Slack Sundays: catching up after six games

The Calgary Flames are, right now, the best team in the Pacific Division. If you’ve watched the first six games and ignored the scoreboard, you probably don’t think they look like a first-place team. But they’ve managed to win four of their first six games – thanks Mike Smith! – and have almost as many wins already this season as they did by mid-November last year.

Per tradition, we’ve assembled our crew for our weekly chat to discuss how things have gone to this point.

Ryan Pike: What do you think of the Flames after six games?

karimkurji (Karim Kurji): First in the Pacific!! Happy but like Glen said, lots of things to clean up. Especially the discipline.

Ryan Pike: I’ve been impressed by Smith and Hamonic. Not as impressed by the lack of defensive zone structure, especially from the forwards.

croatis (Christian Roatis): I think systems are still a bit of a fire drill. Hamonic’s biggest influence is on Brodie so far in my opinion and how he’s kind of “take the chains off” so to speak. That could be confirmation bias though given Brodie’s hot start. Smith has been exactly what they thought he’d be when they got him so let’s hope he can continue it. Im sure they continually get better as the games go along. Getting some legitimate concerns for Bennett though.

Ryan Pike: Could the Bennett concerns be a similar situation as Brodie, though? We’re shouting “see? Brodie’s better now!” early on, but Bennett could be circumstances as much as anything else. In most games his line has been buried in terms of deployments. That said: second-worst CorsiRel on the entire team (Brouwer is the worst).

taylormckee (Taylor McKee): I think Christian Roatis mentioned this a little bit ago but, even given his deployment, shouldn’t Bennett be showing better even if he’s being buried? If he’s going to be the centre we all hope he is, that is.

karimkurji: Bennett infuriates me. He makes super skilled players every so often but never dents the scoresheet in a positive way. He should be good. Why is he not good?

Ryan Pike: I think Bennett’s the only piece of the puzzle that’s been “worse” than we were told he’d be.

karimkurji: Ferland?

Ryan Pike: Also: everyone laugh at me, but Corsica has Bennett as fourth-easiest zone starts on the team. (Behind Gaudreau, Monahan and Ferland.)

taylormckee: Yikes. That’s not good.

Ryan Pike: Ferland’s an interesting player to mention. He’s injured now, but was he playing banged up earlier? He hasn’t been great, but he’s more there to enable the other guys to be.

karimkurji: I dunno, I feel like Gaudreau doesn’t need him to be good. Johnny’s had a fantastic start and that has nothing to do with Ferland enabling it.

Ryan Pike: I was intrigued by Jagr on that line.

karimkurji: But if he’s been injured the whole time then maybe that’s an explanation. Jagr is fascinating.

Ryan Pike: Is anybody else bewildered by Dougie Hamilton, Tkachuk and Frolik being the team’s even strength scoring studs through six games?

taylormckee: Nothing that 3M does surprises me anymore. They’re insane. Seeing the line be scrambled due to the PK weirdness is so strange, but it’s so fun seeing Tkachuk play with other players sometimes.

Ryan Pike: Remember: he’s only here because Jim Benning wanted a defenseman.

taylormckee: Bless that man.

karimkurji: I was honestly worried that Tkachuk would take a step back this year. But he’s even more agitating and is still scoring. It’s beautiful.

Ryan Pike: I’m one of the people that agree with the notion that he was gun-shy about physicality after the Doughty suspension. But he seems to be back to his “old” self.

taylormckee: I’d still like him to trust his offensive instinct more, it seems like he still would rather defer than shoot the thing. But these are champagne problems with this kid.

karimkurji: When is Janko coming back?

taylormckee: Maybe when they’ve decided Bennett at C isn’t working.

karimkurji: That’s a bummer, I was hoping we’d see him this season.

taylormckee: I think they might try to move Bennett to wing at some point if he still is struggling. I have no idea when though.

Ryan Pike: I’d be shocked if we don’t see Jankowski by Christmas.

karimkurji: Sure hope so.

croatis: Someone called Gaudreau-Monahan-Jagr the Wal-Mart Huberdeau-Barkov-Jagr line but like.. no. They could be just as good if not better offensively. Defensively – no.

karimkurji: Wal-Mart’s quality has gone up lately.

taylormckee: Monahan is remarkable though. I still struggle to articulate what it is that he does other than reliably put up numbers. It’s amazing. Not really a great skater, not really a great shot, good passer. Scores a pile every year. It’s awesome.

Ryan Pike: There’s absolutely nothing flashy about Monahan’s game.

croatis: His shot is pretty good. But it’s his hockey sense that gets him from point A to point B. That was the whole Feaster/Weisbrod drafting spiel; they wanted high hockey iq players. Monahan is – absolutely uncannily – always in the right place at the right time in the offensive zone. After his rookie year, Kent and I wagered on his shot %, Kent saying is would end up below 12.5% and me taking the over. And I won handily cause Monahan doesn’t take low % shots. Very rarely does he shoot off the rush or from random places. His shots come from in tight off of passes, rebounds and broken plays when the goalie isn’t set. It feels like luck but after a while it’s just Monahan.

taylormckee: I can say with certainty though that I did not expect him to score roughly the same goal totals as he did in junior. That was just not a part of how he was described in the draft if I recall correctly. I would have assumed he’d stop scoring at this rate but it certainly looks like this is normal.

croatis: Yeah he got the canned scorer description: big body that can shoot the puck and score from anywhere. CTRL-C, CTRL-V to everyone who is over 6’ and has over 25 goals.

Ryan Pike: That’s a good point.

croatis: To the Flames’ credit, they wanted a big, fast and skilled middle of the ice and assuming they eventually bring up Janko, they’ll have Monahan-Backlund-Bennett-Janko down the middle who are all over 6’0 and skilled.

taylormckee: I remember wanting Nichuskin so… perhaps I was a bit off with that one.

croatis: Proposed this on Twitter so I’ll ask here too. Gaudreau-Monahan-Bennett // Versteeg-Jankowski-Jagr ?

taylormckee: I do like the idea of giving Janko a fair shake rather than burying him to the 4th if/when he’s called.

ctibs (Christian Tiberi): Why do you want a left handed center on your 1RW?

karimkurji: I like those lines. A lot.

croatis: Because he’s not doing anything being a left handed centre as 3C.

ctibs: That’s not a good answer. You’re playing him on the off hand in his non-natural position.

croatis: OK give me a solution for that then. Cause keeping him at 3C is starting to feel like trying to shove a square peg in a round hole.

ctibs: It’s been six games and he’s been shuffled around a lot. Maybe chill out for a while.

croatis: He was there all of last year? And it’s the same results. I’m not saying do it now, but if it continues a contingency plan is needed

karimkurji: He’s a frustrating player and I’m the first to jump on the “crucify Bennett” campaign. But he’s 21. Lots of room and time to grow.

croatis: Agreed but it’s worth trying different things with him, is it not?

ctibs: If the argument is that Brouwer tanked him last year (absolutely true) you should probably wait longer before determining that he’s the problem. because last week, everyone wanted Gaudreau-Bennett on the 1L.

croatis: I never said Bennett is the problem. I think the situation Bennett is in could be the problem. He’s proven he’s a sensational talent and can succeed with elite players. Or at least has shown, maybe not proven.

ctibs: So why do you want to move him from center to his off wing.

croatis: To try it.

taylormckee: I’d love an extended look at LW from Bennett.

croatis: We don’t know he can’t succeed there.

ctibs: There’s actual RW options in Ferland and Jagr.

croatis: Ferland is hurt I read?

ctibs: Day to day.

karimkurji: Also not a solution there. He’s a stop-gap.

croatis: My suggestion is based on Ferland missing time.

karimkurji: A real top RW needs to be on the top line, not Ferland.

taylormckee: Yeah, that’s why Jagr makes sense there. But Bennett – Janko – Versteeg. Maybe?

ctibs: Ferland has been much better than people are giving him credit for. And seeing as the flames don’t have a real top RW, what else are you going to do?

taylormckee: Couldn’t that be Jagr?

ctibs: He’s been good so far but he hasn’t seen top line minutes over the last few years of his career. He’s also 45 so who actually knows how much abuse he can take on the top line night in night out.

taylormckee: In terms of usage, is Johnny and Monahan really that onerous? With 3M, isn’t the top line delineation merely cosmetic?

croatis: I don’t mind Ferland there. He’s had some SH% regression obviously but he’s still played the same game he did there last year. He won’t be scoring at a 30 goal pace like he did there last year But if he’s out Try Bennett is my opinion.

ctibs: Versteeg-Bennett-Jagr is a 60.61 CF% line so far.

croatis: That’s actually beast.

ctibs: I’ll take the wild guess that if glen gave them more than five minutes a game, they could put up numbers. Lazar-BennettVversteeg is the polar opposite at 36.36 CF% with better zone starts

karimkurji: Wow is Lazar bad then?

taylormckee: Damn, then, isn’t the conclusion that the Flames still need a winger?

ctibs: Hello to Matthew Phillips.

taylormckee: I suppose that’s why I have time for a look at Bennett on the wing. Because they *might* have internal options to help down the middle. not necessarily because Bennett is an abject failure but because they don’t exactly have help on the wing.

ctibs: Hot take: we go back to the Bennett-Backlund-Frolik line and move Tkachuk up to the first line RW.

karimkurji: I kinda want to see Bennett Tkachuk. I feel like they could be very good together.

ctibs: Yeah that needs to be given a go, but Gulutzan seems stubborn on some things

taylormckee: Yes. I like that. Is that contingent on a Janko call up? Or are Stajan and Lazar the bottom 2 Cs?

karimkurji: Just swap Tkachuk and Versteeg.

ctibs: You have to exile one of Versteeg/Jagr/Ferland to the fourth line however.

taylormckee: Sorry Ferland. Also, and I might be sniffing glue here, but doesn’t it seem as though Brouwer looks more comfortable on 4L? Almost as if he’s relieved to be free of the pressure?

Ryan Pike: He’s been good on the PK.