FLAMES @ Penguins - Saturday 14 Oct 2023 - 5PM MDT

[jjgallow]

I set my bar very, very, very low this season.

 

For 2 periods, they cleared it handily.

 

In the 3rd period they crashed right into it.

 

D and G was awful last year.   We fired the coach and kept the players

 

Unlikely to get a different outcome other than the players getting older

 

I was surprised though,  to not see the players try harder to prove something after a coach firing

 

They made an effort for 2 periods and then went home.    I was thinking 20 game run.

 

Not a 2 period run. 

 

 

 

 

[travel_dude]

15 hours ago, conundrumed said:

Noted sarcasm at the end.

I have to agree on the rest. I figured the first 10 games might be a trainwreck and the first 2 have been. Still a no danger offence and not moving the puck quickly at all.

I had the Wings-TBay game on at the same time and watched that one more because those teams are fast and 10-bell saves at both ends regardless of a 6-4 score.

The Flames are absolute turnover machines rn. If they don't clean it up and get skating, they're in for a very long night against Detroit next Sunday. The ice will be seriously tilted vs 4 lines of aggressive forecheck with finishers and fast puck movement. I thought NJ and TBay would be a nightmare start but they are right there with both of those teams.

I've now seen about 12 teams' games. The Flames are not looking good by comparison. There was no point in this game where I thought they looked good. That 2nd period, both teams would have been buried by other teams I've watched. Nobody is playing that sloppy.

For now, everything but Markstrom is broken. Why is Sharangovich on the 4th line? And will we ever get the puck moving quickly in the o-zone? It's making my eyes bleed. Near every shot was zero challenge for their backup.

Markstrom's trying to remove the goat horns, it's pretty magnified he never deserved them atm. It's the continuing saga of zero creativity, slow offence. That's likely why Rango is playing 4th line, he came from elevated pace and one-touch passes. The Flames don't do that. It's painful. They have a hard enough time completing passes slowly.

I tried to avoid mentioning my disenchantment with Mangiapane on the 1st line, but yeah. He's pretty uncoordinated is getting branded on my brain. I'm not anti-diminutive forwards, but damn, shrinking violet, Ted Lindsay was only 5'8". To be current, so is actual 30 goal guy DeBrincat, who isn't handing out free cherry turnovers and falling around for no reason so far.

I do not see a good start to the season here. Buffalo's speed should be an interesting game prior to what I should expect going to the Detroit game.

 

 

First up Ovi and Phillips.  

 

This reminds me of Sutter hockey pace of stagnation.  Without the exciting lines of the early season.

Govich should be up and I really don't care who plays top line othter than Mange.

There are literally many looks you could use that would be better than what we saw.

Did they forget to practice?

 

Take Mange out of the equation and you have a top 9 well suited.

Dube, Govich or Coronato on the top line.

Kadri with either Rosie or Govich on LW.

 

The D should be Weegar and Ras, Hanifin and Tanev, Oesterle and Z.

The best thing was the PK, but we are playing too slow and taking penalties.

 

It looks like all we want to do is play heavy low skill hockey.

Fine on the forecheck but we aren't able to execute plays or passes very often.

 

[medatswhoP]

Late for the party and only listened to the game via satellite whilst driving to B.C.

Listening to Penguins commentary sounded like Markstrom stood on his head again (positive), Coronado goal (positive), the rest quite stale, not much energy.

Basically a boring game.  Key in on third period by the sounds of it the Flames didn’t even show up.

Overall  get this team to play a full 60 min. they have only a “descent team”.

Might  be a long waiting game now to see what changes this team can do on ice or roster changes to improve the team.  I know it’s early in the season but living with reality.

”Go Flames”!  Never quit!