Calgary Flames Expectations

[MAC331]

16 hours ago, The_People1 said:

 

As of now, zero.  A trade has to happen to open up room. I don't see that trade.  Not saying he won't make a trade but I believe in BT's mind, the team is set.

I am still hoping for a Stone to OTT trade so Andersson can move onto the roster. Klimchuk has every opportunity to win that 4th line LW spot.

[travel_dude]

17 hours ago, The_People1 said:

 

Zero.  BT didn't leave any room for even one rookie to make it.

I would say there are probably 9F and 4D spots guaranteed.

JH, Monahan, Neal, Lindholm, Tkachuk, Backlund, Frolik, Janko, Ryan.

Gio, Brodie, Hanifin, Hamonic.

The next level is the ones most likely playing in the daily roster.

Bennett, Czarnik, Stone, Andersson

The next level is the bubble guys, rookies, from a performace perspective or contract negotiation fallout.

Lazar, Hathaway, Mangiapane, Klimchuk, Kulak.

And of course, the grit guys that could be the last player in each position.

Peluso, Prout.

The last level is guys that have or may play well in camp/pre-season.

Dube, Valimaki.

 

You can say that at least one spot is available for rookies at forward in the top 12.

The D has a potential to have Andersson being the 5/6 guy and Kulak being the 7th. 

[Going4TheCup]

After watching the big club lose the first two preseason games against the Bruins my expectations for the Flames have changed a little bit.

1. The Powerplay doesn't have seem to be improved that much. 

2. James Neal doesn't seem to be doing much

3. The Goaltending seems to shaky but yeah its only preseason and that Mike Smith giveaway in the 3rd period was brutal, sometimes I wish he wasn't allowed to play the puck.

 

Now I think the Flames will be fighting for a Wild Card Spot compared to me thinking they are going to be fighting for the Division win. I also think that Dube should be playing in the 4th line with Bennett and Jankowski on opening night!

[CheersMan]

2 hours ago, Going4TheCup said:

After watching the big club lose the first two preseason games against the Bruins my expectations for the Flames have changed a little bit.

1. The Powerplay doesn't have seem to be improved that much. 

2. James Neal doesn't seem to be doing much

3. The Goaltending seems to shaky but yeah its only preseason and that Mike Smith giveaway in the 3rd period was brutal, sometimes I wish he wasn't allowed to play the puck.

 

Now I think the Flames will be fighting for a Wild Card Spot compared to me thinking they are going to be fighting for the Division win. I also think that Dube should be playing in the 4th line with Bennett and Jankowski on opening night!

LOL!

You do realize that the team had not been on the ice or skated together prior to going to China?

Now is not the time to draw conclusions.

[cross16]

The worst team in the preseason last year was the Washington Capitals. 1-5 and only scored 8 goals in 6 games....

 

Carry on with your day

 

 

[travel_dude]

2 hours ago, CheersMan said:

LOL!

You do realize that the team had not been on the ice or skated together prior to going to China?

Now is not the time to draw conclusions.

 

We didn;t  dress Tkachuk, Backlund or Frolik.  I'm more concerned about Tkachuk's health than winning a dumb game in China.  

[CaCaw]

Well, after last nights effort my expectation is that they will play with some fire in our home opener... They better, as they seemed pretty disinterested for most of the game last night.

There are no 'easy' teams in the NHL anymore, but two against the Canucks was pretty much the best we could hope for to open the season and get rolling before playing more difficult teams.  Guess not, but hope they rebound for the next one.

Also, a quick shout out for Hamonic last night... I know he gets a fair bit of flack around here, but I really like him. Way to stick up for your teammate, and fight a guy way above his weight class. Hope the others took notice of that and also hope he's ok.

[The_People1]

2 hours ago, CaCaw said:

Well, after last nights effort my expectation is that they will play with some fire in our home opener... They better, as they seemed pretty disinterested for most of the game last night.

There are no 'easy' teams in the NHL anymore, but two against the Canucks was pretty much the best we could hope for to open the season and get rolling before playing more difficult teams.  Guess not, but hope they rebound for the next one.

Also, a quick shout out for Hamonic last night... I know he gets a fair bit of flack around here, but I really like him. Way to stick up for your teammate, and fight a guy way above his weight class. Hope the others took notice of that and also hope he's ok.

 

Half kidding but maybe jet lag played a factor.  We finally woke up to play halfway into the third period.

 

Look at Boston.  They didn't wake up at all yesterday.

[travel_dude]

2 hours ago, CaCaw said:

Well, after last nights effort my expectation is that they will play with some fire in our home opener... They better, as they seemed pretty disinterested for most of the game last night.

There are no 'easy' teams in the NHL anymore, but two against the Canucks was pretty much the best we could hope for to open the season and get rolling before playing more difficult teams.  Guess not, but hope they rebound for the next one.

Also, a quick shout out for Hamonic last night... I know he gets a fair bit of flack around here, but I really like him. Way to stick up for your teammate, and fight a guy way above his weight class. Hope the others took notice of that and also hope he's ok.

 

The important thing about a game like that is the reactions and changes that result.

Call up or insert a goon?

Play Hathaway over Dube?

Change up the PP lines?

Do nothing and point out to the players how they didn't execute?

Switch the lines around.

[The_People1]

58 minutes ago, travel_dude said:

 

The important thing about a game like that is the reactions and changes that result.

Call up or insert a goon?

Play Hathaway over Dube?

Change up the PP lines?

Do nothing and point out to the players how they didn't execute?

Switch the lines around.

 

Let's do the same thing over and over again expecting different results.

[travel_dude]

2 hours ago, The_People1 said:

 

Let's do the same thing over and over again expecting different results.

 

Same thing with a different coach and different players?

Quick analysis.  Sloppy zone entries.

Fix 1 - don't just skate up the ice then dump it back 50 feet to start again.  All other players are stopped.

Fix 2 - remove Brodie from PP.  He's a passer.  Playing him on the point puts him in a difficult spot.  

[Cowtownguy]

It didn't seem like Czarnik had much power play time last night. I was working on other things at the same time that I had the game on though. Do others think he was shortchanged in that role? He seems like a perfect player for the PP. The guy moves well and can shoot. Best move the Flames made in years.

[travel_dude]

47 minutes ago, Cowtownguy said:

It didn't seem like Czarnik had much power play time last night. I was working on other things at the same time that I had the game on though. Do others think he was shortchanged in that role? He seems like a perfect player for the PP. The guy moves well and can shoot. Best move the Flames made in years.

 

Czarnik, Backlund, Neal and Ryan were close to the 5 minutes each.

JH, Monahan, Lindholm and Tkachuk were all close to 8 minutes.

Brodie and Gio 6.5 and 7.5 respectively.

 

The zone entries were atrocious.  It basically nullified half of the minutes.

What is the point of having one single player moving at speed with the puck, trying to go through 4 players.  

When they line up like that, it's better to chip it in with all players moving ahead.

I don;t like Brodie on the PP because he overthinks everything on the PP.   

[rickross]

There was a lot not to like about the game. They didn’t appear as discombobulated as they did under GG at this time of the season. This team is going to get pushed around, there really is little sand paper on this team. The worst part was watching a team laud it’s  new found fast paced and relentless puck pursuit style of play....only to be beat by the opposing teams fast paced and relentless puck pursuit style of play.

[The_People1]

4 hours ago, travel_dude said:

 

I don;t like Brodie on the PP because he overthinks everything on the PP.   

 

Brodie is a stud moving the puck up ice and entering the zone with possession.  But once in the zone, he is average.  He's the same 5-on-5 as he is on the PP.  It's part average vision and part lack of shot power.

 

And that's the problem with our PP.  We don't have a hard shot from the point that forces teams to respect our point shots.  They don't have to send shot blockers to the points.  They are allowed to stay in a small tight box and we are unable to get inside.  We are kept to the perimeter working the puck on the outside trying to open a box that just won't budge.  Because they don't have to. They just stay in the tight box daring us to shoot from the outside.  Almost laughing at us.

[LouCifer]

15 minutes ago, The_People1 said:

And that's the problem with our PP.  We don't have a hard shot from the point that forces teams to respect our point shots.  They don't have to send shot blockers to the points.  They are allowed to stay in a small tight box and we are unable to get inside.  We are kept to the perimeter working the puck on the outside trying to open a box that just won't budge.  Because they don't have to. They just stay in the tight box daring us to shoot from the outside.  Almost laughing at us.

 

+1

[Horsman1]

On 9/19/2018 at 0:15 PM, CheersMan said:

LOL!

You do realize that the team had not been on the ice or skated together prior to going to China?

Now is not the time to draw conclusions.

ha.. and yet.. that's exactly what we saw in game one.. Shoddy defensive play.. sad goaltending and an o for 7 powerplay.. I miss the days of the left wing lock when we let the talent of the center and right  winger drive the play.. With the defensive responsibilities the center has now, more often than not,, there is no cohesive offensive push 

[travel_dude]

9 hours ago, The_People1 said:

 

Brodie is a stud moving the puck up ice and entering the zone with possession.  But once in the zone, he is average.  He's the same 5-on-5 as he is on the PP.  It's part average vision and part lack of shot power.

 

And that's the problem with our PP.  We don't have a hard shot from the point that forces teams to respect our point shots.  They don't have to send shot blockers to the points.  They are allowed to stay in a small tight box and we are unable to get inside.  We are kept to the perimeter working the puck on the outside trying to open a box that just won't budge.  Because they don't have to. They just stay in the tight box daring us to shoot from the outside.  Almost laughing at us.

 

Slight correction.  When he moves the puck up the ice and enters the zone, he's a stud.  He defers way too easily.  Last year, he and JH were the top players for controlled zone entries.  If he did that, we would have zone time.  But even when he does it, he is the wrong player to maintain it, at least as a defense.  He's quick, but cannot cover the line by himself.

If you play him, you need to go to a 3-2 PP setup.  

[cross16]

Imo a hard point shot is a thing of the past. It really is not a very effective play as the scoring probability on it is so low and misses usually wind up in a loss of possession as the shot rims itself all the way out of the zone. It's a very low percentage play. 

 

I didnt see the game so I can't comment on the specifics against Vancouver but the issue last year was the power play was a lack of movement to creat options. Players were stationary so there only option was to keep moving the puck around hit permieter. Based on what I saw in preseason Ward will change that so I'm confident the pp will turn it around. 

[The_People1]

17 minutes ago, cross16 said:

Imo a hard point shot is a thing of the past. It really is not a very effective play as the scoring probability on it is so low and misses usually wind up in a loss of possession as the shot rims itself all the way out of the zone. It's a very low percentage play. 

 

Yes it's low percentage but the percentage increases the harder the shot.  Thus the harder the point shot, the more respect it commands.

 

It's difficult to stretch the PK box if they don't challenge our point shots.  They just stay tight knowing you have no abilities to score from the outside.

 

What are higher percentage plays on the PP? 

[travel_dude]

1 hour ago, The_People1 said:

 

Yes it's low percentage but the percentage increases the harder the shot.  Thus the harder the point shot, the more respect it commands.

 

It's difficult to stretch the PK box if they don't challenge our point shots.  They just stay tight knowing you have no abilities to score from the outside.

 

What are higher percentage plays on the PP? 

 

Let's look at who is effective on the point...

Karlsson

Burns

Weber

etc.

 

Maybe a thing of the past....year.

If you don't have a lane, get it close to the net.  Rebounds and deflections.  

[ABC923]

Most goals are not scored by hard shots from the point on a PP anymore.  But if you don’t have that as one of the tools in the arsenal, that’s one less thing for defenders to worry about, making it easier to shut us down.

[7wit]

13 minutes ago, ABC923 said:

Most goals are not scored by hard shots from the point on a PP anymore.  But if you don’t have that as one of the tools in the arsenal, that’s one less thing for defenders to worry about, making it easier to shut us down.

 

Correct. The more tools you have, the more the defense needs to respect it.

[The_People1]

1 hour ago, travel_dude said:

 

Let's look at who is effective on the point...

Karlsson

Burns

Weber

etc.

 

Maybe a thing of the past....year.

If you don't have a lane, get it close to the net.  Rebounds and deflections.  

 

Yups.  The point of point shots is not to directly score but to create scoring chances as a result of rebounds, deflections, and the ensuing scramble.  The harder the shot from the point, the harder for goalies to prevent a rebound.

[Cowtownguy]

6 hours ago, cross16 said:

Imo a hard point shot is a thing of the past. It really is not a very effective play as the scoring probability on it is so low and misses usually wind up in a loss of possession as the shot rims itself all the way out of the zone. It's a very low percentage play. 

 

I didnt see the game so I can't comment on the specifics against Vancouver but the issue last year was the power play was a lack of movement to creat options. Players were stationary so there only option was to keep moving the puck around hit permieter. Based on what I saw in preseason Ward will change that so I'm confident the pp will turn it around. 

I did not watch the entire game. From the PPs I did see, foosball players are more mobile than we in were game 1.