travel_dude
-
Posts
52,014 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
104
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Videos
Events
Gallery
Everything posted by travel_dude
-
I like the 1st and 2nd options more than the third, though I think that would also work okay. I would lean towards a top line including Neal, though. I think you need another threat up there. Also someone that will draw the defenders away from Monahan and JH. Neal can be a real pest and we have to stop being nice guys. Would love to see Lindholm at center with Tkachuk. That pair would score. The 3rd on the line is tricky. Czarnik may be the best choice since he offers another look; Lindholm and Czarnik are fairly fast. I am fine with the BBF line. AT worst, they are going to prevent goals against. At best, they may develop into a reincarnation of the 3M line from last season. That would be ideal and would solve the problem of what to do with Bennett. As a line to build on, the 4th line should be able to do a similar job to the BBF line. Janko is underrated in that aspect. Hathaway and Ryan and Dube can fight it out for spots, and if need be one of them goes to the AHL. Would prefer that the young guys not sit and that you swap in players based on performance and need for a particular game.
-
I don't think it could hurt. He's be relied upon less to score and more to prevent. Don't know what he will be like on the RW, since he hasn't looked great there in the past when played with Monahan and JH.
-
Smith starting against Montreal. Does that mean Rittich against EDM or is it Mike wins, he stays in and if Mike loses, he gets to do better next time. I get the logic of giving Smith a chance to get the win after a letdown, but at some point you need to go to the goalie that is winning games. Asking the team to have to score 3+ goals per game is asking for trouble.
-
Haynes is one of the most neutral writers that cover the Flames. He can be a bit too positive at times, but nothing like fanboy Steinberg or Wills can be.
-
The Official Calgary Flames "New Arena" thread
travel_dude replied to DirtyDeeds's topic in Flames Talk
I think they could have (and should have) included the cleanup anyway. There's no way the Fed would have rejected the overages due to that. Hey, we're hosting the Olympics but part of the city has carcinogens polluting the land. We decided not to do that because we feel it can be ignored for another 30 years. Missed opportunity to bring Calgary up to snuff. Perhaps we can build a pipeline with all the savings from not going in on the Olympics. Maybe the Feds see some advantage in that? -
So, you read it and not just the excerpt?
-
The Official Calgary Flames "New Arena" thread
travel_dude replied to DirtyDeeds's topic in Flames Talk
From what I understand, the other money for it was contingent on the YES vote. It's pretty much a non-starter now and the coincil will vote to withdraw the bid. Not a well thought out strategy if they really wanted the bid to go through. -
There's a blog in The Athletic about Flames galtending by Darren Haynes. You have ot be a sunscriber to read the whole article, but it didn;t start out very complimentary to Smith: Big goal. Bad goal. Sunday night’s game at the SAP Center in San Jose began with a scene that’s become all too familiar for the Calgary Flames. Fifty seconds into a key divisional showdown with the Sharks and they were already one behind on the scoresheet. Circling in the offensive zone, Evander Kane took a pass from Joe Pavelski and from the faceoff dot, fired a snap shot that cleanly beat goaltender Mike Smith on his glove side. San Jose would not relinquish that lead, going on to a 3-1 victory. In evaluating goals against, there are two criteria: Was the shot stoppable? How did it impact the game? This was a double-dip of yuck for Calgary. To begin, Smith and his enormous 6-foot-4 frame needs to at least get a piece of a shot from that angle and distance, regardless of how precise it is. Second, it was a significant goal to surrender as it immediately put the Flames back on their heels. Not asking anyone to copy the article, but wondered if anyone read it.
-
The Official Calgary Flames "New Arena" thread
travel_dude replied to DirtyDeeds's topic in Flames Talk
A Commie of errors is the old Soviet Union. They did have issues with the old Central Committee. -
The Official Calgary Flames "New Arena" thread
travel_dude replied to DirtyDeeds's topic in Flames Talk
Maybe he meant comedy. -
Look, we had enough chances to bury the puck but Jones was dialed in. The Janko chance point-blank. The Monahan chances (two IIRC) were point blank. A penalty shot for cripes sakes (weak Bennett attempt not withstanding). The difference between us and a lot of team is that we don't get shots away at weak goalies. Smith's first goal against. Far post, unscreened. Seen that story a dozen times. How many times have you seen a shot like that from the Flames go in. Very few shots like that on the rush. Maybe Tkachuk's from last week. No, I'm not pinning th loss on Smith, just the first goal. He made up for it later, but against a hot goalie, you only get so many chances.
-
By the way, the new CBA removed the term "re-entry" and just left waivers. The rest remains the same. There is more than a slight chance that Smith has a minor injury, so there could be a real case for sending him on a stint. The rules are there to protect from hiding a player from wiavers or use it to bring the team into compliance with the 23 man roster limit. The number of times the league balks is much lower than the number of consitioning stints. But you are right, it can;t just be arnitrary. It would need to be founded on some injury.
-
-
The recent evidence was that we lost the game mostly due to untimely goals against. Can we afford this loss right now? Sure, because we have a winning record. The problem is that you only can lose so many before it gets very difficult to get back. I think what you are saying is that lowering the number of starts significantly for Smith. 1 for 2 or 1 for 3. That's fine as long as he wins that game when he gets the nod. If he doesn't, then what? Just playing the devil's advocate here. I don't know what the answer is. At the very least, you can't go 4 to 1 on Smith starts. Has to be 1 to 1 or thereabouts. Get starts from Rittich while he is able to maintain his wins/SA%.
-
I mentioned that in Realistic Trades. Smith+ for Rask. Probably need to send a prospect. May even get them to retain some salary unless we send Smith + Stone and retain some of Smith's salary for the year.
-
Unsubstanciated rumor, but nonetheless, they are probably close to the real story. Much like Brouwer last year, the team is working so hard to win, and they see a guy who looks lost. The (public) response from the coach is the team is at fault. Or the D. If the internal message is different, then I don't have a problem with hiding the problem. Unfortunately, everyone know the problem. Everyone except Sigalet. He spends 3 days working with Smith and the first "difficult" shot goes between his chest and arm. Sigalet claims he is looking great in practice. He shows up being in La La Land. Bottom line for me is we have no time to wait for him to find his game, whatever that is. Steps need to be taken. That may be as drastic as asking/sending Smith to the AHL for a conditioning stint. No waiver required, just needs to agree. Call up Schneider or Gillies to back up Rittich, but give Rittich the lion's share of starts. Two weeks max, and you should have a Smith ready to fight for his wins. The goalie coach there worked with Rittich in the past and helped him get to a good spot, coming to NA.
-
Watching Luongo play against the Oilers was making me sad. 39, often injured and he looked in control. Great reaction time. Tracking the puck. Some 10 bell saves. Not even close to what we've had to put up with in CGY. No, don't want 7uongo. Just saying. Playing at a much higher level than Smith. In 2 games back after injury. Game 1 - .941 and 2 GA Game 2 - .963 and 1 GA
-
I think he gets deflated on bad goals. The squeakers also seem to go in where he doesn't have the usual padding. He complains about the bruises. If it's not a mental thing, then he is 100% too old or too injured to play at a high level.
-
I don't think it's been asked recently. Fair question. The answer is unknown. Expected goals are higher than they should be. We looked bad defensively in some games. We didn't play the entire game in others. Smith averages about one bad goal per game. In PITTS the wheels came off, so I can't even say that could have been a win, but we did outplay them for a lot of the game. I would say, with no basis in fact, that we would have won against the following teams: ANA WASH VAN
-
The Official Calgary Flames "New Arena" thread
travel_dude replied to DirtyDeeds's topic in Flames Talk
Do you put lipstick on pigs? -
I didn;t feel that the hit on Russell was dirty. But that's just an impression. Obviously the knuckle dragger felt it was an opportunity to raise his stock with the EDM fans. The hit was suffice. Want to be a tough guy? Try matching up against someone that is one as well. Only message Lucic sent was I will cheap shot smaller players. Maybe the next time, Tampa targets McDavid.
-
1) Mason was looking for a starter. IIRC, he wasn;t any worse than Smith. 2) Trade Smth and Ryan to BOS for Rask. Throw in Stone. Add a prospect. 3) Trade a 1st for Bob. 4) Hire a former goalie as the goalie coach. 5) Move Sigalet to a role as shooter development. Season saved.
-
Not specific to a goalie, but we had the same discussion with Elliott about his choice of pads at home. He actually went to a less dramatic color. And I believe (offhand observation based on no evidence) that the Flames home record hasn't been good in years.
-
Here's a random observation about home versus away (sound familiar?). Home - Smith's pads are a solid bright red target. Away - Smith's pads are white with black/red vertical edges on the ouside. Rittich's home pads are white with multi-color design in the middle portion, but mostly white.
-
Was listening to "The Big Show" yesterday, and they were talking about the possibility that Rittich might get B2B games if Smith Struggles against Anaheim. The schedule is light before and after the B2B games, so it does make some sense. Against Anaheim, I feel the team needs to make it impossible for Anaheim to get high danger shots through. I just have very little confidence in Smith, and the only way he's going to win this game is if the Flames play the best defensive game of the year and push enough at 5v5 to force ANA to take penalties. He had one good game in ANA last season, and that was when he was playing at a MVP level. His other good one was in CGY.
