flames v. oil: total meltdown

so, i'm pretty happy i didn't watch the game last night... by the sounds of it (ie: reading the comments thread over at matchsticks & gasoline) it was *ahem* disheartening at best....

i think, at this point, there is no denying that darryl sutter is singlehandedly responsible for the current situation: his blatant mismanagement of the salary cap is inarguably the direct cause for a good portion of the team's losses in the past few weeks. some might acknowledge that sutter could not have anticipated the extent of the flames' injury situation (true), but i would refute this by suggesting it's his job to plan for it. there are other teams in the league (Tbay, colorado, StL) who have as many --if not more-- injuries, and have not failed to dress an entire lineup for even a single game this season...

i would also rebut that the players we've recalled from the QC have been largely exceptional (lundmark, dvdg, peters stand out, here), and we would certainly be losing fewer games if these guys were monetarily available to fill holes on the big club. the team's injuries are predominantly on the blueline (regehr, sarich, giordano, phaneuf), yet the cap is forcing the players out on the offense (most notably boyd, here)... pelech and negrin (though not amazing) are actually playing quite proficiently. the PROBLEM is that the three forward lines are overworked and therefore underproductive, from the missing players. the re-insertion of peters/boyd/dvdg or the like would add an "energy line;" create some havoc on the forecheck, and provide the much-needed resting periods for the top nine. if we were forced to dress an untested or immature fourth line of, say, chucko/pardy/greentree, then i would concede it might be an injury issue, not a cap issue.... ie: competant replacement players are available, they are just not allowed to dress under the team's cap restraints.

oh, and don't even get me started on how badly they've handled poor boyder's career, thusfar, or how embarassing it is that he's been (once again) demoted due to nothing more than money mis-management.

this is an absolute OUTRAGE, if you ask me... and has been for WEEKS. the difference now is that dressing 15 skaters seems laughable (while 16 --the number the team dressed against minnesota in their last outing in the land of 10,000 lakes-- went largely under the media radar)....

commenter burningfish suggested dressing curtis mcelhinney as a dman, since he wasn't being used as a goaltender, and would obviously fit under the cap. a funny thought, at first, until i realized that this was a sadly reasonable option, under the circumstances... this team is not suffering due to the flu or the death of a teammate... this team is suffering because the management's hubris and lack of foresight unwittingly handicapped it...

an OUTRAGE..

anyhow. i'm going to the game tonight, sitting in the bleeders... well, i will be if the tickets i bought from some nice gentleman (clean cut dude in a golf shirt with a cellphone on his belt) are legit... apparently there's some random selling bogus tickets around town. by the time 8:00 rolls around, though, the game might not matter at all and we'll see just enough players dressed so as to not forfeit...

brutal, brutal, brutal.

i do forsee a Qmac start, though.... i hope the kid throws a big'ol shut-out, like a middle finger, at mike keenan. i also hope the colorado avalanche throw a big'ol L into the vancouver win column like a middle finger to the 'nucks.... i won't hold my breath on this one, though... ;)

BUT to keep things light i give you this:



go flames.