletier has 1 goal and 6 assists. In the overall playoffs this year (13 games), he has 4 goals and 18 assists. Not bad for a "defensive" center.

You have to think Buffalo is going to get #1. #2 is less clear. As long as it isn't someone behind us like NY.

How about Backlund to FLA for Bennett.

And that is my problem with the way we bring in players from Russia. Yelesin had what 4 games? None this year. A long serving player in the KHL and we give Nesterov minimum. He was lucky compared to Yelesin who got $70k. Not that any of them were great, but we aren't exactly a prime destination for top players or guys drafted.

That's even more remote than Eichel. It would immensely help TOR, but would be a huge loss for them in the same breath. They need to re-tool the bottom 6. Stop pinning your hopes on retirement folks. Yes, I realize the top 3 didn't do a lot together, but the PP sucked worse than that.

Competitive for talent, but the money is not so good. $1.5m the top wage? Not so good. The Swedish league on the other hand does not as good in keeping players.

Every year it is something. Nylander. Kadri. Tavares injury and Marner disappearing act. They were like the Oilers for depth this year, except in reverse. The Oilers had nobody of note past the top 2 players and a bunch of younger guys that didn't do much. The Leafs were a collection of a really good top 5 players, then a bunch of re-treads. Simmonds, Jumbo, Spezza, Foligno. Foligno was in decline for years, but at least he's a leader. Spezza at least showed up. Their playoffs reminded me of the Flames regular season. Played well until something went wrong. Then unable to do anything. Simple mistake in the net. TJ Brodie had more goals than Marner and same as Matthews. How sad is that.

Is Russia even that motivated? Nesterov with two goals including the GWG. Hmm, where was he all year? Orlov and Tarasenko here after being eliminated in the playoffs. Yelesin signed in the KHL, Nestreov probably back there. Pavel Karnaukhov will probably never come to Canada. Rushan Rafikov another Flames prospect that will never come here.

Well, I am confused, but anyway. Part of that confusion may have been due to standings not being up to date. Hope for help from Germany or Latvia, I guess. Funny how these teams have looked better over time. Latvia? Population 1.9m people.

Getting ahead of yourself. Christmas is coming, soon. I merely said 1st round, not 1st overall. Frr a 1st overall, we should expect a Dougie + and Cozens. I'm greedy.

I think he's top 6, but not sure if he has the edges to be top 3. We should be looking to add regardless. We don't have much depth scoring. 4th line non-existant, even though Ryan managed a few. We lost Janko and Bennett, which normally would account for 20-30 goals. Instead, we had Ritchie, Nordstrom, Simon, Buddy, and Leivo. I don't mind Leivo, but he's not suited to play with Backlund and Lucic.

EPIC. We complained about the no-shows Monahan and Gaudreau, but Marner is 18 games without a goal. 0 goals in the last 7 series clinching games in the playoffs. What annoys me is that we could have beaten this Leafs team. Then again, who cares. We weren't going any further than WPG or Final 4 at best. Glad to have summer off. Would be nice to see NYI at Colorado in the Finals.

How do you figure we are apart? I specifically said I would not trade for Kadri or that ilk a player. Would you not trade this year's 1st for a 23 year old Dougie Hamilton? Not a Kadri or Hamonic. Forget the noise about what happened since then.

Ooops, my bad. I was talking about the Flames.

When he played with Tkachuk, he was on LW. When he played with Backlund and Lucic, he was RW. He seems to be able to play either side well, but I was just talking about playing in the top 6 as the best place. He was performing like a top 6 player and lead the team in 5v5 scoring (IIRC). This while splitting time between top line and 3rd line with much more defensive starts. What makes him so deadly is his quick release.

I think you got the tie breaker part right RD. As far as being tied, if we win in regulation we get 3. If Germany or Latvia win in regulation, they get 3, meaning we are done. If it goes to OT, and we win in regualtion, we get in. To sum it up, we can only get in with a regulation win and an OT game between Latvia and Germany. Did I get it right?

If I'm following it correctly, we have the same number of points as Germany and Latvia. We have to win in regulation to force one of them to also win in regulation, buy a sufficient number of goals to make up the GF/GA difference. Or did I get that mixed up. All I can say is that without Mangiapane, we wouldn't even be thinking about making the playoffs there.

Like I was saying, we aren't trading a 1st for an older player near the end of his prime. Only a team desperate for a another pick around 12 would be willing to give the Flames the kind of player that they would go for. Buffalo wants to trade Cozens for a 1st? Sure, why not. Or a top LD young enough? With that, I think they would be really careful to make that trade. Other than that, I don't see it.

#1 - possible. #2 - hasn't really been the MO in the last number of years. Bennett was likely the last one we did rush, and that's debatable whether it was all on the GM. #3 - anyone's guess who will be BPA by the time we draft. I guess I don't share the same concern as you regarding the draft. In the remote chance we trade the 1st, it's not going to be for a Kadri.

Unlikely that this year's draft impacts the team in the next two years. And he would have that fight with Sutter if he chose to keep them after camp. There's little to none players that are NHL ready. At best, in year 2 a few might, but those are tops in the draft. If we win the lotto, we get the best pick anyway.

We had the Bennett thread for the FLA series, but perhpas you might like to post for other series: TOR-MTL - anyone actually surprised that two team we could actually beat are ging to game 7? CAR-TBL - don't really like either team, but would prefer CAR pound TBL into the ice. BOS-NYI - Really prefer not to listen to crap about Perfection Line or Marchand. COL-VGK - going to be tough sledding for COL, but they are the superior team. Post away if you like about players or teams or crap reffed games.

I think it's less that GM's do it to save their jobs as thrying to fit a window they believe they have. EDM, on one hand, has an open wndow for their team, but really it's starting to close. You can only keep some players motivated if you are getting better now. The top players consist of a handful of players, but nobody close to becomming a top player. Young D that will get Bear treatment and fail from the defensive side of the game. Over-valued forwards that will have a hard time taking the next step. Kenny wants to win now as does Katz. If a good player drops to us, we will pick him. I don't have that same concern. How we rate what is available is my real concern. Lotto comin up on Wednesday.

I agree with this. Many do not, but I think the only way to re-make the team is without Gio and Backlund. It may hurt short term, but we have to get over this idea that they are the true leaders on this team. The team has failed at every stage. Backlund probably has enough GM's that like his play over say Nuge. Nuge could be seen as a top 6 C, but man the rumours of him expecting over $7m in FA or even with the Oilers are insane. Holland won't pay a penny over $7m? Jeeze, I hope Nuge signs for that there. Backlund could bring back a decent #3C or a top 6 RW. Hear that CBJ and OTT looking for an experienced top 6 C. Perfect fit.

As exciting is is to see Bennett do good, it's a limited success. Maybe he's starting to get it. Maybe FLA is the right team to use his set of skills. Maybe he's a player that only plays well in the East. People love to dump on the Flames. We've had successful players here. Bennett not the first one to fail. Others managed to do well playing on the 3rd line. We have issues that need to be fixed. Lack of a true goalie duo, and we failed when our starter went down with concussion. Aging D, who is still playing the most minutes, while our prospects are not forgiven any growing issues. Aging 3rd line responsible for stopping the best. Team play perhaps needs to be adjusted to the NHL west. Too many teams can overload the D-zone and we scramble.