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Calgary Flames Official Thread

Watching Miromanov get completely walked yesterday on the GWG and being unable to make basic breakout passes, I hope this is finally the end. His footspeed is not at an NHL level and doesn't have the puck skills to make up for it.
 
Watching Miromanov get completely walked yesterday on the GWG and being unable to make basic breakout passes, I hope this is finally the end. His footspeed is not at an NHL level and doesn't have the puck skills to make up for it.
Sounds like exactly what we need to get a high draft pick.

I was optimistic about this season, but things just feel off. Your first ten games are more important than any 10-game segment all year and so far, I don't like their chances of working their way out of this. They seem to have good periods but have yet to put together a decent game. Good teams find a way, see Vegas last night. Flames just don't seem to have that 'it' factor that gets you to consistently find a way. I don't blame the coach the best lineup the flames can ice is no more than four third lines. The D is a mess of a couple top-four dmen and borderline NHL players. Could be a long season...
 
Miromanov is useless, wasn't impressed with him at all last night.

Is the tank finally on? was supposed to happen last year but Wolf prevented that, The team seems off and Wolf isn't stealing games for us so far...
 
That was a hard watch last night, I hate to do this but Huska, along with the players mind f'ing the game, are fumbling this start pretty poorly.
  • Overplayed their young star goalie in week one so much so that he looked tired in back-to-back starts and continued to let in uncharacteristic goals throughout the week, I'll attribute that to fatigue.
  • They sweated the backup goalie, making it a national story, on EF's headlines, then turns out he's a fine backup and could've helped out the young star goalie, see point 1.
  • A rotating cast of D pairs means you don't know who you're playing with on a night-to-night basis, which would be fine if you're an established vet but the majority of our d are borderline NHL dmen and one is 19 years old. I'm a beer league dman and I know from that that consistency in who you're playing with is very important because you learn how your partner plays and can adjust your game to that.
  • The forward lines also have absolutely no identity and are a mishmash of third lines. The players are a mix of guys who play hard but don't really have elite skill. Putting lines together that have identities and clear expectations gives the players something to fall back on when they're looking for their game and it also gives the coaches parameters on how to deploy the lines.
I really tried to give Huska a chance, I'm sympathetic to his cause of trying to win every night and make the playoffs with this roster of players, but he isn't deploying what he has been given very well. The start isn't squarely on his shoulders but when you look at the issues in each game the threads lead back to coaching and roster construction; inconsistent effort, poor finishing ability (thinking too much), and odd player deployment. I see players not letting the game flow and guys suffering paralysis by analysis.

Maybe this start is exactly what they need to ship their trade chips out and not trying to get this roster to make the playoffs.
 
The room also doesn't feel great right now. With Ras playing while being essentially traded. Was in person at the Vegas game, the communication seems off. There was a part in the third where Parekh iced it then got mad at Klapka for not being on the boards to receive, and just a lot of these small things where the team doesn't seem as together as last year. Frost and Farabee was a decent trade at the time, but both are clearly just third line or tweener type players and not what they initially showed in Philly.
 
I think Frost has been great so far, he's one of the few bright spots. Farabee just looks lost out there, I'd rather have Kuzmenko. Miromanov should never get another start as a Flame, he's brutal. Weegar has looked good but penalties are hurting him. Andersson looks the same as ever, happy with him so far. Kadri is our best player again, no surprise. The lack of depth is probably the biggest issue, Huberdeau being out shows, Pospisil too. Flames should finish around bottom 10 in the league, that's fine with me.
 
The Flames greatly over-achieved last year through hard work and good fortune. We had 18 comeback wins, 10 in the 3rd period and were the 10th highest scoring 3rd period team. Perhaps they find some of that identity again but as it's been mentioned we don't have the roster to sustain that.
And I'm ok with that and who the Flames should be. I will continue to go to games (in part because I have a gamepack) but I just don't want to continue to be a bubble team. We need some true star power and we will have to draft for that.
 

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