well, now that the initial horror has passed (i say horror and not shock, because i've maintained that lombardi has been calgary's most tradeable asset for eons, now), i'm beginning to warm up to this jokinen for lombardi/prust/1st rounder thing. as far as i'm concerned, the leopold for nycholat/wilson/2nd rounder is a pure win, from a flames perspective. in a late move, sutter also dips into our glut of goaltender prospects, sending current QC backup kevin lalande to columbus for a 4th rounder.
some random thoughts:
1. my biggest concern on deadline day was chemistry. fortunately (??), the rash of injuries in the past few weeks has not only seen faces disappear from the lockerroom, but has also seen new guys come in (without any noticeable detriment to on-ice play). sure, the loss of lombardi will create a bit of a void for long-time flames (iginla, regher etc), but it shouldn't have the impact that the departure of a team-favorite like andrew ference had in '06. still, i hear that jokinen is a bit of a prima dona, which could be bad, so i'll take a wait-and-see attitude on this front.
2. my second biggest concern today was futures. in my conversation with duncan last night, all of the guys i was most worried about losing were high draft picks and young prospects/up-and-comers, such as boyd, backlund, aulie, negrin, nemisz, wahl, gio, and pardy. i also had lombardi on this list but, realistically, to make a move he was always going to be the guy to go. sutter commented in his post-trade presser that he spent the better part of the past month having a look at these young guys, and if he's comfortable that some/all of them have future potential, then losing a couple of high draft picks will not have much effect on the team's future. he needs to get boyd, pardy, and moss signed ASAP, however, and have a comprehensive plan on insertting AT LEAST one of those guys into next year's lineup.
3. my third concern was cap space. the reason i didn't believe sutter would move lombardi at the deadline was because his value far outweighs his contract. he plays a lot of minutes on special teams, and excels all-around. sure, jokinen will probably be a stronger first line centre, but he is worth twice what lombardi was making? will this work out in the end ? yes, if we can start promoting some of our obviously talented prospects. the acquisition of jokinen's contract makes it unrealistic that we'll re-sign cammalleri (no more unrealistic than yesterday, admittedly), and essentially a death-blow to any thoughts aucoin might have had to re-sign for next year.
4. while i don't really love darryl sutter's lies to the fans/media (as late as last week he insisted he wasn't looking for much of anything), i prefer his so-called poker face to a bryan murray style of blabbermouthing. i think a GM needs to keep his cards close to his chest in order to be effective in making moves and i do appreciate daz's obvious abilities in this capacity. if the guys running the other 29 teams know that you REALLY want to trade, you're handcuffed. so, yeah. hell, i'm just happy gio made it THIS far... we'll see if he makes it through the summer.... :P
5. the biggest winner today: phoenix. WOW. nice work down there, guys.... ;) they lose jokinen, morris, carcillo, and tellqvist but pick up lombardi, prust, dawes, khalinin, prucha, upshall, and a pocketful of draft picks. if coach gretzky can rally his troops and immediately implement his system, i would not count this team out of the playoffs just yet...
that's it from here for now.
philly tomorrow should, by all accounts, see a lineup that looks something like this:
cammalleri - jokinen - iginla
moss - boyd - glencross
nystrom - conroy - lundmark
vandermeer - DVDG/peters - roy
regehr - aucoin
leopold - phaneuf
pardy - sarich
[i realize that everyone, playfair/keenan included, probably see leopold back with regehr, but i'm not sure i buy it. aucoin has really stepped it up this year]
also, the flames have announced that bertuzzi has undergone arthroscopic knee surgery.... meh.
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I think there are enough leaders in the Flames dressing room, that any prima donna attitude from Jokinen will be minimal. If you look at all of the teams that he has played for over his career, you'd be hard-pressed to find any of those seasons where his team had such leadership. Which is actually kind of obvious when you look at the number of playoff games he's played in...
I think he'll be pumped to actually get to play in late April for once...
here's to hoping !!!
What? knee surgery for Bert, really? Does that mean he'll be out for a long time? That would be great.
they're sayin' a month on the flames' site. i figure he's on LTIR, which would have cleared up some cap space... i really don't know where all this mystery cap space came from.... :P
I'd flip Boyd/Conroy on those lineups, but otherwise that looks about right. That top line should scare the crap out of most teams, but I wonder how well they'll hold up defensively. I expect to see the power vs. power matchup for the rest of the regular season.
"(Left-winger Curtis Glencross, officially still among the healthy, marched out of the rink wearing a walking cast on his left foot--after the morning skate.)"
Looks like another one... how is this possible?
That top line should scare the crap out of most teams, but I wonder how well they'll hold up defensively
i've been telling myself all day that olli's -5 is because he's on a bad team... but it does make me nervous.
as for glenX, i would presume the badness occurred against tampa (there was a shift i thought both he and moss were goners with foot/ankle injuries). if this is the case, he's still playing --he had a decent game in ottawa.
do you know if he skated at practice ?
yeah I think he did actually. I hope so cause this is getting rediculous...
At the very least with all of the injuries of late, the Flames will be battle-tested heading into the post-season...
And Bertuzzi's injury should help your Sunday poll in regards to team defence...
And in honour of Bertuzzi, my word verification is 'gaffe'...
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