Looking forward to a very physical game tonight; and, hoping there are no injuries as I like both teams ROS.
Absolutely agree. Wellwood needs to give Cav the number 1 spot.They (the Firebirds) need to stay away from giving teams the power play, especially on the road. Flint is 19th out of 20 teams in penalty killing on the road. Ottawa (who has the #1 Power play overall in the OHL) went 2/3 last night (scoring half of their goals on the power play). Last night's game never should have gone to OT.
Kudos to Cavallin for his brilliant performance in the net and maybe even more important the confidence he gained against the #1 team in the OHL.
As others have said here on the board, Wellwood NEEDS to give Luke much more time in the net.
Time for the birds to pickup points and push for a top 4 finish.Good win today and good to see Durham playing so much better.
Time for the birds to pickup points and push for a top 4 finish.
Games remaining
15 against teams below us in standings
3 against Guelph currently 1 point ahead
8 against teams ahead of us in Standings
AgreedWhere you finish 4-8 doesn’t seem to really matter much except #4 gets home ice in round one. Finish 4-8 and you’re still playing one of Kitchener, London, Saginaw or Windsor in the first round. Round 1 won’t get much easier unless they somehow manage to get into 1st-3rd. Flint played without Oksentyuk, Kolyachonok and Dellandrea for most of Dec-early Jan while also missing Vierling and Kressler....Giroux if you wanna count him. They ran 3 lines for 3 weekends. There’s enough depth now where they’re unlikely to play more than a D or Forward short, if that. Windsor has been mostly healthy, only lost Piironen for tournaments and didn’t add at the deadline. Saginaw runs Perfetti-Coskey-Suzuki every other shift to win games. They’re risking injury and running those kids down. I think Flint should have no problem getting into 5th, with a strong possibility of 4th but they’ll need some luck to climb into 3rd.
Where you finish 4-8 doesn’t seem to really matter much except #4 gets home ice in round one. Finish 4-8 and you’re still playing one of Kitchener, London, Saginaw or Windsor in the first round. Round 1 won’t get much easier unless they somehow manage to get into 1st-3rd. Flint played without Oksentyuk, Kolyachonok and Dellandrea for most of Dec-early Jan while also missing Vierling and Kressler....Giroux if you wanna count him. They ran 3 lines for 3 weekends. There’s enough depth now where they’re unlikely to play more than a D or Forward short, if that. Windsor has been mostly healthy, only lost Piironen for tournaments and didn’t add at the deadline. Saginaw runs Perfetti-Coskey-Suzuki every other shift to win games. They’re risking injury and running those kids down. I think Flint should have no problem getting into 5th, with a strong possibility of 4th but they’ll need some luck to climb into 3rd.
I don’t think Saginaw will be the team that slips to 4th or 5th. Possible but unlikely. I know there’s legitimacy to both your claims for sure, so I’m half joking here but....a little bit serious too... So when you get Dmen Webb and King back, who’ve combined for 6 goals in like 70 games this year, your offense is gonna be spread out and on fire? Bode’s back? When did that happen? I saw on your thread he’s officially been sent back like 3 times already. I get ya though, there’s still a chance Wilde suits up and Webb and King WILL help the offense a bit but I think Lazary still turns to that line A LOT. Most teams do play their 1st line a lot, but not quite that much. As far as DJ...hasn’t he looked way more productive as a D this year? He’s a decent forward but he’s looked real good playing D when I’ve seen him. I haven’t looked at remaining schedules and who plays who but Windsor is the team I’m thinking is most likely to slide. Their goalies are ok but, not spectacular and they’ve had ALL their boys healthy almost every game. That’s unlikely to remain the same and they’re the only ones who didn’t add at the deadline. Myskiw being gone might affect London for a bit too but only for awhile and they have Brochu. He goes down though.. Same with Kitchener and Ingham I think.To be fair Saginaw is only relying on the first line to score currently because we are down 4 of our potential top 6 playoff defensemen due to suspension/injury/pros. We have a forward currently in our top 3 for TOI defense man. Things 2-3 months from now will look very different.
Regardless Flint isnt a team I would want Saginaw playing in the first round. Would be a back and forth series and would prefer someone easier lol.
I don’t think Saginaw will be the team that slips to 4th or 5th. Possible but unlikely. I know there’s legitimacy to both your claims for sure, so I’m half joking here but....a little bit serious too... So when you get Dmen Webb and King back, who’ve combined for 6 goals in like 70 games this year, your offense is gonna be spread out and on fire? Bode’s back? When did that happen? I saw on your thread he’s officially been sent back like 3 times already. I get ya though, there’s still a chance Wilde suits up and Webb and King WILL help the offense a bit but I think Lazary still turns to that line A LOT. Most teams do play their 1st line a lot, but not quite that much. As far as DJ...hasn’t he looked way more productive as a D this year? He’s a decent forward but he’s looked real good playing D when I’ve seen him. I haven’t looked at remaining schedules and who plays who but Windsor is the team I’m thinking is most likely to slide. Their goalies are ok but, not spectacular and they’ve had ALL their boys healthy almost every game. That’s unlikely to remain the same and they’re the only ones who didn’t add at the deadline. Myskiw being gone might affect London for a bit too but only for awhile and they have Brochu. He goes down though.. Same with Kitchener and Ingham I think.
Copying and pasting this from the Soo Greyhounds thread. Originally posted by HockeyPops. Thanks for the info and letting me plagiarize! It’s another reason why I haven’t been paying as much attention to Guelph and the teams below Flint. I’m not too concerned about getting into and staying in the top 5. Higher than that is the challenge.
“Ran some numbers to compare the Strength Of Remaining Schedule for the bottom 6 teams in the West. Sarnia has the toughest road ahead with their opponents having an average winning percentage of .609, and Flint has the easiest schedule as their opponents have an average winning percentage of .557. Interesting to note: Owen Sound and Erie have 5 more head-to-head matches, Flint plays Erie 4 more times, and Guelph gets both Erie and Flint 3 more times. The results of those series may weigh in heavily on the final standings.
Strength of Remaining Schedule
SAR .609
SSM .576
OS .571
GUE .570
ER .562
FLT .557”
Odds are that FLINT is going to end up finishing in the 5th spot in the Western Conference.
Lots of people aren't going to be happy with that, but consider......
that would be an improvement of 5 spots in the conference standings and even more importantly potentially a DOUBLING of points acquired from last seasons total of 38.
No other OHL team is on the path to accomplish BOTH of those two feats.
What is this talk about them taking to many penalties on the road and their penalty kill being bad. neither are true. Heck they are the least penalized team in the league with Guelph a near second least and then there is a huge gap until the next lowest. You would be a fool to hammer the least penalized team about taking to many penalties. Wow really scraping the bottom of the barrel for something to berate this team about. Nothoing wrong with their PK, the Problems are with the PP.
It's not how many penalties you take, its how many penalties you kill off.
You are correct in stating that Flint is the least penalized team in the OHL.
Flint also happens to be #1 OVERALL in penalty killing in the OHL.
HOWEVER.......you explain to the rest of us why Flint is #1 at home in the OHL in penalty killing at 88.5% (69/78) giving up 9 goals and......
on the road Flint is 19th out of 20 OHL teams in penalty killing at 74.2% (49/66) giving up 17 goals.
The Firebirds have given up ALMOST twice as many goals (17 to 9) on the ROAD during the penalty kill as compared to at home (in even fewer chances).......Now you tell me what's NOT wrong with that.