travel_dude

Holy crap dude. You obviously don't like him for some reason. Stagnated eh? Comparing him to Holt is just so dumb. 2700 minutes played versus 363. The kid hasn't even played 8 full games (120 minutes short of that). Tell me you are basing your opinion on something more that SA% and GAA.

Wolf should be the number 1 here by then.

No doubt. Hard to compate games just by the numbers. The point is that we are not getting better than average and even below average goaltending. You need the Flames play like they did in BOS or FLA. You also need the goalie to stop as many HD chances as they can. EDM has been getting better goltending from their #1 and both in general. Smith is Smith in some games but the team plays a little better in front of him. Koskinen gaces double the shots of the opponent a lot of nights. Thy bleed chances like a stick pig. Against BJ's, 46 shots. Aganst Vegas 48 shots. Against Dallas 43 shots. Games the Oilers had no business in. 5/6 points. That accounts for the Oilers being 5 up versus one down to us.

For me it comes down to stealing games. Talbot has stolen a few this calendar, while Rittich has not. Is that fair? Well, you want the goalie to steal a few for you. Flames have played well enough to win some of the games they have lost. Two that come to mind are Preds and VGK. Both were not strong showings by the goalie. Neither was played particularly well by the team, but in both cases the goalie let them down after coming back. I think there is something going on with Rittich. He's not the same. Almost like the stick flip was something that got into his head. Hasn;t won at home, but seemed fine on the road for the most part. Losses to Preds and Tampa and he hasn;t shown any better since.

Well, we seem to be entering that time of year where Rittich (and the team) is having problems getting wins. Last year it didn't matter, since Smith was supposed to be the starter and Rittich took a back seat after his injury. This year, Rittich was the man for Oct-Dec. Since January, Rittich does not have a Home win. Talbot has fared better. In 2020, Rittich is 6 wins and 6 losses, plus pulled 2 times in games. Talbot has fared better. 9 wins, 2 losses and 1 OT loss. Draw your own conclusions from this.

I'm happy to see Lucic playing with confidence. He was one of the better stories of tonight's game. Will be very usefull in the playoffs.

He went from top line with McD last game to 4th line with Khaira and Chaisson this game. I was surprised to see him showing some grit, but really he was just playing dirty. He's completely useless. They are going to buy him out next season. Too slow for the NHL.

IIRC, last year EDM faced teams that had played the night before more than any other team in the league. They would play EDM after playing us or sometimes after playing the Canucks. This year is no different. I think they have close to the most of that again. Next week they play Vegas the day after we play Vegas. 2 games later, they face the NYI the night after we play them. The East's version of a B2B is play in Tampa and then in Miami. Or Play NYI and NYR or NJ. Those games you could stay at the same hotel for all 3 games.

When I watch an Oilers game, I turn the sound off. Quinn gets so excited when an Oiler has the puck he can barely contain himself. Every post whistle scene is McDavid skating to the bench or back to the circle. They never focus the replays on the dirty hits, or the penalties he avoids. It's annoying to listen to. Louie is about the most one-sided color guy I have ever heard. The other team scores, it was a breakdown of the Oilers. Not a positive for hard work but a negative for poor work. TBH, I don;t even have the sound up for a BOA game in EDM. Doesn;t matter what the score is, the Flames are not the reason for a win or loss.

Are you saying they said they were basically the same, and the whining was when it happened? I watched the Dallas-Oilers game. There was no way the Oilers should have been in the game. I know Dallas doesn;t score much, but they completely dominated the Stars. Talk about an un-earned win.

He was basically replace even before he injured his foot. Wonder how he will like 3rd line with Khaira? He will probably get top PP time, but they did as good or better with him not on the roster. Realistically, he should be able to get 2 goals in 16 games. We hope.

Ignoring the 17/18 cam[aign for a minute, Rittich was injured last season. He was not as good after. Even so, his last 10 games he went 6-4 while Smith went 5-5. Talbot's last 5 starts: 3-2 with 2 shutouts. 3 games with 4 GA and 2 with zero. Rittich's last 5 starts: 2 wins, 1 loss, pulled once and 1 OTL. A quick view would suggest that Talbot is playing better. But his shutouts came against ANA and FLA, while his third win came against ANA.

I wil chirp in here. Things have changed since I started watching hockey (Gump, Dryden, etc). Went from having pads that looked like leather chaps to Brodeur and Roy, who played with much better pads. They were still making players look huge. Look at Ryan Miller when he played in BUFF and VAN. He looked massive, but he is a rake. Bishop and RInne and Smith excelled when their pads were huge, and only Bishop has maintained his numbers. Then again, he is a giant. As far as drafting and development, we have mostly failed on the former. Gillies was a college standout, and maybe things would have been different if he didn't miss an entire season. The rest before him were meh. Ortio, Irving, etc., etc. Once removed from the Flames, they didn;t exactly do anything great. Since Gillies: MacDonald - miss Parsons - too early to call; development hampered by injuries and personal issues; rounding back into form. Wolf - seems like a hit; killing the WHL, again. Leads the league in just about everything if not everything. He is small, though. In recent years the Flames have put winning in the AHL ahead of development. Part of the problem is carrying a goalie that should have been NHL ready by now and isn't. So, I don;t know we should be reaching for a goalie unless he looks to be a can't miss. Hard to judge a goalie that has looked good in 31 MHL, 18 VHL and 1 KHL games. Numbrs not so great in WJC. By comparison, Zagidulin had superior number in the KHL. Hard to compare.

They gave that loser a number? Looks like some weird fetish costume.

They can only keep him on IR is the doc says it's okay. They could scratch him once healthy. But the point is the dollars against the cap. I know this time of year, a big salary means less (% of AAV), but it's still a fair bit to come back in. Neal and Klefbom are almost $10m. Russel is 4m, but he's probably done for the season. Will come back for the playoffs. I can;t figure out the dolars myself. It changes every game.

With all the pieces the Oilers took, I have no way to figure out how they get Neal or Klefbom or Russell back in.

Unless Neal scores a PP goal, he is a drain on his line. Play him with McD, and that line doesn't score 5v5. Same with playing him on Draisaitl's line. They are winning because Yamamoto doesn;t negatively affect Draisaitl. As soon as Neal is healthy, the Oilers will start losing more than they win.

Short answer is the best goalie in the NHL isn;t going to win the cup. So, you can pay that price to get one and not have a team to play in front of him. Or you get licky and play against a team that manages to beat you anyway.

Too funny. He would definately remold the D. Almost looking forward to the expressions from him....

Almost double the starts for Rittich. WHich would be fine if the results were there recently to justify it. Talbot benefitted by taking time to work on his game. Rittich had some issues and gets thrust back in to fix them. Regardless of who they go with in the playoffs, they need to stabilize the nets right now. The talk was to go with the hot goalie, but that evaporated after a good start.

I am actually thinking we make the playoffs. My trepidation is that we are playing teams that don't prove anything. Beating ANA twice doesn;t prove anything. Losing today doesn't either. The coach isn;t doing the team any favors. The team is playing up and down. The PP is bringing the team down; power kill. What have we learned from Hanifin playing the PP this season - he isn't helping. Neither unit has looked good with him on it. He doesn't have the thought process to QB it. It's up to the team to decide if they are a playoff team. But the coach has to support that by making smart choices. What has work and what has not.

I don't think todays game will tell us anything. A win doesn't prove anything. Anaheim played yesterday. They have had trouble scoring all year. A loss against Miller would not surprise me, regardless of how many shots we get on him.

I agree with the first two. I don;t agree that #3 is the right thing for this team. It's throwing the season while we are still in theory pushing for the playoffs. Talbot has actually shown us we have an option for next year.

Well it seems that the goalie coach has not in fact figured it out. Rittich is struggling a bit behind a struggling team. Talbot has been fine. Yet there is a "need" to get the guy going so he gets more starts. Sometimes you just need to go with the hot hand and have the other guy battle to get it back.

What are we supposed to be? I see no structure. Hire a coach with a philosophy and build the team that way. You don't need to rebuild until you know if you have the right pieces. We have players assembled from other teams and were built here under different coaches. And there is no approach that I can see to playing the game. Strong possession? Doesn;t work if you can't make a pass. Strong D-zone? I'm not seeing it. Rush? Nope? Dump and chase? Okay, that's our new game, which works for about 10% of the teams.