the general manager of the calgary flames hired his brother to be the squad's head coach and the two of them preached that there would need to be accountability for all players and personnel... well, we're 23 games in (that's more than a quarter season) and olli jokinen is still getting some pretty sweet icetime, alongside the captain, even though he's probably one of the worst forwards on the ice every single night. i presume the fact that the flambés are still notching Ws is the only thing keeping him away from the third line.... well, that and the general sutter hubris; there's no way a guy that darryl deemed to be worth 5.5 mil/year + matt lombardi, jim vandermeer & a 1st round draft pick should be playing on the third line. ever.
nothing new here.
what IS a little bit interesting is that the mainstream sports media refuses to take this particular angle on the subject, even though it's become painfully (and i mean PAINFULLY) clear that olli isn't going to amount to a whole heckuva lot here in cowtown. they keep referring to him as "snakebitten" when he consistantly fans on a shots infront of downed goalies and gaping nets, and he's hit more posts than a web surfer.... yet we keep getting told that he's about to turn a corner.... that he's on the verge of being an elite centreman on a stanley cup contending team... but if you look at his stats, he's a career -85 and good portion of his tallies ---almost a THIRD-- have historically been on the powerplay (which is not likely to occur with calgary's horrendous man-advantage record)....
[note: if he actually WERE to turn a corner, i will gladly take all of this back]
it sortof reminds me how last year, the MSM kept informing the general public that bertuzzi was awesome, and i saw enough #7 jerseys at the 'dome to believe their message was getting through.... i can see how he might have had some memorable offensive moments, and i guess he put up relatively decent numbers for a 1.9 million dollar guy, but he was largely useless in the neutral zone and a terrible, horrible backchecker. it seems to me, however, that the sportswriters and radio personnel that we've grown to trust neglected to mention that ol' sparklepants left his mojo back in vancouver 2003....
well, last night i was listening to the fan960's postgame and i was kindof surprised to hear the following (i believe it was rob kerr, but i could be mistaken) in the out of town scoreboard segment, regarding the detroit/atlanta matchup:
"it goes without saying that todd bertuzzi was held scoreless"um.... seriously ??!?! for a public sports personality to figuratively kick big bert in the groin mere months after repeatedly telling the fans how talented (albeit covertly) the power forward can be, seemed like a pretty enormous statement on what kind of crap they regularly feed the hungry fanbase.... and totally applies to the current jokinen debacle.
as i mention in my post below, anton effin' strålman has put up better numbers than the wildcard this year....
where' the accountability in THAT ?!?!?
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Speaking of Lombardi/"Joke"inin, I find it interesting that Lombo (decidedly one of my favorites--I still shed a tear now and then)is at 15 pts in 22 games (.68 ppg) and Ollie has 17 pts in 24 games (.708 ppg)and there is how much salary difference??? Oh wait, it must be that Matthew is -4 and Ollie is +2. Yeaaaahhhh, that must be it.
i have stopped making this comparison cause it's painful.... it's a stretch to consider lombo (who i also loved) a first line centre, but his salary makes him a hugely valuable asset and would've looked awesome on the current team....
while i hate the trade, and i'm not a fan of "the wildcard," he is improving to be sure. he's a now plus player (which is saying something since he was a career -89 to start the season) and the goal he scored last night was the real thing.
it may be a slow climb but the upwards trend is encouraging.
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