travel_dude

I know what you are saying, but if there is a way to trade expiring contracts that help the team longer term, the deal will be made. Teams will be looking to get rid of NMC's (if possible) to protect other players. Other teams will simply want to get rid of players for something in return. We may be both buyers and sellers.

Two plays by Grossmann that directly led to goals, in the same game. In game 1 of the season. There's really no way to tell what Yokipakka would have been like, but a loss in game one certainly set us up for a series of adjustments that contributed to losses. Yokipakka is not that much of a wimp compared to Grossmann. Grossman can only hit players he can catch. He's on the roster because the coach didn't want to carry 14 forwards. He was signed to get us as close to the cap limit as possible to maximize placing Smid on LTIR. He will be on this team for depth. There's a strong chance Wideman and Engelland will be traded come TDL.

Have we seen that yet? Engelland has surprised me, but I don't like him paired with Brodie. They play better apart. My concern with Wideman/Gio is the minutes. Perhaps a suitable alternative would be the pairs as you suggest, but Brodie takes some of his minutes with Gio. Wideman gets the PP minutes in its place: Gio-Wideman (Gio 24 mins - Wideman 20, Brodie for 4 minutes) Brodie-Hamilton (18-20 minutes) Jokipakka-Engelland (12-15 mins) PP - Gio, Wideman, Hamilton, Yokipakka/4th forward PK - Gio, Brodie, Engelland, Yokipakka/Hamilton

And I'm not harping on about it. Until we get better players, he's about the best of the worst. Wideman makes far more mental mistakes. Engelland has simplified his game, but these types of clearing attempts make me lose it. Not just him. Brodie tries the same thing at times on the backhand, but he has more success because it's harder to pick up the direction on a backhand. Both are higher risk than just flipping the puck high and out.

I would think that there was only so much that Brouwer could have done on that pass. He was already covered on the half boards, so he would not have been able to do much with it. Engelland was solid except for then and the dying minutes. He defended well on the 4-3 by taking away the cross crease passes. His slowness didn't expose the team very often, but honestly, both he and Brodie did better away from each other. Back to the topic of goaltending. Elliott was about as solid as you could hope for. When Kan scored, he hadn't faced a lot of shots. When Brodie deflected the puck, there was only so much he could do. The rest of the time he was in the right position. He was dynamite in the shootout. If I had a complaint, it would be on how he tracks shots off the boards. In EDM, the boards are very lively, and created a scoring chance. In CHI, they were not so lively, so none were as blatant. But there was at least once where he lost the puck and got over just in time. I think Jokipakka got just enough of the puck to keep it out.

You can ignore the comments if all you want is rainbows and unicorns. Had we lost the game as a result of one of those two goal, would you be saying good game? Bollig is where he belongs, so I guess I wasn't the only one that felt he was subpar. BTW, this is a goalie thread, and yes, Bouma has been subpar this season so far. Tonight was the first time he actually made some good plays. Strange that Backlund and Frolik cooled off after Bouma moved there.

So, what would you think is reason they scored two goals on us that shouldn't have happened? Want me to blame them on people not on the ice? It's a win. We managed to hold them off in the third period enough to get a SO win. If we are only scoring two goals ourselves, then we better be flawless in simple plays.

He was almost perfect in the game, even when the defense let him down. Engelland with a weak pass to set up the first one. Same crew out there when Brodie tries to clear the puck from the crease and knocks it in himself. But you're right, I haven't seen a display like that in the shoot out since....Berra.

I don't dispute the idea of splitting up Gio and Brodie. Where I have the problem is implementing new systems and not giving them time to work through it. If one pair isn't able to work through it, why start swapping them around after one game? It's like using the line blender after the first period. The basics seem to be the problem right now. If we were beyond that, I would say look for chemistry. How do you measure results if you constantly change things up? You set a line, see what is working/not working and adjust. See how that adjustment works. If that doesn't help, then start moving the pieces around. Anyway, I hope they find a solution. The PK started off looking good, but something happened and it became less effective. It didn't even look the same. Was that execution or design? The PP still looks a mess. The point guys are standing in one spot and backing off to pressure. They end up making a risky pass to hold the zone. The forwards are feeding the points instead of keeping the puck down low.

The issue for me is that we are 6 games in and the pairing have changed as often as they have. The systems take enough time to master, but Brodie plays LD some time, RD other times, and somewhere in between for PP and PK. We have rotated in Grossman, Kulak and Wideman. What I am saying is that if you are implementing a new system, why do you add learning a new partner every game in the mix.

I am fine with Hamilton. He makes mistakes, but every one does. He is struggling to fit into GG system, which all players seem to be. Can't single him out. Watched Gio grab a guy from behind and wrestle him to the ground as defending. Then takes an extra 2 for talking about it with the refs. Brodie is overthinking the game and freezing the puck for too long. Wideman is Wideman. Who knows what he is doing out there some games. Yokipakka is making mistakes, but has mostly been defending the right way. He gets on the wrong side of a player at times, and loses position. Unfortunately, GG keeps shifting around the pairs, so nobody gets comfortable. Tonight, we get Gio-Wideman, Brodie-Engelland, and Joki-Hamilton. Two bottom pairing guys on this team paired with the top D. How did that work out before?

Well, you can wait, like they did with Monahan and Gaudreau. Signing him now would probably get you the best deal. It's not a real mystery that we need a guy for at least one or two more years. Show confidence in him and sign him to 2-3 years. Let Gillies become a much better goalie that is leading in the AHL before you bring him up. When he is ready, he will be fighting for 30+ games a year to start. We may already have the two goalies we need until then. Johnson is already looking like a capable backup.

My problem with Engelland is his speed, or lack of it. His other positives are weighed down by that negative.

Agree with what you say. Engelland is as close to a Regher as you can get, but isn't as effective as Brodie and Gio. His lack of speed makes him vulnerable to speedy teams. Yokipakka is a fine 3rd pair guy, and Kulak s close to that. What is left is not top 4, except Hamilton. Wideman or Engelland in the top 4 scares me. Do you want Brodie to have to cover Engelland both offensively and getting back on a transition play? I would love to have another top 4 LD to balance it out. Not suggesting Russell would be any better. But we can't argue that Wideman is that calibre either. He's lost a step.

Leddy is injured. Perhaps we could interest them is a lightly used Wideman.

Who can ever decipher what point you are trying to make. You generally post a bunch of disconnected thoughts, vague references that you can later try to prove a point or negate something you said. Your usual response to posters that ask for specifics is "I already have provided numerous times and don't wish to repeat it". I'm surprised you haven't started this theme again.... Bad Goaltending last year was the result of horrid play by Flames defense. The goalies were victimized last season by fans. The defense still sucks, Hamilton being the worst. Goaltending still sucks, so it must not have been Ramo, Hiller or Ortio's fault. Insult if you want. That's your usual MO. Add a winkey if you like.

I don't think you are really giving him much of a chance. He played under BH for a season, being buried for half a season, and last on the list for PP time. Once he settled into the Flames systems, which were not exactly airtight defensively, he started looking more like a 2nd pairing D-man. Is he a complete player yet? Of course not, he's 23. I don't think you can compare his play to Gio at the same age, because the development paths are/were different. If you can predict what he will be in 5 years, I applaud you.

I missed a couple by the looks of it. Which is strange, because I was pretty intent on my search and destroy mission. Double posting is one thing, but I posted exactly one item and there were something like 17 copies. I still assume it was a hiccup, since there were no other 17 repeat posts on this oe any other thread. I had one other double post show up.

I deleted all but the original. All cleaned up. It wasn't me posting a bunch of times. Hit "Submit Reply" once. There was a site issue for about 15 minutes, where it was down. Maybe when they recovered it, it stored it a bunch of times. ANyway, haven't seen any doubles recently. Had one about an hour ago, but quickly deleted it. None since.

Ok, so I found all the dupes and deleted them all. The site had some hiccups this morning, so it seemed to repost the same post a bunch of time. Weird. I think the autosave function is creating some issues. BTW, even with all those crap posts, it didn't change my post count. So there.

That ship has sailed. No buyouts allowed after the first window, and we didn't take advantage of the 2nd one by taking anyone to arbitration.

That's weird. I only see single posts from myself. Maybe sometimes the edit function creates a 2nd post, but looks normal to me. Don't think I edited any today anyway.

I was trying to figure out how best to use him with the existing lineup. Pairing him with Engelland is not a wise move. He didn't excel in that role last year. You are right, he could take the scratch as a motivation thing, but it still requires him to play on his weak side. Or Engelland. I don't see a great fit unless you use the following pairs: Gio-Brodie Jokipakka-Hamilton Kulak-Wideman or Kulak-Engelland or Kulak-Grossman I'm not saying that Kulak is the greatest since sliced bread, but you need someone with some speed to help that 3rd pairing. BTW, there's no way I can catch up to the post counts of the likes of you.

Here's the problem. Wideman has not played close to top 4 ability. Maybe Brodie and Gio haven't been up to snuff, but Wideman has been more than a few steps back. For that reason, he does not belong in the top 4. So, that leaves you playing him with Engelland. The last time they played together was a disaster. If you go with the though that Engelland provides steady defense without footspeed, then adding Wideman on the wrong hand makes the pairing slower than with Kulak. The only way I think you can put Wideman in is if he has a faster LD on his pairing. Take your choice, sit Wideman or sit Engelland. The other options are not great. The notion that Wideman will take the healthy scratch and become the player he was two years ago is flawed. He came back into the lineup then as a top 4 pairing guy. He is slower today than he was then. He won't be gifted 20+ minutes a night with a Kris Russell in his glory days.

Here's the problem. Wideman has not played close to top 4 ability. Maybe Brodie and Gio haven't been up to snuff, but Wideman has been more than a few steps back. For that reason, he does not belong in the top 4. So, that leaves you playing him with Engelland. The last time they played together was a disaster. If you go with the though that Engelland provides steady defense without footspeed, then adding Wideman on the wrong hand makes the pairing slower than with Kulak. The only way I think you can put Wideman in is if he has a faster LD on his pairing. Take your choice, sit Wideman or sit Engelland. The other options are not great. The notion that Wideman will take the healthy scratch and become the player he was two years ago is flawed. He came back into the lineup then as a top 4 pairing guy. He is slower today than he was then. He won't be gifted 20+ minutes a night with a Kris Russell in his glory days.