Disaster Alert: What's Wrong With the Flames?
- Thread starter Wayne Primeau
- Start date
Yung Rotini
6 Summers
Anglesmith
Setting up the play?
Pirate King Luffy
Ferkland
What's their to explain? The team isn't great as we thought. Just a lot overhyping by fans in the offseason.
Anglesmith
Setting up the play?
That's a really simplistic explanation, but I think it's false. Two seasons ago we were the fourth worst team in the league, and we played better than this every night. The games were fun to watch and we were in every game until the end.
Something has changed in the way they are playing, because the team is better now than it was there in terms of personnel. So from that, it's not about the team not being good enough, it's about the team not playing well enough. And that's what deserves explanation. What changed since the 2013-14 season to make this team that much worse?
Pirate King Luffy
Ferkland
Nah, the roster isn't good. Besides the top line and and our defense playing lights out the team would have crashed and burned. The team in 2013-14 wasn't a great team. Stempniak and Cammy were huge for us that season, Stempniak would be a great bottom 6 player for us. Hardwork can only take you so far. Last season was a perfect storm for the entire team,'people playing above their norm. Everything went our way. Unreal comebacks etc.
Our top end players got better, but I think our depth is actually worse than past seasons. Raymond and Bollig aren't good. Bouma as a top 6 forward and than getting injured exposed our lines more. The only 2 bottom 6 players of notice are Stajan and Jones.
You can't believe the team actually looks good if you look at it.
Shawnofthedeadz
Registered User
- Jan 18, 2013
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Hamilton has really really been disappointing. I don't think at this stage he is a number #2, let alone a #3 or 4 the way he is playing. Literally, our only d-man worth mentioning is Wideman. Which says a lot. Goalies have been junk too, and Ortio is refused a start which is ridiculous. 3 Goalies defs does not work, I'm not sure if it is because they have to share some practices or what, but Hiller and Ramo have been soft.
The only actually upside I see so far Frolik is as described, Monahan has been solid despite repping a pretty bad +/-, and Gaudreau has been Gaudreau (Up and downs, but that will always be his game style). Besides these three, nobody else has impressed me and most don't even look like they can play an NHL game. I have no idea what these guys were doing this off season? Ugh
Shawnofthedeadz
Registered User
- Jan 18, 2013
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I guess he hasn't been terrible, he was the only bright spot against the Oilers, but beside that game I don't recall seeing him do much.
The only serious things that I can think of that would lead almost every single player to suddenly start playing miserably is
a) raised expectations leading all but Gaudreau and Frolik to grip their sticks a little too tight, over think instead of react, stand around and watch, etc.
b) Hartley's losing the room - every coach has a shelf life; intense and in your face coaches especially
If the team falls well out of the playoff race but turns it around in the second half of the season, I'll lean towards the first scenario. If they stink all season, it's probably the latter.
a) raised expectations leading all but Gaudreau and Frolik to grip their sticks a little too tight, over think instead of react, stand around and watch, etc.
b) Hartley's losing the room - every coach has a shelf life; intense and in your face coaches especially
If the team falls well out of the playoff race but turns it around in the second half of the season, I'll lean towards the first scenario. If they stink all season, it's probably the latter.
oilerbear
Registered User
- Jun 2, 2008
- 3,168
- 199
I watch 90% of flames games each year.
Enjoy objective discussions at work.
there are on Avg 29 Shots per GM
13.5 low chance shots - point and perimeter
goalies average .967 save %
16% of goals come from this area
8 Med chance shots - slot
Goalies avg .923 Save%
32% of goals come from this area
7.5 High chance shots - Box
goalies avg .833 save%
52% of goals from this area.
Around 84% of goals come from 53.4% of the shots.
Last year CGY was the 5th worst team at giving up Shots from the area 84% of the goals are from.
Hiller was the 6th best at stopping shots in the slot/box.
Covered for the weak slot and box D last year.
In 6 games avg team would have given up
81 LCS and 2.673 Goals
48 MCS and 3.696 Goals
45 HCS and 7.515 Goals
should yield 13.884 goals
Calgary has given up:
73 LCS which should be 2.409 goals
They have given 12.2 LCS/gm and 4 goals
64 MCS which should be 4.928 Goals
They have given 10.7 MCS/gm and 4 Goals
34% more MCS shots than an avg team.
57 HCS which should be 9.519 goals
They have given 9.5 HCS/gm and 16 goals
27% more HCS than an average team.
that should have given up 17 Goals based on shots in the 3 areas,
they have yielded 24 goals.
Last year Calgary shared facing the other teams 1st and 2nd lines between
Gaudreau-Monohan-Hudler
Bouma-Backlund-Jones
This years Bouma injury is critical to top end forward defending of oppositions.
Leads to a poorer pocession game forward wize.
putting a greater demand on the defence.
Dougie Hamilton was -1/gm against playoff teams in pacific.
I was curious to see if moving from 1st comp w/ chart to 2nd comp in calgary would be an easy transition.
When you look at Giordano's MCS and HCS defence.
He has not been better than average.
Except with Sarich and Brodie.
I consider Brodie as one of the top 20 slot/box protection D in the game.
With Brodie out.
Giordano and Hamilton are being asked to play first comp in WC which they have not been historically successful at.
Brodies return gets you back to a top pair of
Giordano
Brodie
Gets a young Hamilton facing 2nd comp.
should reduce the MCS (slot) and HCS (box) count.
I would expect Hiller to bounce back.
He is consistently in top 10 For save% for the tough shots.
Unless!
He is starting the traditional down turn in Goalie performance at his age.
We shall see.
Ramo is not the answer.
He averages 23 rd best of 42 goalies since the lockout.
Ortio is #42 of 42.
Last edited:
OvermanKingGainer
#BennettFreed #CurseofTheSpulll #FreeOliver
Forwards:
This team needs a heavy-hitter. With Bouma out, and Frolik/Backlund/Hudler/Gaudreau/Monahan all playing "stickwork" games the top 6 seems to have no physicality. I'm not talking about pretentious Colborne/Bollig "physicality", I'm talking about Lance Bouma, Playoffs Ferland, Paul Byron, and Mark Giordano physicality. The kind that gets guys going.
Johnny needs to start shooting the damn puck. He's becoming a give-away machine because he's trying to thread the needle on every play.
Monahan... I think we need to separate him from Johnny for a while.
Hudler was invisible. Let's get him back with Johnny.
Bennett's been good. It might be time to get him back at center if this season goes south. His play in the D-zone and Neutral-zone are really encouraging, in the offensive zone he's still adjusting but he's probably our best cycling forward. Which is kind of sad because he's a 19 year old.
Ferland is trying but he's... just not really that good. There's no real first step to his game which I think is the problem.
Frolik is great, but no physicality whatsoever. Need to get Jones on the opposite wing...
Jones has been good. Maybe get him more top 6 minutes at this point on Bennett's wing opposite Frolik.
Backlund's been whatever. He's better than this.
Stajan/Jooris have been good bottom 6ers. Can't fault their play. But nothing really stands out either.
Colborne is useless. Do people really believe this guy does anything?
Defense:
Giordano, Kulak, Engelland actually look fine. And I say this as an Engelland hater. That Kulak-Engelland pairing actually plays the best defense on this team. Which shouldn't be happening but is.
Wideman needs to stop pinching 10/10 times during tie-game. If he wants to play RW then put him at RW because he's not cutting it at RD. At some point when the puck comes to the blue line you need to have some confidence that your blueliners can keep the puck in and simply get it back deep. In the D-zone he got burned today but that's par for the course with him. I'm more frustrated with his O-zone play.
Russell actually seems to be trying to adapt his game in the D-zone for better possession. It's resulted in tough luck for him though as he's not getting better possession and he's not getting miraculous blocked shots. He's stuck between a rock and a hard place right now. Maybe this partner change helps him.
Hamilton has been a nightmare.
Goaltending
After Ramo's brutal game 1, they really both look the same as last year. They're getting shelled however and shot measures don't tell the story because every shot they're facing is a breakaway or a centering feed from the corners.
This team needs a heavy-hitter. With Bouma out, and Frolik/Backlund/Hudler/Gaudreau/Monahan all playing "stickwork" games the top 6 seems to have no physicality. I'm not talking about pretentious Colborne/Bollig "physicality", I'm talking about Lance Bouma, Playoffs Ferland, Paul Byron, and Mark Giordano physicality. The kind that gets guys going.
Johnny needs to start shooting the damn puck. He's becoming a give-away machine because he's trying to thread the needle on every play.
Monahan... I think we need to separate him from Johnny for a while.
Hudler was invisible. Let's get him back with Johnny.
Bennett's been good. It might be time to get him back at center if this season goes south. His play in the D-zone and Neutral-zone are really encouraging, in the offensive zone he's still adjusting but he's probably our best cycling forward. Which is kind of sad because he's a 19 year old.
Ferland is trying but he's... just not really that good. There's no real first step to his game which I think is the problem.
Frolik is great, but no physicality whatsoever. Need to get Jones on the opposite wing...
Jones has been good. Maybe get him more top 6 minutes at this point on Bennett's wing opposite Frolik.
Backlund's been whatever. He's better than this.
Stajan/Jooris have been good bottom 6ers. Can't fault their play. But nothing really stands out either.
Colborne is useless. Do people really believe this guy does anything?
Defense:
Giordano, Kulak, Engelland actually look fine. And I say this as an Engelland hater. That Kulak-Engelland pairing actually plays the best defense on this team. Which shouldn't be happening but is.
Wideman needs to stop pinching 10/10 times during tie-game. If he wants to play RW then put him at RW because he's not cutting it at RD. At some point when the puck comes to the blue line you need to have some confidence that your blueliners can keep the puck in and simply get it back deep. In the D-zone he got burned today but that's par for the course with him. I'm more frustrated with his O-zone play.
Russell actually seems to be trying to adapt his game in the D-zone for better possession. It's resulted in tough luck for him though as he's not getting better possession and he's not getting miraculous blocked shots. He's stuck between a rock and a hard place right now. Maybe this partner change helps him.
Hamilton has been a nightmare.
Goaltending
After Ramo's brutal game 1, they really both look the same as last year. They're getting shelled however and shot measures don't tell the story because every shot they're facing is a breakaway or a centering feed from the corners.
OvermanKingGainer
#BennettFreed #CurseofTheSpulll #FreeOliver
Hi, good analysis. Much better than the ""analysis"" being offered by your fellow Oilers fans on the main board talking about comebacks and PDO. It pretty much confirms what my eye-test tells me, too.
As for Hiller, he'll bounce back. Ortio's stats are due to a useless sample size so I'm not too concerned there. Ramo definitely isn't up to par, his biggest weakness is controlling the slot.
oilerbear
Registered User
- Jun 2, 2008
- 3,168
- 199
Here ar the numbers for each game:
Game - LCG/LCS - MCG/MCS - HCG/HCS
VS WSH - 0/11 - 1/5 - 5/14 lit up in tight
VS EDM - 0/9 - 1/12 - 4/7
@ WPG - 1/17 - 0/8 - 1/4 kept the shots to perimeter
VS STL - 2/11 - 0/7 - 2/10
@ VCR - 0/12 - 1/7 - 1/11 Hiller won the game for you
VS VCR - 1/13 - 1/10 - 3/11
Hiller stole the VCR game for you!
WPG was your best Slot/ Box d game.
All home games are a nightmare.
You really need Brodie back!
Anglesmith
Setting up the play?
I was at the second Vancouver game. I wouldn't say Hiller won the game for us. We actually generated a ton of zone time in that one. The Canucks were under pressure all game, and while Hiller was great, Miller made a lot more difficult saves.
