FLAMES @ Canadiens Thursday 11 November 2021

[rocketdoctor]

 

 

 

 

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THURSDAY 11 NOVEMBER 2021

5.00PM MT

SNW

SPORTSNET FAN960

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rocketdoctor]

[conundrumed]

Hope it's okay to jump in early. Damn RD, I love that you're in Britain as I'm a 5am riser in Ontario.lol So it's 2pm there and 9am here. Sorry your game times suck though, I have enough trouble with 9-10pm starts here and love EST road trips.

I'm surrounded by Leaf, MTL, BOS, DET fans here. Mind you, I'm a DET fan because Detroit's an hr away and way more fun than the hyper-tense Leaf and MTL fans. One of my fave US cities. "Hockeytown" may seem arrogant, but it is hockeytown with great, knowledgeable fans that are respectful of visiting fans if you didn't come to be an Hash Rate.

Please Flames, own these frigging zero structure MTL and Leaf teams. It causes me tremendous pain when you don't. You have no idea how these fans look waaaaay down at you as a Sabres-type team. Always have, always will.

Bury them. They truly deserve it.

I wonder if Vladar is a must tonight, or if Sutter doesn't really care about weaker vs stronger team? I think I'm good either way. We'll see, there are 2 distinct schools of philosophy in the matter. Vladar needs some reps.

Hopefully we'll get all over MTL and save some for tomorrow.

[travel_dude]

1 hour ago, conundrumed said:

I wonder if Vladar is a must tonight, or if Sutter doesn't really care about weaker vs stronger team? I think I'm good either way. We'll see, there are 2 distinct schools of philosophy in the matter. Vladar needs some reps.

Hopefully we'll get all over MTL and save some for tomorrow.

 

Well, it's a toss up.  A lot of coaches prefer to use their starter behind a tired lineup. 

They tend to use the starter against the stronger team.

Others tend to believe you use your best goalie when your team is fresh to give a better chance at winning one.

The 2nd game then is gravy.

 

After a regulation loss, Sutter may be a bit gun-shy.

He was gutsy using Vladar in WAS, and played him behind a tired team against NJ.

Toronto has a higher volume of shots from the top 6, while MTL spreads it out but are even through the top 9.

Vladar has a little more trouble with wristers from the circle.

Toronto is on game 1 of a B2B, but the next night is BUFF.

JT is questionable, but Willy is taking up the slack.

Line matching will be more difficult.

 

Let's see if Sutter agrees, but the bigger game is TO.

Vladar needs reps and probably should face MTL.

Then again, it would be huge for him to knock off both the Caps and Leafs.

[conundrumed]

10 minutes ago, travel_dude said:

 

Well, it's a toss up.  A lot of coaches prefer to use their starter behind a tired lineup. 

They tend to use the starter against the stronger team.

Others tend to believe you use your best goalie when your team is fresh to give a better chance at winning one.

The 2nd game then is gravy.

 

After a regulation loss, Sutter may be a bit gun-shy.

He was gutsy using Vladar in WAS, and played him behind a tired team against NJ.

Toronto has a higher volume of shots from the top 6, while MTL spreads it out but are even through the top 9.

Vladar has a little more trouble with wristers from the circle.

Toronto is on game 1 of a B2B, but the next night is BUFF.

JT is questionable, but Willy is taking up the slack.

Line matching will be more difficult.

 

Let's see if Sutter agrees, but the bigger game is TO.

Vladar needs reps and probably should face MTL.

Then again, it would be huge for him to knock off both the Caps and Leafs.

The bolded is precisely what I mean. Let's find out. I'm okay either way. We don't know yet, so I don't really have a preference.

The NHL falls out of AHL-mode at about the 15-20 game mark imo. I like our start, but keeping it up would be far more impressive as every team finds their game legs..

[travel_dude]

11 minutes ago, conundrumed said:

The bolded is precisely what I mean. Let's find out. I'm okay either way. We don't know yet, so I don't really have a preference.

The NHL falls out of AHL-mode at about the 15-20 game mark imo. I like our start, but keeping it up would be far more impressive as every team finds their game legs..

 

It looks to be Markstrom, so Dutter going all in tonight.

Playing the Leafs will give Vladar a ton of confidence.

I think we have to horses to outscore them and the type of D the skill guys hate.

Matthews plays a hard nosed game, but Willie can be layed out.

Brodie is their best all round D, but he's gonna hate playing Tkachuk, Lucic, Coleman, and Lewis.

 

Tonight it's almost guaranteed that Lucic or Guddy will fight someone.

 

On a side note, how bad has Nick Ritchie been.

He's getting 3x what his brother makes and doing very little.

[The_People1]

If it's a home game, start the starter because fans pay to see their team's star players.  On the road against a weaker opponent, give the start to your backup.

[travel_dude]

It would seem that Dutter is switching things up a bit:

 

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Gaudreau – Lindholm – Tkachuk
Coleman – Backlund – Pitlick
Lucic – Monahan – Mangiapane
Dube – Richardson – Pitlick

Hanifin – Andersson
Kylington – Tanev
Zadorov – Gudbranson

 

This may have to do with having last change.  Weird, since we now have two Pitlicks.  Assume the 2nd version is Lewis.

It's not going to hurt Dube; he can generate with anyone.  Less demanding duties so he can get back to scoring.

[The_People1]

5 minutes ago, travel_dude said:

It would seem that Dutter is switching things up a bit:

 

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Gaudreau – Lindholm – Tkachuk
Coleman – Backlund – Pitlick
Lucic – Monahan – Mangiapane
Dube – Richardson – Pitlick

Hanifin – Andersson
Kylington – Tanev
Zadorov – Gudbranson

 

This may have to do with having last change.  Weird, since we now have two Pitlicks.  Assume the 2nd version is Lewis.

It's not going to hurt Dube; he can generate with anyone.  Less demanding duties so he can get back to scoring.

 

The Dube-Mangiapane combo got a bit stale.  Good to mix it up a bit.

[travel_dude]

7 minutes ago, The_People1 said:

If it's a home game, start the starter because fans pay to see their team's star players.  On the road against a weaker opponent, give the start to your backup.

 

It would seem that Sutter does not listen to us.  He's had Ritchie on the 2nd line, sat Valimaki over Zadorov, gave a tough road game to the backup....

Big road trip, so I hope he knows what he is doing.

[conundrumed]

9 minutes ago, The_People1 said:

If it's a home game, start the starter because fans pay to see their team's star players.  On the road against a weaker opponent, give the start to your backup.

I disagree. It's also important to establish your backup. Sure it's a risk. Oh well. He has to be up for it, all of the time. Not just weak starts.

[travel_dude]

1 minute ago, The_People1 said:

 

The Dube-Mangiapane combo got a bit stale.  Good to mix it up a bit.

 

I think it's time to move Monahan up.  He was having a tough time with guys that really don't generate much offense.

Considering all his scoring has been playing with the best players, I am okay with this.

Lucic will not be feeding him as much in the slot, but he does dominate on the boards.

Mangiapane is a great guy to team him up with.

[The_People1]

5 minutes ago, travel_dude said:

 

It would seem that Sutter does not listen to us.  He's had Ritchie on the 2nd line, sat Valimaki over Zadorov, gave a tough road game to the backup....

Big road trip, so I hope he knows what he is doing.

 

Ya hope Ritchie doesn't come back anytime soon.  Dube will probably get benched for his return...

[The_People1]

1 minute ago, conundrumed said:

I disagree. It's also important to establish your backup. Sure it's a risk. Oh well. He has to be up for it, all of the time. Not just weak starts.

 

Maybe Sutter is throwing the Leafs game.  We play such a taxing system that guys need the full day to rest.  Not likely going to beat the Leafs tmw anyways with Markstrom

[travel_dude]

1 minute ago, conundrumed said:

I disagree. It's also important to establish your backup. Sure it's a risk. Oh well. He has to be up for it, all of the time. Not just weak starts.

 

Vladar got some confidence with the WAS win, so it will be interesting to see how he does against the Laffs.

They have no book on him.

 

[The_People1]

2 minutes ago, travel_dude said:

 

I think it's time to move Monahan up.  He was having a tough time with guys that really don't generate much offense.

Considering all his scoring has been playing with the best players, I am okay with this.

Lucic will not be feeding him as much in the slot, but he does dominate on the boards.

Mangiapane is a great guy to team him up with.

 

"Move up" but he's still with Lucic.  So Sutter sticking with the Lucic-Monahan combo at the sacrifice of Dube-Mangiapane

[travel_dude]

2 minutes ago, The_People1 said:

 

Ya hope Ritchie doesn't come back anytime soon.  Dube will probably get benches for his return...

 

Strangely enough, we are 0-1-2 with Ricthie out of the lineup and the same with Richardson in.

Just a coincidence of course.

More likely Lewis gets the popcorn.

Dube is being used in all situations.

He's like a Ryan.

Play any position or line.

 

[travel_dude]

2 minutes ago, The_People1 said:

 

"Move up" but he's still with Lucic.  So Sutter sticking with the Lucic-Monahan combo at the sacrifice of Dube-Mangiapane

 

The combo Sutter is keeping together is Lucic-Mangiapane, which is more questionable.

I would have preferred Mangiapane-Monahan-Dube myself.

Lucic hasn't helped Mangiapane that much, but he isn't hurting him.

 

But what do I know.  Dutter is seeing things in practice and game tapes he wanted to adjust.

He talked about how Dube was a work in progress at C.

Said he could shelter him at home, but he wasn;t quite as effective on the road.

[travel_dude]

Okay, may have been a mistake, it seems that Francis has a different take:

 

 

 

Eric Francis

 

@EricFrancis

· 1h

Flames lines here in Montreal have been switched up a bit. Monahan movin’ on up, Dube to the wing:

Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk

Coleman-Monahan-Mangiapane

Dube-Backlund-Lewis

Lucic-Richardson-Pitlick

 

Hanifin-Andersson

Kylington-Tanev

Zadorov-Gudbranson

 

Markstrom

[travel_dude]

^^^^^

A little more balanced.  Pitlick stabilizes the 4th line.

Dube and Backlund together are fine.

Coleman getting some top 6 looks.

[redfire11]

3 minutes ago, travel_dude said:

Coleman-Monahan-Mangiapane

If these two can't get Monahan the puck in the slot we might have to revisit JG and Mony duo.

[flames-fan-in-jets-land]

19 minutes ago, travel_dude said:

Okay, may have been a mistake, it seems that Francis has a different take:

 

 

 

Eric Francis

 

@EricFrancis

· 1h

Flames lines here in Montreal have been switched up a bit. Monahan movin’ on up, Dube to the wing:

Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk

Coleman-Monahan-Mangiapane

Dube-Backlund-Lewis

Lucic-Richardson-Pitlick

 

Hanifin-Andersson

Kylington-Tanev

Zadorov-Gudbranson

 

Markstrom

It's better the your original line up post for the fact that Dube isnt stuck on the 4th line and Pitlick isnt being double shifted.

[travel_dude]

1 minute ago, flames-fan-in-jets-land said:

It's better for the fact that Dube isnt stuck on the 4th line and Pitlick isnt being double shifted.

 

I think we traded for a 2nd Pitlick.

We should probably get another Andersson and Lindholm.

[conundrumed]

Tbh, I think Sutter's just playing 4D chess on the road. Opponent matches up for those lines, change them.

Why wouldn't you? Create confusion when they have last change.

Try anything. Fun to watch a wily, older coach hiding his hands.

Any style a team wants to play on the road can be matched by our roster.

Let's do this thing. I want a team angry about last year and sweep the east.

Motivated.

[travel_dude]

1 minute ago, conundrumed said:

Tbh, I think Sutter's just playing 4D chess on the road. Opponent matches up for those lines, change them.

Why wouldn't you? Create confusion when they have last change.

Try anything. Fun to watch a wily, older coach hiding his hands.

Any style a team wants to play on the road can be matched by our roster.

Let's do this thing. I want a team angry about last year and sweep the east.

Motivated.

 

By the East, I assume you mean MTL, OTT a nd TOR.

I would be happy with a sweep, and I want to see MTL and TOR fans yelling for trades.

Beat MTL tonight, TOR tomorrow and then have TOR lose to Buffalo.

I hope the NHL doesn't allow OTT to reschedule; no other teams seems to have had that luxury.

I hate OTT.

They embarrased us last year.

They deserve a beat down.

TOR needs to drop a few pegs so that the Toronto Sports Network and SN stop talking about them like they are a dynasty team.

 

This is a huge roadie for us.  13 games on the road in total with this trip.  6 at home.