if you close your eyes, this is how i imagine tonight's game will go:
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
goals ? what goals ?
yesterday on flamesnation's florida panthers' pre-game, in response to kent wilson's comment "Watch for Iginla to be matched against Weiss' line and for that to be the primary conflict," i mockingly wrote:
but it doesn't take a visionary to see that the lineup the flames are currently icing is simply not a winning team. i remember when we gave up cammalleri and bertuzzi (the latter, admittedly, i never liked but acknowledged he was still good for >ten per season), i got lambasted on the message boards for asking "who's gonna replace those goals ?" i was told that hockey isn't a goal-for-goal scenario, that the team collectively needs to just pull up its socks, and that goal scoring would be a shared duty by all four lines.
uh hunh.
well, here we find ourselves in the midst of a drought that (let's face it) is now entering not its' third GAME but realistically its third MONTH with this team. darryl seemed to ATTEMPT to address this lack of scoring by picking up stajan, hagman, and kotalik to end the season, and by giving mickis a shot --but let's not kid ourselves. stajan is not derek roy, hagman is no stamkos, kotalik is no ovechkin, and backlund is no patrick kane.... and i hate to say it but iggy's over in the goalscoring world. i'd be totally content to eat my words, but i'm afraid i'm way too right...
sure, we've got some injuries, and our two best "goalscoring" types are in the pressbox (bourque, kotalik), but darryl should've seen this coming. bourque is forsberg incarnate (in the injury not the skill sense) and kotalik was coming off of a pretty hardcore shitty season in NY so the over/under on him regaining status as an elite player was pretty low. darryl went all-in on these two anyways, and then wasted the valuable remaining dollars shoring up a blueline with unusable, aged stop-gaps (i'm lookin' at you, staios), and bringing on $1.2 mil worth of worthless goon.
how fucking good would nigel dawes look out there, right now ??!?!
just sayin'.
(countdown to the flames calling up jon rheault ? 3-2-1....)
"i think the primary conflict will be the flames meager arsenal trying to get one past a big-name goaltender. this is not our forté."call me nostradamus.
but it doesn't take a visionary to see that the lineup the flames are currently icing is simply not a winning team. i remember when we gave up cammalleri and bertuzzi (the latter, admittedly, i never liked but acknowledged he was still good for >ten per season), i got lambasted on the message boards for asking "who's gonna replace those goals ?" i was told that hockey isn't a goal-for-goal scenario, that the team collectively needs to just pull up its socks, and that goal scoring would be a shared duty by all four lines.
uh hunh.
well, here we find ourselves in the midst of a drought that (let's face it) is now entering not its' third GAME but realistically its third MONTH with this team. darryl seemed to ATTEMPT to address this lack of scoring by picking up stajan, hagman, and kotalik to end the season, and by giving mickis a shot --but let's not kid ourselves. stajan is not derek roy, hagman is no stamkos, kotalik is no ovechkin, and backlund is no patrick kane.... and i hate to say it but iggy's over in the goalscoring world. i'd be totally content to eat my words, but i'm afraid i'm way too right...
sure, we've got some injuries, and our two best "goalscoring" types are in the pressbox (bourque, kotalik), but darryl should've seen this coming. bourque is forsberg incarnate (in the injury not the skill sense) and kotalik was coming off of a pretty hardcore shitty season in NY so the over/under on him regaining status as an elite player was pretty low. darryl went all-in on these two anyways, and then wasted the valuable remaining dollars shoring up a blueline with unusable, aged stop-gaps (i'm lookin' at you, staios), and bringing on $1.2 mil worth of worthless goon.
how fucking good would nigel dawes look out there, right now ??!?!
just sayin'.
(countdown to the flames calling up jon rheault ? 3-2-1....)
Sunday, October 10, 2010
here's my take: iggy needs to shut his cakehole
my guess is that this theory won't go down very well with the masses, but the good news is that only a handful of folks regularly (if ever) read my meanderings.
scott cruikshank wrote an article over in the herald that points out how our captain, my captain, had a high-decibel disagreement with assistant coach dave lowry at practice the other day about the powerplay. "Lowry seemed to want more of a slot presence from the captain. Iginla seemed to want something else altogether."
um. sorry ??
with all due respect to #12, players should play, coaches should coach, and managers should manage. end of story. there is no way in hell that iggy should be telling lowry where, on-ice, he's gonna hang out on a powerplay, no matter how many millions he's banking or what letter is sewn on his chest. good lord, could you imagine if young backlund piped up "yeah, i think maybe i should be on the blueline, actually."
laughable.
if there are truth in rumours, then i've heard some things about iggy over the past few months that piss me the hell off. i take this hearsay with a grain of salt because (let's face it) it's not like i'm getting this stuff from jarome. BUT i've heard he was instrumental in the return of alex tanguay, and i've heard that he refused to play on a line with daymond langkow.
ie: i've heard he's a player, manager AND coach.
and, if you ask me, a once-elite power forward who's visibly struggling and fighting the puck every night, and who's stats have been on the decline for years now, should shut the hell up and listen to his COACHES.
just play, friend.
scott cruikshank wrote an article over in the herald that points out how our captain, my captain, had a high-decibel disagreement with assistant coach dave lowry at practice the other day about the powerplay. "Lowry seemed to want more of a slot presence from the captain. Iginla seemed to want something else altogether."
um. sorry ??
with all due respect to #12, players should play, coaches should coach, and managers should manage. end of story. there is no way in hell that iggy should be telling lowry where, on-ice, he's gonna hang out on a powerplay, no matter how many millions he's banking or what letter is sewn on his chest. good lord, could you imagine if young backlund piped up "yeah, i think maybe i should be on the blueline, actually."
laughable.
if there are truth in rumours, then i've heard some things about iggy over the past few months that piss me the hell off. i take this hearsay with a grain of salt because (let's face it) it's not like i'm getting this stuff from jarome. BUT i've heard he was instrumental in the return of alex tanguay, and i've heard that he refused to play on a line with daymond langkow.
ie: i've heard he's a player, manager AND coach.
and, if you ask me, a once-elite power forward who's visibly struggling and fighting the puck every night, and who's stats have been on the decline for years now, should shut the hell up and listen to his COACHES.
just play, friend.
Friday, October 8, 2010
I go on about last night, in e-mail form
In the interest of efficiency, I will not write an original post, but pass along an e-mail exchange I had with a colleague (an Avs fan) this morning:
So, yeah, not the best start.
Colleague: Wouldn't you both say today feels like opposite day? #Flames #Oilers
Me: This is what I think: Last night will be looked back upon as when the pendulum shifted in the Oilers' favour. It's going to be four or five years, at least, before the Flames are any good again. Probably longer. By that time, the Oilers should be at the peak of their powers. That's some 2007-08 Blackhawks over there.
Colleague: It's weird, because the second and third line centres are Backlund and Morrison, which sucks, but is it much of a step down from Stajan and No-Neck? I would say it's a step sideways, and that's troubling. Also troubling: too many Sutters.
Me: A healthy Langkow is better than Morrison, but at this point that just makes him a good third-line centre. So, no. Backlund’s got promise, but not playing with Curt Glencross and Tim Jackman. The most galling thing of last night, forget that Jokinen is still THE EXACT SAME PLAYER, was watching Tim F'ing Jackman on the third line for the Flames, and Dustin Boyd playing a great game in the same role for the Habs. Young, fast, promise — but Darryl would rather have a career minor-leaguer whose best season IN COLLEGE was about 0.7 PPG.
Weirdest thing, I actually thought Brett was one of the best players on the ice last night for the Flames.
So, yeah, not the best start.
an explanation on why i despise my team, part 2.
last night's game forced me to re-read some of the stuff i wrote back in early july when darryl sutter officially, completely, and unequivocally lost his mind.
hate to say it but... um... holy cow was i ever right.
the other thing that i found to be a truly hilarious re-read last night was the text conversation i had with duncan on july 1 when he woke me from a peaceful slumber to ruin my life (thereby repaying the favour of me spoiling his vacation on the cabot trail in 2008 by dropping the news of the bertuzzi signing):
"ARE YOU HEARING THIS SHIT ?"
"tanguay, yes. it's your turn to ruin my day if there's more"
"Major rumor: FUCKING JOKINEN. All the big insiders say it's in play. 2 yrs/3.5 per"
"please say jussi. please say jussi. please say jussi. please say jussi."
"OLLI FUCKING JOKINEN"
"i'm going back to bed now. wake me in 11/12.... actually, to be quite honest, it's rather hilarious. no better way to say 'fuck you' to the fans."
"Did you mean to be funny with 'to be quite honest'" ?
"yes. now kindly excuse me while i shoot myself."
***
in fairness, jokinen was not the only flame who had a brutal game last night, but i bet his performance stung a little to those who had bought into herr sutter's explanation that the only reason he previously sucked was because he wasn't playing with a good playmaker like tanguay. uh, whoops. i guess that theory doesn't hold kool-aid.
jokinen, if you watched him carefully, contributed absolutely nothing to the play, offensively or defensively. just like last year, the play would die on his stick ---either he'd pass it directly to a guy in blue (this happened most frequently, and if i were jordan eberle, i'd be sending him flowers this morning for such a sweet feed on his first nhl goal), or just get checked off of it. truly painful to watch. funny, it turns out that paying a guy a little less doesn't actually improve his skill set.
ian white had an abysmal night, though (unlike with jokinen) i don't expect that will continue. regehr somehow played less minutes than pardy, who was in the box for four, so that really points to injury or illness, in my eyes. jaybouw looked to improve through the game and i'm not ready to give up on him, either, especially paired with gio who is an animal. brodie was solid and, aside from the two delay of game minors, pardy didn't suck. i think there's hope on the blueline, we just need to play more teams with no skill players, is all.
tanguay didn't look too bad, in fairness, and iggy actually had a couple of chances so they get a pass. the hagbourqisson line is gonna have to dig deeper for opportunity, or (what i'd prefer to see) maybe we'll change the name to hagbourqland cause i thought mickis had a fairly solid match ---save for falling over on his best opportunity. i know morrison played, cause i remember thinking "dougie risebrough !!" when i saw his #8 those few times. he contributed nothing. sutter re-tread, indeed.
the bottom six is a joke in its current incarnation. glenX and mickis have some skill (and i can't even make fun of jackman since he was probably the best guy on the ice last night outside of the god-like kiprusoff and my boy gio) but were hugely out-matched by the oilers 6-9, and don't even get me started on the fourth line. the only reason ivanans "fought" (and i use the term loosely) in the dying minutes was because everyone knows that the hired goon needs to scrap in the rival's building... ESPECIALLY when both his linemates and the journeyman third liner have all had dust-ups. jeeeeeebus, i miss pocketdawes.
i don't have a lot of hope, at this point, however. goalie aside, this is not looking like a playoff club, and it sure ain't a cup-winning club.
as goad said: "ruh roh."
hate to say it but... um... holy cow was i ever right.
the other thing that i found to be a truly hilarious re-read last night was the text conversation i had with duncan on july 1 when he woke me from a peaceful slumber to ruin my life (thereby repaying the favour of me spoiling his vacation on the cabot trail in 2008 by dropping the news of the bertuzzi signing):
"ARE YOU HEARING THIS SHIT ?"
"tanguay, yes. it's your turn to ruin my day if there's more"
"Major rumor: FUCKING JOKINEN. All the big insiders say it's in play. 2 yrs/3.5 per"
"please say jussi. please say jussi. please say jussi. please say jussi."
"OLLI FUCKING JOKINEN"
"i'm going back to bed now. wake me in 11/12.... actually, to be quite honest, it's rather hilarious. no better way to say 'fuck you' to the fans."
"Did you mean to be funny with 'to be quite honest'" ?
"yes. now kindly excuse me while i shoot myself."
***
in fairness, jokinen was not the only flame who had a brutal game last night, but i bet his performance stung a little to those who had bought into herr sutter's explanation that the only reason he previously sucked was because he wasn't playing with a good playmaker like tanguay. uh, whoops. i guess that theory doesn't hold kool-aid.
jokinen, if you watched him carefully, contributed absolutely nothing to the play, offensively or defensively. just like last year, the play would die on his stick ---either he'd pass it directly to a guy in blue (this happened most frequently, and if i were jordan eberle, i'd be sending him flowers this morning for such a sweet feed on his first nhl goal), or just get checked off of it. truly painful to watch. funny, it turns out that paying a guy a little less doesn't actually improve his skill set.
ian white had an abysmal night, though (unlike with jokinen) i don't expect that will continue. regehr somehow played less minutes than pardy, who was in the box for four, so that really points to injury or illness, in my eyes. jaybouw looked to improve through the game and i'm not ready to give up on him, either, especially paired with gio who is an animal. brodie was solid and, aside from the two delay of game minors, pardy didn't suck. i think there's hope on the blueline, we just need to play more teams with no skill players, is all.
tanguay didn't look too bad, in fairness, and iggy actually had a couple of chances so they get a pass. the hagbourqisson line is gonna have to dig deeper for opportunity, or (what i'd prefer to see) maybe we'll change the name to hagbourqland cause i thought mickis had a fairly solid match ---save for falling over on his best opportunity. i know morrison played, cause i remember thinking "dougie risebrough !!" when i saw his #8 those few times. he contributed nothing. sutter re-tread, indeed.
the bottom six is a joke in its current incarnation. glenX and mickis have some skill (and i can't even make fun of jackman since he was probably the best guy on the ice last night outside of the god-like kiprusoff and my boy gio) but were hugely out-matched by the oilers 6-9, and don't even get me started on the fourth line. the only reason ivanans "fought" (and i use the term loosely) in the dying minutes was because everyone knows that the hired goon needs to scrap in the rival's building... ESPECIALLY when both his linemates and the journeyman third liner have all had dust-ups. jeeeeeebus, i miss pocketdawes.
i don't have a lot of hope, at this point, however. goalie aside, this is not looking like a playoff club, and it sure ain't a cup-winning club.
as goad said: "ruh roh."
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Still around: Duncan's season preview
I'm somewhat disappointed with my decreasing output — and increasing ambivalence — about the Flames. It's pretty easily diagnosed: This is not 1986 or 2006, and I don't like exposing myself to pain, nor do I subscribe to the "hope springs eternal" storyline put forward by the hockey media re: all Canada's teams before Game 1 of the season. Hope does not spring eternal at my house in Toronto, unless you're referring to hope that it won't be Charlie Simmer on the colour-commentary on the first Sportsnet broadcast this year. (Or has he already been on in the pre-season? I don't know.)
I puked up quite the volume of Tweets on July 1 on my thoughts about Darr's performance in the free agent market, and that was just about Jokinen. Jackman? Ivanans? I like creativity, and there ain't none where I can see. I have fond memories of Tanguay, and think he can still play well, and liked the price. Of course, I should have known better that he wouldn't have stopped there, etc., etc., Steve Staios.
I look forward to tonight for a few things: Tanguay, T.J. Brodie — it's been so long since we had a young surprise to get into — watching Mark Giordano play again.
I also remember watching Brent Sutter's Red Deer Rebels in his second season with the team, and realizing that it took that group a full year before getting his system. That, of course, is junior hockey, which is not the NHL. But those Rebels were pretty freaking good. But there might be something to it. So I look forward
I look forward to the throwbacks in 15 games, and I look forward to the Heritage Classic, because I'm one of the fans of that jersey. I also look forward to more output from WI and all the bloggers who keep my head in the right place about the Flames.
I also look forward to me, potentially, writing blog posts that don't come across as so maudlin. It could happen!
Time to go put on my jersey.
I puked up quite the volume of Tweets on July 1 on my thoughts about Darr's performance in the free agent market, and that was just about Jokinen. Jackman? Ivanans? I like creativity, and there ain't none where I can see. I have fond memories of Tanguay, and think he can still play well, and liked the price. Of course, I should have known better that he wouldn't have stopped there, etc., etc., Steve Staios.
I look forward to tonight for a few things: Tanguay, T.J. Brodie — it's been so long since we had a young surprise to get into — watching Mark Giordano play again.
I also remember watching Brent Sutter's Red Deer Rebels in his second season with the team, and realizing that it took that group a full year before getting his system. That, of course, is junior hockey, which is not the NHL. But those Rebels were pretty freaking good. But there might be something to it. So I look forward
I look forward to the throwbacks in 15 games, and I look forward to the Heritage Classic, because I'm one of the fans of that jersey. I also look forward to more output from WI and all the bloggers who keep my head in the right place about the Flames.
I also look forward to me, potentially, writing blog posts that don't come across as so maudlin. It could happen!
Time to go put on my jersey.
the debut of hagbourqisson: bring it
i really don't have much to say about the 10/11 season that i haven't already said here and/or over at flamesnation in the past weeks. i'm not a huge fan of the bottom end of the lineup, especially with the expensive players we've got in the pressbox (due to injury and otherwise).
how pardy draws in over sarich tonight is beyond me, but ---wasted capspace aside--- i can't say i'm against it. also, if ever there was a game raitis ivanans HAD to play, it would be tonight (and i'll spend the rest of the season wishing we still had pocketdawes instead, no doubt). the jury's still out on tim jackman for me, and how young brett draws in over a guy like conroy (injury aside, of course) is kindof mindblowing.
do the sutters still think it's pre-season ?!?
up north, we'll finally get a chance to see what their kids are really made of. i'm not convinced taylor hall's quite ready, but i expect to see some points notched by either or both of eberle and pääjärvi-svensson (just because MPS was forced to drop a name by the NHL doesn't mean i have to do it). i only wish i was with my boy AA down in the 'hat for the tilt....
again, me and mikeH will begin the evening at FC if anyone's interested in stopping by to say hello. we'll be there for 6pm (the FC hockey pool draft) and i'll be the gal in the gio jersey. hopefully he can repeat his season-opening goal from last year....
:)
how pardy draws in over sarich tonight is beyond me, but ---wasted capspace aside--- i can't say i'm against it. also, if ever there was a game raitis ivanans HAD to play, it would be tonight (and i'll spend the rest of the season wishing we still had pocketdawes instead, no doubt). the jury's still out on tim jackman for me, and how young brett draws in over a guy like conroy (injury aside, of course) is kindof mindblowing.
do the sutters still think it's pre-season ?!?
up north, we'll finally get a chance to see what their kids are really made of. i'm not convinced taylor hall's quite ready, but i expect to see some points notched by either or both of eberle and pääjärvi-svensson (just because MPS was forced to drop a name by the NHL doesn't mean i have to do it). i only wish i was with my boy AA down in the 'hat for the tilt....
again, me and mikeH will begin the evening at FC if anyone's interested in stopping by to say hello. we'll be there for 6pm (the FC hockey pool draft) and i'll be the gal in the gio jersey. hopefully he can repeat his season-opening goal from last year....
:)
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
i'll be okay with the latest re-tread when:
- he makes iggy and tanguay look good
- he makes jokinen look replaceable at 1/4 the price (this shouldn't be too hard)
- he becomes such an integral filling in the bourque/hagman sandwich that we come up with a ridiculously clever nickname for that line
- he scores a gwg on bobbylu at the callcentre and points at the flaming C on his chest to tell the crowd where it's at... [note: i hope goad's in the crowd for that one so he can tell us just exactly how much louder "boos" are than "luus".]
welcome to calgary, brendan morrison. make us proud.
:)
ps: mikeH and i are gonna be down at flames central on thursday for the hockey pool draft pre-game. i think you need to register (i'm not sure if it's too late or not) but if you wanna come down, you're more than welcome to join up !!!
- he makes jokinen look replaceable at 1/4 the price (this shouldn't be too hard)
- he becomes such an integral filling in the bourque/hagman sandwich that we come up with a ridiculously clever nickname for that line
- he scores a gwg on bobbylu at the callcentre and points at the flaming C on his chest to tell the crowd where it's at... [note: i hope goad's in the crowd for that one so he can tell us just exactly how much louder "boos" are than "luus".]
welcome to calgary, brendan morrison. make us proud.
:)
ps: mikeH and i are gonna be down at flames central on thursday for the hockey pool draft pre-game. i think you need to register (i'm not sure if it's too late or not) but if you wanna come down, you're more than welcome to join up !!!
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Flames are 3 - 0 !!!
:)
yeah, i know it's exhibition and doesn't matter (that's what carey price says, anyways), here's what i'm excited about so far in the first three flames' games of the year:
- that gio is on a rampage that screams "contract year," the likes of which i'm not sure i've ever seen. two words for that ? bring it.
- that the flames beat the canucks twice in one night. this will probably never happen again and i'm really thankful it didn't go the other way. booyah.
- that henrik karlsson looks like a steal, thusfar. hopefully he can win a couple games. also ? he's swedish, so i'm excited about that in itself.
- the potential that kotalik is gonna prove us all wrong and be a menace. especially if he learns to play D and we can pair him with the aforementioned raging gio.
- that goals can, indeed, be scored.
i'm not getting ahead of myself ---i'm still not convinced this is a playoff team and if we go to battle with #27 in the lineup, i think we're hooped on the blueline.... but i'm slightly more optimistic than i was a week ago (unless we're talking about anything jokinen-related, of course).
i can't wait til games are effin' televised.
(how is it that the flames can stream the prospect tourney from penticton and not bother to give us any real preseason action online ??!?)
enjoy the last bits of summer. hockey (and winter) is around the corner....
:)
yeah, i know it's exhibition and doesn't matter (that's what carey price says, anyways), here's what i'm excited about so far in the first three flames' games of the year:
- that gio is on a rampage that screams "contract year," the likes of which i'm not sure i've ever seen. two words for that ? bring it.
- that the flames beat the canucks twice in one night. this will probably never happen again and i'm really thankful it didn't go the other way. booyah.
- that henrik karlsson looks like a steal, thusfar. hopefully he can win a couple games. also ? he's swedish, so i'm excited about that in itself.
- the potential that kotalik is gonna prove us all wrong and be a menace. especially if he learns to play D and we can pair him with the aforementioned raging gio.
- that goals can, indeed, be scored.
i'm not getting ahead of myself ---i'm still not convinced this is a playoff team and if we go to battle with #27 in the lineup, i think we're hooped on the blueline.... but i'm slightly more optimistic than i was a week ago (unless we're talking about anything jokinen-related, of course).
i can't wait til games are effin' televised.
(how is it that the flames can stream the prospect tourney from penticton and not bother to give us any real preseason action online ??!?)
enjoy the last bits of summer. hockey (and winter) is around the corner....
:)
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