travel_dude
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Everything posted by travel_dude
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If it's confidence, then he needs to work that out. What I find strange is that his issues started last year and have continued this year. Leading up to the injury, post injury, and this season struggles. At times he's dialed in and is tracking the puck. Maybe he was just lucky in those games where he was able to shut the door. Possibly true, since we were limiting high danger chances. The confidence thing for the Philly game may be true, since he went about it (or BP put it that way) strangely having the goalie coach tell the head coach at the start of the period. Don;t want to tell the coach you are losing it? Fine. Treat it as an injury where the GM needs to call up a backup? That has cap implications. Not dire ones, just risky. We had to go with a bare minimum players with two suspended and Backlund injured. Anyway, my gripe about starting goalies is that you should be going with the guy you have confidence in. You can't always give the guy a chance to play his way out of a funk. Giving Smith an extra game off before the holidays wouldn;t have been the end of the world. Playing him and exposing the confidence issues again wasn't going to help. So, now we have that same decision coming up. WPG, VAN, SJS, DET/BOS, Philly. Smith struggled against VAN and Philly. BSD did well against WPG. BOS and SJS were relatively low scoring games.
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Does he? He'll play one game then have 4 days off. I only ask this because it's unclear if Smith is less than 100% or just losing confidence. The former should mean you give him the extra time off. The latter should mean he starts. One game against a team we whalloped. Next game against the Jets, then against the Nucks, then the Sharks. In either case (<100% or confidence issues) it makes sense to alternate the games between the two. If that's the plan. All I can say is that if we see the crappy goals against STL, the leash better be short.
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Another big game, another start for BSD. I agree with the choice, based on recent performance. Not sure if this is due to Smith being less than 100% or not, but if so, it also gives him extra time to recoup.
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Well, there was no other moves required to make it happen. Gillies comes up. Gillies goes back down. Only impact was cap and it wasn't longer than one game. That was my initial take after he didn't show up on the bench. If true, that put the game on Rittich without any backup for injury. I can't see him doing that, unless he was only coming back if they gave the hook to Rittich. Anyway, we will find out Thursday whether he's good to go. I haven't seen the practice notes to see if he was on the ice or not. It's not a full practice anyway.
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Considering their recent run was there best chance to gain ground on the rest of the West, it hasn't worked. Ducks, Flames, Jets almost identical records. Sharks lost a couple more, but still in there.
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The decision to start Rittich against Dallas is likely a sign that Smith isn't 100%. Rittich wasn't bad against the Stars last time, but Smith would have made sense from a who-plays-who perspective. Take it one game at a time, I know. You always have to look at who you play next. Two home games - Tampa followed by STL. I suspect, though have no proof, they want to give Mike Smith until after Christmas to heal. 3 games with a full day between each game. Rittich was good against STL. STL will probably be looking to burn us for the last blowout. Probably gives us the best chance to beat TBL. If we want to have Smith be able to start 25 games or more over the rest of the season, you have to give him more time off now. Let him practice to stay loose. Come back after Christmas and see how he is in practice. He gets either the Vancouver or Winnipeg game. The extra few days off isn't going to matter; he's been off a week already.
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It normally backfires. The Wideman effect wasn't fixed (still isn't). Burrows was labeled as a whiner, and it stuck. The more McDavid says (embarrasing the refs after a shootout, complaining, sarcastic stuff on ice), the more he will get that label. Sorry bud, but you aren't getting a call on a "breakaway" just because someone is skating with you. The league is trying to get a balance between letting them play and dangerous hits (hacks to hand, charging).
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Calgary Flames Drafting and Development: Your Analysis
travel_dude replied to rickross's topic in Flames Talk
He's playing in Europe in the SM-liiga, which is a top pro league in Finland. Would he trade that in for $70k US per season in North America? Don't know. I think he wants to play here, but would need to have some real chance at making the NHL. -
Hitch brings a boring style of hockey that can win games, assuming you have enough high-quality D to implement his systems effectively. I've watched some games where they seem to play both sides of the puck, but others where they abandan defense in favor of getting shots away. Other than McDavid, they are a team devoid of great talent. Draisaitl is really good when he wants to be, but seems half-hearted at times. Nuge is probably their only 200 foot player, but he is better at offense. They have very little depth on the back end. When Benning subs in the top 4, you are in big trouble. Since they are unwilling to trade away a 1st or a good prospect (what, other than Bouchard), they won;t be making any trades to improve the team's depth on D. You look at Buffalo, who tanked a few years and is finally reaping the rewards. Not a complete team, but closer to one. They won't be winning anytime soon, but neither will EDM. .
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Calgary Flames Drafting and Development: Your Analysis
travel_dude replied to rickross's topic in Flames Talk
Ruzicka is probably the best case of jumping to the AHL next season. Will be old enough. Really needs a good coach to work the bugs out of him. He seems to lack motivation. Zav will only be turning pro if it's on the Flames next season. He's been looking like he's ready, maybe just a little small. He's 175 pounds, so he could be the goal scoring version of Gaudreau with a little more beef and a harder shot. One guy we never seem to talk about is Filip Sveningsson. Don't know if he makes it to NA next season, but would be a dark horse. -
I think you are playing with fire by putting Smith in, when he seems to be battling something. 5 wins in his first 13 games. 6 wins out of last 7. 2 games where we blew out the other team. 1 game where he took over and we blew out the other team. I'm not even sure anymore if he had a confidence issue or he's hiding the same injury that he had last season. Takes a period off followed by one game, and somehow he's 100% ready to play this weekend? Getting Smith ready for the rest of the season means managing his starts better. If he plays 50 games, he'll be ready for the scrap heap. He won;t be healthy for the playoff and we'll ride him like he is to a 1st round exit. Rittich may not be able to carry us much better, but I have more confidence in him right now. He doesn't ever look shakey. He may give up a goal, but looks dialed in on the next shift.
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And the media jumped all over him, calling it a collection of fiction. The strange thing is that blame was always on one guy for not making the playoffs. Petry because he wasn't the man. Schultz because he was the man, but for some reason wasn;t. Hall was a locker room cancer. But he was traded for cap reasons. But he wasn't. Eberle for not showing up in the playoffs. Traded for cap reasons. But then that wasn;t the reason. Strome for not being Eberle. Then he wasn;t supposed to. I get the frustration and we see it here too. In EDM, all they care about is McDavid winning the scoring title or MVP. Anyone that can play with him is a brilliant signing for Chia. Then they go on that a plug could play with him. Russell is loved until he's hated. Lucic is not pulling his weight, yet they love when he hits someone blindside. Kassian is a douchebag, and a terrible player, yet he's a hero for trying to fight Tkachuk. The Hitch bump is fortunate timing. Start an unknown goalie against tired or lesser teams and get some wins. The team gets some confidence and plays some more games against tired or beat up teams. Back in the playoff picture. This season they had two winning streaks and one losing streak. Luck and McDavid involved in 60% of your goals only lasts so long.
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This is not about Smith and his recent run. It's about consistency. Smith gets some wins against team struggling. Rittich gets a few no-show games, but plays the same way every game. Today was no different. Every save was played the way you want the goalie to react. Player cuts in front of the net alone, goalie tracks him and gets the leg out with the blocker. Screened shot, cover as much of the bottom of the net as you can. Don't over committ. We need both goalies playing at the top of their game. Don;t need a 75% Smith out there, keeping his injury to himself. Whenever it happened, it should not be a Mike Smith decision alone.
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The Official Calgary Flames "New Arena" thread
travel_dude replied to DirtyDeeds's topic in Flames Talk
My bad, thought it was the city. Regardless, the last thing I want is a building that is built outside in. The Saddledome was a gimmick, which is fine, but you don't need it to become an iconic place to play. Make the experience better. Make the footprint condusive to build supporting things. -
I just mean he stays out of it. He may give advice, but he won't be a Nylander dad.
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January was great, until the break. Then the team and Mikey flipped a switch to OFF.
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I doubt Keith gets involved in the deal. That's what made it bad for the Nylander negotiation. The agents are more than capable. Too often family gets involved and the player suffers as a result.
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The Official Calgary Flames "New Arena" thread
travel_dude replied to DirtyDeeds's topic in Flames Talk
Tender process is open and fair. We can't just say, ooops you are not from Alberta. In fact, you can't even count out firms from BC and Sask in favor of AB firms. I like the way DET designed their building. It doesn't have to look like an oil stain to be iconic. Build the best design for the fans and users, then worry about the outside look. -
I don't necessarily say a goal is the outcome right away. So, Smith saves them a few steps by shooting it out of the zone or just to the waiting forward on the other team. A couple of strides. The puck instead comes back immediately, and we have possibly that shift played in the D-zone until a whistle or it's iced or cleared. What could have been transition is defending. Or with a tred group on an icing. All I hear from analysts is how great his puck handling is. One side of the story. Another side of the story is how bad he is on low danger shots. Low danger. In other words, the place he is paying the puck to when he goes up the boards. Just kidding. Smith has played well enough in games lately to quiet some of the criticisms. I would not say he is back to form.
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BTW, Tkachuk had 49 in 68 games. In a season where Backlund has not played well, Tkachuk is already 12 points away from last season's total. That's ahead of Tavares' pace. 2 points back of Draisaitl, who just happens to play most nights with McD. While I agree that Willie is overpaid, it's really just this season that he gets that crazy salary. Next tear is 9 andd the rest are 6. They needed to do that to make up for lost games. Anyway, it comes down to % of cap these days. He's about the 3rd most important player long term here.
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I think you may be fooling yourself for what Tkachuk would sign for. Nylander's deal was $7.5m x 6. Tkachuk is as important (actually more so) to a team. The deal for Johnny and Monny and things of the past. Nobody like that signs for those dollars now. If we managed to sign him for 8 years, think closer to Draisaitl. 6 years around the same as Nylander. Why do that? Get him locked up. We are going to have to pay for both Gaudreau and Monahan for their next deals. BT have zero leverage this time around for them. There's as much chance Tkachuk's p/gp pace slows down, but there's a chance he could maintain it with as good linemstes as JH has.
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Tend to agree. Play your best chance to get points. Also, play your best against the team closest to you in the standings.
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He didn;t go down like a sack of cement after. He would have been flopping around, rightly so. I didn;t much like any of the 2nd period goals against. Sure, he had little help but he's played better than that. If ot happened after the 1st goal, go to the bench and talk. After the tyng goal.... Go ahead goal.... Really, he was giving the game away if he wasn;t right.
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Some of the comments from BP on the Smith situation were strange. Expects him to play on the 3 game road trip. Nothing serious, just some maintenance. If the 2nd period of the Flyers game was due to a little maintenance needed, then I don;t know what to say. He played through something that didn;t feel right. His last goal aganst was putrid. Either be 100% or don't play buddy. You're hurting the team by not talking about it. Frankly, I want them to go with RIttich until Christmas. Give the start to Gillies on the B2B. Come back 100% in January.
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Some other related news. Backlund was skating as an extra D today and said he expects to play soon, probably on the 3 game roadie. Lomberg was sent down because they don;t have available cap to carry him and Prout and Gillies.
