GDT: Flames at Oilers, October 4 2017, 8:00 MT, Sportsnet

[Tofveve]

I am not sure why you are moving Monahan off that line, why not Tkachuk-Monahan-Gaudreau. If we are looking for offense lets put the best guys together.

I do think we need to take Tkachuk off the Backlund/Frolik line to either add more offense to Bennett's line or the top line.



I guess I would wonder why Monahan was singled out when Gaudreau and Ferland as bad or worse?

Also not sure what fired up has to do with a 1st liner. I will take a non-fired up skilled guy over a pumped up plug.

Well last night all-round was a flat performance. And last year for much of the year was the same.

I like that Sam oozes energy. I'll reserve myself from any more negativity and I hope they have a good bounceback game.

 

[Mr Snrub]

I guess I would wonder why Monahan was singled out when Gaudreau and Ferland as bad or worse?

I'm nitpicking, but Ferland was the best player on that line last night, because his game isn't entirely one-dimensional.

Johnny is allowed to be one-dimensional, you're not going to get a lot more out of a diminutive winger. Monahan needs to move down the lineup and log some less privileged minutes to continue to round out his game. I've defended the guy for a long time but last night he only looked good when he was being fed the puck on a silver platter.

 

[CamPopplestone]

I do think GG is a big reason Brodie isn't as effective. Brodie is one of the best skaters we have. I still remember him constantly taking the puck,leading the zone entry, and then even if the puck was lost in the offensive zone he would always be back in time to defend. But with GG he doesn't seem to like the defense ever jumping up like that. With guys like Brodie, Hamilton and even Gio, sometimes you gotta let the D pick a good moment to jump up and lead the rush. Especially if you have Backlund/Frolik out there with them, who are good at sliding back/around to cover for a D jumping up.

Also Brodie was damn good at hitting that stretch pass. I am not saying to do that all the time, because under Hartley it was overused, and became abused and predictable, but there is the time where it is the best play.

I like a lot of the fundamentals GG has, but there does seem to be a lot of unwillingness to just let our most skilled guys go outside the box when they think it would work.

 

[JPeeper]

Monahan was the worst on his line according to fans here, yet Gaudreau was far more useless and Ferland didn't do anything either except turn it over in the corner to McDavid which ended up with McDavid scoring. How was Ferland the best on the line last night? He was just as useless as Gaudreau, except Gaudreau turned it over 10 times more. Monahan had the only good scoring chance for the entire team last night, yet is the only forward singled out for being "bad".

I really don't get the Ferland love at all, he loses tons of board battles, doesn't play defense, can't cycle, and only scores goals off the rush. I give Gaudreau a pass for never playing defense, but Ferland has no excuse to not play defense.

If an outsider read HF Flames they'd think Mony was some 4th line scrub and Ferland was a legit 1st liner, it's a joke. Ferland does nothing better than Monahan does.

 

[Lunatik]

Monahan was the worst on his line according to fans here, yet Gaudreau was far more useless and Ferland didn't do anything either except turn it over in the corner to McDavid which ended up with McDavid scoring. How was Ferland the best on the line last night? He was just as useless as Gaudreau, except Gaudreau turned it over 10 times more. Monahan had the only good scoring chance for the entire team last night, yet is the only forward singled out for being "bad".

I really don't get the Ferland love at all, he loses tons of board battles, doesn't play defense, can't cycle, and only scores goals off the rush. I give Gaudreau a pass for never playing defense, but Ferland has no excuse to not play defense.

If an outsider read HF Flames they'd think Mony was some 4th line scrub and Ferland was a legit 1st liner, it's a joke. Ferland does nothing better than Monahan does.

For once we agree on something

 

[Johnny Hoxville]

I thought Bennett, Backs, Tkachuk, Hathaway, Stajan, Gio, Hamonic and of course Smith all looked pretty good last night. But we came up flat. The Oilers dominated possession, shots and zone time oh and McDavid was all world last night.

If Brodie wants to be better, that’s up to him. I’m not going to ride Brodie and he gets a free pass from me because as a fan, that’s my right. I’ve always had a soft spot for him. But Dougie thrives in this system and does things that Brodie used to and that tells me lots. Dougie just missed a great pass on a 2 on 1 from Tkachuk. Brodie has the green light because hes playing with Hamonic.

Also our top line got owned last night. Completely owned, they failed as a unit and need to take ownership as a line.

 

[Anglesmith]

I just don't know why there needs to be such a focus on making sure we blame the right people on a night when the team, as a whole, wasn't playing competently with the puck.

 

[DCDM]

I just don't know why there needs to be such a focus on making sure we blame the right people on a night when the team, as a whole, wasn't playing competently with the puck.

Makes it seem like there's an easier fix in some minds, I suppose. It's easier to focus on Brouwer and only Brouwer and his incompetencies (as an example) rather than the entire team.

 

[Rangediddy]

Brodie's personal situation must be taking a huge toll on him, quite obvious he cannot focus on hockey. Plus he's not being carried by Gio anymore.

What's his 'personal situation'?

 

[Kahvi]

What's his 'personal situation'?

His fiancee was diagnosed with MS last year

 

[Ace Rimmer]

His fiancee was diagnosed with MS last year

*Wife, as of this past July

 

[Rangediddy]

No kidding... I didn't know that. Well I hope it's something he can learn to draw inspiration from, rather than as a distraction

 

[Calculon]

Starting to think it's more Gulutzan's system than anything else now that's neutering Brodie's abilities.

But hopefully he can find some chemistry with Hamonic soon.

 

[Anglesmith]

Starting to think it's more Gulutzan's system than anything else now that's neutering Brodie's abilities.

But hopefully he can find some chemistry with Hamonic soon.

I thought Brodie was fine. I'm not concerned about his point totals.

I'm wondering, though, if Gulutzan's system is one of those where the team succeeds, but players individually may not thrive.

 

[Baxterman]

The system doesn't seem to be limiting Giordano or Hamilton in terms of jumping into the play. And I would say Brodies issues are much more defensive than offensive at this point so I am not sure how GG or his system are causing that or only negatively affecting Brodie.
Obviously there isn't the same "who cares about defense" system as there was under Harltey but that is a good thing and hard to see how only Brodie would be affected and not Gio and Hamilton.

 

[Mr Snrub]

I thought Brodie was fine. I'm not concerned about his point totals.

I'm wondering, though, if Gulutzan's system is one of those where the team succeeds, but players individually may not thrive.

I agree with Brodie being fine the other night, but it's tough to say that the team succeeds under Gulutzan's system at the expense of individual players when Hartley took a much less talented team further than Gulutzan by playing to its strengths (allowing the most talented players on the team to thrive) rather than trying to force square pegs into round holes.

 

[Mr Snrub]

The system doesn't seem to be limiting Giordano or Hamilton in terms of jumping into the play. And I would say Brodies issues are much more defensive than offensive at this point so I am not sure how GG or his system are causing that or only negatively affecting Brodie.
Obviously there isn't the same "who cares about defense" system as there was under Harltey but that is a good thing and hard to see how only Brodie would be affected and not Gio and Hamilton.

Giordano has a lot less leeway to jump into the play as evidenced by his dip in production, what he does now is nowhere near what was encouraged under Hartley. Hamilton's point totals improved because he got more ice time and played on the top pair rather than with Wideman or Jokipakka or Russell.

 

[Baxterman]

There is going to be an obvious difference from Harltey since under him they had zero defensive responsiblity but even though Gio's numbers have dropped I don't think anyone is saying that his effectiveness has dropped. Hamilton has looked as though he has improved under GG and I don't just mean from a pure statistical perspective but overall I think most people would say he is a better player.

So it seems only Brodie is the player who people are saying has declined out of the top 3 defensemen. So if that is the case I guess why is it only him who people are complaining about if it is a system issue. Also as mentioned how does the system affect his poor defensive play?