GDT - Wild @ Flames 5 December 2023 - 7:00pm MST

[conundrumed]

Extended highlights didn't paint a rosy picture. Neither goalie looked bad imo. Not sure why Vladar got yanked. Sure he'd want the 3rd one back, but those happen. It kind of confuses who you start Thursday. Plus, now is definitely not the time to be impatient with your starter injured. Pulling after 3 goals won't pump his tires, particularly one he coulda had and 2 on his Dmen.

But I didn't watch the whole game. Sucks to pull a goalie because the team can't get going.

[Thebrewcrew]

Think the pull was to shakeup the team. They weren’t at all ready to play last night.

 

Not Vladar’s fault. Could have been 5-0 pretty quickly 

[conundrumed]

22 minutes ago, Thebrewcrew said:

Think the pull was to shakeup the team. They weren’t at all ready to play last night.

 

Not Vladar’s fault. Could have been 5-0 pretty quickly 

That's supposed to be why you have a captain and assistants, imho. Get on your guys when they're flat. Save the hurt feelings for post game. I highly doubt MacKinnon or Crosby are fun to be around when the skaters aren't engaged. MacKinnon even took it out on the coach a few years back.

Pull the goalie, pick a fight are down the list. It is leadership's job to get angry and pass it around. Plus, my favourite version of Backlund as a player is the pissed off one. I don't even mind the bad penalties when he's intense.

[travel_dude]

2 hours ago, conundrumed said:

Extended highlights didn't paint a rosy picture. Neither goalie looked bad imo. Not sure why Vladar got yanked. Sure he'd want the 3rd one back, but those happen. It kind of confuses who you start Thursday. Plus, now is definitely not the time to be impatient with your starter injured. Pulling after 3 goals won't pump his tires, particularly one he coulda had and 2 on his Dmen.

But I didn't watch the whole game. Sucks to pull a goalie because the team can't get going.

 

As much as this wasn't a pull the goalie because he sucks thing, it was a low risk time top start Wolf.  The game was out of reach the way the team was playing so get Wolf in for some reps.  He's going to start one of the coming games against a good team.  The team seemed content to bury Vladar, so let see how they treat a young star.  Not much better by the looks of it.

 

90 seconds in the 2nd was enough proof the team wasn't coming back from this.  I am so sick and tired of soft play.  My impression of the top PP unit was that they were out for a leisurely skate.  No snapping passes.  Lose every battle.  They had 15 giveaways and at times there were more than one on a single shift just trying to get out of the zone.

 

I won't focus too much on any line.  Most were invisible.  2nd line played the least of the top 3 lines.  They were not the worst.  Gotta do something with the top line.  Whether it's Mange or Lindholm, it's not working.  Zary and Govich seemed to be the offense.  The lines were juggled a bit and it wasn't pretty.  More shots perhaps, but not really exciting.  

 

There really isn't a top line or a defensive line that works.  Huberdeau may look good in one game with Backlund, but that's probably just fluke.  Just put Mangiapane back there and figure out what the top line needs to be. Move Govich to 1C and Lindholm to wing with Huberdeau.  Zary-Kadri-Pospisil and Greer-Ruzicka-Dube.  I don't think it really matters, just change the top line up.  Huberdeau is struggling on the D side and the entire line is suffering to clear the zone.  Top line sucks so no point is continuing that.  

 

It will be interesting when Pelletier comes back.  One of those players has to sit, and I can tell you it's not the kids that deserve to.

 

 

[travel_dude]

I'm not sure what's up with Dube this year.  I hate to pick on him in this game, but the 2nd line experiment didn't work.  Overall, the 4th line had a bigger impact, save for the Zary tip in.  Duehr was good in his return, but I didn't think Pospisil should be the one coming out.  It's a tough call.  Mange was okay when he got a shot away, but he makes odd choices.  Dube I saw more bad than good, but not entirely fair to pin on him.  Lindholm was not really noticeable which is tough to say referring to your 1C.  Huberdeau was physical, but I prefer to see that in the O-zone.  His passing was off.    

[travel_dude]

I will go on a bit about Vladar and Wolf.  Neither deserves any blame whatsoever.

Vladar roasted in the first and kept it to one goal.

The start of the 2nd was really bad play in front of him.

Weegar batted the puck directly to the MIN player.

Getting Vladar out of the net was critical to saving his good play for next game.

 

Wolf was dialed in.

The first goal was a PP goal and perfect tip in.  Wolf missed it by an inch.

The second goal was Kadri sliding into him and spinning him around so he couldn't play the puck.

That after a D-zone reakdown.

Wolf stopped a clear breakaway.

[medatswhoP]

23 hours ago, travel_dude said:

I will go on a bit about Vladar and Wolf.  Neither deserves any blame whatsoever.

Vladar roasted in the first and kept it to one goal.

The start of the 2nd was really bad play in front of him.

Weegar batted the puck directly to the MIN player.

Getting Vladar out of the net was critical to saving his good play for next game.

 

Wolf was dialed in.

The first goal was a PP goal and perfect tip in.  Wolf missed it by an inch.

The second goal was Kadri sliding into him and spinning him around so he couldn't play the puck.

That after a D-zone reakdown.

Wolf stopped a clear breakaway.

In a nutshell no goaltending in this game is to blame whatsover I agree Wolf was dialed in also and had a couple misses by tough luck and he did step up where needed.

I would love to keep playing Wolf regardless to build his development up but dam he could use a little help from our D-man. It's hard to win a game when the team in front of you only scores one or two goals.

[travel_dude]

1 hour ago, medatswhoP said:

In a nutshell no goaltending in this game is to blame whatsover I agree Wolf was dialed in also and had a couple misses by tough luck and he did step up where needed.

I would love to keep playing Wolf regardless to build his development up but dam he could use a little help from our D-man. It's hard to win a game when the team in front of you only scores one or two goals.

 

He gets a tired and PO'd CAR tonight