Meikkhaell
Active Member
Well, the Flames finished their first of two China games yesterday, and although they came just short, falling 3-4 to Boston in the fourth round of the shootout, it was a really exciting game and all things considered, they played really well.
My take-aways:
- Both Ryan and Czarnik were excellent, at times the best players on the ice. Both got a lot of quality chances, they were speedy and exciting to watch.
- Lindholm didn't look out of place on the 1st line, he got 3 or 4 really good scoring chances and had 2 assists.
- Peters' system looks like it's starting to work, even on the first day. Giordano scored two goals in this game, at least one of which was entirely because of the defensemen jumping into the play. Puck possession still needs some practice, there were a lot of weak passes that went nowhere or got intercepted, but that's expected on the first day without much of a practice.
- Aside from a 3 minute span in which he gave up 3 questionable goals, Gillies played fine, especially considering he's young, never played on international ice, and wasn't even really supposed to start that game.
- We outshot them by more than double, their goalie stood on his head.
- I didn't really notice Neal very much. Not that he played poorly, but he didn't really do anything amazing either, yet.
- This didn't look like a team under a new coach, with a quarter of it being new players. They worked quite well together all things considered.
- We managed to stop the bleeding after going down 0-3, kept in it and clawed back. Desire to win was there.
Only real drawback that irked me with this game was who was on the shootout. I understand it's just preseason and we wanna try things out, but we most likely would've won if our stars were in the shootout. We had Tkachuk (who scored a beauty), followed by Czarnik, Janko, and Ryan. What about Gaudreau and Monahan?
Either way, it was a great comeback and a stellar showcase of our team. Aside from 2 or 3 minutes at the end of the first, we played really well all game despite having no practice, this being our first game, a new coach, new system, and new players. Imagine when everyone's settled in.
My take-aways:
- Both Ryan and Czarnik were excellent, at times the best players on the ice. Both got a lot of quality chances, they were speedy and exciting to watch.
- Lindholm didn't look out of place on the 1st line, he got 3 or 4 really good scoring chances and had 2 assists.
- Peters' system looks like it's starting to work, even on the first day. Giordano scored two goals in this game, at least one of which was entirely because of the defensemen jumping into the play. Puck possession still needs some practice, there were a lot of weak passes that went nowhere or got intercepted, but that's expected on the first day without much of a practice.
- Aside from a 3 minute span in which he gave up 3 questionable goals, Gillies played fine, especially considering he's young, never played on international ice, and wasn't even really supposed to start that game.
- We outshot them by more than double, their goalie stood on his head.
- I didn't really notice Neal very much. Not that he played poorly, but he didn't really do anything amazing either, yet.
- This didn't look like a team under a new coach, with a quarter of it being new players. They worked quite well together all things considered.
- We managed to stop the bleeding after going down 0-3, kept in it and clawed back. Desire to win was there.
Only real drawback that irked me with this game was who was on the shootout. I understand it's just preseason and we wanna try things out, but we most likely would've won if our stars were in the shootout. We had Tkachuk (who scored a beauty), followed by Czarnik, Janko, and Ryan. What about Gaudreau and Monahan?
Either way, it was a great comeback and a stellar showcase of our team. Aside from 2 or 3 minutes at the end of the first, we played really well all game despite having no practice, this being our first game, a new coach, new system, and new players. Imagine when everyone's settled in.
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