GDT: Dallas Stars @ Calgary Flames - Game Four

[Flames Fanatic]

Gaudreau-Bennett-Dube
Mangi-Backlund-Lindholm
Lucic-Monahan-Ryan

Please Ward. Just mix up the lines at this point. I quite liked Monahan's game at 5 on 5 for most of the game. Was aggressive on the forecheck, had some chances, but we just need to mix things up a little.Not pushing him down due to demotion, but just need to shuffle things. I think Johnny and Dube could make some magic with Dube's speed/shot.

I love how Reider has tried on the 2nd line, but I'd really rather see Ryan on the 2nd line and barely run the 4th line at this point. He's wasted down there.

Gotta hope Tkachuk is back if nothing else. Makes it a bit easier to mix things up.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

Gaudreau-Bennett-Dube
Mangi-Backlund-Lindholm
Lucic-Monahan-Ryan

Please Ward. Just mix up the lines at this point. I quite liked Monahan's game at 5 on 5 for most of the game. Was aggressive on the forecheck, had some chances, but we just need to mix things up a little.Not pushing him down due to demotion, but just need to shuffle things. I think Johnny and Dube could make some magic with Dube's speed/shot.

I love how Reider has tried on the 2nd line, but I'd really rather see Ryan on the 2nd line and barely run the 4th line at this point. He's wasted down there.

Gotta hope Tkachuk is back if nothing else. Makes it a bit easier to mix things up.

I like these lines.

 

[Flames Fanatic]

I like these lines.

I'm happily munching on crow for Bennett. Playoff Bennett is great. I just need to see it happen in the regular season now to become a true believer lol.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

I'm happily munching on crow for Bennett. Playoff Bennett is great. I just need to see it happen in the regular season now to become a true believer lol.

I think we are seeing "center Bennett" more than "playoff Bennett", he's been so noticeable through the middle of the ice. I think swapping Gaudreau in for Lucic will make that line very difficult to play against because all 3 guys play at such a high pace.

 

[OvermanKingGainer]

I'm happily munching on crow for Bennett. Playoff Bennett is great. I just need to see it happen in the regular season now to become a true believer lol.

It's all there. There's of course a few stretches of invisibility when the coaches bury him and he gets frustrated, but that's normal for a talent like him.

Remember the "worst" shooting percentage season of Bennett's career, 2017-18? Look at how many points he "should have" had that year:



33 minutes of highlights for a guy everyone wanted to trade after career low shooting percentages and on-ice shooting percentages in a year we MISSED the playoffs. If I'm not mistaken there is not a single Bennett point in the first SEVEN minutes of that package, but you can see that it was not from a lack of dominating (a lack of icetime, though? I think so). A whole lot of "but Lazar couldn't finish" there though hahahaha. Curtis Lazar.

In particular, look at that goal at 12:37 - no Flame even in the regular season can score that goal except Sam Bennett.

 

[Mobiandi]

I don't want Gaudreau or Monahan anywhere near Bennett. Neither of them look like they have the legs to play with the intensity of his line. They're getting outhustled by reborn Milan Lucic

 

[Flames Fanatic]

It's all there. There's of course a few stretches of invisibility when the coaches bury him and he gets frustrated, but that's normal for a talent like him.

Remember the "worst" shooting percentage season of Bennett's career, 2017-18? Look at how many points he "should have" had that year:



33 minutes of highlights for a guy everyone wanted to trade after career low shooting percentages and on-ice shooting percentages in a year we MISSED the playoffs. If I'm not mistaken there is not a single Bennett point in the first SEVEN minutes of that package, but you can see that it was not from a lack of dominating (a lack of icetime, though? I think so). A whole lot of "but Lazar couldn't finish" there though hahahaha. Curtis Lazar.

I hope you're right. I need to see it actually get the results though to become a true believer lol.

And oh god Curtis Lazar. Still can't believe we moved a 2nd for him. He can't even lock down a full time gig on the Sabres.

 

[Dack]

I hope you're right. I need to see it actually get the results though to become a true believer lol.

And oh god Curtis Lazar. Still can't believe we moved a 2nd for him. He can't even lock down a full time gig on the Sabres.

Not a hindsight either.

Most of the responses don't like the trade.

Confirmed with Link: - Flames acquire Curtis Lazar and Kostka for Jokipakka and a 2nd

 

[FlamerForLife]

Regardless of how this series finishes, I hope this has shown Treliving and whoever coaches us next year that playing Bennett at C with competent wingers can be a game-changing move and adds great depth to our line-up if our 1st line can get their heads outta their asses at even-strength.

 

[Flames Fanatic]

Not a hindsight either.

Most of the responses don't like the trade.

Confirmed with Link: - Flames acquire Curtis Lazar and Kostka for Jokipakka and a 2nd

Yup. I hated it at the time for the cost alone, after going to university in Ottawa I was well aware of Lazar's shortcomings. Hoped maybe he'd turn it around, and would have thrown a 4th or something at most, but 2nd?

 

[Dack]

I don't want Gaudreau or Monahan anywhere near Bennett. Neither of them look like they have the legs to play with the intensity of his line. They're getting outhustled by reborn Milan Lucic

Yeah but if playing with Bennett gets Gaudreau going that might be enough to swing the series. Right now we have 1 effective line with Tkachuk down and by getting outplayed in the last 3 games I think we've shown that's not enough to win consistently. I think it's time to get all mad scientist with the lines and move the 3rd line spark plugs up to try and fix other lines, if it doesn't work we can always switch back after 2 periods or so.

 

[Mobiandi]

Didn't Curtis Lazar go PPG after we acquired him? What a strange trade

Yeah but if playing with Bennett gets Gaudreau going that might be enough to swing the series. Right now we have 1 effective line with Tkachuk down and by getting outplayed in the last 3 games I think we've shown that's not enough to win consistently. I think it's time to get all mad scientist with the lines and move the 3rd line spark plugs up to try and fix other lines, if it doesn't work we can always switch back after 2 periods or so.

Tbh I think we've missed Tkachuk in spirit (intangibly?) but he's done virtually nothing positive but draw penalties for us this postseason. I'm not sure he would have been a deciding factor in game 3 or 4.

Maybe Gaudreau would feel more confident to work his magic if he had a more physically imposing presence on his line like Bennett but I'd rather put Bennett with someone more fiery like Mangiapane. At even strength, I don't think the trio of Gaudreau, Monahan, and Tkachuk have been significantly better than someone like Alan Quine. The nicest thing we can say about the former three is that they're trying but isn't that the bare minimum we expect in the playoffs from 4th liners?

 

[OvermanKingGainer]

I don't want Gaudreau or Monahan anywhere near Bennett. Neither of them look like they have the legs to play with the intensity of his line. They're getting outhustled by reborn Milan Lucic

Gaudreau played with tons of intensity when Bennett was out there with them in game 3.

I still think the Gaudreau-Bennett(-Frolik/Jooris/Jones) line from Bennett's rookie season was the most free Gaudreau has been able to play, and Bennett was PPG over that stretch too. You can see the highlights here from 2:32 to 6:50-ish. And then Hartley split up that line and put Bennett on the wing .

Gaudreau and Bennett also looked great in Bennett's sophomore year, but Chiasson wasn't doing a good job of keeping up with them. So Gulutzan split them up.

They're players who complement each other in terms of forechecking. That's what's important.

Yeah but if playing with Bennett gets Gaudreau going that might be enough to swing the series. Right now we have 1 effective line with Tkachuk down and by getting outplayed in the last 3 games I think we've shown that's not enough to win consistently. I think it's time to get all mad scientist with the lines and move the 3rd line spark plugs up to try and fix other lines, if it doesn't work we can always switch back after 2 periods or so.

I think

Gaudreau-Bennett-Dube
Lucic-Backlund-Mangiapane
Monahan-Lindholm-Quine
Jankowski-Ryan-Rieder

could work.

 

[Mobiandi]

I honestly think we played well enough to win despite that ridiculous 3rd period. While MacK and co were able to Harlem Globetrotters us last year because of nerves, I think we stopped moving our feet against Dallas out of pure tiredness. Lindholm is the scapegoat for the tying goal but he was on the PK for so long and was probably worn out by the final minute of the third. I blame Ward for not throwing out someone like Ryan there, who PK'd hard too but only finished the game with 13 mins of ice time vs Lindholm's 27

 

[HighLifeMan]

I can’t help but to think Lindholm is suffering from some sort of ailment. Something seems off about his game - especially in terms of his puck skills and shot.

You aren’t going to win many games playing the way we have the past two. Getting a split while being so heavily outplayed is a very positive outcome.

Hopefully we can get Chucky back at some point. Wouldn’t mind seeing him on a line with Bennett and Dube.

I will miss the next two games while camping so I’m hoping we can get to a game 7, or just win the next two outright!

 

[Dack]

Didn't Curtis Lazar go PPG after we acquired him? What a strange trade

Tbh I think we've missed Tkachuk in spirit (intangibly?) but he's done virtually nothing positive but draw penalties for us this postseason. I'm not sure he would have been a deciding factor in game 3 or 4.

Maybe Gaudreau would feel more confident to work his magic if he had a more physically imposing presence on his line like Bennett but I'd rather put Bennett with someone more fiery like Mangiapane. At even strength, I don't think the trio of Gaudreau, Monahan, and Tkachuk have been significantly better than someone like Alan Quine. The nicest thing we can say about the former three is that they're trying but isn't that the bare minimum we expect in the playoffs from 4th liners?

Yeah Tkachuk hasn't been much of a factor but even if he's not producing the Backlund line is far better with him on it, when he got hurt we went from two effective lines to just one.

 

[Mazatt]

I definitely think Ward f***ed up by keeping Rieder - Backlund - Lindholm out there for practically the entire final three minutes of the game. They get scored on 3 minutes left, but thank god it's called off. Then they're on their heels again and the clearly gassed Lindholm can't clear it, they aren't able to attack the D, either from systems of exhaustion, idk, and the D can't clear the front of the net. As well, instead of looking at the Lindholm lack of clear, let's look at how Klingberg was able to walk in unobstructed. Why were Giordano and Forbort so close to the boards instead of taking away the middle? We already had wingers on the boards to take them away and it's a lot easier to gap up to someone coming in from the outside than to try and rush into the middle to stop Klingberg. Really, that entire last sequence was painful to watch, it was obvious we were going to get scored on.

Other thing, Stars are taking a lot of perimeter shots that other teams wouldn't because their D is the cause of their offense, we need to play our wingers much higher 5v5 when they have the puck. On the other hand that will force them to have to come down lower for the breakout but their main offense is from their back end, we have to shut that down somehow.

 

[Mazatt]

Also, Flames have been in position to win every single game this series. Either tied or ahead going into the final minute. If they were able to actually defend the last pushes by the stars the series would be done by now, and I think having Tkachuk would really help with that.

 

[Johnny Hoxville]

These are the lines I want to see:

Gaudreau - Bennett - Tkachuk
Monahan/Lindholm - Dube
Mangiapane - Backlund/Ryan

 

[OvermanKingGainer]

Gaudreau - Bennett - Tkachuk

 

[Dack]

These are the lines I want to see:

Gaudreau - Bennett - Tkachuk
Monahan/Lindholm - Dube
Mangiapane - Backlund/Ryan

Small sample size and obviously neither are playing well right now but...

 

[DCDM]

It's all there. There's of course a few stretches of invisibility when the coaches bury him and he gets frustrated, but that's normal for a talent like him.

Remember the "worst" shooting percentage season of Bennett's career, 2017-18? Look at how many points he "should have" had that year:



33 minutes of highlights for a guy everyone wanted to trade after career low shooting percentages and on-ice shooting percentages in a year we MISSED the playoffs. If I'm not mistaken there is not a single Bennett point in the first SEVEN minutes of that package, but you can see that it was not from a lack of dominating (a lack of icetime, though? I think so). A whole lot of "but Lazar couldn't finish" there though hahahaha. Curtis Lazar.

In particular, look at that goal at 12:37 - no Flame even in the regular season can score that goal except Sam Bennett.

This frickin highlight package made me remember how good Jankowski was and how far he's fallen in such a short time. Sad.

 

[OvermanKingGainer]

This frickin highlight package made me remember how good Jankowski was and how far he's fallen in such a short time. Sad.

I'd like to see Janko get some consistent minutes with Ryan and Quine. I think he's looked pretty comfortable on the wing.

 

[DCDM]

I'd like to see Janko get some consistent minutes with Ryan and Quine. I think he's looked pretty comfortable on the wing.

I don't disagree. He's looked alright - not great, but alright - in this year's postseason. Ryan and Quine are both smart players, I think Janko would benefit from playing with those guys too.

 

[DFF]

we went cheap with the coach and it shows