an explanation on why i despise my team, part 1.

i have a feeling that this will be the first part of a continuing series that will no doubt run through and well past the 2010/2011 season. initially, i thought i'd ignore the whole thing; my initial stance on jokinen yesterday, for instance, was "i refuse to discuss this." but eventually people are gonna wanna know what i think, so here goes, in order of most-to-least infuriating:

1. that the calgary flames organization allowed darryl sutter to completely napalm this team. he should've been sacked following the cap debacle/short bench situation at the end of the 08/09 season and (having gotten a do-over on that little fuckup), without question should have been handed his pink slip following last year's failure to make the playoffs in spectacular fashion. i've been saying it for ages and i'll say it again: john ferguson junior was given far too much time at the helm of the maple leafs, and brian burke is only now (nearly three years later) beginning to dig the team out of the hole jfj dug. as mikeH suggested yesterday, perhaps there are some counsellors in toronto that can teach us what it's like to support a team that absolutely sucks.

2. there is no reason whatsoever to sign raitis ivanans. if you add his 600K/year to the buyout number on dawes' contract (somewhere in the range of $150K), you could pay for *ahem* an actual hockey player like, say..... nigel dawes. i would like to ask herr sutter if he knows how many fistfights there were in the stanley cup finals. infact, i would like to ask daz if he has any idea how many punch-ups there were in total during the playoffs. having a pure goon has gone the way of the cooperalls. completely infuriating.

3. olli jokinen. jeeezus. if the guy can't score for 5.5 million, why would anyone in their right mind think that he can score for 3 ? because he's got alex tanguay as a winger ??!? LOL. god, i hope tangs remembers how to enter the offensive zone cause neither of his linemates can do it.... in olli's interview yesterday, he admits being surprised at darryl's call and that he jumped at the opportunity to come back to calgary.... uh, no shit. because none of the other 29 gms are insane enough to have offered him a two-year deal at 3 mil per ?? and what REALLY gets my goat on this one is that chris higgins signed for 1.6mil on a one-year deal. so wtf was darryl offering him ?!??!? the flames could probably have had him for 2 mil for a one-off. hell, give chris higgins the jokinen money and you've probably got a better team..... ugh.

4. ales kotalik. being totally serious, now (putting the sarcasm aside for just a sec), i actually hope kotalik gets a chance to play in calgary next year. and why shouldn't he ? he's no worse than anyone else on this roster, and equally effective as the other 3-million dollar guys (let's count hagman, jokinen, sarich & staios in there). also ? he actually wants to play (well, he did before he was waived, anyways. that's got to be a kick in the nuts) and is probably the most skilled dude on the roster. yes, this is goddamned depressing, i know. talk about asset mis-management.... i don't understand how you put kotalik on waivers and then sign a dud like jokinen in the same week. one step forward and two steps back indeed.

5. alex tanguay. yesterday, i described my thoughts as "tanguay: waste of time, but hey ---okay. let's try that out again." at 1.7 mil on a single year deal, i'm all for this brand of patented darryl sutter reclamation project. very little to lose (other than hockey games) and the potential upside is there. the upsetting part, to me, is that it sounds like our captain might have suggested this deal. apparently (according to some dude i met at the stampeders game), iggy thought that tanguay was crosby-calibre when it came to sweet passes tape to tape. maybe so. or maybe it's time for hockey players to be hockey players, and gms to be gms. infact, i've heard some buzz about our captain having input into coaching decisions as well..... hm. perhaps an extreme makeover is in order; a COMPLETE overhaul of this team ---from players, to coaches, to management. heck, maybe it's time for gus thorsen to find something else to do...

6. ian white. where's the effin' contract ? i like to think of ian white as the last man standing in a couple of trades made by a desperate GM during a 9 game losing streak. if white goes (offersheet or otherwise), then i would deem the phaneuf trade a failure. and the kotalik trade has already been acknowledged as such by his placement on waivers and higgins contract with florida.

7. with all of these bad acid flashback signings, people seem to have forgotten that we still have steve staios at 2.7 million. good lord.

it's gonna be a looooooong summer.

proof positive....

that darryl sutter has totally lost his shit.
if any other gm in the league is awake today, pocketdawes (and his 15 goals and affordable contract) is as good as gone.

ps: i'll miss you, gio, when you go.
xx
wi

sutter(s) dismissal countdown: day 85: black thursday

well, my friends: it seems as though we can stop the sutter(s) dismissal countdown clock at 85 days, since ken king announced that herr sutter ain't goin anywhere (and that means that brent's job is presumably safe and our team is gonna suck into the foreseeable future). yesterday will forever be dubbed "black thursday" by yours truly, cause i honestly think it'll mark the beginning of a brutal and depressing period for my favorite hockey team.

in the past few months, i've often compared my team to the toronto maple leafs (and not because they finished the season comprised of almost 30% former buds players) and i gotta say this is one more step towards that end. i lived in toronto during the john ferguson junior era and i watched him make mis-step after mis-step when it came to trades, drafts, and watching good players depart as UFAs. totally. depressing. and that's what i fear for my team now.

the 2008/2009 season ended with the calgary flames dressing a short bench because of blatant cap mismanagement. while i've heard rumours that this was actually the fault of michael holditch, and not darryl sutter, the fact remains that (by the nhl rulebook) my team should have forfeited those last matches, and likely didn't because bettman would have had to refund a whole lot of season ticket holder money. the fact that nobody got pink slipped following this debacle probably makes dale tallon wanna puke.

the 2009/2010 season was marked by a series of head-scratching trades, by the sutter regime, that were unquestionably the result of a man under pressure. was it the ownership group telling him to make the playoffs at all cost ? possibly.... or was it his own realization that a non-playoff year would totally jeopardize the safety of his own job ?? no doubt.

while i hated the jokinen for lombardi, prust and a first rounder trade on deadline day in march 2009, i can actually somehow give darryl a pass on that one. he clearly hadn't looked at olli's underlying stats, and he obviously hadn't watched him play much, but he really believed that #21 would help his team win. i can also give him a pass on dealing phaneuf for what's starting to look like a very expensive sack of pucks (ian white notwithstanding, though i doubt very highly that ian white will make it through the summer in a flaming C), though i'm definitely concerned by the rumours that darryl hadn't shopped dion around the league, and possibly could've gotten a better deal.... what i cannot (and WILL not) get past is that he traded a young, workable 7th defenseman AND A DRAFT PICK for an overpaid, overaged, underable defenseman with very little to offer for his 2.7 million dollar contract, that further reduces the cap space to sign GOOD players.... oh, and i'm not sure when i'll get past the fact that he gave up on dustin boyd. these two acts are inexcusable and reprehensible in my book, and symbolize why the calgary flames are going to be mediocre at best for the next two to three years (minimum).

JFJ was given five years at the helm of the maple leafs and dug the team into a suitably deep hole in that time. i fear daz will do the same, get canned in the next 365 days, and we'll spend years trying to get out.

i can't even talk about this anymore, i'm too busy trying to decide which eastern conference team to cheer for next year. ps: i hope philly wins the cup for the following reasons:

1. the hossa curse
2. mike richards not just TOUCHING the wales but essentially ASSAULTING it.
3. one word: cooperalls.

see ya more often around these parts as i'm back to unemployed !
:)

are the sutters TRYING to tank this year's team ??!

i realize the answer is "no," but with brent giving toskalol the start the other day in minny, and with what is(n't) going on today, one must think that they've made plans to head home for calving season....

there has been zero action on either the flames website, or that of their AHL affiliate today which signals to me that my beloved team plans to go ahead and replace daymond langkow with brian mcgrattan for tonight's tilt against the ducks. while this might've been an acceptable move back in october, with the playoffs on the line i don't understand why a guy like DVDG (or brett sutter, or jason jaffray) isn't called up to add a bit of reinforcement in areas where the flames will need it (ie: defensively).

seems like a no-brainer to me.

with eric nystrom showing relative proficiency as a centreman, however, mcgrattan can be insertted on the fourth line, where he'll play a game total of +/- 4:00.... how useless.... and yet another indiction of the culpability of this regime; there is no upward mobility for any AHL level competitors not named mikael backlund. if randy carlyle plays his cards right, the ducks should have no problems beating up our first line of defense (ak: our offence).

the lineup for tonight should look like this:

bourque - stajan - iggy
hagman - conroy - kotalik
dawes - backlund - moss
mayers - nystrom - dvdg

but instead, we'll have a pugilist fourth line that will do nothing but bleed goals against. i dunno. i thought signing mcgrattan was dumb back in the summer (darryl should've stuck with himself being the enforcer) and it's proving to be an enormous gaffe at this point, in my humble opinion.

either way ---let's hope the flames can pull through and grab a W tonight, if only so that we can all pretend that there's still a glimmer of hope for the postseason. i'll be attending in my gio jersey, so if you see me feel free to say hello... ;)

ps: does anybody else wonder if scott cruikshank bothered to translate mickis' blog from last week, or if he just hitthepost and ripped my work, adding in some soundbytes from the blogger, himself ? does anybody else find it curious that i mentionned to steinberg on friday, via email, the existance of said blog ---and that pat probably sees cruikshank around the bowels of the 'dome all the time ? i mean, i could totally be over-thinking this (i AM a girl !!!) but it strikes me as coincidental that #60's blog has been around for years and yet only gets a mention in the MSM after the much-hyped ikea birthday trip for princess cake ??? just sayin'..... anyways. i'm sure poor mickis will be forced to take it down sooner rather than later.

****UPDATE: just as i hit "post" on this mafacka, the flames announce that they've recalled brett sutter for tonight's game.... my first thought: LOL. i can't honestly say that i know whether or not DVDG is any better than young brett this year, but either way it reeeeeeks of nepotism; nepotism on a sinking ship, i might add (aka: one last kick at the can). anyhow, i wonder if the team is even gonna make mcG come to practice anymore since his tenure in a flaming C is clearly over..... except for the last game of the year when the flames have been mathematically eliminated, where he'll draw in to beat the living hell out of burrows and/or kesler and get the entire bench and front office fined/suspended..... ahhhh, how AWESOME would that be ?!?!?


[sutter(s) dismissal countdown: day 20]

Darryl Sutter, Ken King and the long, slow road to continuing disappointment

So ...

Here's what I wrote about Darryl Sutter in the summer of 2008.

And here's what I wrote in November of 2008.

So, it's a bit bittersweet that, in March of 2010, my Flames fan bretheren agree with me.

I don't care how many get-rid-of-Vandermeer secret deals Darryl Sutter has in the hopper, today was a joke. And I wish it was the final indication that I was right about the guy but, obviously, things were clear well before the Lombo+1st for Jokinen deal (which is about when WI got over him).

Please don't get me wrong: I HOPE I'm wrong. I hope that Toskala finds his form in his backup role, that Staios turns back the clock and inspires his new teammates with shot-blocking and selfless play while fitting perfectly into the system and that, uh ... well, there's no way the Boyd-for-a-fourth deal goes well, so I'm not even going to try it.

But the, even of those things happen, let's look at this a different way: What could $5.7 million in cap space score you on the open or trade market this summer? Probably a pretty good player, right? But, hey, at least the Flames get Ales Kotalik and Steve Staios next year. They will obviously be better than replacement players at the league minimum.

Two other takes I like: WI's (here) and Kent's (here).

Once again, let me emphasize: Darryl is not the owner of the team, nor its president. He's just a longtime incompetent in the GM's chair allowed to continue by his bosses. Ken King is a corporate/media guy, and Darryl Sutter plays him like a fiddle. If Sutter goes after the season, and King doesn't, I won't expect improvement.

Because I feel like I need to be full in my assessment of recent days, I do like the Stajan signing, I think that money's appropriate for his history and position on the team, and that he'll be a complimentary player going forward, particularly with Conroy on the way out and Backlund looking like a guy who's going to stick around.

But, that's also saying that in relation to the Flames' current personnel situation which, well, is less than optimum given the team's decision on player movment the past two seasons, which has been mostly abysmal.

Lookin' forward to that squeak-in first-round exit that'll save Darryl's job, too. GOOD TIMES.

darryl sutter is walking the path of doug risebrough

well, that's the last straw for this girl.

it's sortof funny cause a year ago on this day, i thought that darryl fell pretty hard off of his untouchable perch when he traded a vyable centreman (lombo), a good utility guy (prust) and a first round draft pick (enter name of future NHL superstar ---just watch) for olli effin' jokinen.... the GM, once treated like a deity in this town (hahahaha"in sutter we trust"), made a trade that had the instantaneous potential to be one of the worst in franchise history, and he's followed it up this season with two other blockbuster deals that changed the face of the team in mid-january (debatably for the worse). ultimately, we're now looking at a roster where 5 out of 20 (25% of) players were skating for the worst team in the league only one month ago.... and somehow he's gonna try to convince flamesnation that this is a good thing.

while i'm still skeptically positive about dealing dion, the subsequent trades have all been complete jokes. we will look back someday and say to each other "remember early 2010 when darryl sutter lost his MIND ??!?" then we'll shake our heads and be glad that he's no longer driving this bus. dumping jokinen was necessary but picking up kotalik's contract (and a UFA higgins) was godawful. swapping backelhinney for toskala is fine for this season, but will leland be ready to make the jump next year ?? (i doubt it).... and finally, hopefully what will be the last trade darryl sutter ever makes for the flaming Cs: steve mafackin' staios [in'eresting stats here] for a whole other year at 2.7 million for aaron johnson and a 3rd rounder ? how is that trading UP ??!

so my question is this: is darryl sutter trying to re-build the team for the future, to win the cup, or to save his job ??! the trades are all a big muddle of mediocrity ---which has been the theme of his tenure in calgary. he does next-to-nothing in the summers, and consistantly deals massive blows to team chemistry mid-season [albeit ONE move was well warrented in january this year]. his identification of important player qualities is set in the pre-lockout era, and he's building cup-winners for 2002. we don't need older and bigger, darryl, we need younger and faster.... look around. you're a relic.

here is a pic of my fridge. in january 2008 (two years ago), i posted the team pic that was printed in the calgary herald.


here's who's still around :
langkow, nystrom, conroy, sarich, moss, regehr, iginla, kippy

here's who's gone:
huselius, hale, dion, yelle, eriksson, nolan, nilson, cumac, aucoin, mark smith (!!!), godard, lombo, primeau, tanguay, boyd, warrener.

while i say good riddance to a lot of those guys (i'm talking to you, anders), i also think he's missed the boat on lombo, primeau, tanguay, huselius, and boyd. of the guys that remain, i think nystrom, sarich, and conroy (obviously) are totally replaceable. of the guys he's since brought in, i really only think bourque, dawes, gio, glenX, higgins, and backlund hold any real value (with the jury still out on hagman and stajan, and an overpaid kotalik). then you've got a boatload of pluggers....

i don't know. i think daz's job is on the line and i think he's throwing down the gauntlet.... will the new-new-look flames be enough to make the playoffs ? if not, well then my guess is that we won't make the playoffs for years to come either, since we'll look an awful lot the same.

sorry for being so scattered, i'm pretty pissed about boyder.
we'll miss you, buddy. i hope you turn out like lombo and notch a bunch....
i think you'll like nashville.
see you next year.
:)