GDT: [Oct 11] OPENING NIGHT: Jets @ Flames 8:00mt SNW

[deleted user]

Yep. Edmonton is.. Edmonton. I'd rather eat horse poo rolled over broken glass. Vancouver? I did hate them. Not now. That hate left with certain players leaving/retiring. Winnipeg? Yeah, I like their logo and kinda don't mind wishing em luck. Not when playing us, though. Obviously. ᕦ⁠(⁠ò⁠_⁠ó⁠ˇ⁠)⁠ᕤ

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

Markstrom played well.
The Flames created a lot of chances on few shots.
They got outplayed but won the game.

Complete opposite of last year

 

[JurassicTunga]

Worst game of the season, and we still won.
This bodes well!

A great night with the Oilers getting completely dummied too.

 

[Lunatik]

"Bertuzzi looks like hockey player", he looks like someone that lives in a trailer and took his cousin to prom by choice

 

[deleted user]

Bahaha

 

[Fig]

Markstrom played well.
The Flames created a lot of chances on few shots.
They got outplayed but won the game.

Complete opposite of last year

They kept bumping into each other and collapsing too deep in front of the net giving the jets too much space. But I assume it'll improve.

Lots of interesting passing and plays. Double edged sword at times though.

 

[Boomstick]

Goodnight all. Cheers.

 

[deleted user]

 

[Unlimited Chequing]

"Bertuzzi looks like hockey player", he looks like someone that lives in a trailer and took his cousin to prom by choice

I can always tell it's one of your posts even before reading the poster's name

 

[Master Bill]

Feels nice to be outshot but score more than the other team!

The two guys that need to bounce back the most from last season both showed up - Huberdeau and Markstrom were great

 

[Anglesmith]

My issue is Backlund is regularly one of our most undisciplined players, which he can't be as a top penalty killer.

I did think his two penalties were good ones to take today FWIW.

 

[DFF]

Markstrom stole the game for us

I didn’t think any of the forwards played that well but Huberdeau, Lindholm and Mangi all got multiple points so it’s a good start

 

[Bounces R Way]

Well if different than last year is what we all wanted the Flames gave it to us. Thought they were a total mess defensively, which tbh isn't surprising considering Huska is a brand new minted NHL HC and going from man to man to zone is as bout as different as you can get. Lots of positives from this game however. Markstrom's game being the most obvious. That they actually won a game they didn't really deserve to being the 2nd. They deserved to win many of the games they lost last season, so maybe we see some cosmic payback this one. Also liked what I saw from the team's young players and several of the vets.

Great :
Marky - I know I'm a little on the island with this one but even after that last season and 2022 playoffs I still believe in this guy. We're paying him to be a solid #1 goalie and I think he's perfectly capable of that. He's a competitive guy who takes his job seriously, I'm ok with the occasional Connor floater going in if he can battle like he did in this one. I think Darryl really got in his head and that he's going to have a much better season. Doesn't need to be Vezina quality.
Ruzicka - A motivated and skating Adam Ruzicka I love. I don't think he ends the season on the 4th line if plays like that.
Zadorov - re-sign this dude. Anything up to 5 per would be lovely. I think he's found a home here.

Good :
Lindholm - excellent pass and nice GWG, such a solid player when he's focused. I vote re-sign Elias as well, would do 8.5 x 6 right now.
Mangiapane - looking back to his old self. Quick decisions, head in the game, pain in the ass to play against.
Coronato - good jump, maybe had a little tunnel vision on scoring a goal with his folks in the building. Believe that the Flames have a good player here
Weegar - threw some good hits, moved the puck effectively.


Not bad :
Andersson - great snipe, liked him on the powerplay, less stationary
Backlund - snarly game from Backs, took a couple penalties, had his nose in there. The C looks good on him
Coleman - good guy, tries hard, loves the game
4th line wingers were solid, Greer really has no hands tho
Dillon Dube - I like him. I dunno if I like 1st line like him.

Sure fine ok
Huberdeau & Kadri - they weren't bad or anything. Huberdeau made some plays. Just wanted to see more from the team's two highest paid players after the way last season went.
Tanev - looking kinda old. Would way rather him bring Solovyov along on a shutdown pairing with Chris than see him whacking it around with Oesterle.
Sharangovich - some good some not so good. Really had to be in the lane for the 2nd Jets goal.

Not good :
Hanifin - several bad giveaways. Just not up to his usual standard.
Oesterle - had a nice block to save a goal but didn't like him other than that. Another in a long line of cheap UFA defenseman the Flames bring in and say "Welp, it's your job to lose" And then they don't lose it. But I often question if they're actually good at it. Like they can do it, but are they doing it well? Not sure. I don't mind him but not for 60+ games plz

Feel like Snowy would have liked that one. Kelsie and the kids to drop the puck was a nice touch.
also congratulations Ryan Huska on his first NHL W

 

[super6646]

The team did not deserve that win lol

Individually I thought marky, coronato, mangiapane, Weegar, Andy had good games. Huberdeau despite the two pts was godawful.

Take that and run.

 

[Anglesmith]

The Bambi-legs act from Huberdeau was concerning last year, but it's extremely alarming seeing it again to start a new year when things are supposed to be different. Reminds me of Kylington of a few years ago.

He is so different from Florida Huberdeau, and I would love to know why.

All will be forgiven if he just gets better all of a sudden, which would be swell.

 

[super6646]

The Bambi-legs act from Huberdeau was concerning last year, but it's extremely alarming seeing it again to start a new year when things are supposed to be different. Reminds me of Kylington of a few years ago.

He is so different from Florida Huberdeau, and I would love to know why.

All will be forgiven if he just gets better all of a sudden, which would be swell.

Guy doesn’t f***ing skate lol. And then there were 2 or 3 times the man just tripped or lost the puck entirely despite having no pressure on him.


Seriously, where tf is the franchise talent? Ya he had 2 pts, he was terrible and might’ve had none if not for an insane mangi feed. I’ve long beyond stopped having expectations, but for the first 90% of the game he was a literal no show at ES.

 

[Volica]

Oesterle - had a nice block to save a goal but didn't like him other than that. Another in a long line of cheap UFA defenseman the Flames bring in and say "Welp, it's your job to lose" And then they don't lose it. But I often question if they're actually good at it. Like they can do it, but are they doing it well? Not sure. I don't mind him but not for 60+ games plz

It's too bad that Oliver is having his issues. Really sucks because Oesterle wouldn't even be seeing the ice outside of some injuries... also I think it'd help Tanev not look his age It's easy to forget about Kylington because he hasn't played in what seems forever now, but him as our 3LD would make this team infinitely better and add that extra layer of speed.

IMO Kadri looked poor last night, and Sharangovich was invisible. That line wasn't particularly good at even strength.

I thought Weegar/Zadorov looked incredible; I think that'll be our top unit most of the year. Props to big bad Zad for finding a home here and sort of living up to that draft pedigree a decade after he was taken in the first round.

 

[Lunatik]

Speaking of Oesterle... I hope we give Gilbert a shot on Saturday vs the Pens. Or even move Rooney to LTIR and bring up Solovyov to give him a look, it doesn't hurt to have 8 D on a long road trip and it's not like we are accruing cap space with Kylington on LTIR.

I also agree with Volica, Kylington on our 3rd pair (which I believe was the plan heading into camp) would be a game changer.

 

[Fig]

The Bambi-legs act from Huberdeau was concerning last year, but it's extremely alarming seeing it again to start a new year when things are supposed to be different. Reminds me of Kylington of a few years ago.

He is so different from Florida Huberdeau, and I would love to know why.

All will be forgiven if he just gets better all of a sudden, which would be swell.

Something is strange for sure about his skating. But on the empty net, I was also surprised to see him suddenly look taller and faster. He won the foot race at a speed that I was surprised to see from him.

Is he adapting his skating to address the slow foot speed concerns of yore? More speed, less stationary strength? I wouldn't mind that.

 

[HighLifeMan]

The team was incredibly flat as a whole and Markstrom stole us that game. Winnipeg looked far sharper in all three zones, but the one key point to focus on was the night and day difference in this team's approach in the offensive zone. They were actually holding on to pucks. looking for trailers, and trying to create movement. There is a ton of work to do, but I am not going to complain about a goaltender stealing us a win after last season.

It's weird to see the Huberdeau bashing. He certainly didn't have a great night overall, but still had two points, and won a foot race/battle to put the game away at the end. He also should have had another apple if Coronato had finished the tap in on the PP. The top line showed up when we needed them too. That's important. What about Nazem Kadri who was outchanced 20-2 at five on five last night? That is far more concerning to me.

Not a fan of Oesterle either, and Hanifin was downright bad last night. Mangiapane was by far our best player which is also encouraging - hopefully a bounce back is in order now that he's healthy.

 

[Nanuuk]

Missed most of the game and by all accounts we were outplayed most of the night.

Some positives however.

1) Mangiapane - looks like the player of old now that he is healthy and playing with Backs And Pickles
2) Ruzicka - won 55.6% of his face-offs (5 of 9). This bodes well for his future as a C.
3) Speaking of which Flames won the night in face-offs. All, but Backlund (41.7%) were above 50% with Lindy at a whopping 84%! No Jet was above 50%
4) Markstrom was on the money. Right up until the late third Jet goal he was at .944 Sv%. Finished at .921
5) They didn't quit after the Jets tying goal

 

[RasmusAndersson]

We looked pretty rusty and our d zone coverage was bad, but my biggest takeaway is how refreshing it is to have 4 actual NHL-calibre forward lines. The fact that we don't have to watch the corpses of Lucic and Lewis and Ritchie is sooooo underrated. I loved Looch and even Lewis at times here, but my god is it refreshing and exciting to have some actual young, decent offensive talent in the bottom-6. I thought Duehr and Ruzi were very good. Still borderline top-9 guys, but such an improvement to the 4th line its insane. I think this alone will make a huge difference for us this year.

Kadri was meh and I don't like him with Coronato. Put Coronato with Backs and give him the Tkachuk sheltered treatment until he grows into the top-line role.

I'd go with:

Hubes-Lindy-Mang
Sharangovich-Backlund-Coronato
Coleman-Kadri-Dube
Greer-Ruzi-Duehr

Hanifin is so dumb sometimes and we need to upgrade LD if Kylington is out long term. Otherwise lots to like but also lots to work on after that game

 

[Lunatik]

our d zone coverage was bad

It is prudent to remember that they are playing a different defensive system, the have gone from man-to-man to a zone defense, so it might take a bit to finish adjusting.

 

[Fig]

The team was incredibly flat as a whole and Markstrom stole us that game. Winnipeg looked far sharper in all three zones, but the one key point to focus on was the night and day difference in this team's approach in the offensive zone. They were actually holding on to pucks. looking for trailers, and trying to create movement. There is a ton of work to do, but I am not going to complain about a goaltender stealing us a win after last season.

It's weird to see the Huberdeau bashing. He certainly didn't have a great night overall, but still had two points, and won a foot race/battle to put the game away at the end. He also should have had another apple if Coronato had finished the tap in on the PP. The top line showed up when we needed them too. That's important. What about Nazem Kadri who was outchanced 20-2 at five on five last night? That is far more concerning to me.

Not a fan of Oesterle either, and Hanifin was downright bad last night. Mangiapane was by far our best player which is also encouraging - hopefully a bounce back is in order now that he's healthy.

Kadri's numbers might be bad because I think his line was a bit in a blender and he was babysitting some younger players. The positioning of players was brutally bad. Almost as bad as when Gully first started off and players were colliding into each other, but not as bad.

The vets were covering for each other and vet laden lines performed well. The 4th line exceeded expectations and that was more that they met low expectations but also added a sandpaper element that was highly appreciated.

We looked pretty rusty and our d zone coverage was bad, but my biggest takeaway is how refreshing it is to have 4 actual NHL-calibre forward lines. The fact that we don't have to watch the corpses of Lucic and Lewis and Ritchie is sooooo underrated. I loved Looch and even Lewis at times here, but my god is it refreshing and exciting to have some actual young, decent offensive talent in the bottom-6. I thought Duehr and Ruzi were very good. Still borderline top-9 guys, but such an improvement to the 4th line its insane. I think this alone will make a huge difference for us this year.

Kadri was meh and I don't like him with Coronato. Put Coronato with Backs and give him the Tkachuk sheltered treatment until he grows into the top-line role.

I'd go with:

Hubes-Lindy-Mang
Sharangovich-Backlund-Coronato
Coleman-Kadri-Dube
Greer-Ruzi-Duehr

Hanifin is so dumb sometimes and we need to upgrade LD if Kylington is out long term. Otherwise lots to like but also lots to work on after that game

We played against a Jets team familiar with Bowness' system. We have a rookie coach in Huska and a team playing a system they aren't familiar with AND I suspect the system is a work in progress (similar to what we saw in the Gulutzan and Ward era). However, I do see certain things that give me optimism of this system and I do not anticipate we will continue to see our guys bump into each other in groups of 2 or 3, so that's good.

Kadri's line looked like a 2B line last night. I wouldn't disassemble Back's line to slow it down and mentor Coronato. Backs deserves a chance to run free and contribute vs baby sit. He's done it for many years, it's Kadri's turn for a little bit. Kadri's mentoring Coronato here. It's not like a Bouma, Colborne etc. type situation Coronato is already very good. We anticipate he's going to be great though.

 

[HighLifeMan]

This game would have had Darryl absolutely fuming regardless of the outcome, and I don't doubt that he would have completely killed the positive vibes that come alongside a late game win like that. Huska, while admitting they probably deserved to lose, kept things positive and upbeat with smiles throughout his post game presser. That type of approach will have a significant effect on this group over the year.