monday randoms: we're in deep S@*%

i hope everybody's had a good week, even though the flames haven't notched a win since last week's monday randoms. ugh. i've been miss domestic: baked cookies and muffins and made good use of my crock pot. ;) here's some other erratic and mostly mundane thoughts rolling around my head:

- first off: there's no two ways around it ---harvey the hound is the best arena mascot in the league (sorry, youppi ----ps: this link is one of my alltime favorites and sometimes i think i talk about harv just to put it up).... ;) harvey 's got more outfits than beyonce and i seriously i have no idea how a person can wear twenty pounds of faux-fur, and an oversized dog head, and still do this:


- thinking about all the back-patting that ken king did about darryl sutter's drafting abilities has pretty much irked me for four days. on thursday, i was annoyed about the two times during the fan forum that they boasted about how full the prospect cupboard is, considering that darryl's highest draft pick with the flames was tenth overall (even though dion was selected ninth in 2003). one would presume that if the president and GM of a profesional club were gonna gloat about something, they'd want to get it right... but i digress.... it occurs to me now that the 2003 nhl entry draft was kindof akin to shooting fish in a barrel; as long as the flames chose to hang on to a first round selection that year, the odds were good that the guy would be a big-leaguer. so congrats, i guess.... as commenter smellofvictory pointed out over on the gamethread at m&g: "good thing calgary drafted phaneuf over [getzlaf], eh ?".... while dion looked like a slamdunk in 2006 after his rookie year, later first rounders like mike richards, jeff carter, and brent seabrook look far sharper these days.....

so when the flames' brass talk about their wicked scouting/drafting skills, i gotta say that ---dion aside (and realistically, not even that guy most nights these days), none of darryl's selected first rounders (including chucko, pelech, irving, backlund, nemisz, or erixon) look like team-changers at this point. admittedly, it's mighty early on those last three.... so we can still hope, i guess.... i will also concede that he may have drafted some later round gems (tbd) in guys like pardy, prust, boyd, aulie, wahl, howse, brodie, and ortio.... also ? bummer about john armstrong's injuries, dan ryder's troubles and mickey renaud (full stop). those guys all looked so promiseful.... le sigh.

another thing that occurred to me today is that darryl always drafts a first rounder. i gotta say that i find it kindof unrealistic to think that he's going to go into draft day, come june, and select two third rounders, and one player each in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh rounds. no way does that happen. in some way, daz will make a deal and i'll be shocked if he doesn't turn up AT LEAST a second round pick or a conditional first.

- the game sucked last night but... um... how good was THIS:



- remember last march when the team's fourth line was: vandermeer - peters - roy ? WHEW !!! okay, i feel a whole lot better, allofasudden.... ;)

- all talk of the flames needing a top-line winger was put aside last night after an admittedly poor showing by backelhinney. i've been standing up for that dude all season but yesterday, i had to concede that the couple of stinkers he let in probably lost the C's the game.... names in the loop included biron, irv & crazy manny, but i say (for entertainment's sake at LEAST) let's get pechursky and promise that we'll spell his name right on the back of his jersey...

- with xmas now finished (and on to valentines day with some immediacy, according to what's going on at the mall), now is a good time to stock up on your canucks merchandise. not interested ? hmmm... neither is anyone else, it seems:


- in saying that, i know it's probably time to take my tree down... but it looks so MONEY with my chris drury bobblehead tree-topper !!! the bobblehead option was justin pogge (i honestly have one --it's a collector's edition which i recently dropped on the floor) but the drury one is far lighter in weight and is therefore much more stable on the top of my fake pine.

no point, really (just sharing). :)












- i got a text this morning from the dude who flies an enormous flames' flag from a 50-foot pole outside his house in silver springs (and at half mast after blowouts or playoff losses). it said something like "rough loss last night, but at least tonight's bounce-back game should be easy !"

ahhhhhhh...... we're in deep s&%#.