travel_dude

His game was fine for most of the last season he played. He seemed to suffer a setback after the injury. As far as him playing, that depends on the what. It could be family still dealing with a situation or personal issues, but I won't go there. Either or could be resolved and I have never seen his physical fitness to be a question. Yes, it would be hard starting from square 1 in the season without the so called camp. I haven't seen a lot of better in the players we do have. They all look out of sorts. Weegar is one that has looked better. Maybe they need to abandon the system they started because it takes too long to get adjusted. Teams that make a switch often have just gone through a rebuild. For the future, it depends on whether he is coming back to hockey. If he does, then I think it would be a mistake to just let him walk to another team.

Solo played 16 minutes to Gilbert's 12, so they had more faith in Solo. Even if it's bottom pairing minutes, he would learn in the NHL a lot better. Plays and practices around vets, not just learning from the coach and other kids. If it came down to a choice, I would just waive both guys and trade for an actual top 6 guy. Practice with one of them but keep them out of games for now.

For sure, but they like those 2 for some reason. I don't see it, I don't think either is more than a 7D. I could give more love to Oesterle because he has played better in the past. As a 7D, not in the the top 6. At 31 he's not going to get better. I think either we make a trade for an actual D-man or play the prospect. Or wait for Kylington. Solo is going to show some warts but so have every prospect when they started. Gilbert isn't really a prospect and I haven't seen him look like he's improving. Just another fringe guy.

Other than waiving Gilbert or Oesterle, what else were they going to do? To bring up Zary, I think they only had enough LTIR space if they sent a player down. I do also assume that the only reason why Solo was up was due to the suspension and only have 6 healthy D that could play. To your point, I though Solo was better than both Oesterle and Gilbert. No reason why we don't waive one of them. They don't have to go play in the AHL, but nobody would claim them so what is the harm?

I think they have to sign him by a certain date or he can't play. No different than Nylander was. Kane was different. The VPN would hide the IP only, not prevent a site from enforcing user agreements.

I suspect Rizicka is a bit further away from starting again. He was practicing between Govich and Kadri, whic is a little odd, but hey nothing else was working consistently. Put Kadri on the wing to see if it helps? To me the bigger problem is giving Huberdeau linemates that he can play with. I'm not sure I have seen that yet. I am interested to see the impact on other lines. A top line with Hunt is a problem.

I may have opted to go with Wolf from the outset, but it appears they are running the goalies similar to last year at about 75% for the starter. Right now closer to 90. That doesn't help a guy like Wolf, he needs to play 1-2 weekly. Since we opted to keep Vladar for whatever reason, it's important to use Vladar more often, not only base starts on one poor one. Vladar was not good in what he gave up, but not entirely on him. The D has been Swiss cheese. None of the pairings overall have been good on the D. They also cheat too much on offense and are not good at reading the play. How many odd man rushes and breakaways do we want to give up.

So, the players know the rules. And if they want to get around it, they "use" a buddy to do it. One might expect that they could trace the money trail and determine the source. If they bothered going that far. If his buddy isn't loaded, then the size of the bet would draw interest. FINTRAC looks at better sites to look for patterns. There must have been warning signs that it was from a dubious source.

I'm just saying what does it solve other than getting rid of a contract that could turn bad. It's not great now at $8M actual, but it's not a Bob contract. Trading him for picks likely mean they aren't top picks. He would help a team make the playoffs. So, a 1st, even if it's on the table, doesn't solve any goalie problem. Happy to debate it. Just needing to know what the "trade" solves.

Next up Greer. If we had extra D that we could trust, I would slot in Zadorov as a F. Who would be stopping him?

Trade for what? We get someone that is playing a starter role, one we struggled to slot for years, and you want to trade him? Maybe we develop in nets the way NAS did. Vladar isn't getting much of a chance yet, and who knows how good or bad he really is. You want to go with Vladar and Wolf? Okay, that makes some sense, but are you willing to have goaltending about 3 years behind the rest of the team?

So, not every D-man that gets NHL games when they are young is going to be a Makar. Some develop with the competition. Poirier is getting there but took a bad cut. Solo is as well, but the track may be difficult since he hasn't developed entirely. Kuz is a work in progress. But saying we have nothing is strange.

What a difference a day make.... #Flames lines/pairings Saturday in Edmonton: Hunt–Lindholm–Dube Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman Huberdeau-Kadri-Coronato Greer-Sharangovich-Duehr Ruzicka Hanifin-Weegar Solovyov-Tanev Zadorov-Gilbert Oesterle-Andersson Markstrom Vladar

+1 Deeds. I never understood the tossing jerseys bit. I won't go to a game if I am not happy.

I would sooner see Weegar-Ras. Only 2 close to top pairing. Z is a great team guy and not bad at clearing the net front. Tanev is still solid, just losing a bit of a step with all the injuries. Gilbert and Oesterle are whatever, probably better than they have played but nothing higher than a 6. As risky as his play was, we really are missing Kylington. Other than Z, he was our best skater. I am almost to the point of just cutting bait with the guys like Hanifin. He's not rreally showing as a 1/2 or even a 3/4. Just playing okay. Nothing he does is elite. Would rather trade him for a young forward. Couldn't be much worse results as we are seeing.

Considering how cold some players are to start the season, why not get a guy up to push them for better. Right now, the best players are the youngest ones. Over 30 crowd not moving the needle much.

Revenue from sports betting companies propping up the NHL and NHL coverage. Data from players used to set odds and give people chances to bet. Ex players (and current) advertize the sites. Everyone wants a piece of the pie. A nobody player exploits a system's grey area and loses half his annual pay, once he gets signed. I don't know his full story, so I'm not going to solely come down on him. This was going to happen once the NHL went down the slippery slope. An annoying thing for me is the system is ripe to be exploited by those that can impact it. A timely call in an important game. The refs are moral by nature but can be targeted by those wishing to change outcomes. Not saying it happens, just that it could. We are talking about millions on the line.

We seem to use camp as a way of trying out yong players in spots they will never get into. Schwindt kept longer than Zary. Belief that Rooney was somehow going to be better than his mediocre AHL results would suggest. Solo kept longer but had to wait for a suspension to get in. Coronato played good with whome in the pre-season? Don't think it was Huberdeau or 4th line. Some of the line choices so far were just weird. Kadri on RW? Seriously? It took Gaudreau to turn Tkachuk into a RW'er and really Tkachuk was just a 10 foot scorer, so it didn't matter. I don't know how to fix Huberdeau, but let's worry about the other players more so. What has looked the best? Maybe Huberdeau on Backlund's wing to help with his horrid turnovers? Rosie and Dube together was a thing, but I don't think the C matters. Lindholm needs a player that can gain the zone with eaze. Maybe that's Rosie, don't know since nothing else really worked. Backlund is always a slow starter, so I can't judge the line as such. HE has zero goals. Mange is leading in scoring I believe. My biggest problem with Mange is he plays big but can't stand up to the heat. He probably has to change his pants and jersey because they are soaking wet after all the snow he soaks up laying on the ice. I would almost consider Mange on the 4th line RW and move Govich up to RW with Backlund and Coleman. Assuming we had a C to play there, I don't know, maybe ZARY?

Will you be happy when we make the playoffs, though? Top 3 in the Pacific isn't as clear cut as the analysts seemed to think.

Interesting. Like that top line, if Rosie can shoot more. He has an excellent pass, but Lindy's first pass would be LW. I can see Dube getting more shots if he creeps into the middle. The Huberdeau line is a study in frustration. Almost like try it enough times and it will work out. To me Huberdeau needs to pass less and shoot more. Kadri can pass to Coronato. He's the best shooter on that line (so far anyway). Hunt to the sidelines, which probably makes the most sense. Don't get the love for him based on one pre-season game that was good. Maybe put a RHS at C? Somebody like Zary? Greer is fine, but he seems to be about the level of Lucic for scoring. Can't we expect better?

That's awesome. Hate to see him derailed when he was having a strong start. On a side note, I would still like to see Zary gets games.

We are otherwise stuck with Hunt at 4C. I don't know the extent of Ruzicka's shoulder injury, but if long term then maybe Zary is best. I will be honest, I have not been impressed with Hunt.

So what does that mean? What was he doing that the NHL considered wrong?

Well, I wasn't suggesting that there was any benefit to placing him on LTIR until now. I do really question keeping Hunt on the roster vs waiving him. Not sure of the order involved in calling up a guy like Zary and the LTIR placement, though. What I am asking is how you would bring up Zary and waive Hunt. Is there an order that maximizes LTIR or is it not impacted?

Poirier may have been the first choice if not for the injury, but Solo is solid in what I have seen. Good choice. I suspect they have not been very impressed with Oesterle, but that's just my view. Hope they actually use him.