RD 1: Western Conference: #3 Dallas Stars vs. #6 Calgary Flames

[pilldoc]

schedule / TV dates coming soon

 

 

This will be the second playoff meeting between these two teams. Their only previous meeting was in the 1981 Stanley Cup Semifinals, which the then-Minnesota North Stars won in six games. Calgary won two of the three games in this year's regular season series.

Edited August 21, 2020 by pilldoc

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Flames in 6. Stars have lost 8 of their past 9, they don't have any offense and zero confidence right now. Benn, Seguin, Radulov, Klingberg have a horrendous season so far, Pavelski and Perry have some flashes here and there but are way too slow, Hintz is not the player he was since his injury.  The Stars will still win 2 games, one because the Flames will suck, the other on a misunderstanding.

[yave1964]

This may be the series that i watch every second of, the Stars with their defense first and veteran goal scorers who play both ways and huge Ben bishop in versus the smallish super fast pesky flawed but fun to watch Flames. I gotta admit they are two of my favorite teams for very different reasons, going Stars in 7 with Bishop being the difference maker.

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Two week games at 10:30pm and the fourth one on a Sunday at 2pm ?!?!

 

Screw that schedule !

[pilldoc]

Simply put...I don't trust the Stars offense. As @Villette/Lavaux put it ..."Benn, Seguin, Radulov, Klingberg have a horrendous season so far....."  With their shoot-out victory over the St. Louis Blues in the final round-robin game, Dallas was rewarded with playing Calgary instead of Vancouver. Either way, this team will need to get its sputtering offense going (four goals in three games) or it won't matter who they are playing.

 

Raising more eyebrows here ... Ben Bishop was “unfit to play” for this past Sunday afternoon’s game. The NHL does not permit teams to disclose any injury or illness updates. It was the second game Bishop missed since the Stars arrived in Edmonton.  He is listed a day-to-day.

 

Fans in Calgary must be delighted to see Sean Monahan leading the team in scoring after four games with six points. More importantly, all four lines contributed which if carried over to this series will make it very difficult for Dallas to keep the Flames in check for this series

 

Lets see if the Dallas defense can slow down the Flames.  I really like the Flames chances here.

 

Flames in 6

Edited August 11, 2020 by pilldoc

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Stars had an 8-game losing streak (4 times scoreless...) before winning against a Blues team that was not concerned at all, in a game that was like a nice soft preseason warm-up exhibition. Besides the no-offense, the overall attitude doesn't look good, they don't play with the required intensity and urgency they claim to play. A guy like Radulov works 100% with emotion and he's totally lit off, he's not even pissed off like he was at the season starts.

 

Coaching is also questionable, Bowness continues with constant lines shuffling in a total defensive mindset that puts speed guys like Hintz and Gurianov always on the breaks. Lats game, Pavelski was put on the blue line on the PP because he insists on putting him and Been on the first unit, which is a total non-sense. Stars haven't netted a PP goal since the restart.

 

Finally, depth. Calgary is way more balanced and have four lines that can contribute.

 

To end on a good note, goalies are not an issue (well, not right now I'd say). Khudobin is a 1B goalie that has a great season so far. His numbers are pretty equal to Bishop's and I would even say that Khudobin is more in shape and "trustable" than Bishop at that moment and is able to steal games. Another good news is, Stars have the """""home ice advantage""""" 

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Edit: for a quick résumé:

 

Goalies: 

Defense: 

Offense: 

Special teams (PP/PK): 

Coaching: 

Mental: 

Experience: 

Robustness: 

Depth: 

 

[pilldoc]

12 minutes ago, Villette/Lavaux said:

Edit: for a quick résumé:

 

Goalies: 

Defense: 

Offense: 

Special teams (PP/PK): 

Coaching: 

Mental: 

Experience: 

Robustness: 

Depth: 

 

I like what you did here..., would love if you did that for the other 7 series threads.

[Podein25]

How is "robustness" defined?

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35 minutes ago, Podein25 said:

How is "robustness" defined?

 

I mean by that, having players able to make a significant impact on that aspect. Calgary have for instance M. Tkatchuk and Lucic who can make some damages and hurt the Stars. On the other hand, I don't see any Stars players filling up that role (Benn used to be a so-called power forward back in his prime years but he became a non-factor), making the team way softer than the Flames.

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43 minutes ago, pilldoc said:

I like what you did here..., would love if you did that for the other 7 series threads.

 

Yes, why not.

[FD19372]

Dallas in 7, simply because I trust the Stars goaltending more than the Flames.

[HockeyLdy]

Calgary has got this series! 

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The Stars are dead last in the league in shooting percentage and scoring chances success, even behind the Dead Wings. If they continue to be unable to capitalize on the very few real scoring chances they have and play with zero urgency, this series might be ended on Sunday. The only players capable to bring some speed and skill have famelic TOI, the scoring leader is the least used forward.

 

I know that in the playoffs it's defense first, but if you are not able to score goals and take the lead, there's no way you can go through it.

 

 

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On 8/12/2020 at 3:35 PM, FD19372 said:

Dallas in 7, simply because I trust the Stars goaltending more than the Flames.

 

You got the game changer. Flames' goaltending has been atrocious.

 

The first 2 games were all Flames, but things turned during the game #3 where Stars offense started to become interesting, though they were scoreless. The next 3 games were dominated by the Stars when they decided to totally ignore Bowness's strategy by finding an unexpected offensive force. I was surprised to see the Flames imploding that way going from 3-0 to 3-7. The loss of Tkatcuk hurt them a lot.

 

Bottom point, the tenure of Benn-Seguin-Radulov, by far the least dangerous line of the team.