GDT: Flames (4-3-1) @ Jets (5-3-1) 6:00pm MST - part II

[Body Checker]

They cannot keep trotting out an AHL caliber forward in Lucic while a guy Sydney Crosby called out as enjoyable to play with sits in the press box.

Nordstrom and Ryan look pretty good out there. Add Simon to that line and I think they chip in some offence that could make the difference in all these close games we’ve been losing.

 

[lightstorm]

Lucic and Leivo with more ice time than Bennett and almost as much as Eat bread (13 mins). Thats some solid coaching.

 

[Mazatt]

Holy moly overreaction overload in here. Flames weren't dominating for one period with some sub-par performances throughout the lineup and suddenly Ward deserves to be fired, Treliving deserves to be fired, the entire bottom 6 does nothing and is trash, like, come on. The Flames didn't win, whoopty doo. Rittich let in two questionable goals (the third one came off him being super aggressive leading to bad positioning, so he couldn't get the tip, 2nd one is losing his net) that would take momentum out of any teams sails. It's tiring that any time the Flames lose for any reason, it's the coaches head on the table for playing Lucic in a 4th line role?

 

[FlamerForLife]

I get Ward's got his loyalties to Looch, but if Bennett or Dube make that turnover on the pp in the first, they're stapled to the bench and most likely scratched the next game, instead Lucic keeps his pp2 spot and gets promoted to the 3rd line in the 3rd period.
Also, even though Nesterov wasn't bad today, I really wish they would play Kylington over him.

 

[super6646]

Holy moly overreaction overload in here. Flames weren't dominating for one period with some sub-par performances throughout the lineup and suddenly Ward deserves to be fired, Treliving deserves to be fired, the entire bottom 6 does nothing and is trash, like, come on. The Flames didn't win, whoopty doo. Rittich let in two questionable goals (the third one came off him being super aggressive leading to bad positioning, so he couldn't get the tip, 2nd one is losing his net) that would take momentum out of any teams sails. It's tiring that any time the Flames lose for any reason, it's the coaches head on the table for playing Lucic in a 4th line role?

Lucic should not be on the PP and should be held accountable. He's taken horrible penalties, given away pucks that have directly lead to goals against, and yet in the 3rd he was playing with Lindy on the 3rd line.

Ward can f*** off. Dube got benched when he played poorly, why not hold your vets to the same standard?

 

[Mazatt]

Lucic should not be on the PP and should be held accountable. He's taken horrible penalties, given away pucks that have directly lead to goals against, and yet in the 3rd he was playing with Lindy on the 3rd line.

Ward can f*** off. Dube got benched when he played poorly, why not hold your vets to the same standard?

Lucic routinely starts on the 4th line and outside of the terrible giveaway in the 1st period (which was matched by equally weak efforts from the rest of the Flames on the ice) he looked good. Lucic and Leivo had 5 shifts in the 3rd period with only two of them being of any meaninful time. He hardly played in the 3rd, and Bennett was having a bad game justifying the swap because, outside of that shitty giveaway, Lucic was a positive presence on the ice with powermoves, solid passes, and zone entires. Lest we forget that he was a key part in getting us a power play last night WITH Lindholm on a 2 on 1. Going with new chemistry isn't a bad thing.

Dube played an overall bad game yesterday with 2 penalties. While one was phantom it was clear he wasn't contributing and didn't need to play in the third when other players were producing. They responded by giving him the 3rd highest TOI among forwards.

I don't like Lucic on the powerplay but he is potentially the 2nd best "Big bodied" net front presence guy on the team and putting him in a spot to succeed isn't a bad thing. Utilizing him on the breakout is the questionable part, and they need to not force the "bounceback" as part of the breakout in such a predictable fashion but that falls on the PP coach for the technique used.

 

[JPeeper]

Lucic should not be on the PP and should be held accountable. He's taken horrible penalties, given away pucks that have directly lead to goals against, and yet in the 3rd he was playing with Lindy on the 3rd line.

Ward can f*** off. Dube got benched when he played poorly, why not hold your vets to the same standard?

The fact someone actually got benched this season and it wasn't Lucic is a complete joke. Dube took two stupid penalties and wasn't that great yesterday, I get it and he should have been benched, but Lucic did the EXACT same thing games prior where he took 2 stupid penalties and had turn overs that lead to goals and he was not only back out there for a regular 5 on 5 shift, but continues to get PP time. Lucic and Ward can both f*** off, there is no accountability on this team. Guy deserves to be sitting in the pressbox, gets promoted. I get it, you need to butter him up so he waives his NMC for the expansion draft, but this is getting stupid.

 

[Mobiandi]

I get it, you need to butter him up so he waives his NMC for the expansion draft, but this is getting stupid.

I don't know why we honoured it in the first place

 

[Mazatt]

If you're going to get upset at ward direct it at his utilization of Mangiapane. Had him sit on the bench for 8+ minutes in the third and took him of the 2nd PP unit for no discernable reason. Unless there was an issue with percieved effort or ability he was trying to fix by sending a message that makes no sense, especially considering the fact that Mangiapane was elevated to play with Gaudreau and Monahan for the last 5 minutes after having him go cold turkey. Ward got caught up with double shifting Gaudreau/Tkachuk/Dube/Lindholm/Monahan that he had Mangiapane on the bench, I'd figure. That is where he should be catching flak, not for Lucic being played every 4-5 minutes after the 1st.

Also criticize Ward for putting Bennett back with the top line. I supported it before but iirc there was a tweet showing that the top line had an xGF% of 70 with Mangiapane and 0 with Bennett, which isn't great. Regardless, the Flames couldn't produce with the PP and despite making it close at the end, weren't good enough to seal the deal (even though Tkachuk was right on the doorstep for a tap in on the Brossoit save). Especially after a back to back having to rely on the top guys and a ton of energy down the lineup is tough especially after a game the night before. The Jets got the early advantage and were able to essentially trap it up outside of Tkachuk - Monahan - Gaudreau together and the Dube breakaway in the 2nd.

 

[DFF]

We seem to be going backward.

The Jets with Dubois would beat a crap out of us in a playoff series now.

Good job Trevling.

 

[DFF]

Holy moly overreaction overload in here. Flames weren't dominating for one period with some sub-par performances throughout the lineup and suddenly Ward deserves to be fired, Treliving deserves to be fired, the entire bottom 6 does nothing and is trash, like, come on. The Flames didn't win, whoopty doo. Rittich let in two questionable goals (the third one came off him being super aggressive leading to bad positioning, so he couldn't get the tip, 2nd one is losing his net) that would take momentum out of any teams sails. It's tiring that any time the Flames lose for any reason, it's the coaches head on the table for playing Lucic in a 4th line role?

Lol, we know what kind of team we have. We need better goaltending and a coach that can motivate the players and manage the bench properly to have any chance. We fixed the goaltending but ward pretty much has shown he is not up to those tasks.

Fire his ass is justified.

 

[Mobiandi]

We were all over the Jets, forcing them into an early penalty. Then Lucic threw away momentum on the PP, Tanev fell asleep the next shift and we were down 2-0 within the first 7 minutes.

These unforced errors in the first period are starting to get ridiculous. By the end of the game, can anyone say that there was a better forward than Nordstrom? Everyone else sucked hard

 

[BudRobinson53]

Well, another close game in the North Division. Reminiscent of years passed, we love the 3rd period but aren't willing to work before that proverbial kick in the pants of falling 2 goals behind.

I personally thought EatBread was bad and hence why they dropped his ice time. It's that age old problem with Johnny and Money, you need a right winger who can bang crash and dig out pucks, constantly. Eatbread is better at playmaking which is good when your on the rush, but digging pucks is a big requirement for that line to operate properly.

Daryl Sutter once said via my paraphrase, the backup goalies job is to "win" games. I believe his meaning was more to say, it doesn't matter if you let in 27 goals in a game, as long as your team scores 28. We know your coming in a bit cold from sitting on the bench for several games, before your chance, but you HAVE to win games. I don't think this goalie situation sits well with Rittich, he still wants to be a 1A or 1B goalie and he's clearly a 2 now.

Great to see Chucky finally awaken, love that he was getting extra shifts, playing with passion. Hope to see that in Game 3 on Thursday!

 

[TheHudlinator]

Lucic just isn't an nhl player anymore to many bad turnovers, to many penalties, to slow.

 

[JPeeper]

Lucic just isn't an nhl player anymore to many bad turnovers, to many penalties, to slow.

Too

 

[TheHudlinator]

Too

Two?

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

Personally i was expecting a 2-7 start so I’m actually quite pleased. We should be due for our annual massive win streak any time now