GDT: Flames @ Canes 11/10 7PM: #FreeZachBoychuk Edition

[the halleJOKEL]

we have the weirdest roster

 

[DaveG]

Has Dwyer played center in the past?

Actually yes, first season he was here was mostly as a centerman. Most of his action was centering guys like Conboy, Brookbank, Ryan, etc. Petruzalek was the other guy that got a good bit of looks in that role IIRC.

Can't say I'm a fan of McClement being a top two centerman either, but I could see him being great for the Skinner - Semin pairing. As was noted sometime last night, he'll win most faceoffs, play well defensively, and charge the net. If he can keep up with them skating-wise, I'm alright with it. It does give us four scoring lines, which is fairly unusual but I like it.

Once Jordan comes back something like

Skinner - Jordan - Semin
Boychuk - Rask - E Staal
Gerbe - Nash - Lindholm
Tlusty - McClement -Dwyer/Terry

This one is what I see things ending up as once he's back. Possibly just rotating Tlusty, Boychuk, and Terry around based on who has the hot hand any given week.

we have the weirdest roster

Coach Pete is a mad scientist.

 

[bluedevil58*]

Actually yes, first season he was here was mostly as a centerman. Most of his action was centering guys like Conboy, Brookbank, Ryan, etc. Petruzalek was the other guy that got a good bit of looks in that role IIRC.



This one is what I see things ending up as once he's back. Possibly just rotating Tlusty, Boychuk, and Terry around based on who has the hot hand any given week.



Coach Pete is a mad scientist.

Well we are deeper in forwards than we originally thought....

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

When Jordan comes back, IMO, you can't have Skinner on his line. Jordan, when back and fully healthy, will be going against the other teams top line consistently. That's not how you want to use Skinner, both for the team's sake and for Skinner's sake.

 

[DaveG]

I can easily see Coach Pete going all "come at me, bro" in that case and rolling a top line of Tlusty/Boychuk-Staal-Staal while having Rask centering Skinner and Semin, and keeping the Nash line intact since they seem to have some great chemistry going on.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

As long as were having fun with "what-if" line-ups based on small samples, here's what I'd do. Forget about which line is called 1st, 2nd or 3rd.

Gerbe-Rask-Staal
Tlusty-J.Staal-Semin
Skinner-Nash-Lindholm

Here's my reasoning:

1) When Jordan is back, they are going to want to match him up against the other teams' top lines. IMO, you can't have Skinner on that line when you do that. Tlusty and Semin can be solid defensively and that line has showed promise in the past and shown they can score in that role also.

2) Skinner-Nash-Lindholm have showed chemistry in the past and think that line would feast on lesser competition, especially with the growth in Nash's and Lindholm's games so far this year.

3) Gerbe, IMO, is the perfect complement for E. Staal. He works hard, is fast, takes a lot of shots, goes to the dirty areas, etc.. Not sold on Rask there, but he's solid on the puck, good defensively and has playmaking ability. Although his skating isn't a "hinderence", not sure he can keep up with Gerbe and Staal..which is a bit of a concern.

EDIT: Of course, as soon as guys like Rask, Nash, Boychuk, etc..come back down to earth, all this goes out the window

 

[What the Faulk]

As of right now, I'd probably ice those lines too.

 

[RodTheBawd]

I've been cautiously optimistic about Peters from the get-go, have criticized some of his decisions, but am now fully on board. The guy is really damn good. I'm sure having the backing of RF makes it a lot easier for him and it makes me wonder how much handcuffing JR really did. I don't recall the last time I saw a coach here that pissed off with a 3-1 lead and slight lapse in play. That timeout might be the highlight of the season (wrt coaching) for me so far.

Who was Calgary icing against the Nash line? They were ****ing abusing those guys every shift. That was some Sedin brothers level stuff. There were a couple of times I thought we were on the PP.

If McClement had any hands whatsoever, he'd be a legit 3C. He is surprisingly good at getting to the necessary areas, but as soon as he has a chance to score he turns into a combo of Harrison and LaRose.

 

[the halleJOKEL]

If McClement had any hands whatsoever, he'd be a legit 3C. He is surprisingly good at getting to the necessary areas, but as soon as he has a chance to score he turns into a combo of Harrison and LaRose.

 

[Joe McGrath]

Believe it or not, the Canes have a better record at this point than last year (4-7-3)

 

[Wild Caniac]

The best part of the winning streak to me as a fan is seeing Cam Ward look like the "all-star" we as fans saw after the cup win and in the 2009 run. I miss that Cam, and I am happy to see him finally coming through and working through the growing pains of a goalie just past his peak.

 

[bluedevil58*]

I just hope Cam is not on a hot streak and will come down to earth and we will start sucking again. It has been lingering in the back of my mind.

 

[RodTheBawd]

It's the red in his pads.

 

[Ole Gil]

One thing Peters has shown me, is that I have no idea how to coach a hockey team. I don't know if he's just a think outside the box guy, or if it's a bizarre reward system, or what the hell he's doing. Maybe just on the fly period to period analysis of play?

But last night:

1C -> 3RW
1LW -> 4LW
3LW -> 1LW
3RW -> 4RW
4LW -> 3LW
4C -> 1C
4RW ->4C

I can't even imagine coaching against that.

Re Cam: He's healthy. How long this lasts, who knows. But he's not recovering from something for the first time in a few seasons. So now is the time to make a fair judgement on his game going forward. (this season, not this small stretch). Hopefully, he keeps it up and makes us all look bad for being mad we didn't trade him and a 2nd for nothing.

 

[Incubajerks]

We need a gif of that timeout, it was great.

 

[Ole Gil]

We need a mod to burn all the posts from the month of October, and for us all to form a blood pact to never speak of anything said during that time again.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

We need a mod to burn all the posts from the month of October, and for us all to form a blood pact to never speak of anything said during that time again.

If you did that, certain posters would cease to exist, because it seems they only come around when the team loses.

 

[Unsustainable]

I would try this after J comes back:

Skins - J - Semin
E - Nash - Lindy
Tlusty - Rask - Chuk
Gerbe - McC - Dwyer

Skins is able to finish Semins passes, and we know what J does with Sems vs without.

Lindy feeding E like the old days of the Wizard feeding E.

Tlusty can open up scoring for Chuk in the dirty areas, and Rask can be solid for draws and staying back to help the D.

4th line is so much energy with no finish.

Mix up the D like mentioned before.

Hainsey - Faulk
Seks - Gleason
Harry - Bells

Carry Terry as the 13th forward to use on the 4th as a finisher when needed.

 

[JClaus33]

The only problem with that Skinner-J Staal-Semin line is that Skinner and J Staal suck together for some reason. They were not good together during the lockout year, and I don't think they saw much ice time together last year because of it

 

[Unsustainable]

The only problem with that Skinner-J Staal-Semin line is that Skinner and J Staal suck together for some reason. They were not good together during the lockout year, and I don't think they saw much ice time together last year because of it

Puck possession by J and Semin should cancel out that issue from Skins though.

 

[What the Faulk]

2012-14 (~580 ES minutes)

Skinner with Jordan: 53.9 CF%
Just Skinner: 50.3 CF%
Just Jordan: 54.0 CF%

Attempts against/20 have been very low while together, though they've still been scored on quite a bit. But Skinner "with" Khudobin has actually been pretty good -- 55.0 GF% compared to under 45 GF% with Ward and Peters, so I'm wondering if poor goaltender play has had something to do with it. It's worth trying again at some point.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Puck possession by J and Semin should cancel out that issue from Skins though.

I disagree. Jordan will be going against the other team's top line, ie. tough defensive assignment. Skinner shouldn't be in that role for 2 reasons. 1) because he isn't good defensively which then takes away from the "Jordan against top line" scenario. 2) Do we want Skinner to have to play a "shut down" line role?

And before you say "we can have McClement's line take the tough assignments, do we really want that line getting the most TOI since they'd be going against the other teams top line?

I'm not saying it can't work, just to me, wouldnt' be optimal. That said, Peters has shown he's fairly unpredictable in the lines.

 

[Unsustainable]

Should we keep J with Patty and Gerbs?

Or see if he can be a #1?

 

[Joe McGrath]

Should we keep J with Patty and Gerbs?

Or see if he can be a #1?

I don't see why you couldn't play him with Semin and Tlusty as a 2nd line.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Why not try JStaal with McClement? McClement has played wing already this year. Yeah, it neutralizes his faceoff acumen but it does get our two best shutdown guys in a shutdown role, plus McClement showed last night that he can hang with some more talented guys. Throw someone like Gerbe or Semin with them.