<p>Friends, the Calgary Flames are playing well, getting points, and generally looking pretty good right now. As you might imagine, many fans are approaching this situation with a type of cautious optimism.</p>
<p>So let&#8217;s see how the mailbag is feeling about things?</p>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">So, the top line is really carrying the mail offensively. The other 3 lines are chipping in, but their goal differentials are pretty much only even. If the top line dries up, that&#39;s tough sleddin. Should DS shuffle the bottom 9 so it makes more sense?</p>
<p>&mdash; flanksweed (@flanksweed) <a href="https://twitter.com/flanksweed/status/1457506320261672963?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 8, 2021</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>The first line is doing quite well, agreed. Gaudreau, Lindholm and Tkachuk have out-scored the other team 7-0.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s how the other lines have done:</p>
<ul>
<li>Coleman &#8211; Backlund &#8211; Pitlick: 3-1</li>
<li>Lucic &#8211; Dube &#8211; Mangiapane: 1-0</li>
<li>Ritchie &#8211; Dube &#8211; Mangiapane: 4-2</li>
<li>Lewis &#8211; Monahan &#8211; Lucic: 1-3</li>
<li>Richardson &#8211; Monahan &#8211; Lewis: 0-0</li>
</ul>
<p>Now, when everybody&#8217;s healthy, the &#8220;default&#8217; groupings seem to work well. The Backlund line can be used as a shutdown trio. The Lindholm line attracts the other team&#8217;s shutdown trio, which allows Dube&#8217;s line to get the other team&#8217;s leftovers and thrive.</p>
<p>It is, however, a bit challenging that the fourth line is underwater from a scoring perspective despite the presence of strong goal-scorer Sean Monahan. How Monahan&#8217;s season unfolds will be a storyline to follow over the coming weeks and months.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Hey Ryan hope you’re having a great weekend, does this team still need a true number one center or has Elias Lindholm filled that position moving forward? Sidenote &#8211; will Markström be able to keep up the quality of play given his current workload?</p>
<p>&mdash; Erik Dickson (@RikyBerta69) <a href="https://twitter.com/RikyBerta69/status/1457501944944103438?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 8, 2021</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Elias Lindholm has done excellent as the team&#8217;s first line centre over the past couple seasons, but the thing that probably made Jack Eichel so attractive to the Flames &#8211; aside from being just great at hockey &#8211; is one word: slotting. Adding Eichel would&#8217;ve push Lindholm down the rotation, with Mikael Backlund and Sean Monahan as the third and fourth line centres. If those guys are your depth guys, that&#8217;s great depth to have. If you have to &#8220;settle&#8221; for Lindholm as your top centre, his performance makes it easy to accept, but adding another piece would help the Flames out-match deep teams in tight games.</p>
<p>As for Markström: it&#8217;s a &#8220;yes, but&#8221; scenario. Yes, I think the Flames&#8217; strong defensive play makes Markström&#8217;s hot start fairly sustainable (compared to if he were on a team that gives up a ton of good, quality scoring chances). But, I think he&#8217;ll be spelled off by Dan Vladar a few times on the road trip to keep him fresh.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">&#8211; Who are potential forwards the Flames should target to improve the forward group?<br />&#8211; Thoughts on Dube at centre so far?</p>
<p>&mdash; m (@miletwt) <a href="https://twitter.com/miletwt/status/1457493125681713153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2021</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>My cousin is a Sharks fan and raves about Timo Meier, and reportedly Meier is looking for a trade. If Meier&#8217;s available, he&#8217;s a nice piece to add, but you have to wonder how pricey the trade would be considering the Sharks would be moving him in-division.</p>
<p>As for Dube? Well, Darryl Sutter has heavily sheltered him in terms of stacking his life with offensive zone starts. His performances have been consistently solid, but not great, but his line isn&#8217;t getting hammered to the degree that you&#8217;d think Sutter will make adjustments. Building up Dube as a centre seems to be a medium-term investment that they&#8217;re fairly committed to.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Flames are dominating the East (7-0) and the Metro in particular (6-0, 3 shutouts), but are winless against the West (0-1-3). Is this a concern? (Requisite “it’s still early” disclaimer.)</p>
<p>&mdash; Dr. Guy S. Duke (@Archaeo_Guy) <a href="https://twitter.com/Archaeo_Guy/status/1457498668278460420?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 8, 2021</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Honestly, not terribly so. They have no wins against their conference or division, but have only played a handful of games so far. The big positive is they&#8217;re dominating the East thus far, capturing the &#8220;bonus&#8221; points in games against teams they&#8217;re not competing against for playoff spots.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Knowing that everything is working right now, and that adversity will eventually show up, where do you think future struggles will emerge from? Top six drying up? Bottom six being outperformed? Bottom pairing w/o Val? Special teams collapse? Where will weakness return from?</p>
<p>&mdash; Nicholas Dykstra (@NicholasDykstra) <a href="https://twitter.com/NicholasDykstra/status/1457496992595132416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2021</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>The big thing that should probably normalize is Jacob Markström&#8217;s superb goaltending. The Flames are allowing quality chances at a league average rate, but they&#8217;re getting the best goaltending in the league. All things being equal, you&#8217;d expect the quality of the scoring chances the Flames are allowing to bring Markström back down to earth a bit.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Oliver Kylington: Best defensemen in the league or beat defensemen in the league ever? 😂</p>
<p>&mdash; Jordan (@Jordan_FlamingC) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jordan_FlamingC/status/1457495703131869184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2021</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Best defenseman on the team, at the very least.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">With the stable play of Gudbranson locking him into the 5 spot and Zadorov looking improved in the 6 spot, what will it take for Valimaki to get back into the lineup? Strong practice? Zadorov’s performance? Specific matchups? Thanks Ryan.</p>
<p>&mdash; Eric (@BlindMilwaukee) <a href="https://twitter.com/BlindMilwaukee/status/1457525227995365376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 8, 2021</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Well, it seems evident that Noah Hanifin and Oliver Kylington are locked into top four gigs for awhile. That leaves a single left-shot spot for Nikita Zadorov and Juuso Välimäki to battle over. Honestly, it&#8217;s probably up to Zadorov having a bad game or two to get Välimäki back in, much like Välimäki having a couple bad games got Zadorov back in.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">2 questions. How do you justify not taking the opportunity to get a franchise player like Eichel? How is Tkachuk&#39;s next contract not a large overpay?</p>
<p>&mdash; Steve (@Svenny9) <a href="https://twitter.com/Svenny9/status/1457494802400899072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2021</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>The only argument against trading for Jack Eichel, if the price was not too crazy, was that his cap hit made it very tough to do anything else with the roster when he was healthy. The Flames would&#8217;ve had to jettison a significant amount of cap space (and players) to fit him in.</p>
<p>As for Matthew Tkachuk&#8217;s new deal: it all depends on what he wants in terms of term. A short-term deal might not be too crazy, but a long-term deal involves buying a lot of UFA years and will drive that AAV sky-high.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Ryan, watching Lucic over the last couple of games it looks like he has found another gear. Last night he looked really good on the back heck and didn&#39;t seem to be left behind. Thoughts?</p>
<p>&mdash; John Steffan (@JohnEffin) <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnEffin/status/1457497332610596866?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2021</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>I&#8217;ll say this for Milan Lucic: the guy knows what he is, and what his strengths and weaknesses are as a player. Since he knows his limitations, he&#8217;s great at working within them to do some cool stuff. Short shifts, specific match-ups, and utilizing his size, smarts and shot have made him a very useful Flame. Is he too expensive? Sure. But he&#8217;s been good for the club so far.</p>
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Friends, the Calgary Flames are playing well, getting points, and generally looking pretty good right now. As you might imagine, many fans are approaching this situation with a type of cautious optimism.

So let's see how the mailbag is feeling about things?



https://twitter.com/flanksweed/status/1457506320261672963

The first line is doing quite well, agreed. Gaudreau, Lindholm and Tkachuk have out-scored the other team 7-0.

Here's how the other lines have done:
<ul>
 	<li>Coleman - Backlund - Pitlick: 3-1</li>
 	<li>Lucic - Dube - Mangiapane: 1-0</li>
 	<li>Ritchie - Dube - Mangiapane: 4-2</li>
 	<li>Lewis - Monahan - Lucic: 1-3</li>
 	<li>Richardson - Monahan - Lewis: 0-0</li>
</ul>
Now, when everybody's healthy, the "default' groupings seem to work well. The Backlund line can be used as a shutdown trio. The Lindholm line attracts the other team's shutdown trio, which allows Dube's line to get the other team's leftovers and thrive.

It is, however, a bit challenging that the fourth line is underwater from a scoring perspective despite the presence of strong goal-scorer Sean Monahan. How Monahan's season unfolds will be a storyline to follow over the coming weeks and months.

https://twitter.com/RikyBerta69/status/1457501944944103438

Elias Lindholm has done excellent as the team's first line centre over the past couple seasons, but the thing that probably made Jack Eichel so attractive to the Flames - aside from being just great at hockey - is one word: slotting. Adding Eichel would've push Lindholm down the rotation, with Mikael Backlund and Sean Monahan as the third and fourth line centres. If those guys are your depth guys, that's great depth to have. If you have to "settle" for Lindholm as your top centre, his performance makes it easy to accept, but adding another piece would help the Flames out-match deep teams in tight games.

As for Markström: it's a "yes, but" scenario. Yes, I think the Flames' strong defensive play makes Markström's hot start fairly sustainable (compared to if he were on a team that gives up a ton of good, quality scoring chances). But, I think he'll be spelled off by Dan Vladar a few times on the road trip to keep him fresh.

https://twitter.com/miletwt/status/1457493125681713153

My cousin is a Sharks fan and raves about Timo Meier, and reportedly Meier is looking for a trade. If Meier's available, he's a nice piece to add, but you have to wonder how pricey the trade would be considering the Sharks would be moving him in-division.

As for Dube? Well, Darryl Sutter has heavily sheltered him in terms of stacking his life with offensive zone starts. His performances have been consistently solid, but not great, but his line isn't getting hammered to the degree that you'd think Sutter will make adjustments. Building up Dube as a centre seems to be a medium-term investment that they're fairly committed to.

https://twitter.com/Archaeo_Guy/status/1457498668278460420

Honestly, not terribly so. They have no wins against their conference or division, but have only played a handful of games so far. The big positive is they're dominating the East thus far, capturing the "bonus" points in games against teams they're not competing against for playoff spots.

https://twitter.com/NicholasDykstra/status/1457496992595132416

The big thing that should probably normalize is Jacob Markström's superb goaltending. The Flames are allowing quality chances at a league average rate, but they're getting the best goaltending in the league. All things being equal, you'd expect the quality of the scoring chances the Flames are allowing to bring Markström back down to earth a bit.

https://twitter.com/Jordan_FlamingC/status/1457495703131869184

Best defenseman on the team, at the very least.

https://twitter.com/BlindMilwaukee/status/1457525227995365376

Well, it seems evident that Noah Hanifin and Oliver Kylington are locked into top four gigs for awhile. That leaves a single left-shot spot for Nikita Zadorov and Juuso Välimäki to battle over. Honestly, it's probably up to Zadorov having a bad game or two to get Välimäki back in, much like Välimäki having a couple bad games got Zadorov back in.

https://twitter.com/Svenny9/status/1457494802400899072

The only argument against trading for Jack Eichel, if the price was not too crazy, was that his cap hit made it very tough to do anything else with the roster when he was healthy. The Flames would've had to jettison a significant amount of cap space (and players) to fit him in.

As for Matthew Tkachuk's new deal: it all depends on what he wants in terms of term. A short-term deal might not be too crazy, but a long-term deal involves buying a lot of UFA years and will drive that AAV sky-high.

https://twitter.com/JohnEffin/status/1457497332610596866

I'll say this for Milan Lucic: the guy knows what he is, and what his strengths and weaknesses are as a player. Since he knows his limitations, he's great at working within them to do some cool stuff. Short shifts, specific match-ups, and utilizing his size, smarts and shot have made him a very useful Flame. Is he too expensive? Sure. But he's been good for the club so far.
<h2><em><strong>The FlamesNation mailbag is brought to you by Deuce Vodka!</strong></em></h2>
<img class="aligncenter wp-image-84132 size-large" src="https://flamesnation.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/Deuce-1024x548.png" alt="" width="1024" height="548" />

"In life, there are so many moments to celebrate, I don’t want to waste a great moment on a bad drink. That’s why I choose Deuce Vodka." – Brett Kissel. <a href="https://deucevodka.com/find-us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow external" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://deucevodka.com/find-us/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1624366597485000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGn1EzuRMQb344_jV_hL0rgyjwHYA">Click here to find Deuce Vodka in a store near you.</a>

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