FlamesNation Mailbag: Same old, same old

Hey, guess what we’re talking about again? Special teams woes, frustrating hockey, a lacklustre bottom half of the roster, and Troy Brouwer. The more things change…

I’ll answer this question in reverse.

I’m not a sports psychologist, but I can’t see why enjoying yourself is a bad thing. If you talk to a sports psychologist, they’d probably say the same thing: it’s not helpful to create a negative environment in the locker room and if you can keep things positive even after big losses (they went for the 50s throwback night soon after getting blown out 8-2, for what it’s worth) you’re probably better off. There’s a line between having fun and not taking the sport seriously that, from an outsider’s perspective (which we all have), they seem to remain on the right side on. Sure, they put up a putrid performance. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be enjoying themselves. They’re humans too and they get to have fun with sports as well.

As for the actual, tangible reason for the slow starts, it’s simply unforced errors. I’m sure they don’t intend this, but the team doesn’t seem to have any coherence to them until they get scored on. Turnovers, sloppy play, bad penalties, the works. These are fundamental things, and that’s on the players to deal with. The coach can’t tell you, especially at the professional level, to knock that off. A player has to know that by now and it’s frustrating why they don’t.

Of course, the coach is not blameless. I’m 100% certain Glen Gulutzan’s system doesn’t call for the team to get scored on first, but he does like to play with fire. Starting Brouwer-Stajan-Hathaway against the Draisaitl line on Saturday night was a disaster waiting to happen, and it was pretty lucky that they didn’t get scored on immediately (they only just gained the zone and had a good look).

The entire “rolling four lines” philosophy that Gulutzan seems to stick to only works if you have four roll-able lines. The Flames do not. One potential remedy is to stop doing that and keep momentum rolling by actually icing the good lines.

Yeah they definitely need to shoot more on the PP. They’re 18th in the league for SF/60, at a mediocre 53.16 shots per hour.

It’s so weird that they wait for the perfect chance because they can get to the net anyways! They’re eighth in SCF/60, 61.75 chances per hour, and sixth in HDSCF/60, 26.58 per hour. Peppering the net and causing chaos is a working strategy, and you’re going to have to take those chances. Letting the PK get into formation is going to hurt instead of help you.

As for our old pal Troy Brouwer, I said last week that I can’t justify his place in the team anymore, and I wasn’t going to bother. Since he’s still here, might as well grit and bear it.

But for PP usage? Infuriating, but unfortunately necessary. Having a right shot on the PP is a useful thing, as you get to open up that entire side of the ice with a right shot. The problem for Calgary is the depth. After Kris Versteeg went down, the Flames have Curtis Lazar, Freddie Hamilton, and Garnet Hathaway as righties. Yikes.

I love these sequential questions.

I think they have to break from the 4F-1D unit and just put Dougie Hamilton up there on PP1. He’s criminally underused on the PP, and he’s a right-hand shot. You can probably replace him with Michael Stone or Travis Hamonic on PP2 and there’s no worries.

If they want to stick with 4F-1D, the best bet might be to sign Matthew Phillips and bring him up. Seriously. Kid puts in work on the PP (they will not do this).

The other immediately available right-shot options are Spencer Foo and Austin Carroll.

I don’t see anything much different except that he was probably due for a few goals at some time. Sam Bennett (and the rest of the third line) is confusing, seemingly both capable of running the show in the offensive zone and running a fire drill in the defensive zone. They’re a teeter-totter that seems unstoppable heading up the idea and helpless when play goes the other way. That’s been the main trend over the past month. He wasn’t going to blow the doors down, but he wasn’t going to hit the post every time.

You have to hope that the good outweighs the bad. Given that the team has seen more shots head their way when Bennett is on the ice in nine of the last 14 games, we can probably expect the gate to swing the other way soon enough unless he (and his linemates) do a bit more to close that gap.

It should really be a staging ground for the Stockton Heat’s top performers. There’s plenty of kids on the farm whose contracts run out at the end of the year. You might as well try some sort of Klimchuk-Hrivik-Poirier or a Mangiapane-Hrivik-Poirier combination to see if you can spark some secondary scoring.

The current fourth line isn’t going anywhere, might as well try something new.

Of course, this is not what is going to happen. The Flames have the tendency to stay status quo, particularly because a lot of the old guys happen to live on the fourth line. You can sacrifice guys like Freddie Hamilton and Curtis Lazar and likely keep them down, but they’re not going to move on from Matt Stajan and especially Brouwer. Stajan will rotate out, but they’d like to keep him around in a 13/14F capacity. Brouwer’s never leaving until they get rid of him.

I kind of already touched on the first two points, so to cover the last one, I don’t think a trade is a great option right now. I haven’t heard much chatter about any depth players (understandable: no one gets hyped over third liners), but I think that the Flames’ problems could easily be solved internally, with regards to both personnel and strategy.

Limiting time and controlling situations is a good first step (like when Gulutzan exclusively plays the third line in the offensive zone). Subbing in younger players with larger skill sets also helps. Most depth options aren’t worth the price, and the Flames are likely to find a similar player in Stockton.

Glenn Gawdin is actually good. He’s second in the entire WHL in primary points and seventh league-wide at 5v5 primary points. He’s certainly not as good as his linemates, trailing both of them at 5v5, but he’s no slouch himself.

Generally, an older player in the CHL will see more powerplay minutes and more secondary assists. He does drive play and he’s pretty good at it.

It’s his age that’s concerning. He’s nearly a year older than Tyler Steenbergen and two more than Aleksi Heponiemi. He’s a man among boys and his scoring reflects that. You can’t hate the Flames signing him, but you have temper your expectations a bit.

C’mon.