Trevor Neufeld: McDavid, Smith Overcome Flames

I think it was a decent game. My observations are as follows:

Mangi looks great. I think being on team Canada and winning the MVP helped his confidence. The only thing was he got knocked down easily off the puck when he was on the partial break away. This will come with time as he gets stronger but he looked excellent otherwise.

Tkachuck looked engaged and made some nice plays. Nice to see he is playing better than last year.

Gaudrea was decent, I didn't notice anything too good or bad with him on the ice.

Lindholm looked so so as well, other than that one goal, he was pretty invisible to me while watching the game.

Now to the Defence, Zadorov didn't impress me other than standing up for his teammates. He doesn't even look up most of the time when he gets the puck and he gets rid of it right away. i did not see him make one good pass all game. I guess let's give him time and hope he will improve.

Anderson was great... he was the best defenceman on the ice. He set the tone for the game, and a 5K fine for him is nothing.

Tanev and Hanifin were decent, nothing spectacular or bad about them.

Marky looked good. Some of those goals he had no chance on. It would've been a huge save if he saved the Puj goal but it's not his fault.

Overall, I say it was more good than bad. Certainly refreshing to see Flames being tough. I think even Kassian was scared to drop the gloves. We won't be pushovers this year for sure. Let's hope we will clean up some of the shortcomings and I see this team as a playoff team

DuranDuran, what motoyama did Rasmus do to little Kailer? And why do you guys lose 18 of 19 season openers, including 12 in a row?

Thanks Trevor

Has any one read a better writeup on the game than this one? Anywhere? And I'm including the MSM. It's definitely prime time quality.
Now as Pat Steinberg would say, I'm really curious to see if he can keep it up.
2 GTG!

Flames deserved better but on a positive note it looks like Sutter has made an impact early on here. Playoff hockey all year long, it's a great identity for a team to have. If they could have stayed out of the box I think they would have won that game, the Oilers top six didn't really have much going on.

Corsi or no Corsi, the Oilers had more Grade A chances than the Flames on both the PP and 5 on 5. Ripping a bunch of shots from the perimeter will rarely triumph over high quality chances. Welcome to Sutter hockey.

I didn't know that kylington only played 3:27 total time on the ice, and he didn't play after 12 min in the second. Is it because he was trying to do everything himself? Like i remember one play where he carried the puck in the offensive zone and went inside the blue line, then side of the net, then behind the net, and then came out other side, and I'm not sure if he made a pass there at all. I know Sutter said he has to use his teammates better. Maybe that's why he played so little?

Also, Valimaki did not look anything like he was a couple of years ago. It's sad how injuries really held his development back and prevented him from becoming the type of D we had envisioned.

I am still mad at Adam Fox not signing with the Flames. At age 23 and already won 1 Norris trophy, he would've been our number 1 D for years to come.

8th!

DuranDuran, what motoyama did Rasmus do to little Kailer? And why do you guys lose 18 of 19 season openers, including 12 in a row?
- VeryModernMan

Little Kailer kinda drove the net and Ras is trying to impress the coach. Ras needs to save that rage for someone with a lot more bite.

How do we loose so many first games? The Flames like breaking records…..and hearts.

Gudbranson looked better than The big Russian. I think they brought Gud in when Zad was asking for too much money. We dodged a bullet.

We need our best players to bury their opportunities. JG has a perfect chance on that 2 on 1 and missed the puck.

Things will look better with Coleman.

Go z Flames!

8th!
- wreckage

You guys didn't look good. nor did you look bad.

Tkachuk looked like a more enthused guy, but still not quite what he was 2 years ago. Johnny had flashes but no finishes. Ditto Mangiapane. Otherwise the rest left something to be delivered.

Lots of shots from the outside flipped at net. Hopes of tips or rebounds. But that's just another guys opinion. Didn't seem like a lot of HQ chances. Someone else said I was wrong and the "fancy stats" showed me wrong.

Flames did not deserve better. They got what they deserved in this game. Yes we out shot Edmonton, but perimeter shooting doesn’t get you wins. Edmonton capitalized on their opportunities. This is vintage flames we “stat pump” and shrug our shoulders saying next game we’ll come around. We had a poor last season, a poor offseason, poor pre season and last night showed that while treliving prioritized depth and character pcs we are very much outmatched against other teams that have been building through talent, speed and skill. Outside of mangiapane and Tkachuk and tanev I didn’t see any other player show any real drive more just play out your mins on the ice and hope someone else steps up. Gonna be a long season

Thanks Trevor
What an exciting game to watch, Flames had chances but no finish. Love the roughness to the game, these 2 teams don't really like each other. Sutter putting Lucic, Tkachuck, Lewis out for the last minute, sending a message to the Oilers. Our snowflake coaches from the past would never have done that, nice to have some passion on the bench we've lacked that since Hartley.
Smith looked awesome out there, oilers better hope he holds up for a full season.
Gaudreau looked disengaged when it started getting rough out there, if that doesn't change I'm not sure they open the bank for him.
Buddy said he hopes Tkachuk will focus on Draisitle, as the big German doesn't like the rough going.

Corsi or no Corsi, the Oilers had more Grade A chances than the Flames on both the PP and 5 on 5. Ripping a bunch of shots from the perimeter will rarely triumph over high quality chances. Welcome to Sutter hockey.
- Leichs

Did they not show the game in Edmonton? He even showed a heat map of the shots. The Flames also out-chanced the Oilers 34-21 and out high danger chanced them 16-10.

So you can keep making up any narrative you want about the Flames only shooting from the perimeter and the Oilers creating high-quality chances, but it's pretty easy to prove you're a fool talking out of the wrong end.

Oilers won McDavid. That's why they won. End of analysis.

Did they not show the game in Edmonton? He even showed a heat map of the shots. The Flames also out-chanced the Oilers 34-21 and out high danger chanced them 16-10.

So you can keep making up any narrative you want about the Flames only shooting from the perimeter and the Oilers creating high-quality chances, but it's pretty easy to prove you're a fool talking out of the wrong end.
- Squeaky

It comes down to two simply "words"... Connor McDavid. Insanely good.
Game was ok. Effort was there but some costly turnovers. Meh, one game of many.

Big lottery implications in tonight's matchup with the Ducks.

Big lottery implications in tonight's matchup with the Ducks.
- OilyJay

I didn't know they changed the season to just 2 games.

Big lottery implications in tonight's matchup with the Ducks.
- OilyJay

Typical Oiler fan, early on and shooting their mouth. Let’s chat in April!

Big lottery implications in tonight's matchup with the Ducks.
- OilyJay

Thanks Trevor
What an exciting game to watch, Flames had chances but no finish. Love the roughness to the game, these 2 teams don't really like each other. Sutter putting Lucic, Tkachuck, Lewis out for the last minute, sending a message to the Oilers. Our snowflake coaches from the past would never have done that, nice to have some passion on the bench we've lacked that since Hartley.
Smith looked awesome out there, oilers better hope he holds up for a full season.
Gaudreau looked disengaged when it started getting rough out there, if that doesn't change I'm not sure they open the bank for him.
Buddy said he hopes Tkachuk will focus on Draisitle, as the big German doesn't like the rough going.
- K-man25

This is my major critique of JG. A couple of years ago, previous to when he got that slash from Stahl, was the last time I saw him take a hit to make a play. I would say JG was buzzing last night, but not dominating.

At this point I think he is what he is. Hoping he proves me wrong. FFS Bennett has.