In all seriousness, Bartschi's a beaut. I watched him dominate the Oil Kings single-handedly live and in person in the WHL final last year. He's definitely the real deal... even if Rob Kerr is a little overzealous about it.
This.
He was tearing us a new ******* along with Ty Rattie (sp?).
In all seriousness, Bartschi's a beaut. I watched him dominate the Oil Kings single-handedly live and in person in the WHL final last year. He's definitely the real deal... even if Rob Kerr is a little overzealous about it.
Agreed, I can't believe the Kings beat those guys with that Rattie and Bartchi line out there. They were dangerous everytime they hit the ice.
The Flames are a year or two away from their core veterans not contributing much anymore. As much respect that I have for Iginla, he's not even close to the player he used to be anymore. Tanguay and Cammy are pretty good players when they're on their game, but definitely not top end players anymore imo. Baertschi, on the other hand, is gonna be a great player. He had a pretty bad game tonight but you can see his great skill level. He's got great hand eye coordination, knocking the puck down a few times out of mid air.
Calgary has at least 7-8 veteran players that are better than any of the Oilers veterans.
And the Oilers have almost as many players under the age of 25 that are better than any of the Flames under 25 (except Baertschi). I know which group I would rather have going forward.
can someone find a higher quality version of that? that shot is poster worthy
That was an NHL quality shot. Not a lot a goalie can do when they are faced with a shot like that from that part of the ice. Just an absolutely sick shot. I thought the team played pretty good. Hall should have had a hatrick tonight. Still needs some secondary scoring though.
So who is developing so well down there? Brodie and Baertschi look like players, but who else are you so impressed with? I also don't think that they were any grittier than we were tonight TBH.
I could've worded it better. My points largely centered on what the respective clubs are learning. As I've mentioned Ward has his heat playing a damn good system game. With EVERYBODY buying in. Theres not even a notion of Baertschi not buying in despite him also being a bonafide NHL player already. Frankly its disconcerting to see how much further along development has gone since players were drafted. Of course a fair view of this realizes the Oilers had multiple number 1 drafts and Calgary didn't. Yet guys like Baertshci, Horak, Olson, Street, were some of the best looking forwards in the two game set.
largely because of their system play and good responsible all round play resulting in puck strips, regaining possession and tilting the ice.
In the two game set you saw a lot of shifts where the most talented Barons on the ice are chasing the puck all shift and don't have the puck much of the shift.
This was a classic matchup(and the type that I always love) one team thats truly a team, playing its game, the other a collection of individuals trying to force plays that are low percentage and not working. Heres a thing Ward pointed out post game. In a two game set not once did the Barons score a regular strength 5 on 5 goal. The Heat didn't cede one. I like a coach paying attention to that type of detail and knowing a team played reasonably well in a loss. Conversely who could say the Barons played well on Friday? Would that performance be acceptable from Abbotsford?
Heres a lot of what I saw in the two game matchup and quite simple. One team understanding that breaking down an opponent requires team play, good breakouts, good puck support at all times, and a lot of passing and separation and finding open ice to create scoring chances. its a let the puck do the work approach and play the game smart. When in doubt, don't force a play, just move it to the next open man and await the inevitable chance, which were coming in droves as the Barons were broken down like rented mules rarely picking up trailer, backdoor etc. Just not even looking for it. More like expecting Danis to bail them out at close range everytime.
Next, What you see a lot of with the Barons is no respect whatsoever for puck retension, for puck control. Instead a selfish game played as individuals expecting that one magic pass is going to produce something. Individuals that require a buttkicking like what happened on Friday to establish even a momentary notion that they need to buy into something different. So the Barons had better focus on Saturday, but still giving the puck away in droves and in own zone and still giving up countless monumental scoring chances to the Heat.
Danis stole the show. Heres another thing thats not subtle at all and illustrates my point about Nelson stressing win vs development. Instead of playing our developing young goalies regularly he's going almost exclusively with Danis who is there to hold the fort while players make countless mistakes in front of him. With Roy rarely seeing action the whole time he's been there.
Nelson basically warehousing Roy for the sake of giving Danis lots of action to no end result.
With the only result being Nelsons own resume and Wins/Loss record. Which is clearly more important to him than giving Roy the ample action he needs for his development.
Last season the flames would've finished in last place if it were not for kipper. Every year us oilers fans look at their roster and say "it's worse than the year before" but as long as they have kipper in net they are a 9th place team in the west.
Also Baertshi reminds me of a young Ales Hemsky. We would always complain about Hemsky never having good linemates. The same thing will plague Baertshi's career with the flames.
i've seen baertschi live a few times and have been really impressed with him. i went to both games in abbotsford and frankly he didn't stand out too much.
I thought he Nordic line was our most consistent line last night. On almost every shift the puck was moving forward and the majority of the play was in the Heat zone. I thought all 3 of them played with some fire. The top line got hemmed in their own zone too often, they made some nice skill plays in the O zone and definitely showed that they are a level above skill wise out there. Hall is still shaking off some rust it seems.
This team needs another player or two like Byers out there.
I could've worded it better. My points largely centered on what the respective clubs are learning. As I've mentioned Ward has his heat playing a damn good system game. With EVERYBODY buying in. Theres not even a notion of Baertschi not buying in despite him also being a bonafide NHL player already. Frankly its disconcerting to see how much further along development has gone since players were drafted. Of course a fair view of this realizes the Oilers had multiple number 1 drafts and Calgary didn't. Yet guys like Baertshci, Horak, Olson, Street, were some of the best looking forwards in the two game set.
largely because of their system play and good responsible all round play resulting in puck strips, regaining possession and tilting the ice.
In the two game set you saw a lot of shifts where the most talented Barons on the ice are chasing the puck all shift and don't have the puck much of the shift.
This was a classic matchup(and the type that I always love) one team thats truly a team, playing its game, the other a collection of individuals trying to force plays that are low percentage and not working. Heres a thing Ward pointed out post game. In a two game set not once did the Barons score a regular strength 5 on 5 goal. The Heat didn't cede one. I like a coach paying attention to that type of detail and knowing a team played reasonably well in a loss. Conversely who could say the Barons played well on Friday? Would that performance be acceptable from Abbotsford?
Heres a lot of what I saw in the two game matchup and quite simple. One team understanding that breaking down an opponent requires team play, good breakouts, good puck support at all times, and a lot of passing and separation and finding open ice to create scoring chances. its a let the puck do the work approach and play the game smart. When in doubt, don't force a play, just move it to the next open man and await the inevitable chance, which were coming in droves as the Barons were broken down like rented mules rarely picking up trailer, backdoor etc. Just not even looking for it. More like expecting Danis to bail them out at close range everytime.
Next, What you see a lot of with the Barons is no respect whatsoever for puck retension, for puck control. Instead a selfish game played as individuals expecting that one magic pass is going to produce something. Individuals that require a buttkicking like what happened on Friday to establish even a momentary notion that they need to buy into something different. So the Barons had better focus on Saturday, but still giving the puck away in droves and in own zone and still giving up countless monumental scoring chances to the Heat.
Danis stole the show. Heres another thing thats not subtle at all and illustrates my point about Nelson stressing win vs development. Instead of playing our developing young goalies regularly he's going almost exclusively with Danis who is there to hold the fort while players make countless mistakes in front of him. With Roy rarely seeing action the whole time he's been there.
Nelson basically warehousing Roy for the sake of giving Danis lots of action to no end result.
With the only result being Nelsons own resume and Wins/Loss record. Which is clearly more important to him than giving Roy the ample action he needs for his development.
Olson and Street are 25 years old, the only forwards that we had playing in these 2 games that were that old were Vande Velde, House, and Byers. Do you really think that a guy like Josh Green wouldn't have helped our cause?
You mention Baertschi buying in, well he isn't an established NHLer yet, neither is Schultz, no big surprise that the two most talented guys that aren't NHLers have played hard and well all season long (Sven and Schultz). If our team plays with the same intensity level that they did last night it will be very hard to beat them. You also mention all of the Heats chances but don't mention ours, RNH in the slot, Hall on the side of the net, etc.
Then you talk about puck retention, did you not see the Lander line who kept the Heat pinned in their zone for most shifts?
Lastly for Danis/Roy, Danis is the reigning AHL goalie of the year and this was a very hostile environment against a really good AHL team, the win yesterday spoke for itself. Roy will be playing soon enough.
__________________ Treat Others As You Would Like To Be Treated
i've seen baertschi live a few times and have been really impressed with him. i went to both games in abbotsford and frankly he didn't stand out too much.
IMO he stood out more in game 1, but was good in both games.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nabob
I thought he Nordic line was our most consistent line last night. On almost every shift the puck was moving forward and the majority of the play was in the Heat zone. I thought all 3 of them played with some fire. The top line got hemmed in their own zone too often, they made some nice skill plays in the O zone and definitely showed that they are a level above skill wise out there. Hall is still shaking off some rust it seems.
This team needs another player or two like Byers out there.
Agreed, Green is really missed right now. Our big 3 are kind of like that even at the NHL level it's feast or famine for them. If Hall knocked off some of the rust I'd prefer to see him playing with Arcobello and Pitlick to spread the wealth around:
IMO he stood out more in game 1, but was good in both games.
Agreed, Green is really missed right now. Our big 3 are kind of like that even at the NHL level it's feast or famine for them. If Hall knocked off some of the rust I'd prefer to see him playing with Arcobello and Pitlick to spread the wealth around:
The Heat are very well coached and that team does play better as a unit then the Barons do. I think the biggest issue for the Barons is what the Sportsnet panel mentioned - the D. The panel said they aren't talented enough as compared to NHL calibre D (duh) but it does affect the offense and defense. On defense obviously not getting the puck out or not being able to have a strong transition game hurt the skill players. In the offensive end though u can see that the lack of offensive IQ (outside of Schultz) results in the forwards doing it all alone. I saw numerous times that it was our forwards vs the Heats 5 man unit and that is a battle we will lose more times than not. Against worst defensive teams the Barons can have success due the skill but against good teams I think they will have to battle like they did yesterday to have any success. Will be no different at the NHL level either
