GDT: Kings @ Flames - Win and We're In! - 7 PM

[FlamesFan18]

We had a stretch in December where we did an ungodly 45+%. And than another stretch of 30+%. Definitely inflated by those stretches. We've lost countless games because of our weak power play this year.

We've also won countless games because of our PP. In the end, it has us above average over almost an 82 game stretch and in a playoff spot which is what matters. I agree some consistency would be nice but our 2nd place PP (mentioned by Method Man) stretch is a massive reason we even had the streak that has us in a secure spot right now instead of where LA is.

 

[Dertell]

"We didn't win, but"

Don't be that guy.

 

[Fig]

Meh. It was what it was. We didn't win, but we didn't back down from anything. We stood up to everyone of their players, we didn't back down at all. It's just their world class players finally stepped up.

LA threw the Flames off their game and it worked. And you can think of it as a good thing, a good lesson.

I actually love this schedule for the Flames, I'm glad we have some real tests down the stretch. Need this PP to go now.

This. LA pulled us into their playing style and beat us with experience. We weren't playing our game. We were so off.

LA came to game though. IMO, not even close to the same team played the Oilers last night.

 

[MCDAVIDISH]

This. LA pulled us into their playing style and beat us with experience. We weren't playing our game. We were so off.

LA came to game though. IMO, not even close to the same team played the Oilers last night.

Most of the time playing a team on a back to back is good, tonight it wasn't cause LA was pissed about losing the night before.

 

[BVicious]

"We didn't win, but"

Don't be that guy.

Why? We lost because of a ****** PP, we were off our game and stood up to a big, experienced team who for some freakish reason isn't scoring at all this year.

This is exactly what a 'we didn't win but' game is. Stop thinking Calgary is elite and should be able to just dominate the Kings. They've been off this year, and as hot as the Flames have been, when it comes to matchups our top players are invisible.

Tkachuk is 19!!!! And that game for him was one of HIS biggest games of the year, no doubt. He was fantastic.

 

[pm88]

Sens fan here who is a big fan of Tkachuk. I love the way he plays with a nasty demeanour. He gives as good as he gets it seems. Doughty is great but he's a notorious trash talker as well. He's no innocent party out there and he was rattled at times with Tkachuk out there. Looking forward to seeing how he develops his game further as the years go by

I wish Ottawa had a guy like him on their team.

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

I was beginning to get worried. You guys were all acting somewhat sane after the last two losses. Nice to know things are back to normal...

 

[Flames Fanatic]

Why? We lost because of a ****** PP, we were off our game and stood up to a big, experienced team who for some freakish reason isn't scoring at all this year.

This is exactly what a 'we didn't win but' game is. Stop thinking Calgary is elite and should be able to just dominate the Kings. They've been off this year, and as hot as the Flames have been, when it comes to matchups our top players are invisible.

Tkachuk is 19!!!! And that game for him was one of HIS biggest games of the year, no doubt. He was fantastic.

No. This is the exact opposite. The team played like absolute dog ****. Period. The end.

We didn't lose because the PP was bad. We lost because we played awful both in the PP and 5 on 5. This was the worst game for the Backlund line in months. The 4th line achieved nothing. The Stajan line was invisible. I can count the amount of good shifts the team had in the first two periods on a single hand.

This isn't about expecting Calgary to be an elite team. This is about expecting Calgary to actually play good hockey in an important game.

Not sure what game you were watching to say it was one of Tkachuk best games. He fought. He threw some big hits and almost had a huge one. He didn't play well defensively. He didn't play particularly well offensively either. He was far bigger an impact in the St. Louis game.

This time of the year is far more about playing well and getting the W than minor moral victories. I'd argue that we didn't really get either.

 

[Lunatik]

I mentioned it earlier, but I find in games filled with penalties the Flames top players play like ****. They play best when they can wear teams down with their skating and the depth of rolling 4 lines that are effective. When there are lots of PPs and PKs, the lines get jumbled and they lose all momentum.

 

[MonyontheMoney]

that "one stretch" is like half the season

from Nov. 15 to Mar. 15 the Flames had the 2nd best PP in the NHL

That stretch where we were near 30% was not half the season, it was a 28 game stretch. Aside from that stretch, and the last 10 games (22%) it has been a very lacklustre PP.

This is not a good PP for the most part. At the very least it's not a PP that makes its coach null from criticism. It's right back down to 18.3% roughly after tonight and back down to about 20th in the league.

 

[Lunatik]

That stretch where we were near 30% was not half the season, it was a 28 game stretch. Aside from that stretch, and the last 10 games (22%) it has been a very lacklustre PP.

This is not a good PP for the most part. It's right back down to 18.3% roughly after tonight and back down to about 20th in the league.

28 games is still more than 1/3 of the season, you talk about it like it was this short stretch.

 

[MonyontheMoney]

28 games is still more than 1/3 of the season, you talk about it like it was this short stretch.

No I don't. I called it a stretch, which it was.

It's not insignificant and I'm not going to write it off, because it doesn't fit my narrative. It happened. Let's acknowledge it. But I don't see how it shouldn't be a more effective PP with the players we have.

 

[Lunatik]

No I don't. I called it a stretch, which it was.

It's not insignificant and I'm not going to write it off, because it doesn't fit my narrative. It happened. Let's acknowledge it. But I don't see how it shouldn't be a more effective PP with the players we have.

Let's look at it from month to month.

October: 4/37 - 27th
November: 4/40 - 28th
December: 15/45 - 1st
January: 10/44 - 9th
February: 5/30 - 20th
March: 8/32 - 5th

We've had 1 month out of the top 10 since the team turned it around as a whole. I hate games like tonight as much as anyone, but suggesting firing someone because of a couple bad games is way over the top. We have a top 10 PP, it has it's ups and downs but since the team turned things around there have been far more ups than down.

 

[JPeeper]

The PP lost us the game, plain and simple.

Most of the Kings penalties were stupid ones too that we need to make them pay. But alas we played like butt.

Get Versteeg, Brouwer and Brodie off the first unit FFS. Tkachuk is a better option for the screen/net presence, Bennett is better than Versteeg and Hamilton or Gio on the point actually have a threatening shot. Having Versteeg out there passing back and forth with Brodie is doing nothing, him taking shots that are always blocked or missed is doing nothing. Brouwer never wins any board battles so he is useless out there. Brodie is not a threat on the blue-line so their is no point in having Brouwer screen then.

Like this isn't hard, it's been the same trash for the entire year. Only reason why our PP was hot in that one month was because Backlund and Tkachuk were carrying the PP and scoring at will.

Also Bartkowski is trash, he never wins any puck battles in our own zone and plays too much.

 

[Lunatik]

The PP lost us the game, plain and simple.

Most of the Kings penalties were stupid ones too that we need to make them pay. But alas we played like butt.

Get Versteeg, Brouwer and Brodie off the first unit FFS. Tkachuk is a better option for the screen/net presence, Bennett is better than Versteeg and Hamilton or Gio on the point actually have a threatening shot. Having Versteeg out there passing back and forth with Brodie is doing nothing, him taking shots that are always blocked or missed is doing nothing. Brouwer never wins any board battles so he is useless out there. Brodie is not a threat on the blue-line so their is no point in having Brouwer screen then.

Like this isn't hard, it's been the same trash for the entire year. Only reason why our PP was hot in that one month was because Backlund and Tkachuk were carrying the PP and scoring at will.

Also Bartkowski is trash, he never wins any puck battles in our own zone and plays too much.

The PP did not cost us the game. Playing terrible in every aspect cost us the game.

Also, while the second unit has been good for us on the PP, it's not like they are outproducing the top unit. In fact it has been relatively even, the 5 guys on the 2nd unit have combined for 18 goals, while the top unit has 23 goals. And before you throw the ice-time argument out there, consider that the top unit also plays the top PKers. Our PP has been good for half the year. it was terrible the first 2 months and in February is was below average, but overall we are still top 10.

This fallacy of blaming the PP all the time needs to stop, it's nothing short of fiction.

 

[Ace Rimmer]

Scoring on the PP to make it 2-0 early on may have impacted the overall outcome of the game. It may have deterred the Kings from taking more penalties, and as you mentioned the Flames play better when there's less chippy play.

Calling the Flames PP "top ten" is just as much fiction as blaming the PP for losses.

One of the biggest things that's bothered me is that over the past few games, zone entries on the PP have been absolute garbage. Gotta get to work on that.

 

[Lunatik]

Scoring on the PP to make it 2-0 early on may have impacted the overall outcome of the game. It may have deterred the Kings from taking more penalties, and as you mentioned the Flames play better when there's less chippy play.

Calling the Flames PP "top ten" is just as much fiction as blaming the PP for losses.

One of the biggest things that's bothered me is that over the past few games, zone entries on the PP have been absolute garbage. Gotta get to work on that.

How is it fiction when it is literally #10 in the NHL? It's an actually statistical rank, yes it needs context but when we look at our start. Our PP has been among the best in the NHL since. Is it perfect? No. But I think people are forgetting that failing 80% of the time gives still gives you a top 10 powerplay.

There are definitely things they need to work on and changes needs to be made, no doubt. By people calling for a guy to get fired over it? That's downright stupid.

 

[MonyontheMoney]

Let's look at it from month to month.

October: 4/37 - 27th
November: 4/40 - 28th
December: 15/45 - 1st
January: 10/44 - 9th
February: 5/30 - 20th
March: 8/32 - 5th

We've had 1 month out of the top 10 since the team turned it around as a whole. I hate games like tonight as much as anyone, but suggesting firing someone because of a couple bad games is way over the top. We have a top 10 PP, it has it's ups and downs but since the team turned things around there have been far more ups than down.

I feel like, off the top of my head, our PP has gotten results (when it has), more so based off of the teams skill than off of the system they've been given putting them in a position to succeed - not having a shooting presence on the first unit, too many stationary players - just to give a couple examples.

I'd probably put money that this is not a top 10 PP come the end of the year, unless some adjustments are made.

 

[Johnny Hoxville]

On the PP, I like when Hartley had Gaudreau controlling the play. Anyone who watches Crosby or Giroux will see the same things. Gaudreau is most effective doing his patrolling around the right circle. I would like to see Dougie and Gio on the 1st unit, and stick Ferland down low and tell him his job is to create havoc and get into position for rebound goals. Have Dougie and Monahan be your trigger men, that's it, keep it simple.

For the 2nd unit, go with Brodie and Stone. And keep the 3M line out there and just let them do their thing. Their chemistry is good enough that they will find the holes in the offensive zone and they will generate chances from that. I also like Stone's point shot and that would be a good weapon to utilize more.

And Ace I agree, our zone entries are seriously such garbage.

 

[Ynnek]

We played the Kings type of game last night unfortunately. The Sharks game will be different without all the distractions from last night.

 

[Vkonroy]

Looks like the PP has already been beaten to death, so won't dwell much more on it, but it was definitely a momentum killer for us and cause for yelling at the TV.

I'm undecided on these new Zone entries they are trying with the PP, on the one hand it is the definition of playing better puck possession hockey, keeping control as you go in. But on the other it seems they are too easily boxed out and we end up in that stationary limbo land of cycling to the outside D (+ Johnny).

I'm hoping as we continue to get good at the controlled entry it will evolve to players learning how to break free and cause a little more chaos in front of the net and move around more organically. Teams are just so good at collapsing these days that without more on the fly type actions you just have to have blind luck to get pucks through otherwise which is what we seem to be relying on currently (and it has been failing, hard.)

 

[Johnny GODreau]

Game was entertaining and Iggy got a Gordie Howe hat trick.

 

[Anglesmith]

I'm definitely on the "we played like dog ****" team. Yeah, our PP was ineffective in the end in plenty of opportunities, and in a game like that where there is no flow and no 5-on-5 play, you need your PP to put goals in the net. But our PP did generate several of the types of chances that led to the Kings' first two goals. The only difference is that they got the lucky bounces on those that we did not.

What I didn't like is that, especially in the third, we didn't seem to really pose any kind of challenge to the Kings in any facet of the game, really. It was easy for them to recover the puck in their own end, it was easy for them to break out and it was a complete piece of cake to carve through our defensive structure for easy goals.

Also, the Backlund line probably had their worst game of the season. A lot of that was probably distraction from the dog-and-pony show that was the Matthew Tkachuk friendship tour, but they really had a bad game. Didn't have more than two shifts where they had possession in the offensive end 5-on-5, and Backlund's play on the Kopitar goal was just awful. I think they only got one shift after that goal, too.

Anyway, I'm hoping that all of this can just be chalked up to the team being distracted, and that they can come out with a better effort against San Jose on Friday. That was an awful game to watch.

 

[Lunatik]

I feel like, off the top of my head, our PP has gotten results (when it has), more so based off of the teams skill than off of the system they've been given putting them in a position to succeed - not having a shooting presence on the first unit, too many stationary players - just to give a couple examples.

I'd probably put money that this is not a top 10 PP come the end of the year, unless some adjustments are made.

All they need to do is score an average of 1 goal every 5 powerplays, I don't think that is that difficult of a task for this team.

I'll break it down even further than I did before. Looking at 5 game segments since December 1st (excluding last night because we all know about that train wreck and there are 51 games), the Flames have been over 20% in 7 of the 10 segments. Of the 3 segments that were under, 2 were back to back (Feb 13 to Mar 5) and the other Jan 7 to 14. On the flip side 4 of the 10 segments we were over 30% (3 consecutive through December and early January) and another from Jan 26 to Feb 7. The other 3 segments were in the 20-29.99% range.

In that same time period the Capitals played 55 games (I figured they were a good choice as a top PP team), in their 11 segments they had 3 segments under 20% (including back to back segments from Feb 18 to Mar 9), 4 segments over 30%, none were back to back. The other 4 were in the 20-29.99 range.

So yeah we have our issues, but let's not make it seem like it's worse than it is. We're not far behind teams like the Caps on the PP.

 

[DCDM]

I'm definitely on the "we played like dog ****" team. Yeah, our PP was ineffective in the end in plenty of opportunities, and in a game like that where there is no flow and no 5-on-5 play, you need your PP to put goals in the net. But our PP did generate several of the types of chances that led to the Kings' first two goals. The only difference is that they got the lucky bounces on those that we did not.

What I didn't like is that, especially in the third, we didn't seem to really pose any kind of challenge to the Kings in any facet of the game, really. It was easy for them to recover the puck in their own end, it was easy for them to break out and it was a complete piece of cake to carve through our defensive structure for easy goals.

Also, the Backlund line probably had their worst game of the season. A lot of that was probably distraction from the dog-and-pony show that was the Matthew Tkachuk friendship tour, but they really had a bad game. Didn't have more than two shifts where they had possession in the offensive end 5-on-5, and Backlund's play on the Kopitar goal was just awful. I think they only got one shift after that goal, too.

Anyway, I'm hoping that all of this can just be chalked up to the team being distracted, and that they can come out with a better effort against San Jose on Friday. That was an awful game to watch.

I 100% agree with this post.