Well everything was clicking tonight. Good to see Gee and Klinkhammer get their 1st.
Cranley with 1-2 big saves for the shutout.
Cranley with 1-2 big saves for the shutout.
Flint Firebirds 2022-23 Off-Season Thread
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Yeah, it seems obvious because of the shutout but he was really solid tonight. He’s been better the last couple and Day was really good last night too. If they start getting goaltending like that, they’ll have more weekends like this where they picked up 5 of 6 points. Nice to see Gee and Klinkhammer score. Everybody had a point except Jenken, Coulson and Piercey. Not for lack of chances for Riley obviously. I’ve pointed out D’Amato being near the top of the league in +/- but I also noticed Slavicek has 13pts in his last 16 games in addition to being a machine on the PK lately. I don’t think Saginaw or Windsor are actually as good as their records show and the Sting were quite short handed but it’s a trend in the right direction. Better goaltending and a bit better in the D-zone and finishing their chances. They needed this with a tough, long weekend against formidable opponents looming.
This season has actually been more surprising and odd than last year coming out of the Covid break. Saginaw in 1st? Ottawa just rolling? Kitchener is terrible? A couple things that are pretty common through a lot of team threads are “We need (insert starting goaltender) to be better” and “We need to get tougher”. Well, with Piercey, Guryev, Hay, Hayes, Deline, etc and a couple additions still to be made I don’t think the Firebirds have an issue there. They will hit and fight. I was happy to see Bradshaw playing a heavier game last night. The goaltending though? I don’t see anybody out there right now worth spending on in hopes to upgrade on Cranley. I’ve been fairly certain he’s the staff’s guy, now I’m looking at it like he just IS the guy? Brochu has been bad. We saw Gaudreau last night. Isn’t that the second time Flint has chased him this year? Thornton has been average. Constantini has struggled. There are very few teams getting grade A goaltending right now and not the ones you’d expect. You HAVE to believe one of Gaudreau, Brochu, Constantini etc get rolling but do you wanna spend assets and roll the dice on which one? It’s been surprising and right now I’m on the side of hold Cranley and hope he keeps playing like he has over the last few games. I still like Day as a prospect but I think you’re going to see the highs and lows of playing a 17yo goalie for a little bit. Next up? The long Eastern swing starting with Brennan Othmann and the Peterborough Petes followed by the top team in the league, Ottawa. They end the 3 game weekend vs Kingston. Then? Back to back vs Sarnia. So there’s gonna be some looking for vengeance coming their way. We’ll see how they handle that and perform.
Thornton 0.881
Constantini 0.892
Gaudreau 0.870
Brochu 0.888
Cranley 0.906
Constantini 0.892
Gaudreau 0.870
Brochu 0.888
Cranley 0.906
To expand on this.
Here was my list of OA possibilities. Flint Firebirds 2022 Off-season Thread
Ranked kind of how I wanted them.
Joe Ranger OA* - 0.889
Marco Costantini OA* -0.892
Anson Thornton - 0.881
Joe Vrbetic OA* - ECHL
Xavier Medina OA* - USHL
Mathias Onuska OA* - 0.869
Will Cranley OA* - 0.906
Tristan Lennox OA* - 0.891
Tynan Tucker OA* - USHL
Maybe Ted Dent knows more than us, maybe, probably not. But maybe.
To expand on this.
Here was my list of OA possibilities. Flint Firebirds 2022 Off-season Thread
Ranked kind of how I wanted them.
Joe Ranger OA* - 0.889
Marco Costantini OA* -0.892
Anson Thornton - 0.881
Joe Vrbetic OA* - ECHL
Xavier Medina OA* - USHL
Nick Chenard OA* (But I feel like Owen Sound will be a contender)Stayed with Owen Sound
Mathias Onuska OA* - 0.869
Will Cranley OA* - 0.906
Tristan Lennox OA* - 0.891
Tynan Tucker OA* - USHL
Maybe Ted Dent knows more than us, maybe, probably not. But maybe.
I mean this would be useful if save% mattered a whole lot for evaluating OHL talent. Quality of defense in front of them and the quality of shots against are a massive factor in that stat and the goaltender has less influence. Ive been a big proponent of Cranley in Flint and got alot of grief for it after the trade. But Flints defense is also leaps and bounds better than many of the defenses on that list. Of course thier goaltender is going to save a higher percentage of shots, they come from less dangerous areas of the ice
The main thing Cranley needed to improve on early was cutting down on the soft goals in close games. He wasn’t stopping routine saves (mostly unscreened shots from the top of the circles out) at critical moments when the games were close. Also he’s let a few get by him on the ice 5-hole. He’s cleaned those up over the last few. He’s playing with more confidence and the team is cutting down shots and quality chances. Let’s see if they can keep that going over a tough 3 game stretch next weekend. I’m curious to know how much of it is just Greg Stefan’s coaching and just Cranley gaining confidence?To expand on this.
Here was my list of OA possibilities. Flint Firebirds 2022 Off-season Thread
Ranked kind of how I wanted them.
Joe Ranger OA* - 0.889
Marco Costantini OA* -0.892
Anson Thornton - 0.881
Joe Vrbetic OA* - ECHL
Xavier Medina OA* - USHL
Nick Chenard OA* (But I feel like Owen Sound will be a contender)Stayed with Owen Sound
Mathias Onuska OA* - 0.869
Will Cranley OA* - 0.906
Tristan Lennox OA* - 0.891
Tynan Tucker OA* - USHL
Maybe Ted Dent knows more than us, maybe, probably not. But maybe.
I just looked up Tynan and Medina. Crazy that they’re both in Sioux Falls playing for the Stampede as OA’s. Now we know about Tynan’s gambling issues and his attitude on and off the ice last year. I know a couple other little stories too. I would want no part of Tynan on the team. Medina though? He’s a Detroit kid and his story is a little more guarded. If you’ve seen interviews with him it’s hard to picture him as a locker room cancer. I don’t know but I thought he was an intriguing option even though the knock on him was exactly what my issues with Cranley early on were.To expand on this.
Here was my list of OA possibilities. Flint Firebirds 2022 Off-season Thread
Ranked kind of how I wanted them.
Joe Ranger OA* - 0.889
Marco Costantini OA* -0.892
Anson Thornton - 0.881
Joe Vrbetic OA* - ECHL
Xavier Medina OA* - USHL
Nick Chenard OA* (But I feel like Owen Sound will be a contender)Stayed with Owen Sound
Mathias Onuska OA* - 0.869
Will Cranley OA* - 0.906
Tristan Lennox OA* - 0.891
Tynan Tucker OA* - USHL
Maybe Ted Dent knows more than us, maybe, probably not. But maybe.
A
Sioux Falls not a good team currently in last place in their conference.
Actually Tynan has not been with Sioux Falls for over a month,its just Medina and the other guy an 04 born.
Sioux Falls not a good team currently in last place in their conference.
Section5Petes
Registered User
- Nov 14, 2022
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If these are your options then you might as well just keep Cranley. None of these goalies have better numbers except for Tristan Lennonx's GAA at 2.95. The OA goalie market is complicated just because of the role some of them are playing and no one is actually having a great season. Lennox could work for Flint, but I could see the Spirit holding onto him as a compliment to Andrew Oke and I think Kitchener is committed to Marco Costantini and are hoping he will turn it around. From a positional standpoint in Sudbury, Joe Ranger probably works the best but once again, is behind Cranley in almost every statistical category. Unless Flint is hellbent on making a change, then go for it, but statistically speaking Cranley is one of the best OA goalies on the market whether Firebird fans want to hear it or not.To expand on this.
Here was my list of OA possibilities. Flint Firebirds 2022 Off-season Thread
Ranked kind of how I wanted them.
Joe Ranger OA* - 0.889
Marco Costantini OA* -0.892
Anson Thornton - 0.881
Joe Vrbetic OA* - ECHL
Xavier Medina OA* - USHL
Nick Chenard OA* (But I feel like Owen Sound will be a contender)Stayed with Owen Sound
Mathias Onuska OA* - 0.869
Will Cranley OA* - 0.906
Tristan Lennox OA* - 0.891
Tynan Tucker OA* - USHL
Maybe Ted Dent knows more than us, maybe, probably not. But maybe.
That was my list last June. Just now with updated numbers.
You can wipe the ECHL, USHL guys off the list and Chenard too. He won’t be moving. I wouldn’t put any of my money on Lennox staying healthy even if it was just a string of bad luck for him over the last couple years. So, yeah I think it’s Cranley at this point and the only kids I find even remotely intriguing are Constantini and Thornton but stats don’t tell the whole story for goaltenders in general. Let alone in the OHL. Will’s issue hasn’t been stopping 90% of the shots. It’s letting unscreened wrist shots from the circles out sneak through his pads in tie or one goal games. There’s ways to work on cutting down traffic, or tying up sticks to prevent tips, cutting down on odd-man rushes or cross-ice passes but there’s not as much you can do to prevent shots from the blueline and never knowing when one will end up in the back of the net. He’s stopped that the last few games and if he can come close to eliminating those and be a little better with closing his 5-hole? It’s on because he’s been pretty damn solid everywhere else.
Go to the Ottawa thread. Watch the clip of Tyler Boucher instigating. Boucher just came off a 5? or 6? game slew foot suspension where I believe the kid is still out. Now he gets 2 games for instigating. Two. How is that any different than what Guryev did? He gets 5 games. They both have history. To be honest I don’t think either should be facing any type of suspension here. Just the in game penalties they received.
Niagara Ice Dogs name former Firebirds Associate Coach Ryan Kuwabara as their new HC. Poor Guy.
Generalsupdates
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He’s going to a pretty good underperforming roster. Like Wellwood in Flint and Keefe in SSM, he could make a great name for himself
Good offensively right from the start imo.
Is there a trade to announce?
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HUSH10
Registered User
- Sep 16, 2019
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HUSH10
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Just curious as all discussion on the Oshawa thread has been removed regarding this trade but not on here
Kingpin794
Smart A** In A Jersey
Would seem like a very lateral move unless with Kuzmin, Deline, and Bertucci, they figured they had a good set offense on the back. Wanted to add some more size there/make it harder to play against them?
AnotherDimwit
Registered User
Any thoughts on it? I don't know much about him, but seems they're going for another bigger body defenseman. Luca is smaller but has been really good on our blueline. I'll be sad to see him go.
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