Series Discussion: Calgary Flames vs. Colorado Avalanche

[Deen]

Clearly Rittich tonight right?

 

[cgf]

Johnny will be fine when the team isn't constantly putting themselves in weak, outnumbered positions.

Recency bias is a thing. Right now the Avs are playing a great brand of hockey, and the Flames are not, and that makes the players on the Flames look awful and the players on the Avs look amazing. By what's being said on this board, you would think that MacKinnon never had his struggles this season, and Johnny et. al did, which isn't true. MacKinnon had 10 points in 14 games in January while the Avs were playing awful hockey, and that was with a 3-point night mixed in.

Instead of focusing on "are our guys better than their guys in a vacuum," the focus needs to be on playing a brand of hockey as a team that will make their guys look bad and our guys good instead of the other way around. This is a whole-team issue. It's not about individuals.

Sorry to butt into your thread and please delete this if it upsets folks, but I'm way to anxious about the game tonight, thought this was a good point & just couldn't stop myself from going full pedant lol...what killed us during that midseason slump was the goaltending rather than our offense. Our underlying #s were actually consistently good during that stretch & the goal-support our netminders got was more than adequate as well; so MacK only getting 10 points in 14 games there wasn't what killed us, it was Varly's body falling apart after his hot start to the season & Grubauer not getting a run of games to settle in or find his rhythm -- in large part because of that hot start from Varly.

That said, MacK's obviously had his struggles in his career as well and I fully agree with your point about Gaudreau not deserving nearly as much blame as he's gotten for the lack of puck support & production. If Peters can find the right adjustments in the neutral zone, so that Johnny isn't the only flame breaking into our zone with any speed; that lil fella still terrifies me...especially if Peters remembers that Gio's stretch passes are filthy & notices that our forechecking schemes may be susceptible to them...

 

[Yung Rotini]

Clearly Rittich tonight right?

Doubt it. I don’t see why Smith needs to come out. He’s been our best player all series long.

 

[Deen]

Sorry to butt into your thread and please delete this if it upsets folks, but I'm way to anxious about the game tonight, thought this was a good point & just couldn't stop myself from going full pedant lol...what killed us during that midseason slump was the goaltending rather than our offense. Our underlying #s were actually consistently good during that stretch & the goal-support our netminders got was more than adequate as well; so MacK only getting 10 points in 14 games there wasn't what killed us, it was Varly's body falling apart after his hot start to the season & Grubauer not getting a run of games to settle in or find his rhythm -- in large part because of that hot start from Varly.

That said, MacK's obviously had his struggles in his career as well and I fully agree with your point about Gaudreau not deserving nearly as much blame as he's gotten for the lack of puck support & production. If Peters can find the right adjustments in the neutral zone, so that Johnny isn't the only flame breaking into our zone with any speed; that lil fella still terrifies me...especially if Peters remembers that Gio's stretch passes are filthy & notices that our forechecking schemes may be susceptible to them...

Mack has put Colorado on his back this series. He is willing them to victory.

 

[OvermanKingGainer]

Our underlying #s were actually consistently good during that stretch

But they were not consistently good throughout the year on a whole. The full season sample shows Colorado was a 49.82% team while Calgary was a 53.36% xGF% team. In the playoffs the split has been 58 in favour of Colorado and 42 for Calgary.

If Calgary plays its game, the Avs won't be waltzing into our zone every shift. Their coverage has been nothing short of atrocious and they are handing the series to the Avs on a silver platter.

It's actually crazy how bad Calgary has been. If Calgary gets back up to its regular level, never mind its top level, they will neutralize 80% of what the Avs are doing right now. The other 20% is pure talent but we're not exactly hurting for talent either.

 

[beakerboy]

TSN is saying Valimaki is in for Fantenburg. I wonder what that means for Kyllington.

 

[returnofthemack29]

But they were not consistently good throughout the year on a whole. The full season sample shows Colorado was a 49.82% team while Calgary was a 53.36% xGF% team. In the playoffs the split has been 58 in favour of Colorado and 42 for Calgary.

If Calgary plays its game, the Avs won't be waltzing into our zone every shift. Their coverage has been nothing short of atrocious and they are handing the series to the Avs on a silver platter.

It's actually crazy how bad Calgary has been. If Calgary gets back up to its regular level, never mind its top level, they will neutralize 80% of what the Avs are doing right now. The other 20% is pure talent but we're not exactly hurting for talent either.

Playoffs are about players stepping up, and unfortunately for you guys, it doesn’t seem that anybody is up to the task...besides maybe Smith. I expected a lot more heart out of you guys and for this series to not be this easy. Anyways, I hope for an injury-free rest of the series for both teams!

 

[OvermanKingGainer]

TSN is saying Valimaki is in for Fantenburg. I wonder what that means for Kyllington.

Hanifin and Monahan for Larkin
Stone/Fro for... idc

2019 Flames

Gaudreau-Bennett-Lindholm
Tkachuk-Larkin-Jankowski/Dube
Neal/Dube-Backlund/Dube-Czarnik/Dube
Mangiapane-Ryan-Hathaway/Dube

Giordano-Brodie
Kylington-Hamonic
Valimaki-Andersson
Prout

2020 Flames


Giordano-Brodie
Kylington-Andersson
Valimaki-ReturnOfTheAdamFox

Playoffs are about players stepping up, and unfortunately for you guys, it doesn’t seem that anybody is up to the task...besides maybe Smith. I expected a lot more heart out of you guys and for this series to not be this easy. Anyways, I hope for an injury-free rest of the series for both teams!

yawn. wonder if you're singing that dismissive tune after tonight. Flames have played underwhelmingly, but they're not anywhere really good teams have been before turning it around. I'd be far more concerned if they had played remotely their best hockey and still been dominated. But there are clearly things in the tape that are 100% on them for not executing.

 

[MonyontheMoney]

TSN is saying Valimaki is in for Fantenburg. I wonder what that means for Kyllington.

That he’s not in

 

[Kranix]

Is Peters having a sit-down with Johnny and Monahan?

 

[Pizza the Hutt]

There is a rumour that the flu is going through the Colorado locker room...

 

[crackdown44]

There is a rumour that the flu is going through the Colorado locker room...

But you all called me stupid when I bought up all the Pepto-Bismol in the city of Denver yesterday. Well who is laughing now?

 

[OvermanKingGainer]

Calgary can certainly roll off 3 straight if the refs don't take over the game and give Colorado a blatant advantage. Playing Bennett at 1C and Czarnik at 3RW would be the most obvious adjustments I would make.

Otherwise, I am gonna enjoy seeing Colorado get a taste of their own medicine as Vegas gets more stupid calls than even Colorado does.

 

[super6646]

Calgary can certainly roll off 3 straight if the refs don't take over the game and give Colorado a blatant advantage. Playing Bennett at 1C and Czarnik at 3RW would be the most obvious adjustments I would make.

Otherwise, I am gonna enjoy seeing Colorado get a taste of their own medicine as Vegas gets more stupid calls than even Colorado does.

Give up over 50 shots against and it’s the refs fault. Homerism is a strong drug indeed.

 

[Anglesmith]

The Flames can't (and likely won't) think about winning three in a row. They just need to win Game 5, which means avoiding the completely ridiculous bad spells and extending the time when they're playing smart hockey. That should theoretically be easier at home. This likely isn't a team that is sitting there wondering how on earth they're going to beat their opposition. They know what they need to do, and it's a matter of execution.

We aren't talking about a team that has been nowhere near beating the Avalanche. They've played 4 games against them, and they either won or were 2.5 minutes away from winning 3 of them. They can certainly do it. And if they can win Game 5, then we can talk about Game 6.

 

[FlamerForLife]

If Peters comes back with the same lines tomorrow, I really don't know what to say. There needs to be a massive shakeup and Gaudreau and Monahan need to be split up.

Some positives to take moving onto next season is that Juuso and Rasmus are ****ing studs.

 

[Kranix]

Neal should sit. Put in Dube

 

[tyflames]

As soon as the avs get the puck we back way off and everyone quits moving their feet as soon as we get in our own zone. On the pk rantenen scored I watched as all 4 of our pkers stand completely still and watch the avs move the puck. Brodie especially looks terrible, I didn’t expect much change going into game 4 and there wasn’t. Smith was the only reason that went to OT. Give the avs credit, they want it more then us and they’ve deserved it. I expect much of the same in game 5, possible give up 50+ shots again.

 

[Bond]

Still can't believe we are losing this due to the forwards rather than Smith. Playoffs are a different beast.

 

[Ace Rimmer]

Neal should sit. Put in Dube

I would love the energy Lomberg would bring.

Get on the ice, big forecheck, hit everything, go to bench.

 

[Kranix]

I would love the energy Lomberg would bring.

Get on the ice, big forecheck, hit everything, go to bench.

Sure, Lomberg. Anybody but Neal. I can't stand the sight of him skating in sand any longer.

 

[Fatass]

Neal should sit. Put in Dube

Watching the games, speed looks really important. Dube is fast (skilled too) so I really don't get why he's not playing over an old slow guy, who clearly is struggling to keep up?

 

[tmurfin]

As soon as the avs get the puck we back way off and everyone quits moving their feet as soon as we get in our own zone. On the pk rantenen scored I watched as all 4 of our pkers stand completely still and watch the avs move the puck. Brodie especially looks terrible, I didn’t expect much change going into game 4 and there wasn’t. Smith was the only reason that went to OT. Give the avs credit, they want it more then us and they’ve deserved it. I expect much of the same in game 5, possible give up 50+ shots again.

It’s so f***ing obvious even my girlfriend noticed last night.

“How come when we have the puck they’re all over us, but when their top line gets it everyone backs off and freezes?”

 

[FlamerForLife]

Gaudreau-Bennett-Tkachuk
Frolik-Backlund-Lindholm
Dube-Monahan-Czarnik
Mangipane-Ryan-Hathaway

Sit Janko and Neal, both have been absolutely useless.

 

[Calculon]

Dube could barely handle the regular season. He was far too often putting himself in vulnerable positions or getting out muscled in puck battles. He's not the answer to anything above a depth role, at least with regards to the playoffs, until he gets a lot stronger even if he is considerably faster than Neal.

That being said, Dube would likely be more useful replacing Jankowski in a limited fourth line role. But then the question becomes what do you do with Bennett because he clearly deserves a lot more minutes. Maybe something like

Gaudreau-Lindholm-Monahan
Tkachuk-Backlund-Bennett
Mangiapane-Ryan-Hathaway
Frolik-Dube-Neal

But Peters seems to have stopped making the kind of adjustments he made in the first half of the season; the ones that actually helped the Flames turn things around. So likely nothing changes.