i, like all flames fans, am shocked by the sheer magnitude of trades daz has made in the past few days and i, like alot of flames fans, am totally put off by it. it's sortof disgusting... i'm actually dreading having a conversation with my pops ---a notorious darryl despiser-- about the kotalik deal. with time ticking away, and with "kotalik" & "higgins" presumably getting stitched onto red jerseys as we speak, it's hard to imagine them hitting YYC on a stopover.... welcome to the new-look flames. stay tuned to see which one of 'em gets to wear #21.
what fascinates me, through all of this, is that i'm not that upset by the loss of dion or jokinen (the "marquee" players). their play in the past year or two has been godawful at points, and mediocre at the best of times. not to mention that i'd been cryptically warned that the two guys were leaving town long before it was ever announced.... i guess i just imagined that the return would be more "superstar" than "project" in both deals.... the one thing i know is this: if darryl doesn't have some masterplan blueprint on wtf he's doing, there will be a massive front office overhaul come may.
a couple of notes:
- a message i wrote on my buddy ddb's facebook, on a thread where he and all his leaf fan friends were discussing the awesomeness that tonight's game against new jersey will be:
"it's funny the way eastern conference pundits are spinning it: you guys think you got a ferrari but you actually got a pinto.... a REALLLLY expensive pinto. i'm not suggesting that burkey/wilson won't play the xzibit part and pimp it out to eventually RUN like a ferrari, i just think that you should understand that CURRENTLY you own a pinto."
- kudos to daz (i guessss) for preaching accountability and meaning it... although, i thought when he said it at the end of last year that he was thinking along the lines of penalizing underperformers with extra time on the bench, not running them straight to the city limits.
- nowhere in sportsmanship or gentlemanly treatment of professional athletes would you ever see another GM force two all-but traded players to dress for a game. leaving andrew ference on the side of the road was one thing, inserting jokinen and prust into last night's matchup (when backlund and mcgrattan were available to play) is something altogether different, and i don't think the word "rude" quite covers the malice.... i don't care who leaked the information on the trade (cause i'm sure the excuse from the flames' camp will be "not our fault, and we gotta do the best thing for the team") the bottom line is that yesterday must have been an absolute nightmare for the two guys and their families.... brutal, brutal treatment of a couple of human beings that led in no short part to the complete breakdown of the chemistry on the ice. absolute PR disaster and in no way considering the fallout implications on the remaining players.
furthermore, and i said this after the ference debacle as well, i don't know why anyone would WANT to sign a deal in calgary when there's the potential of being treated in that utterly discourteous manner. there is absolutely no excuse, in my mind, for darryl to have done that to a couple of guys who showed up to play "for the logo on their chest" every night. prusty's exit interview was gracious. olli threw a little more emotion in there and the soundbyte "slap in the face" is honest in a situation where few people ever are...
hagman, stajan, white, and mayers must be wondering what kind of circus they just landed in.
practice at 2. come hang with me and mikeH.
:)
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Strategies for getting rid of Kotalik:
1) Continue running him down in every blog and even in the MSM.
2) Make fun of him incessantly at practice. ("Hey Kotalik, you suck! Go back to Russia!")
3) Run out to the Fanattic and letter up a Kotalik jersey in hopes that karma continues to be a bitch.
4) Call D.Sutter and tell him to get his head out of his ass.
Heading into this year my big concern was with how much cap money the Flames had tied up in 6 or 7 players. Pretty easy to shut down one line in today's game, and how can you get good secondary scoring for $1 mill/yr in today's market?
They've got a bunch more $3 mill/yr players now. Time will tell if they've got the right ones.
Refresh my memory... what happened with Ference?
Man, I totally would've hung out with you two if, you know, I didn't live on the other side of the country.
On a side note, what would be a good game to fly to Calgary for? Preferably a Friday home game in April/March.
WI is going to have to give you her venom regarding the Ference trade (once she's done getting dolled up for the 'canes), but I could say that both the Devils game on Friday, March 5th and the Sharks on Friday, March 19 would be awesome. Neither WI nor myself have seasons, so I don't have an inside line on tix, but I'm sure we'd make time for a blogger meet up.
And after watching the game last night on tv, we were both super pumped that the Swedish Chef came over the organ. Our texts crossed over in cyberspace:
WI: "swedish chef!" (note lack of caps)
mikeH: "Bork, Bork, Bork!"
Good times. Oh, and for those that may be wondering mikeh14 over at M&G is actually not me, and apparently just coincidental. I REALLY like his name though. :)
brentG:
this gives a good idea
http://www2.canada.com/topics/sports/hockey/flamesstory.html?id=35efdd06-f864-4316-a317-fcfc74285d4a&k=9350
but the talking points are:
-took less than market value on a 3 year deal to stay in calgary and was dealt less than 6 months later
-was taken off the bus in buffalo after being traded and was rumoured to have been made to take his own gear off the bus
-was left at the rink to fend for himself (toni lydman drove him to the hotel)
nothing overtly disgraceful, just kindof shitty.
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