GDT: FLAMES (34-14-7) vs. CAPITALS (30-18-9) 7:00 p.m. MT | TV: Sportsnet West | RADIO: Sportsnet 960

[DFF]

Vladar needs some softer games. He looked like a back-up last game

Yeah if it was Markstrom, there would have been lots of complaints on how he lost the game for us

 

[Rubi]

Yeah if it was Markstrom, there would have been lots of complaints on how he lost the game for us

Thats assuming that Markstrom would have played as shitty as Vladar did. I just don't see that happening. A tired Markstrom probably would have played better.
Vladar was fighting the puck all night long. Lots of juicy rebounds, a few post saves, not great positioning, and definitely the worst goalie on the ice last night which is somewhat difficult to believe since the other guy had a .886 Sv%. The Flames, in a tough b2b series, needed Vladar to come up big. At best, he was mediocre. A .846 Sv% where you let in 4 goals on 26 shots just isn't good enough. No where near good enough.

 

[Mobiandi]

 

[BobColesNasalCavity]

Thats assuming that Markstrom would have played as shitty as Vladar did. I just don't see that happening. A tired Markstrom probably would have played better.
Vladar was fighting the puck all night long. Lots of juicy rebounds, a few post saves, not great positioning, and definitely the worst goalie on the ice last night which is somewhat difficult to believe since the other guy had a .886 Sv%. The Flames, in a tough b2b series, needed Vladar to come up big. At best, he was mediocre. A .846 Sv% where you let in 4 goals on 26 shots just isn't good enough. No where near good enough.

That's ridiculous. What goals should he have saved last night? The one Ovechkin scored from point blank after Monahan passed him the puck in front of the net? The one Lucic assisted with a nice backhand into the slot from the top of the crease? Mantha's snipe from the hash marks that went through Kylington's legs bar down? Or was is it Dowd's where he walked Lindholm from the bottom fo the circle? Ridiculous. He fought the puck at the beginning of the game, but the team played terrible defensively in front of him and even had the first assists on the first two. GTFO

 

[crazyfisherman]

I shited on markstrom during jan cuz he wasnt coming up with any clutch saves, now he is. The game last night reminds me of markstrom in Jan, it might not be bad goals but you gotta stop some of those. hes a backup for a reason, although he plays some really good teams for some reason

 

[Rubi]

Great news!

On a side note... guess who immediately went after 6'4" 220 lb Wilson after that "accidental" hit??

5’10” 184 lb elite goal scorer Andrew Mangiapane.

 

[DFF]

That's ridiculous. What goals should he have saved last night? The one Ovechkin scored from point blank after Monahan passed him the puck in front of the net? The one Lucic assisted with a nice backhand into the slot from the top of the crease? Mantha's snipe from the hash marks that went through Kylington's legs bar down? Or was is it Dowd's where he walked Lindholm from the bottom fo the circle? Ridiculous. He fought the puck at the beginning of the game, but the team played terrible defensively in front of him and even had the first assists on the first two. GTFO

I am not upset at Vladar. He is a cheap backup. He won us the game in Colorado. We can’t expect more.

That said, he wasn’t good last night. Good goalies are expected to make good saves. You can argue most NHL goals are not stoppable otherwise. They are professional shooters.

 

[BobColesNasalCavity]

I am not upset at Vladar. He is a cheap backup. He won us the game in Colorado. We can’t expect more.

That said, he wasn’t good last night. Good goalies are expected to make good saves. You can argue most NHL goals are not stoppable otherwise. They are professional shooters.

That's still ridiculous. That's just passing the buck and scapegoating the goalie instead of holding the players accountable for their blunders. It's Vladar's fault he didn't bail out Lucic and Monahan's one touch passes in front of the net to Capitals players? How about they make professional plays instead of amateur ones? Hold them to same standard.

 

[HighLifeMan]

That's still ridiculous. That's just passing the buck and scapegoating the goalie instead of holding the players accountable for their blunders. It's Vladar's fault he didn't bail out Lucic and Monahan's one touch passes in front of the net to Capitals players? How about they make professional plays instead of amateur ones? Hold them to same standard.

It can be both. Vladar needed to be better and was heavily outplayed by his opposition at the other end of the rink. Monahan and Lucic were absolutely dreadful (and have been for a while) and should also be held accountable.

 

[BobColesNasalCavity]

It can be both. Vladar needed to be better and was heavily outplayed by his opposition at the other end of the rink. Monahan and Lucic were absolutely dreadful (and have been for a while) and should also be held accountable.

Heavily outplayed? He gave up the same amount of goals as the Caps backup.

 

[HighLifeMan]

Heavily outplayed? He gave up the same amount of goals as the Caps backup.

Despite Calgary having a greater amount of shots, scoring chances, and high danger chances. "Heavily" might have been a poor choice of word, but he certainly got outplayed and wasn't very sharp at all.

 

[Ace Rimmer]

Vladar probably should have had Mantha's goal, he lost his net a bit there. Can't really fault him on the giveaway that led to the 2nd and 4th goals though. First goal was pretty high difficulty as well.

He wasn't anywhere near the 5th goal and he should feel shame for that.

 

[Volica]

Happy I had things to do instead of watching this one. Would have driven me crazy reading what happened.

 

[Rubi]

Happy I had things to do instead of watching this one. Would have driven me crazy reading what happened.

Being busy last night will make it easier for you to cheer for a Caps win tonight.

...uh... go caps go...

 

[Mazatt]

Listening to Sutter's post game he seemingly directly called out depth and mentioned not liking some goals against Vladar.
Now I'm going to make a bold claim, but given this chart

I can't imagine the lines headlining Sutter's comments on depth differences would be direct at Mangiapane's line, or the line that had Coleman/Toffoli on it. That feels like a very direct call out on Lucic, Monahan, and Lewis.

Also, I think the concept has been mentioned before on the Vladar discourse but making the low danger saves is the expectation for most goalies tbh. Or it should be. But where you earn your keep is by providing surplus value, not just playing to the average. Vladar made the stops he could last night but when there were 2-3 posts glove side on him, + 4 goals glove side, while Vanecek stoned multiple breakaways, it's hard not to look at that and say "we could've got a better performance." When looking at performance on a scale, sometimes you just need better. Being alright is alright when you can outscore it, but when the other team is pushing into being above alright or average, you need something to match up with how the team in front of Vladar cuts down on high danger chances.

 

[Anglesmith]

But Vladar did make a bunch of key high danger saves, though. Do they not count?

 

[DFF]

But Vladar did make a bunch of key high danger saves, though. Do they not count?

Not really when you lose a game you could have won

Anyway, he wasn’t the biggest problem. Monahan and Lucic were