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Calgary Flames Official Thread

I was happy with Gustafsson and Forbert's play tonight. I thought both played well, especially Gustafsson, the defense as a whole looked better than it has in while.

Too bad the Flames couldn't play the rest of their games on the road. They'd probably win the cup.
 
Now that the top 2 lines are back to where they should be (Mangiapane on the 3M line is perfect! ) and we can score, I think the Flames are getting going at the right time! They just need to win a couple in a row at home and they are golden.
 
Now that the top 2 lines are back to where they should be (Mangiapane on the 3M line is perfect! ) and we can score, I think the Flames are getting going at the right time! They just need to win a couple in a row at home and they are golden.
The Backlund line is playing great, they seem to work okay with Ward's dump and chase system. The Monahan line is looking better lately. Once we get Hamonik and Giordano back the defense should back.....though it looked pretty good the other night. Much better having Gustafsson play 20 minutes instead of Stone.

They've definitely been scoring more. I heard a stat yesterday, that before the allstar break they were something like 2.2 goals a game, and since then, they've been around 4.0 a game. Unfortunately the new found scoring coincided with lots of goals against.
 
Looks like we're getting started back up soon again!!
Pending a final decision today the league will start preparing for a "24 team playoffs." That is deceiving, however. Really, it's a 16 team playoffs as normal, with a play-in beforehand. The top 8 teams in the league get byes and will play a funsies tournament while the remaining 16 playoff teams duke it out in a best of 5 play-in for the remaining 8 playoff spots.

Unless they change up the format, it looks like the Flames will matchup against the Jets in the play-in series, and, should they win the play-in, they'll face St Louis in the "first" round.
That play-in should be a fun series, we're pretty evenly matched ... but Hellebuyck has been insane this year and honestly could steal it for them. If Gaudreau and Monahan show up we still have a pretty good shot.

What interests me more is if we go into the first round vs St. Louis. They won the cup last year by playing very physical. Big hits, scraps, things like that. On the other hand, the Flames play a very skilled game. As it stands now, the league will have rules in place that restrict close contact between players. Advantage: us? In any regular playoffs I'd say we don't have a chance vs them in a 7 game series, but in this odd case we might just be able to pull one out.
 
Ugh...personally I have no interest in watching June/July hockey. Should have just cancelled the season. Whoever does win the cup will have an * beside it for sure.
 
I have never understood the asterisk argument in the slightest. The only scenario where that might be the case is if Chicago or Montreal won the cup. Basically all 22 other teams were either in a playoff spot, or realistically close enough to jump into one at the time of the shutdown. Only CHI and MTL really got bumped up a lot. Even if they DID win the cup, that would've entailed winning 19 games vs all the "actual" playoff teams. It's still well deserved. Brian Burke had a good point on Sportsnet a few days ago ... everyone's freaked out about Price or Crawford going on a run. Price had a .909 sv% and Crawford is 35. I'd be far more worried about Hellebuyck or Kuemper than them.

The NHL isn't in the luxurious position of just being able to forget about this season. I don't know if you guys watch The Hockey Guy on Youtube, but he did a fantastic job explaining all this. This year doesn't exist in a vacuum. The league's losses if they don't play are staggering - $1.1B+. If they manage to have a successful playoffs that could nearly be cut in half. You can say "boo hoo, poor billionaires," and that's fair. But think of all those that rely on the NHL to put food on the table. Statisticians, reporters, trainers, medical, concessions, ushers, custodians, broadcasters, advertisers, analysts, coaches, players, the list goes on. The league donates millions every year to charity as well, safe to say that's gone if they can't even play. Moreover, what about all of the prospects who can't further their development for an entire year? Or all the players who will show up out of shape a year from now or just retire unceremoniously? And what about all the kids hockey programs? An entire year of kids who can't play hockey. Future prospect pools could be anemic.

The league is doing all they can to make this as safe as possible. That's why they're taking so long. That's why the playoffs are in late July, not now for example. I'm sure there's some place somewhere that would let them play. But they're trying their best to make sure it's as safe, fair, and enjoyable as possible, which I appreciate. Remember guys, the shutdown started ~2.5 months ago. Now, most cases in Canada not called Quebec or Ontario are resolved. Late July is 2 months away. Who knows where we'll be by then? Stay safe!
 
It's not fair that 4 teams will basically get to play in the comforts of their home arena for EVERY single playoff game! It doesn't matter that there is no crowd, it's the fact that the hub city teams have a HUGE advantage. If one of them were to win the cup everyone will be saying it's because they got to play at home for every game. That isn't fair.
 
There will only be two hub cities, and they could eliminate the home advantage by flipping the conferences. West in Columbus, and East in Vegas/Edmonton.

It's not fair that 4 teams will basically get to play in the comforts of their home arena for EVERY single playoff game! It doesn't matter that there is no crowd, it's the fact that the hub city teams have a HUGE advantage. If one of them were to win the cup everyone will be saying it's because they got to play at home for every game. That isn't fair.
 
Good response Meikkhaell, makes a good case for starting this season now. There are also TV and sponsorship deals that come into play, networks paid big money to broadcast playoff hockey, so if there is none apparently if affects the contracts moving forward.

My biggest concern is they go through all this to get teh season started again, then another player tests positive and it's all cancelled again, that's why I said focus on next year. I did erroneously state that another team joins next season, Seattle joins '21-'22 so that's not a factor.
 

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