2016-2017 NHL Regular Season Thread, Week 26: Holy Fuck Colorado Was Bad

[Brill Weave]

You cannot possibly be this ignorant.

[Obsidian]

[Obsidian]

Looks like it's a good thing I've been watching the MLS game instead of this one.

[Obsidian]

Of course it was Stajan.

[Obsidian]

Well at least TFC won.

[Cail]

Islessss

[Vaspinne]

Chad Johnson has 3 shutouts and 6 wins in his last 8 starts. He's been fantastic over the last 3 weeks. Brian Elliott, not so much. He had a fantastic game against NYI a couple nights ago admittedly, but it's gonna be real hard for him to take back the net if Johnson keeps this up.

Calgary also had 3 back to back segments in 9 games before tonight's game too. And that was also part of a big 6 game road trip in the East. Schedule hasn't been kind to them in November. Much kinder schedule in December though so it'll be interesting to see how they do. Team as a whole has been playing a lot better. But it's been like 2~3 really solid games followed by a major stinker. Just need to up that consistency a bit.

[NynJa]

Just sayin, but 2-3 solid games followed up by a stinker should lead to a .625 point percentage

[Vaspinne]

Well, Calgary is 6-3-1 in their last 10 and 13/20 points is .650. That is also just shortly before the 20 game mark for Calgary and if old saying about taking roughly 20 games to get used to a new coach/system holds true, they started looking like a cohesive and better team on the ice since then with a random incredibly bad game tossed in lol (hi2u games against Philly and Buffalo). The other 2 losses were a lot closer games. Against NYI in OT and Chicago was a fluke of a goal with like a minute and a half to go.

Cautiously optimistic that this team is starting to turn things around. The offense has still been abysmal and still needs to get better. But outside of those 2 awful games against PHI/BUF, the PK has looked waaaaaaay better in that 10 game segment too. Bringing back Johnny and Mony/Gio/Brodie getting their shit together will definitely help offensively. And hopefully Bennett can find some consistency. But I think that's moreso finding him some consistent linemates and putting him on the wing instead of at center.

Edit: Just to give some context towards the PK. In the last 10 games they've been shorthanded 34 times (a league high from Nov 15th to tonight which is... awful) and allowed 5PPGA. That puts them at 85.3% which is 15th and right in the middle for league average during that time frame. But then you have to consider that 3 of those 5 goals against came against Buffalo in the span of 1 minute and 40 seconds in one of those random shit games I mentioned earlier lol. So you take away that game and they've been 26/28 on the PK which is 92.9% in the 9 other games in that span and would place them 3rd in the league compared to other teams from the 15th to now.

So defensively they've been a LOT better. And Chad Johnson is helping a lot. But like I said, offense has been garbage still so there's still room for improvement.

[Obsidian]

I personally don't think the team is going anywhere unless they get Elliot going.

[Vaspinne]

So Johnson who had a 39save shutout against Toronto last night and has had 3 shutouts in his last 8 starts isn't an option?

[Obsidian]

Season-long? Not likely. One way or the other you need Elliot to work it out because if Johnson goes cold or gets hurt you're boned. He's only played more than 30 games in a season once in his career (43 last season with Buffalo), it's extremely unlikely he's going to Hammond his way through the next 60 games. Yes he robbed Toronto of 2 points last night, no I don't think he can do that consistently.

I also thought you already re-signed Elliot but apparently not so I guess you're not stuck with him if he blows but having a 2.5M player riding pine all season surely isn't attractive to the Flames.

[Vaspinne]

Fair enough. That's the nice thing about having picked up Elliott last off season. 1-year left on his contract, super low cap hit for a starter (or should be starter anyway), and lots of opportunity to get a different keeper this upcoming off season with the expansion draft should Elliott not work out.

I also think (and I've said this already before in the thread) that Elliott just hasn't had much support from the team so far. The OT loss against NYI he was really good. But against BUF Calgary was fucking awful and took so many penalties. And when Elliott was getting the bulk of his starts it was still early in the season and the team looked lost on the ice. So with the team playing better as of late I do hope he gets more opportunities to fight back for his #1 job

Edit: Jonas Hiller played 26 games last season and was a $4.5mil hit. So I'm more than okay with a $2.5mil Elliott on the bench. Especially with Johnson being a $1.5mil hit himself

[Obsidian]

I agree the team has played like shit in front of Elliot. But I also think it's unfortunate that Calgary is so hung up on making it to the playoffs that they're just going to ride Johnson now until he implodes before giving Elliot a chance to prove he isn't a 0.885 goalie.

[bluefan]

This team sucks man.

Feels bad.

[Cail]

Apparently, last night, the Isles scored 2 goals in 3 seconds

[Zetanio]

Buffalo, more like Snuffalo.

[NynJa]

Apparently, last night, the Isles scored 2 goals in 3 seconds

Involved an empty net

[Cail]

Involved an empty net

even still, thats crazy

[bluefan]

You had the lead twice.

Twice.

Wtf. Jets.