travel_dude

I would argue that Tkachuk has been the biggest letdown over the last 5 games minimum. Mangiapane, Gaudreau, Marckstrom, Backlund have been the ones to step up. The first 3 the entire season. Backlund rounding back into form. Give me a top 6 of Gaudreau-Backlund-Mangiapane and Gaudreau-Backlund-Mangiapane over the last 5 games and we have 10 points in the standings.

That is why it makes no sense to keep Ward for the season. BT does nothing and Ward doesn't bring the playoffs, BT is gone. BT does nothing and Ward gets to the playoffs and loses in round 1, BT is gone. BT fires the coach and brings in a NHL coach and they fail to make the playoffs or lose in round 1, BT is likely gone. BT fires the coach and brings in a NHL coach and lose in round 2 or later, BT is secure for the time being. I get the optics of it, but do you bet your job on a guy that hasn't delivered anything and looks like he's throwing things at a wall to see what sticks. 20th in the league in standings and we have played more games than 5 teams below us.

What changed so drastically with this team that we went from a team able to compete to a team that looks lost? The reasons for losing so badly seem to be so simple to everyone including the coach. Yet, we see nothing different in the prep for the game. Either the message is lost during the first shift that goes wrong, and the team crumbles.... Or the message is completely wrong. Or the lines are so completely messed up, there is no chance they will work. The first reason falls to the players, but the coach has a hand in managing the rest of the game. Call a timeout, swap the goalie or use the TV timeout to inforce the message. SIt the players involved in the play and talk to them as a group. Saying this, it has to be done at the right time. Waiting until you are lit up is too late. The second reason is all on coaching. Get pucks in deep? Win the individual battles? Skate hard? Dump and chase? I don't know what the message is, but it may not be the right one for this group. Third reason has a ring of truth to it. All we heard about was moving Lindholm to C and having depth there. That's great and all, but at what cost? Top line held off the score sheet too often. 2nd line has a new RW every game. Backlund supposed to be a top shutdown C with Lucic as a winger. 4th line a black hole without Ryan. The GM has a part to play in the results. He hired the coach seeing the playoff games. He signed certain players for depth. He talked about using Lindhiolm at C. Gave the coach tools he thought would help. The coach has to evaluate those pieces and find the way to make them work. I fail to see a coach that can do that. 5 game eastern swing coming up. 3 against Ottawa and 2 against the Leafs. Followed by 2 more against Ottawa and 1 at EDM. Anything less than 3 wins on the 5 game roadie is a complete failure. Even 3 wins proves nothing. Need to be winning 4/5 for the next few weeks just to crawl back up the standings. March 8th is the decision point for BT. Either we are back on message and things are normal (6 wins minimum out of 8 ) or we are barely winning the games we should win. If you are wanting to compete for the playoffs, you have to pull the trigger then.

Let me start with the first penalty he took. Maybe a bad call, but it charted the course of the game. Score 1-0. On for 2 even strength goals against and 1 PP goal against in 14 minutes. Mind you, at that point we were down 3-1. Applaud him for showing some grit and fighting Khaira, but that was standing up for the early hit. Bennett was not the worst, but he was nowhere near the best.

Some interesting roster moves oday, but not sure if it means anything other than money for the players. #Flames moves today: -Gawdin to main from AHL -Kylington to main from taxi -Robinson to main from taxi -Zagidulin to taxi from AHL -Stone to taxi from AHL -Froese to taxi from main -Ritchie to taxi from main -Mackey to AHL from main -Domingue to AHL from taxi

The smart thing to do is the last thing we will do. Ward does not seem to have the ability to a) jusge NHL talent properly, b) put together lines that will stick, c) manage a game from start to finish, d) get the most out of players, e) manage other managers. The PK is strong a lot of nights, but there are little things that big me. Passes disrupted, but the simple play to dump the puck seems to be a struggle. A turnover from the other team turns back into another stretch of D-zone time. They are aggressive at the entry, but don't follow it up. The PP is good at passing but manages few chances down low. Lots of passes around the back if the net to the point. Lots of long passes across from one board to the winger, but the shot rarely comes. Lots of passes to D, but almost never any shots into screens. The D-zone exits are painful to watch. Very little creativity. The other team can ignore the puck carrier and wait for them to turn around and pass to Gaudreau. I don't know that the A/coaches are really NHL worthy. I can't say too much about the goalie coach, unless he's the reason why Rittich has only started 3 games. I doubt it. Seems to me, overall, we are getting what we paid for.

Hockey ops probably was seen to be like a teen left alone for the first time - issues with the Feaster rebuild and Burke truculence years. Too many bad choices that shaped the future years. The coaching decisions are the most perplexing. We take on Neal, no questions asked. Buy out Brouwer and Bouma and Stone etc., no questions asked. Trade Neal for Lucic, no questions asked. But we hire coaches with no track record as a successful head coach. Spend to the cap, then buy a used school bus for transport and play an old VCR tape of the Mighty Ducks for inspiration. I get the have to be good thing. It's a business that depended on fans to pay the bills. Close to losing the team once I guess. A culture of not being accountable. I wonder about that. Are the players accountable - they are not traded if they have a bad year, with a few exceptions. Are the coaches accountable - last crew is still here with the exception of a coach that quit. Do we take loses too easily - it appears that is fine as ling as we have teaching moments or we say the right things after a loss.

I see it a bit different. The players look lost. Like the systems they are being drilled with have no success in the division. Or the coach can't figure out what things are working and what aren't. Has using Lindholm as the top C been a success? Is Dube ready for top line duty? Backlund with Lucic is a thing? Ward has lost the team at this point. His decisions are usually wrong. He's sending messages instead of adapting. The win streak seems so long ago, and the first thing done after 3 wins is change the lineup. I'm all for holding the players accountable, but for what? Not being able to play dump and chase when that's not our strength? Play a passive defense when the PK is known for being in your face? Exit the zone like you only have one choice?

Well, I think that needs to take place in provate. Not with schills like Francis there to ask the stupid questions about anything but hockey.

I'm just going to post this here, since I've been harping elsewhere about it. The lines are broken. Don't make sense anymore. Got a couple of good games, but how much was that the novelty. We are playing each team 9 or 10 times. Unless you have a dominant lineup, teams will adjust to you after one or two games. Dallas did it in the playoffs. We were 2 minutes away from a commandng lead, but some coaching mistakes lead to a tying goal. After that, Dallas was able to adjust and we did nothing new. Admit it was a failed experiment. Our top 9 from the playoffs was exactly how we should have started the season. Instead we move Bennett to RW or 4th line, put Mangiapane on the 4rd line and bump up Dube. I would rather have 3 good lines and not roll 4. I get the people saying it's lack of heart. Maybe, or just maybe it's frustration with some people. I would do the following, it's not rocket surgery: Johnny-Mony-Lindy Mangiapane-Backlund-Tkachuk Lucic-Bennett-Dube ??-Gawdin-?? 4th line should be guys that look good, not just role players. Ritchie was better than SImon. Leivo better than Nordstrom. Would think we need to get a look at either Phillips or Ruzicka. FFS, it's one game. No worse than what we have seen from some that get 3-15 games. I like Simon, but I don't think he meshes well with Gaudreau and Monahan. He might be someone you use with a strong center. No reason whatsoever to play Rinaldo. Buddy and Froese are emergency guys only.

He sees what you or I see, but I don't know he is aware of the holes. He listens to our pro scouting, for what players out there offer things we could use. I think he looked at the way the core wasn't getting it done. People read into it trade Monahan and Gaudreau. Maybe it's Backlund and Tkachuk and Gio. What BT did address was goalie and big D. And depth. No room for a top 6 RW unless he trads for one. That means Bennett or Hanifin to load up the top 6. I think he also felt we didn;t have depth at C, so he converted one and created a hole. Random thoughts

Okay, so can we get back to what the identity of this team is? Right now, it seems like a bunch of individuals. Don't know if the coach is causing this or not. Whether the team was like this last year and this is a continuation or it has devolved into this. I'm not going to point fingers at Gio on this, only because I don't know what he does for the team. So, I can't complain about. Do I hear his comments? Sure, but they all sound the same after a game. The team was disfunctional to start last season. Something happened as a result of the loss to the AVS. It seemed that BP changed the direction and the team has trouble adapting for some reason. Then he was let go and the new coach had to take over what was left. Get them back to just playing hockey. Somewhere between December and October, the team "identity" was changed. Was that the result of coaching and no buy in? Hurt feelings and lack of chemistry to start? To date we've played a couple of good games. That's about it. And a lot of the things we did well have not carried over to other games. Call it inconsistent or call it meddling with something that actually worked.

Yeah, and I'm starting to question the logic of the present top 9 construction. We lost in the playoffs because we didn't manage the game (coach) to the team's strengths. You have 3 home games and you aren't taking advantage where the weaknesses were. All we have now is a former shutdown line that isn't producing enough 5v5 and looks lost at times. Dube is fine, but a little much to expect him to face top defenders every night. They are being played against like a top line. The 2nd line is missing a good RW. The 3rd line is Backlund and whatever is left besides Lucic. The 4th line is never consistent lines. We picked up role players but assigned them minutes according to rolling 4 lines, not specific assignments. Nordstrom is a PK person and that's about it. Leivo is being inserted/removed on a whim. Simon should be a depth guy not defacto top 6. What is Bennett? Use him whenever there is a vacancy? My advice? Go back to what worked last year in January/Feb. Gator Aid line - give them a lot of O-zone starts. 3M line - it worked. 3rd line from playoffs - this worked the one time we tried it, why change from this? 4th line - whatever. Use it to integrate a new C into the lineup or convert Leivo to C. Only give them minutes as they earn it. Make sure they are not facing L1 from other teams. Nothing magical here. We are not a 4 line team right now. I don't care what BT says about Lindholm, he's a shooter first. Any wonder why Monahan went dry?

All the best to you. Appreciate the comments from you.

I guess the mantra from the coach is you start something after the whistle, you finish it yourself. Perhaps there is some blowback from Gio, but this is dumb. We are taking way more penalties than every other team we face, yet we are only getting called for ticky tack stuff. Tkachuk stands up for his team. Gio puts on a good show. You would never know he's captain out there. I have no answers. Ward has created a rift in the room perhaps. From what I am seeing as his decisions after games like last night or the previous loss, I really can't figure him out. There is no identity because he has three ideas he wants us to be. Maybe we aren't built for Ward hockey. Who is. His model was the Bruins? Not close to that team.

Oh, I thought the effort was pretty bad after we got a goal. Looked like we thought ther was 10 seconds left and we could coast. Late goals you score should not result in two coming back. The again, we have no real shutdown line now. And we are using our best RW at C.

I fond it hard to take the continued overthinking lineup choices. I don't get what he's trying to build. Use every player at some point from the taxi aquad? Experiment with guys on 2nd line 2-3 times per game? Find chemistry and fotget about it. Trying to fit a nice to have RHS C onto a lone that excelled as a 2 way line? Play Backlund with a guy like Lucic, who he's had limited success with? Have 2 pairs that were looking okay mostly, just needed some work on communication. Perhaps reduce some minutes for the oldest player. Move Bennett to 3 or 4 different spots, regardless of how he looks in any spot. Overplay Marksytom and fail to use Rittich early enough to keep him in the game That's a lot of pre-game mistakes by Ward. In game has been much worse. Has no concept of what it takes. No idea how to adjust. Time to move on. It's hasn't worked for months now.

He was buried here on the 4th line but was a 8-12% shooting % guy. He dipped under Gully (blech).

For me, the one player I regret losing was Baby Jagr. Frolik was misused by BP, but part of that was the eventual proper use of Mangiapane. He regularly outscored Bennett. Could kill penalties. Not sure how he would fit today's Flames. Replace Bennett on Lucic-Backlund line? Be a replacement for Nordstrom and actually be able to score a goal?

I have to ask this because I can't figure out what happened to Matt Tkachuk. Players only meeting held January 29th. Quiet in last 2 games. Hasn;t looked himself since maybe the EDM game? I haven;t found any post game comments from him since before the game. Has Gio or others told him to back off?

That kind of went out the window with Ryan's injury. He's using 23 players on the roster. Backlund adds LTIR space if they place him there. I don't claim to be a cap expert, but the extra cap for Galc doesn't really impact us.

The risk is minimal. Worse case is Buddy goes to the AHL for now. Could Galchenyuk be effective with Bennett and Lucic? Not sure. Then again, the bottom 6 with Backlund healthy is Backlund with whomever. You may be right about fitting with Gaudreau. Offensive player that can shoot. Either way, I think it makes sense. Having two AHL players on the roster doesn't bode well. Especially where both of them have failed to be NHL players for any duration.

Quarantine - he's a non-roster player at worst for 14 days. Defensive hole - hard to say when coming from a team like Ottawa. I hope I am wrong but I don't see BT making the claim. He's not a career AHL guy, so he doesn't belong in the lineup. He's not ready for the scrap heap yet, so too soon to bring him in. Claiming him admits something is wrong with the other signings like Stone, Ritchie, Norstrom and Simon. Even though only one of them currently is on the roster.

That's where I am having the most doubts about this team. Is it coaching which suggests the tactics most used are the ones we practice. Is it execution, where we have the tactics but fall into the trap of playing a style dictated by the other team. It's had to tell from Ward's comments. He suggests we weren't skating. Maybe, but I saw a lot of bigger issues than just that.

I haven't seen enough from Nordstrom to justify him playing every game. I wonder what Ritchie is at this point. Doubt this happens, but I hope they claim Galchenyuk. Then we could use him in the top 9. Think Jtec suggested this in the waiver thread, but I will add to it: Tkachuk-Lindholm-Mangiapane Gaudreau-Monahan-Galchenyuk Lucic-Bennett-Dube Nordstrom-Gawdin-Leivo I don't think the top 6 is any worse. Galchenyuk does some things that Bennett does. Mangiapane brings back something Tkachuk has been missing. Bennett's line is reunited. 4th line could be fine as is or insert Ritchie or Simon. As it stand, Norstrom does nothing to improve offense. Leivo is a bit wasted, but I can't see them using him over Galc.