travel_dude

You can look at it a different way. If the Flames get to the playoffs, it means they are playing on fire. You would be hard pressed to find a tougher team to play.

We seem to be slipping into a trade discussion here, but whatever. Hall makes sense from a competing sense going forward. It's not a really wise target for TDL. The only thing is get to try him out for 10 games or so instead of targeting him only as a UFA. We see what he bring to the team. And evaluate what we have in the so called core. Gaudreau lights it up playing with Hall, we aim to keep both and cut costs elsewhere. Don't re-sign him until after the entry draft, as he might not want to sign in Seattle as a UFA. He's probably tired of playing for last place teams. Hall lights it up elsewhere on the team and Gaudreau/Monahan still just putting up okay number, we decide whether they are trades or not. We trade one or both, then we sign and protect Hall. Something less than 5 years if possible. Hall gets a bit of a bad wrap. Played on non-playoff team more than not. EDM, NJ, ARI, BUFF. None really proficient at scoring when he was there. The only real question (besides cost to acquire and cost to sign) is fit. Does he become the 2nd line LW and we move Gaudreau to off wing? Is that a better look for us? Is moving him to top line with Lindholm the best look? Who plays there? My issue is that during the season, you don't have a lot of time to find the best fit. You try something during practice and see if it benefits the 200 foot game. Try it out in a game or 10. Has to make sense.

Can you be both? A defensive team that explodes in transition? We were lethal back then. But I do see the lack of going to the net as a big problem this season. I think Sutter has said the same in maybe different words. Not going to the tough areas. Great at times on the boards, but teams will give that up to guard the house. You need to attack both. Tkachuk should live in the blue paint and let whomever fight to get the shots on net. He can be a non-factor on the boards, so I would put him where he earns his money. Gaudreau isn't able to setup anyone in the slot. And that transition is gone, somewhat due to his other linemates. I don't think we expect him to be a Lucic on the boards. For me, the games are won and lost on the special teams. Need to do something with the style we play on PP. The PP is pathetic - 19th. I'm actually surprised that it's at 20% right now. The PK isn't as bad - 13th, though a bad game kills us.

Zary has to play in the WHL due to being only on loan to the Heat and not on CGY's roster. He will be available to AHL and NHL when the Dub is done for the year.

Huh? Swapping as in a trade of the two players mentioned?

I don't follow. You said the TDL was the looming deadline for this team to figure it out. And I pointed out that the TDL this year is difficult for any team to move players. We have Dube and Valimaki that fit the bidding war price. I would argue they are two you don't think about trading. The rest are off-season changes.

I disagree on when the best value is there. For an again D-man with retained salary, maybe. Or a pending UFA contract. As an example, ARI would be luck to get a 1st for Garland at TDL. He's not even in the same ballpark as Gaudreau. This is probably the worst year to sell of players at TDL. Teams with available cap are few and far between. Those that have it are not likely contenders. And that doesn't even take into account the expansion draft implications. In the summer you can go above cap by 10%, so the big deals and wide open market is there. And teams will lose a good (or marginal) player. Philly might be motivated to make a deal for Gaudreau right now. But it would have to be dollar in dollar out. Evaluation started at the start of the season on players. Ward kind of messed it up by being such a poor coach.

No point in arguing goalies with JJ. He's basically saying Wolf is going to be hard pressed to make the NHL because he's only 6' tall. Which is funny because Saros is 5'11". Who know, maybe his WJC record in 3 games played is not good enough: 1 win in 2020 - 3.0 GA 1 win and 1 relief in 2021 - 0.0 GA

I would say the problem run deep and BT has made bad decisions about who he brought in. Glad Ward is gone from the standpoint that I found him to be a bad coach. Sutter is fixing some of the problems that the team has. But he won't be able to change the players in some cases. The team needs an overhaul, but I don't know where you begin. We have character guys, but they seem lost in a group that won't do what it takes. Or give up too easily when things go south. I'm starting to wonder who the real leaders are. Gio - is he trying things his body used to be able to do and can't? Tkachuk - battle seems to be there some games, but looks like he bails on some shifts. Backlund - this may not be correct, but I see him bail too often. Monahan - skating is always an issue, but he's invisible some games. Gaudreau - I don't know. Won't go to the dirty areas, but looks invested in games. Dube, Mangiapane, Ryan - rarely take a shift off, go to every area of the ice. Lucic - I don't really know. He looks so frustrated. Tanev and Hanifin - no real complaints. Bennett - no doubt he hates his role most games or so it appears. The others not so sure. What is the problem with this group.

A breakaway, a 2 on 1 with Monahan and another with Bennett. Of those, one a goal and the others missed opportunities. That exactly all they produces that even were close to high danger. I may have slept through others, but they sure didn't stick out. If he has no plans to change that duo, I would hope they make a change to help them. Bennett is as close to a top 6 player they have had for longer than one game. I don't think he fits them, but we have other options. The Lindholm line produced 1 HD to 2 against with them on the ice. Seriously? The top line struggling at generating chances against a porous D. The 2nd line getting one actual scoring chance. Nobody in front of the net and no points shots available for a tip or 2nd chance. Watched a sequence (might have been extra man) where there was Gaudreau on the half boards down low, a player below the goal line and the other F was literally 20 feet from the net on the other side. Almost zero chance of that player getting the puck. I don't car at this point whether you move Mangiapane to top line or Monahan line, just do something. The lines look stale.. Dube may fit best with Gaudreau. A 2 on 1 might actually generate a shot.

Gio will be worth less than Jbow trade brought us. Bennett a RFA with low value. The others are your home run. But you need them to play with a game-breaking player to realize their higher value.

JH isn't a great 2-way player. Hall has shown flashes of it in NJ. Wrong fit in a tire fire, though. I'm not proposing we go after Hall, but there are worse ones to target. RW on JH's line hasn't found anyne with speed. Bennett only shows it backchecking, when he committs to it. Leivo wasn't bad, but he's still not quite right. You need someone that can finish plays. Transition to offense quickly.

To be fair, Sutter has changed little from when they played poorly under Ward. Little tweaks to improve results. Try to wn 2-1 1-0 games is fine if your defensive systems are performing well. The PK is doing well. The PP not so much. It's not blaming coaches as much as picking the wrong ones. Poor choices. Hartley went sour. Gully never should have been. BP may have been a good results guy, but hardly a smart choice in hindsight. Ward in over his head, so that was just so wrong. I get the idea that the team sucks. Unless you build a team after a coach, you need the coach to find the way to use what he has.

He would have been a great tanking coach if we had kept him. We would assuredly be at the bottom of the North by end of season. Many reasons why this team failed, but he was in the top 3.

Sorry, but you get 2.5 years more of BT. Lots of trades and FA signings to go.

I don't generally gove up on this team while they are still in the fight. What is hard is watching the up and down performances. A good game against the Oilers, then a bad one against OTT. Two good games against MTL and a 3rd against EDM, followed by a bad one to EDM. A gutted out win against TOR followed by a pathetic pair against TOR and OTT. I almost can predict the outcome of the next 5 games. Big win against OTT. Big win against WPG. Pathetic effort next night. Gutted out, but lose to WPG next week, Win against VAN.

I could see a line of Gaudreau and Hall, just not Monahan. I don't know if the problem with the pair is lacking that 3rd dynamic player or not. Moving Lindholm wasn't a bad idea, but it killed the offence from Gaudreau and Monahan. BT is going to have to makes trades now to avoid failling too much farter. Or he's going to have to sell off any decent player on an expiring deal. Maybe even one not expiring.

Nothing seems to be working. We get good shifts from the top line and boom a 2 on 1. Inn the net.

My reference was in the grand scheme of things, tweaking only one D pairding (3rd) does little to change things. I would prefer Gio play with Valimaki, but that's not happening. In a last 5 games played comparison, Nesterov has 2 points and is a combined -2, while Kylington had 1 point and is even. That's on the surface of course. I'm not digging into special teams play.

While it's a minor change to bring in Nesterov over Kylington, the short leash only extends to Kylington. Minus 1 for 1 game, plus 1 for another and even for the remaining 4 games. Flames are 4-1-1 with him in the lineup. In his last game (7-3 loss), he was on for a GA and a GF. While I think the bigger issues with the lineup are on the forward side, Nesterov has done little lately for me to think he is a better choice.

Wolf has 22 shutouts in 129 games, while Hart had 26 in 190 games. As noted, he needs 4 to tie and 5 to break the record, with around 22 games remaining in his team's schedule.

Wolf with 2 shutouts in his first two WHL games this season. He is now 4 shutouts away from tying the record of 26 for the AHL.

Gaudreau and Monahan have looked good together when played with Lindholm. Was that two games this season? The rest of the games are a jumble of wngers who either were snakebit for the few games (Leivo), a bad fit (Ritchie), Simon, Bennett and maybe one game with Mangiapane. I don't disagree that it may be time to split up Gaudreau and Monahan, but you still have to deal with the fact Ritchie is a mistake. I don't dispute Gaudreau is a more complete player as much as the fact that the current line isn't working.

I think your math is off. Or maybe mine is, but Gaudreau is currently on pace for 61.5 over 82 and 20 goals for 82. That would tie him with the season he re-signed late. I don't know about you, but expecting him to drive the play starting 86% of the time (last night) in the D-zone sounds wrong. When your most dynamic player has to hope that his line mates can catch up and retrieve a dump in.... Because that's what they are limiting his line to. Remember last season when he would get 2 breakaways per game, but rarely converted? This year he is a lot more unpredictable when he gets one, but almost zero chances as of late.

Yeah, I don't know what the best solution is for that. Difficult to make a trade in the division. COVID makes it difficult to trade outside. I don't really like the Monahan line right now. Even when they gaine the zone, it ends up a low danger chance of loss of possession. Ritchie is fine for a couple of game, much like Robinson was for one or two. It's not an answer. Two possible lines that Gaudreau would fit on: Gaudreau-Backlund-Mangiapane This becomes an offensive 5v5 line which mostly defensive smarts. Backlund is one of the better puck carriers and Mangiapane is deadly when he gets open. You lose out on the shutdown capability of Backlund, but You adjust the other lines to balance it out. Gaudreau-Lindholm-Dube This is about getting the best scoring out of a line. They are a faster line that has some snipers on it.