GDT: FLAMES (11-10-3) vs. COYOTES (7-11-4) @ 7 p.m. MT | TV: Sportsnet 1 | RADIO: Sportsnet 960

[Bounces R Way]

Flames win, Oilers lose, Canucks getting shellacked. I'll take it.


Good : All three top 9 centers were good I thought. Kadri needed a big game like that, he's had a pretty brutal stretch recently. Lindy was excellent, need more 1C play like that from him. Weegar and Tanev I liked, not Weegar more than Tanev who was a little slow on some plays. Dube was flying honestly, gets a little full of himself after scoring sometimes and gives it away getting fancy but I like seeing him play with confidence.

Pretty good : Vladar made several huge saves, suspect slot coverage from the Flames in this one, didn't love the 1st goal, should have got his body behind it. Zadorov strong again. Starting to look like a value contract at 3.75 per. Ruzicka hanging onto pucks and making plays happen, bury that EN tho man.

Not bad : Mangiapane was decent. Going to the net, continuing OZ plays. Huberdeau and Toffoli were ok, the lack of speed on that line is rough tho. Ras was alright, getting better on the PP but him and Hanifin struggled tonight.

Not good : Stone too stationary, beat wide several times and struggles to get to loose pucks. Basically an immobile cannon that needs wheeling around. Coleman bobbling pucks and uncharacteristically missing some defensive assignments.

don't want to talk about it : 4th line sucked. They sucked because they suck.



This team really is incapable of making things easy on themselves this season. Should have buried the Coyotes in the 2nd and instead gave up a 2 goal lead.

 

[Yepthatsme]

Shouldn't that penalty be a Lindholm goal?

That rule only applies to clear breakaways. Rule boils down to if that play normally would’ve resulted in a penalty shot, it’s an awarded goal. Happened way too far away from their zone and not a clear break, so I can see the refs logic behind it, even if in the moment I hoped for the same.

 

[super6646]

I still really wanna see mangiapane and tofolli flip at some point. Just makes sense

Alright game, but for real huberdeau really needs to show more at es. You can see the passing skills, but that line as a whole really lacks cohesion. He isn’t nearly impactive enough on the rush.

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

Huberdeau-Lindholm-Phillips
Mangiapane-Kadri-Dube
Ruzicka-Backlund-Toffoli
Coleman-Rooney-Pelletier

Give the people what they want

 

[OvermanKingGainer]

Give the people what they want

Huberdeau - Kadri - Phillips
Ruzicka - Backlund - Mangiapane
Dube - Lindholm - Toffoli
Pelettier - Zohorna - Coleman

Kylington - Tanev
Zadorov - Weegar
Poirier - Andersson

 

[Mobiandi]

Canucks getting shellacked

Well then

 

[Bounces R Way]

For posterity



Rooney had an xGF% of 0% in this game against the Arizona Coyotes.

 

[Kahvi]

For posterity



Rooney had an xGF% of 0% in this game against the Arizona Coyotes.

Maybe he'll improve next game and score a beauty like this

 

[HighLifeMan]

I hate to be "that" guy after a much needed win - but that was a truly uninspiring performance. This team is struggling to put away the likes of Montreal and Arizona. The total lack of offensive creativity and killer instinct is extremely alarming. We continue to let teams back into games.

The 4th line quite frankly has to be one of the worst, if not the worst line in the NHL as it's currently constructed. Milan Lucic can't be playing every night - he does nothing at an NHL level anymore. I don't know who's responsible for tracking giveaways but there is no possible way Lucic only had 2. Kevin Rooney is NOT a centermen, nor an NHL talent. Lewis is the only somewhat capable player on that line and he's the biggest "non event" player imaginable. Yuck.

It's nice to see Kadri/Huberdeau have multi point performances though, and Vladar continues to be solid - so there is some positives to takeaway here. Sutter probably loved that game. That's some boring hockey.

 

[Kahvi]

Relegation / promotion works in Europe because it has always been like that and the leagues are deeply rooted in the amateur / local team ideology, and there's an idea of national governing body that sets up league system to see who is the best in the country.

NA leagues have always been more privately owned, business type of things. Both have good and bad things, but you just can't force one or the other to change the basics that radically.

 

[beakerboy]

Relegation/Promotion would not work with a salary cap. You'd go back to the bad old days of the Rangers outspending everyone to pick up aging UFA stars. I like that smaller markets can compete.

 

[eternalflame2016]

Relegation / promotion works in Europe because it has always been like that and the leagues are deeply rooted in the amateur / local team ideology, and there's an idea of national governing body that sets up league system to see who is the best in the country.

NA leagues have always been more privately owned, business type of things. Both have good and bad things, but you just can't force one or the other to change the basics that radically.

Relegation/Promotion would not work with a salary cap. You'd go back to the bad old days of the Rangers outspending everyone to pick up aging UFA stars. I like that smaller markets can compete.

I agree so far as to say that it would be very dificult to change in this way and I'm 99% sure it will never happen. But this is one of the reasons that people outside NA and Russia generally don't watch ice hockey. People watch the bottom teams of the premier league (for example), because those games have meaning, and quite often going into the final game of the season there will be 5 or 6 teams whose future will be determined not just by their own game, but by other games around them. That makes it exciting. If you want people in countries where Ice hockey is not their national sport to watch then you need to give them a reason to want to.

I don't see why a salary cap would prevent a relegation/promotion format, and is in fact one of the problems with football at the moment because the salary/transfer cap in place is entirely ineffectual. If football had a stricter salary/transfer cap it would be greatly improved IMO.

 

[Iggys Dome]

I agree so far as to say that it would be very dificult to change in this way and I'm 99% sure it will never happen. But this is one of the reasons that people outside NA and Russia generally don't watch ice hockey. People watch the bottom teams of the premier league (for example), because those games have meaning, and quite often going into the final game of the season there will be 5 or 6 teams whose future will be determined not just by their own game, but by other games around them. That makes it exciting. If you want people in countries where Ice hockey is not their national sport to watch then you need to give them a reason to want to.

I don't see why a salary cap would prevent a relegation/promotion format, and is in fact one of the problems with football at the moment because the salary/transfer cap in place is entirely ineffectual. If football had a stricter salary/transfer cap it would be greatly improved IMO.

The biggest reason Ice Hockey is not popular in most nations isn't because of the structure of the NHL. Basketball is hugely popular in countries like Spain, Greece, Italy, Australia etc. and the NBA is exactly the same as the NHL.

It's accessibility to ice. Ice hockey is hugely inaccessible to most of the world as it needs: A) Ice and B) Skates, sticks and a puck. The biggest deterring factor is A), as most hockey is played in indoor temperature controlled arenas. It's insanely expensive to rent & maintain ice in arenas in Canada, and we have by far the most indoor arenas per capita in the world. Imagine doing it in a country like Italy. Why would you have any interest in hockey when you could go outside and play soccer or basketball with only a ball and none of the barriers to entry that ice hockey offers?

IMO, the NHL should promote inline/roller hockey around the world if it really wants to see growth in areas with a warmer climate. The games are easily substituable for one another (ice for a smooth surface, skates for roller blades etc.) And would be much more accessible for most of the world population. Our very own Jonathan Huberdeau represented Canada at the ball hockey championships this year.

Also, as someone who also watches premier league soccer, I can say that the only interest for watching to bottom-feeding clubs is at the end of the season to see who avoids regulation. No one is going to watch Norwich and Watford play in week 11 because it simply doesn't matter. Same with someone watching Arizona and Chicago in the middle of February. If you want to combat tanking in the NHL, introduce a system where teams are automatically playing for first overall once they're eliminated from playoff contention. Or a small end of season tournament between the bottom 4-8 teams and reward the winner with first overall. That would be much more palatable for the North American market rather than introducing a promotion/relegation system.

 

[Backlund]

I hate to be "that" guy after a much needed win - but that was a truly uninspiring performance. This team is struggling to put away the likes of Montreal and Arizona. The total lack of offensive creativity and killer instinct is extremely alarming. We continue to let teams back into games.

The 4th line quite frankly has to be one of the worst, if not the worst line in the NHL as it's currently constructed. Milan Lucic can't be playing every night - he does nothing at an NHL level anymore. I don't know who's responsible for tracking giveaways but there is no possible way Lucic only had 2. Kevin Rooney is NOT a centermen, nor an NHL talent. Lewis is the only somewhat capable player on that line and he's the biggest "non event" player imaginable. Yuck.

It's nice to see Kadri/Huberdeau have multi point performances though, and Vladar continues to be solid - so there is some positives to takeaway here. Sutter probably loved that game. That's some boring hockey.

That game is was pretty much everything I hate about this team right now. Struggled to get a 1 goal win against a team they should've blown out. Terrible start, it was boring and Arizona stayed in it way longer than they should've. People only care about the W though so they won't hate it as much as I did, but watching the way it was played I don't know if I could hate a game that was won more.

 

[Ace Rimmer]

I hate to be "that" guy after a much needed win - but that was a truly uninspiring performance. This team is struggling to put away the likes of Montreal and Arizona. The total lack of offensive creativity and killer instinct is extremely alarming. We continue to let teams back into games.

If you watch the Washington game back, you'll notice the game was similar in that regard, the Flames only got to blow the doors off because the Caps went on full attack mode earlier than Arizona did. Caps got a few late chances that they simply missed - would have been a totally different game if they didn't.

That's Darryl Sutter hockey though. Try and win more one-goal games than you lose.

 

[Mobiandi]

We play like last year's Dallas Stars

 

[JPeeper]

Pittsburgh, Chicago, Colorado all tanked, got top picks and won cups, it's not the only way to do it, but definirely works out at times

Dubbeeeeee, nice to be outplayed and actually have a lead due to solid goaltending!

Pitt and Chicago didn't tank to their Cups, they're teams were just crap for a long time prior. Pittsburgh was on the brink of leaving they were in such bad shape.

Just because teams suck doesn't mean they actively tank.