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.
:)

deadline day: nsfw players

with the emergence of the awesomeness that is grant clitsome (dude got two points last night !!!), and with the trade deadline looming, a couple of us were joking around that daz should create a team based on NSFW names; kent suggested semin, legwand, wellwood & dykhuis.... it was actually justin azevedo who came up with the idea but i'm gonna take credit based on this clip that actually played on the radio a few years back, out in toronto...

just sayin'.....

this dude just got called up to columbus, and i find him currently FAR more interesting than bourque or stajan's new contracts, and how they affect the tradeability of cory sarich or dustin boyd:



also: as expected (albeit a couple of days late), mikael backlund has been recalled to the calgary flames. this means conroy is either still on IR, or we're about to deal a roster player.

olympic notes: review

well, i gotta say thanks to my blogmates for TRULY picking up the slack and writing a whole helluva lot while i was (mostly) off the grid in vancouver.... very *ahem* surprising, and enormously well done... i'm incredibly proud of you dudes and your insistance on capital letters... ;)

with two days til the flames suit up again, i've got juuuuust enough time to do a superfast olympic review. i'm gonna do it in reverse cause it'll be easier... feel free to skip over parts that don't interest you.

closing ceremonies
according to duthie and laflamme, the theme of the closing ceremonies was "canadian humour," which pretty much explains right off why nickelback, simple plan, and hedley all shared a stage, or why avril lavigne sang motionless in stilettos.... the show started where it left off in the opening ceremony, with the final ice crystal in the fortress of solitude cauldron being "pulled" out of the floor by a mime ("see ?" says my buddy SV texted me from the rafters in bc place, "it was a chicken ! no one is to blame, and it's also hilarious.")... too bad the comedians featured (shatner, o'hara) weren't funny, and the projectionist missed his cue, thereby totally effing up the michael j fox lever gag.... on the other hand, the michael buble number (complete with rockette-style mountie girls, enormous inflatable beavers, and oldschool tablehockey players) was pretty solid. i like buble, and i like tongue-in-cheek over-the-top humour where canadians can make fun of themselves.....

gold medal hockey: canada v. USA
i gotta say: the states probably should've tried to net a couple more goals during the parts of the game where canada seemed to either get bored, not care much, or fall into the defensive shell. ultimately, this is where the game was tied up, and i was in no way convinced that we were gonna be the ones to score in OT. i will also freely admit that moments before crosby tallied the "golden goal," i was bitching about wasting him on a line with iggy.... ;) in a postgame interview with ryan rishaud, crosby was asked to describe the game winner, "i don't really remember. i just shot it from around here, i think it went fivehole." no doubt about it, the entire country went apeshit, and crosby is inarguably the face of hockey canada, and they sure couldn't be more ecstatic..... bob nicholson ruffled sid's hair in congratulations like a father, and jaques rogge rightly paused before placing the medal around his neck ---a moment for the crowd to applaud him....

the other little things that amused me about the gold medal game:
-whatever bobbylu said to pattykane in the post game handshake line
-whatever iggy said to crosby while skating towards the team photo setup
-dave hodge saying "well done to the losers of this game."
-commenter and friend, goad, texting "just playing scrabble. why, is there something going on ?" midway through the second period.
-eric staal joining the triple gold club
-a lot of people seeming to know the iggy holler, including sid the kid, as stated in this article (well worth the read):

"All of a sudden he was yelling, going for the net," said Iginla. "I was hoping I wasn't too late. He was screaming ... yelling 'Here Iggy Iggy Iggy ..."

-this license plate, seen around salmon arm enroute back to calgary:


quarterfinal: sweden v. slovakia
hockey is superfun when you don't really care who wins. i was pulling for foppa and the boys but wasn't overly disappointed when they lost. the game was actually pretty lame for a QF, and the most notable stuff came in the third when the slovaks were protecting their lead. one defensive tactic they employed was lining up all five skaters on the red line in hopes of 'trapping' the opposition. mikeH referred to this as the "red rover defense." the only other gamenote was that lundqvist was noticably pissed off the coach wasn't pulling him out with 1:45 left (and sweden down a goal). he would skate about ten feet out of the net and throw his arms up in disgust. i'm sure he was yelling "WHAT THE FUCK !!?!" but we certainly couldn't hear'im.... ;)

qualification playoff: canada v. germany
i still can't believe i went to this game.... it was so incredibly fun, it should have been illegal. mikeH did a pretty good summary below and i don't have a whole lot to add, aside from noting that while he was in the bathroom counting the number of provinces on the poster by the urinal, i was doing this:
most awesome olympian
jon montgomery is my new hero, pretty much. there's nothing like a redheaded herb tarlec jumpin' on a cafeteria tray and sliding at 150kph down an ice track in a full-body speedo. add to that the fact that he holds a jug of beer like a man, and chugs it like a pro.... oh, and he has the best description of skeleton ever.... of course, i think joannie rochette is truly amazing for accomplishing what she did under duress (mind you, jasey jay also overcame some serious adversity ---aka, the elements)... i went to university with bobsleigh gold medalist, heather moyse, and i KNOW she's a rad chick. she was my buddy's girlfriend back in the day, and she was always way cool. now she's way cooler cause she grooved out on the top of the podium with an olympic gold around her neck..... oh, and i guess the entire canadian womens' hockey team are in the running for getting their drink on at centre ice post-win.... tough call, but i'll go with montgomery FTW.

most awesome accident while i was in vancouver
the winner in this category will be the fact that i bought qualification playoff tickets and they turned out to feature canada.... running into jeremy roenick and craig button (not together) at GM place was kinda cool, and discovering the anza club on west 8th and ontario (a seriously amazing place to hang/drink during a game) were also incidents in the running for the title.... as was catching clara hughes and her bronze on the train.... really, it was no contest, though.

other final olympic notes:
-i was the official tripleJ drive show correspondant for the vancouver games. i didn't get accreditation, but i WAS offered an expired guest pass for their 2009 xmas party.
-i totally would've bought a dan boyle #22 tshirt but they didn't make any... my options were luongo, iginla, pronger, niedermayer, and crosby. go figure....
-i could have bid on a dan boyle #22 jersey in silent auction but that's so not my thing, and REALLY not my thing for $380.
-the czech republic and slovakia have been seperate countries for about 17 years but people still refer to them currently as czechoslovakia with absurd frequency.... this drives me mental.
-mikeH owes me money :P

Canada-U.S. gold medal game: I'm excited

I'll try to keep this short, because my analysis isn't going to add much at this point. But I'm sufficiently jazzed for the gold medal game that I feel compelled to write anyway, so here I am, after enjoying the Finland-Slovakia bronze game. (Which, incidentally, is the best game I've seen Sex Panther play. Guess country means more to Olli than the Flaming C. Guess that makes sense.)

The thing I'm most excited about, honestly, is being excited. Hockey brings out every best emotion in me and, as usual, the Winter Olympics are pretty much the most enjoyable thing in sports, so having my country in the gold medal game of my favourite sport, in my favourite sporting event, couldn't be better. I do, absolutely, remember exactly where I was in 2002 for that win: Kamloops, fairly new to town, watching in a co-worker's basement. I remember Bob Cole's Jeooooo SAKIC! like it was yesterday, and not just because it's been replayed every day of these Olympics. I think I've been more excited about a hockey victory only four other times: The Flames' wins over the Oilers in '86, the Habs in '89, and the Canucks and Red Wings in '04. (The Sharks win just filled me with dread at the potential for forthcoming disappointment, which obviously turned out to be prescient.)

Over the past two weeks, I've really come to like this Canada team, but I've also liked watching pretty much every game in the tournament; International hockey at its highest level is so pure, so much about the game.

But it's been especially fun seeing so much of my personal elation at Canada's success reflected in so many people around me. It hasn't always been perfect, but it's been close, even when Canada's lost. Watching Finland and Slovakia just now, I found myself rooting for Slovakia because they'd never medalled, but happy for Finland because it meant so much to them, to win a bronze medal.

If that makes me a sucker, getting excited watching rich hockey guys get excited about winning, I'll be happy to be a sucker. If Canada loses tomorrow, I'll be happy for the Americans, just like I was when the U.S. won at the world juniors in January.

But if Canada wins? Well, I'll never forget where I was.

Let's have some fun.

Olympic Break Thoughts No. 3: Farewell, Sex Panther

Good riddance, Olli Jokinen. I'm sure you're a lovely person, but I liked nothing about your game but your occasional shootout prowess and goofy involvement in post-whistle scrums.

Here's how bad it was for me with you: A year ago, I started, then aborted, a list of my Top 10 and Bottom 10 Flames of all-time. (Perhaps one day I'll actually finish that list.) It's been modified, and let's just say, if it wasn't for a Cro-Magnon Man from Sudbury, you'd be No. 1.

Nothing else left to say, other than: Matthew Lombardi and a first-rounder for Ales Kotalik and Chris Higgins. Nice trade, Darryl.

Report from Vancouver, pt 4

These episodic titles are starting to remind me of Lethal Weapon and Die Hard.  With that in mind, WI and I are basically living the buddy picture (her aussie experience means she's Mel and I'm Danny Glover) and I think she would back me up with a little, "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker."  Apologies to Duncan for interrupting his great stream of Olympic break posts with one of my own, but some seriously fun stuff is going on.  To start with, this is the "revised" the view of the cauldron:

I have been buying 50/50 tickets at all the games, because I don't think I've ever been luckier than the past few days.  Tuesday, we attended the Canada vs. Germany qualification match, and pretty much had the best time you could ever have at a hockey game.  The seats were spectacular, and if we haven't already beaten the point into the ground, our ticket angel rocks.  Every "Luuuuu..." was followed by a chorus of "Go Iggy" to cleanse the palette.  The beer was flowing and of course, we all know the outcome.  The Canadians sent the Germans home with a round of handshakes and "Good games", as you can see:

Post game, WI was lucky enough to be introduced to Jeremy Roenick while I was recycling some beer and embarrassing myself.  See, I was taking pictures in the bathroom, because I noticed something on the sponsor advertisement.  So, here is a picture of me with Jeremy Roenick:

The point is I'm an idiot. But still, if you count the provinces and territories on this poster, one of them is missing.  I'll let you figure it out, but for those who may be reading from Sackville, feel free to write your minister.  The even less interesting point in this photo is the duct tape covering the NewAd logos throughout the venue.

Yesterday, we holed up at the ANZA Club to watch the Canada vs. Russia game with a bunch of Calgarians, ex-Calgarians, one aussie, and one unfortunate Leafs fans. (Dan is awesome actually, but I needed an excuse to use the singular "fans").  We ordered in pizza, pounded some Coopers, and watched Canada beat up on Ovie and his boys.  I was kind of hoping for a "hot stick" celebration, but in its absence, I'll take the win.  WI loves Dan Boyle now more than ever, and Iggy wasn't really much of a factor.

After the Canada game, we made tracks down to Canada Hockey Place to attend the Sweden vs. Slovakia quarterfinal match.  Getting there early was a huge plus, as we got down close for the warm up.  I have a few photos to share, to start off with, its always the little things that make an experience worthwhile:

Nice touch, VANOC.  Later that night this was dubbed the, "inukpuck".  Love it.

WI digs swedes, and Foppa is her all time fave, so here you go:

I also was able to get in close on Zatta:

Not much to say about the game, both teams came out flat for the first half, then the Slovaks started to turn it on.  Halak looked solid, and a here's a little tip from watching Flames games... a 2 goal lead in the second is not enough to fall into the "shell".  At one point they actually lined up 5 across the blue line and practically linked arms.  As long as they stayed on the attack, they looked pretty effective.

We actually ran into Craig Button wandering the concourse between periods, WI was impressively restrained and all smiles in the pic I got with the two of them.  He appeared to be there with his daughter, so that probably helped keep the profanity in check.

The lineups for the skytrain were nuts, so we bailed out into a Yaletown bar for a beer just to get out of the rain and let things calm down.  Sometime after midnight, we headed into the station, and had one of the best random sightings of the whole trip (so far):

Clara Hughes was heading out with her husband and a couple of other friends.  We noticed her early on, but waited until the fan fest broke before I jumped in to take her photo.  She was really friendly and gracious to the passengers, showing off her medal and posing for people.  Someone asked her if she's retiring from competition, to which she responded, "I am soooo retired. Totally."  Still, what more is there for her to win?

Friday against the Slovaks, venue to be determined.  Can't wait.  And good luck to the Canadian Women's team in the final today, pound a few home for me.

Olympic Break Thoughts No. 2: The new players

By acquiring a six-pack of new players without long-term contracts or expensive commitments, my feeling is that Darryl Sutter is hedging a bit. This has, without question, been a troubling season from Jarome Iginla. He's Jarmoe'd it up quite a bit, and in alarming ways: He's getting beaten along the boards routinely, makes weak plays with the puck, and doesn't get shots from the danger zones nearly enough.

I'm not convinced yet that he's on the "downside" of his career, but on this Flames team, he lacks a complimentary, distracting talent. Last year, it was Mike Cammalleri, who Sutter apparently thought was not as useful as Olli Jokinen, but somehow managed 39 goals, a lot of them off plays where Iginla was getting all the attention. That's called taking advantage of your opportunities, and we all know how well our Flames have been at that in 2009-2010.

Cammo, who was in the Flames' grasp, could have been that guy. Instead, he's in Montreal, Olli Jokinen is in New York, and the Flames have Iginla and about 10 second- and third-liners to try to score with for the rest of the season.

Now, back to my hedge theory. Sutter has created wiggle room now that he (or, if we're lucky, some new management team) can work with in the off-season to bring in a forward who can actually be that second top-level threat. And in the meantime, he can use the rest of this season to assess the usefulness of each member of an extremely deep, if not extremely dangerous, forward group — then decide who to keep in the off-season.

Before we get to the new forwards, I'll start with Ian White. This is a player I've liked since junior, and as far as swapping talent-for-salary goes, the Phaneuf-for-White move is, frankly, phenomenal. I'll take him for four years at $3M per after this easily, and he'll be a talent and leader on the team for years. From what I could tell in Toronto he (along with Stajan) were the best character players on the team. White's like Andrew Ference with more talent and consistency, and that's a good thing. I also thing he has higher upside than he's already shown, and love that right-handed shot on the PP.

As for the forwards:

MATT STAJAN: In Toronto, Stajan faced the weight of Leafy expectations in a completely unfair manner. Based on draft position and forecasting, my take is he's already having a better career than his expected top-end of playing third-line centre. He's responsible all over the ice, and is on his way to a Daymond Langkow-type career, which is awfully good.

To my eye, he's been value for the Flames so far, figuring his way into some chemistry with Iginla relatively quickly, and scoring a very pretty skate-to-stick goal. Given his UFA status, there's low risk here, but a nice opportunity to sign a quality player ahead of other teams.

NIKLAS HAGMAN: To be honest, I don't get this player. He obviously has mad puck skills, but makes me mad with his stickhandling mishaps at the offensive blue line. Can't figure out the scoring streaks and slumps, either, for a guy who has as good a shot as Hagman does.

But, he's a bona fide 20-goal scorer, and can do it without top-level distribution — and the Flames need that. I'll take it, especially at his price tag.

ALES KOTALIK: Still can't figure this one out. They didn't need him on the power play with Giordano/White/Bouwmeester, and this can't have been a cancelling out of the expiring Jokinen contract. From all indications, in fact, it's a weird deal that allowed the Flames to acquire the seemingly in-decline services of ...

CHRIS HIGGINS: Kent did a nice job in this post of outlining the quality play of Higgins in a Flames jersey (not Flames "silks", a horrible replacement for "uniform" popularized by wordsmithing Herald sportswriters). Those numbers match what the naked eye saw, as well: He's been strong in both ends, and has complimented Kotalik and Daymond Langkow as a great group at producing chances, especially off the cycle.

JAMAL MAYERS: Like I said in an earlier post, he seems good on face-offs. He also appears to get along well with coaches and teammates. Here's hoping Brent realizes he's the 14th forward, and not the third-line centre.

Like I said, the one thing I do like about all these acquisitions is that the Flames are now awfully deep. I like the lines like this coming out of the break/when healthy:

Iginla-Stajan-Hagman
Dawes-Langkow-Higgins
Bourque-Backlund-Kotalik
Glencross-Boyd-Moss
(Conroy, Nystrom, Mayers, McG)

I liked Dawes's ability to play with Langkow earlier in the year, and think Backlund/Kotalik/Bourque could really overwhelm some teams given softer matchups. No reason why Boyd-Moss-Glencross shouldn't be an absolutely killer fourth line, and allow Brent to roll four easily. If Boyd or Conroy can't keep up, Nystrom's at the ready.

Regehr-White
Bouwmeester-Giordano
Sarich-Pardy

I get what they're trying to do splitting up Bouwmeester and Giordano, but I don't really like it. Coming out of the break, I'd rather see more minutes out of the top four.

Olympic Break Thoughts No. 1: On Phaneuf

My veritable blogging orgy continues thanks to the rare free time provided by the combination of a couple of flights — flights with on-demand movies I've already seen.

I actually decided to vacation to cut down on time spent in Toronto the past few weeks fending off "hey, Duncan, we sure fleeced you on that one!" taunts. I built my reply quickly:

1. Tell Leafs fan to enjoy his "quality play" while he's motivated
2. Do a pantomime of the patented Phaneuf manoeuvre where, rather than clearing the front of the net, he stands behind the goal line and weakly pokes his stick into the crease
3. Announce that I really like Ian White, which I do

Truth is, I also like Matt Stajan, and I think Niklas Hagman is a bit of an enigma who could be very useful. Jamal Mayers is barely worth talking about, but I hear he can win face-offs, which might be useful at some point this year. (More on my thoughts about the new guys, including Ales Kotalik and Chris Higgins, in a later post.)

I understand the questions about the value of the return, and whether the Flames could have received more in return. I haven't come around to deciding what I think on that one. I do think that, perhaps, this is the biggest "cap" deal in the era to date — the Flames needed to redistribute funds to the forward area, and they made the call to redistribute Dion.

As frustrating as Phaneuf has been the past three seasons, I've insisted they should hang onto him until just recently. The toolbox was just too valuable, and I know how mature I was at 23. But as much as I blame Darryl for a lot of things, I can't blame him for the decision to cut bait. Might it be difficult going through four head coaches and a bunch of assistants in such a short time early in your career? I'm not really sure. But I wouldn't expect regression from a player such as Phaneuf, and that's what's happened, steadily, since the Norris nomination.

So, in the end, I'd much rather have Bouwmeester at that salary than Phaneuf, despite the offensive dropoff — which, frankly, Mark Giordano and Ian White cancel out.

Also, Phaneuf does come across like a huge dick, and that does mean something. If the "Bouwmeester and Regehr hated him" rumours are true, it's not surprising. Of course, this could also mean he'll get along great with Ron Wilson, who's a great coach but a total asshole. That might be what Phaneuf needs, and my greatest fear is that Toronto suits the guy, and he becomes that "Scott Stevens with offence" threat everyone was expecting.

Toronto, as in the city, is certainly expecting it. They're still on Cloud 9 weeks after the fact at landing this player, who's immediately, without question, the biggest star here. It appears from his man date with Kessel at the Raptors game that he's getting along with the other big new star here, too.

I just wonder if they know what they're in for. Because Cloud 9, in my experience, doesn't last long in Toronto.