travel_dude

In game blender. Started out with Govich-Lindholm-Mange Zary-Kadri-Pospisik Huberdeau-Backlund-Coleman Greer-Dube-Duehr 2nd period we went to Zary on 4th line and Dube up. Huberdeau played with Lindholm and Govich with Backlund. 3rd period back to original line except Dube still with Kadri. Zary pretty much benched. Some of that was shorter bench. Overall, the 1st and 3rd were the only good periods. No idea of the reason for the change. Maybe the letdown in the 1st. No idea.

Cassie was trashing the Oilers for their pooe D-play. She said good thing they fired the coach cuz he was the problem. LOL. She made the same points that have been said every game this season. They don't think protect the house. They go for skates. ANyway, they lose to FLA with Bennett putting the dagger in.

Huska stated that the Flames PP is too slow. I guess he's been watching for most of this season. Would be nice to actually address this and not just notice it. I have my beliefs about the slower reacting people on it; Ras, Lindholm. Almost no movement from them in their positioning. But I digress. Huberdeau looks slow because he has zero options moving into the open.

Kudos on leading the pool without a single Oiler on your team. That's awesome. I'm lurking in 10th, kinda like the Flames lurking outside the playoff picture. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!!

Exactly middle of the road. At a 4 way stop sign.

I think there is zero interest in changing the Kadri line. Moved Pospisil up and they are no worse maybe even better. With Govich on Kadri's line, the Flames had two strong lines (Kadri, Backlund). With Pospisil on Kadri's line, they had 3 good lines (top 9) and 4th line well...for one game. They had two good lines last game (2nd and 4th, with Backlund keeping it even. So you probably want to give Lindholm another game as is to see if it returns.

Honestly, could he be any worse? Skinner looks good but gets burned too easily. I can't tell how bad he is because the team plays zero defense.

All the picture shows is where some teams stand. SJS very bad. CGY in the middle. Other than that, it's a point in time. It's an interesting picture to look at but it's like looking at PDO. You lose 100% of the games that the other team has more goals.

The police have very little discretion when it comes do DA calls. Depending on the state, they may have to make an arrest if there is a he said-she said thing. If the assaulted party says no, it's fine, they don't always let it go. Might be under duress. Or, they may feel they may face retribution. Anyway, I'm not saying either way. Someone made a complaint and they acted on it. If the prosecutors decide there is reason to proceed, then we will need to wait till the end. Unfortunately, the public will decide long before that.

Just thought I would post this because it looks so funny....

3 of the 4 lines were fine last night. Top line with a total of 3 shots including OT and PP time? That's seriously lacking. Pospisil had 6 alone, and most of them were HD. Perhaps it's Lindholm at C that is the problem. One game he gets 3 points the next barely 2 shots.

Okay, so if you think back to Mange's early time here. He played few minutes and produced at one of the best p/60 clip in the league. Mange was a serious scorer in junior, so there is a bit of a difference. Okay, so think of Hathaway. I don't expect or want Pospisil to get into fights. He ended his season (just about) with the fight against Coby Cave. Pospisil has slightly changed his game to one of speed. I think his skill was always lurking under the surface, but he felt he needed a different route to the NHL. That is kind of the problem with this org. Guys like Phillips and Pettersen disin't get chances with Sutter types coaching. More skilled than the Ritchie types but too small. Zary is by no means huge, but he uses his body to shield the puck. He is smart. A smart player can play here. Now that is. I don't even know what a typical 4th line is now. The old methods are phasing out. I would like to alternate Dube with Govich or Ruzicka. Two guys that have heavy shots. Both have hit posts and completely beat goalies. We need our top C to be with guys that shoot. Unfortuneately, we always have one line not going. Tonight I felt it was Backlund's line. Really it was more Hubey than the line. He's not defensive enough to prevent goals and actually makes it hard on us. Still haven't figured out who makes sense to pair him with. Maybe Dube at C and Govich at RW? Or Ruzicka at C and Dube at RW? Either of those means they are 4th line and changes to other lines. 2nd line is set. Or you put Govich back there and Pospisil with Backlund again. Option 1 Mange-Lindholm- Zary-Kadri-Govich Pospisil-Backlund-Coleman Huberdeau-Ruzicka-Dube Option 2 Ruzicka-Lindholm-Mange Zary-Kadri-Pospisil Coleman-Backlund-Duehr Huberdeau-Dube-Govich

In my lengthy tweet post, there was a bunch of different links and suggestions about the incident. It's odd because Lucic is a family man and seemed like things were fine. But you never know. As I said, I won't trash him with just tweets and part stories. Let it come out first.

New coach bump over. Skinner back to 5 goals against on less than 25 shots. McDavid and Draisaitl both -2 and zero points, in 23 minutes each.

I hope only that the arrest was something that was unfounded. Otherwise, Looch you have lost my respect.

Wranglers lead the AHL in points (23) and win% (.833) with a 11-1-1 record. Dansk with a 5-0-1 record. Crushing it with a .941 average. Wolf with a 6-1-0 record and one shutout. Stats less Wolf-ish than usual, but he had a couple games he wants to forget. 6 goals on 46 shots. 3 goals on 20 shots. 4 goals on 28 shots.

If Blasty Dube keeps showing up, I would be fine with that top line. The others seem to be pretty balanced. Every one of them was out-chancing the Nucks. Every line had something that allowed them to win battles and get chances. It was one game, but give it a look for awhile. The top line isn't really the top line. In fact we really have closer to 2a, 2b, 2c lines. Which is just fine. I felt we went a bit heavy on the Backlund line last game, which works I guess if you want Hubey to score more. Not enough Pospisil, but that's a minor quibble. He fits in different situations and line. Zary is really our top player. Seems to be taking on the role of PP QB. Our so called 1/2 D are bothering me, so maybe we need a BBQ of crow. Hanifin is doing just enough to lessen the critique. Barely. If he's worth $7.5M long term, I want a refund. He has some smarts but also some dumbs. A 4 on a lot of teams. He's kinda the polar opposite of Ras with shots. He takes them so often and they miss the net so often. Not talking about blocked shots, just wide. Ras won't make a decision. Just hangs onto it until there is nothing there. Studied under Gio, but only seemed to pick up the encroachment aspect. No shot. No one-timer. No seam pass. Weegar and Zadorov seem to be the only guys that think the shot. Hanifin may put one on about once per game, but these guys look for the holes. That's my pre-game trash fest. I focused on Huberdeau and Lindholm last game. I reserve the right to re-trash them today.

Couldn't link just the Lucic tweet. Sorry guys.

Yup I got that. When I look at the top of our stats, I see very underwhelming numbers. Kadri probably the hottest Flame right now and he hasn't reached 10 points yet. Our top scorer has 4 goals. Our top C has 2. On pace for 11 goals. Seriously. That Trevor Lewis numbers.

Maybe we need more Heat. Oops, that's the old name. More Wranglers? Zary one point back in 9 less games. He's a plus 2. Pospisil 3 back in 10 less games. He's a plus 5. Pospisil has managed that in 6 less minutes average per game.

At worst, he not only killing his trade value, but his contract aspirations. When he was humming and haaing during negotiations, he should have asked for a sign and trade. Probably could have interested a few teams with a known extension. Obviously you don't sign before the trade is in place. Anyway, Lindholm not producing is more concerning than Huberdeau, IMHO. Expiring asset, wants out, part of the top line that used to score most goals.

I think I made a suggestion of moving Ruzicka to C for strong side draws. It would also move Mange back to LW. Use Lindholm for his strong side, but revert to his wing after. The only issue I have with that is that Ruzicka isn't great 2-way. Lindholm is better. The solution to that is to use them less in power vs power and more in select starts. Not really sheltered but they don't get stuck facing top lines.

Steve Ewen @SteveEwen Samuel Honzek (lower body) is back in the Lower Mainland and skating and word from the @WHLGiants camp is that he’ll be in the line-up before the end of the month. Won’t play this weekend. Next game after that is next Wednesday vs. Spokane. @NHLFlames 12:52 PM · Nov 16, 2023 · 6,528 Views

Well, they seemed to move to Hanifin on the top PP unit, with little impact. Hard to say if he's the right or wrong player there. Watched him fire 3 shots on net that didn't go close to the net. The top PP featured Ruzicka, Kadri, Zary, Lindholm and Hanifin. Was better but still has issues gaining the zone. Seemed like Ruzicka and Zary were the QB's. Not sure what Weegar has to do to get PP time. Not even on the 2nd PP unit. Neither is Zaddy who would be good if we had a 2nd D to man the point. I have been frustrated by Ras for the last 96 games (more or less). Has no concept of a point shot. I don't always think it's the best choice, but never shooting is worse. Pass left or right, puck goes down low, then back to the point for another pass left or right. Or the down low seem pass that goes into a crowd. All the other team needs to do is pressure the wings or force a pass from the point. No worries, he is never going to shoot. Not even an indirect. The only time he is dangerous is when he comes off the boards down low. Even then, he looks off a shot or a pass. He just skates around the net back to his spot.