Hockey!

Hockey is back this week. You know the season is close when you're having to dash home from the pub watching the football to participate in an online hockey draft. For this year, however, there'll be no taking my colleagues' money. Hopefully that returns next year.

The Calgary Flames finally accepted in the Spring that they were not going to have a bright and successful future by continuing to attempt scrambling into the last playoff spot. All the big-ticket players have now been shipped out. No more Kiprusoff (retired), Iginla (traded to Pittsburgh in March), Bouwmeester (traded to St. Louis). The loss of all three causes the Flames trouble in various different forms for the current season; respectively keeping the puck out of the net, scoring goals and eating large minutes defensively. They are going to lose more games than they win (I know technically they've done this the last couple of years, but bear with me), and it could be a very long winter and spring if any more of the remaining veteran players are lost to injury. A losing team is not the right proving ground for young players. Ask Edmonton, who are still rubbish, even after three successive first overall picks in the draft between 2010 and 2012.

So who are the team this year?

Goalies:

#31, Karri Ramo (aged 27)

His rights were acquired in the 2012 trade that brought Mike Cammalleri back to Calgary from Montreal in exchange for Rene Bourque. Drafted by Flames GM Jay Feaster during his time in Tampa, Ramo was not a success in Florida, an inexperienced youngster playing behind a very poor team. He fled to the KHL where he was the starter the last four seasons for Siberian side Avangard Omsk to great success, including taking them to within 1 game of the title in 2012. He will face a heavy barrage of shots most nights; just where the Flames draft next year will depend largely upon his performances. But the last time the Flames landed a largely-unknown 27 year old Finnish goalie, it didn't work out so bad...

#35, Joey MacDonald (aged 33)

Claimed on waivers from the Detroit Red Wings last winter, MacDonald is a journeyman, career backup, who held the fort as well as could be expected in the spring when Kiprusoff was beset by a nagging groin injury. Of all the Flames goalies last year, his 8-9-1 record, .902 save percentage and 2.87 goals-against-average was the best, which tells you how poor they were collectively as a group. Expect him to start 20-30 of the 82 games, with Ramo taking the rest.

Defence:

#4, Kris Russell (age 26)

A puck-moving defenceman, with a prolific point totals at the junior level, Russell was acquired from St. Louis in the offseason. He will contribute to the Flames power-play and take second-pairing minutes. Has been paired with Dennis Wideman in the exhibition games. Not overly big, or physical, a recurring theme with the Flames defence.

#5, Mark Giordano (age 30, captain)

The players and management's unanimous choice for captain to replace the departed Iginla. The classic story of not giving up after not being drafted, he turned up for Calgary for a trial, made the team on a minor league contract, and via a spell in Russia with Dynamo Moscow returned a much more complete player in 2008. Will play on the first defensive pairing, and get power play time

#6, Dennis Wideman (age 30)

Arrived in Calgary last summer as an expensive free-agent signing, before the Flames finally admitted some months later that the playoffs will be out of reach. Will be expected to run the Flames power play, whilst playing on the second defensive pairing.

#7, TJ Brodie (age 23) 

Made the team out of training camp in 2010, though he struggled and was moved back into the AHL for more development, his upward progression in terms of his play was exponential last season. As players fell injured/were traded/were off form, his ice time increased to the point of him playing first pairing minutes once Bouwmeester was shipped out. His continued development will be one of the bright spots this season. 

#44, Chris Butler (age 26)

Acquired from Buffalo in the trade that sent Robyn Regehr to the Sabres, he spent 2011-12 paired with Bouwmeester, looking only OK. Last season, he was eventually demoted to the third pairing through repeated brain-cramps, errors and general poor play. Bouwmeester evidently made him look better than he was. Whipping boy of the online fanbase for not being Regehr, he must improve substantially or face the heave-ho next summer.

#55, Shane O'Brien (age 30)

Arrived in the summer, in the trade that sent Cory Sarich and Alex Tanguay to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for himself and David Jones. Signed primarily for his enthusiasm for physical play in front of his own net, he also has prime whipping boy credentials due to his ability to take stupid penalties and having a past of playing in Vancouver. Will be a third pairing player with Butler

Forwards:

#8, Joe Colborne (age 23)

Acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night through trade, Colborne is a 6'5" centre whose career has somewhat stalled. Centre is a position the team needed to strengthen considerably. He was known to assistant GM Weisbrod who scouted and drafted him in Boston, and new Flames hockey operation President Burke took him to Toronto via trade.

#11, Mikael Backlund (age 24)

One of the few Flames that played through the lockout last autumn/winter in his native Sweden. And it did him good as his productivity in points finally took a leap forward, in addition to his solid play that makes him beloved of the 'advanced stats' crowd. Has a habit of incurring freakish injuries. If he can stay fit, he should develop further into a solid, defensively responsible centre.

#13, Mike Cammalleri (age 31, assistant captain)

A prime candidate to be shipped out at the trade deadline due to his expiring contract. The level of return will be dictated by his point return, which should be healthy due to the Flames owning very few other offensively gifted players. Expect him to log lots of powerplay time.

#15, Tim Jackman (age 33)

Fourth line grinder, never gives less than 100% but might feel his role under threat from numerous younger players given his age.

#16, Brian McGrattan (age 32)

Another fourth liner, McGrattan will act this year as the Flames "enforcer", there to make sure than the opposing team don't take liberties with the Flames talented players or youngsters.

#17, Lance Bouma (age 23)

Missed the whole of last season with a knee injury incurred in his third AHL game. Will be expected to slot in on the fourth line. Is most frequently compared to former Flame Brandon Prust. If he manages to develop into a similar sort of player, the organisation will be delighted.

#18, Matt Stajan (age 29)

The only remaining piece of the trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs that sent Dion Phaneuf to Toronto, he managed to climb out of the "whipping boy" seat last year through actually being used in a role to which his talents were suited. Is now the de-facto first line centre, which tells you what a weak position it is. Also out of contract in the summer, expect him to also be shipped out at the trade deadline.

#20, Curtis Glencross (age 30, assistant captain)

Like Giordano, another undrafted player made good, made even better by the fact that Edmonton let him go and he came here and he scores against them frequently. Fast skater, hard shot, rides in the chuckwagon races at the Stampede. Will spend a lot of this season on the first line (on a good team he'd be a second/third liner) shutting down the opposition top line. Expect him to be one of the veterans kept around through the rebuild.

#21, Roman Horak (age 22)

Arrived from the New York Rangers two summers ago when Tim Erixon refused to sign. Figures to play on the third or fourth line somewhere, but in what role, nobody is quite sure at present. Needs to start scoring points or be overtaken by other prospects

#22, Lee Stempniak (age 30)

More trade deadline trade bait. Stempniak has developed into a consistent, solid performer in his three years in Calgary since being traded from Phoenix. Can be relied upon for 20 goals in a season and will be a very useful depth signing for a playoff contender.

#23, Sean Monahan (age 18)

Drafted sixth overall this past summer, Monahan will at the least get his nine game audition (any further and the first year of his contract is triggered) to sell some hope for the future to the fans. Projected to be the first line centre at some point in the future, his experience of captaining a really terrible junior team will be useful in the years to come.

#24, Jiri Hudler (age 29)

In the same boat as Wideman; signed last summer as the Flames continued to try and make the playoffs, he may not be quite so keen to hang around for a long rebuild. He has great hands but is diminutive in stature. Lots of powerplay time to come. Would also make an interesting trade target for a side looking to bolster their lineup at deadline time

#39, TJ Galiardi (age 25)

Arrived from San Jose in a trade in the summer, Galiardi (like Colborne) is a native Calgarian and long-time Flames fan. He can play in all three forward positions so expect to see him shuffled around the lineup. This is his dream move, and expect him to fit on the third or fourth line somewhere to provide some more size

#47, Sven Baertschi (age 20)

Drafted 13th overall in 2011, he dominated at the junior level, before a three-goals-in-five-games cameo NHL appearance in the spring of 2012 set expectations rocketing. Didn't live up to those expectations at the start of last year, chiefly through being used on the fourth line, before getting injured, but looked much better in a top six role at the end of the season after the team was blown up. 

#54, David Jones (age 29)

Arrived from the Avalanche in the aforementioned trade with O'Brien. Expect him to slot in on the second or third line right wing, a position the Flames are desperately weak at. 

The Best Laid Plans

Today saw disgruntled, stagnating forward Rick Nash traded from the Columbus Blue Jackets (yes, that's really their name) to the New York Rangers. Arguably the best performer on the Canadian team in the gold medal game at the 2010 Winter Olympics, the perennial 30+ goalscorer finally grew fed up of an organisation seemingly incapable of building a team around him.

The trade wasn't really a surprise, it had been coming, but the amusement in Calgary today stems from one of the players sent to Columbus in exchange. Swedish defender Tim Erixon was the Flames' first round pick in the 2009 draft. He spent two whole years not signing a contract whilst starring in the Swedish league against men as a teenager. When the deadline for contract signing came, he proffered a list of really very flimsy excuses why he didn't want to sign. One of which was that he'd not get in the team in Calgary. He was actually born in upstate New York since his dad Jan played for the Rangers in the 1990s. How convenient it was when the Ranger$ came calling the day before the deadline, "we hear he hasn't signed yet. Do you want to trade his rights?". Very convenient. 

The Flames obtained young Czech forward Roman Horak and two second round draft picks in return. About the best that could be done in the circumstances. Fast forward a year. Erixon spent most of the season in the Rangers' minor league side (I thought he didn't want to play in the minor leagues?) and is now no-longer wanted by the team he seemingly connived to join, and parcelled off to arguably the worst team in the NHL, far from the bright lights of Manhattan and his dubiously-engineered dream. As someone remarked on twitter, "Tim Erixon learnt a hard lesson about the business today"

Canada Day: The Day Before

Today being June 30th, it's the final day of NHL players expiring contracts. The Flames had a lot of players out of contract this year and it was widely assumed that on the back of a third year in a row out of the playoffs, most of them would be on their way. Yesterday, though, they re-signed Cory Sarich, Lee Stempniak and Blake Comeau. I think this caught a few people a little off guard, especially in light of the acquisition via trade of Washington's Dennis Wideman on Thursday afternoon. Pictured on the right, with a little help from Capgeek is the 2012-13 Flames as they stand in my eyes. I've made Matt Stajan and Anton Babchuk, and their combined $6m salary disappear. If they could actually do that, they've roughly $11m to spend tomorrow on one player. That's a fairly hefty amount to go whale hunting for the big ticket forwards that are out of contract. They'd have to heftily overpay to get their man (see Wideman's new $5.2m per year salary) since Calgary is not at the top of free agents lists of places to come and play, which is stupid since it's a lovely (if a bit pricy) place to live. So far, the major casualty of the offseason appears to be Olli Jokinen. The first time they traded for him, it pretty much set the wheels in motion for the team of 2008-9 to completely run aground, and end up in the lack of postseason action we've noticed in the last three years. The trade to get rid of him landed them with the useless Ales Kotalik (banished to Buffalo), and then two years ago they shocked the world by signing Olli back again. His second stint was much more productive; his lower salary lowered expectations, but there was no middle ground among the support when he arose in conversation. Whereever he ends up, he is a boon for GIF makers.

Early Presents

Last night saw episode three of the Calgary Flames-Vancouver Canucks season series. In the last couple of years, the fixture hasn't been much of a contest, to the point that each meeting is met with a sense of dread from a Calgary point of view about how many goals they're going to concede. Last night's game was the second night of a back to back, having played Detroit the night before, a situation the Flames don't do well in historically. Oh, and they had a 23 year old goalie playing only his second game in the NHL. The two previous meetings this season ended 5-1 to Vancouver. All the omens pointed to another beating.

So imagine the collective surprise when this happened:

So after facing the Flames' first two goalies in their first two games, Vancouver fell to the third choice. It was Irving's first NHL win, after several years of service in the AHL, much of it in nearby Abbbotsford, learning his trade following his selection in the first round of the 2006 draft. Particularly nice when he had a successful battle with a rare form of cancer aged seven. But last night was a team performance. Every last one of them played very well, denied Vancouver space, and created chances; it was the first time the game was a contest for a couple of years maybe. The Flames' slow transition under the new general manager to a team with more speed, skill and puck-moving defencemen looks like it's beginning to bear fruit in the last two or three weeks. Having defencemen who can skate into the offensive zone to set up attacks instead of dumping-and-chasing makes the world of difference. You can't score when you don't have the puck after all. The Flames moved into tenth place in the western conference; still outside the playoffs, but six points ahead of where they were at the same point last season.

Heritage

You wait months for a hockey-related post, then two come along at once. Yesterday was the Heritage Classic game here in Calgary, held just down the road at McMahon Stadium. A temperature of -10 C at the beginning meant that the ice quality was not far short of terrible (apparently, it becomes too brittle and cracks), and it would doubtless have been uncomfortable viewing for the 41,022 there as it got colder as the sun went down.

From a Flames point of view, a win would have taken them into sixth place in the Western Conference, remarkable to think about given their dead last position last November. The fear was the players minds would be distracted by all the media hoopla that had been going on and the disruption to their gameday routine, as well as the longer break before this game. Given other teams around them had multiple games in hand following the Flames last game on Wednesday, we'd all been watching the out of town scores very carefully. Thursday and Friday were not so good, Saturday and Sunday were pretty good on that score. Would they put it all to one side and win?

One very ill omen: their special, one-off uniforms. Teams that play in claret and amber, not choking on the big day? We've seen it all before, I'm afraid.....

Some of the sights and sounds of the day shown below. CBC does its usual thing:

The entrance of the teams. A bit overdone for game 61/82 if you ask me.



An apparently famous country singer does the national anthems.

The flypast went straight over Beige Towers. Very loud, they were. And so to the game highlights. No choking after all. The team is now 17-4-5 in its last 26, and have scored 57 goals in the last 14. Fifty-seven goals!! This is the low-scoring-dull-but-grind-it-out-defensively-Calgary-Flames, right?

Avalanche

There's been very little mention of hockey on here this season. For the first two-and-half-months, the Flames were terrible, forcing a change in the General Manager's chair between Christmas and New Year. And have gone on an almighty run since; they were 14-18-3 (W/L/OT) in the early going, before a run of 15-4-5 since, hauling themselves off the bottom of the western conference into 8th place. Last night, the Flames travelled to Denver to take on the Colorado Avalanche. The Avs edged the Flames out of the playoffs last year, on the back of worldy goaltending, lots of blocked shots, lucky bounces and not much else. Four times they beat the Flames 3-2, in games they should have lost handsomely, but for Craig Anderson; those eight points were essentially the difference between the sides. 

Fast forward to this season. Flames lost the first game 6-5 in a ridiculous game, before winning the next two. Last night saw the Avs on the back of an eight game losing run. And here's what happened in game four:

That the NHL should choose the Altitude video is even more amusing than the scoreline; the Altitude feed is one of the very worst (and believe me, they have some competition) TV teams out there.

Breaking Ducks

So it came to pass that I finally saw a Flames win in the Saddledome, nearly two years after being in the country. Given that Saturday night was the first time I have sat in the cheap 'nosebleed' seats, I might have to try that again. But maybe not that soon; the climb to the upper reaches of the Saddledome is a long and arduous one, and sustenance at the beer stall was very needed at the top. The Flames played pretty well for 60 minutes, and recovered well from the setback of a goal all four officials missed for a good two minutes after the fact. Only in a TV timeout did the war room in Toronto let the officials know they had cocked up. Eric Nystrom's first goal in 44 games and two from captain Iginla led the comeback, and only Swiss goalie Jonas Hiller kept the score down. Good times!

Super Sunday

To describe today's activity by the Calgary Flames in the trade market as frenzied is something of an understatement. In the length of time it took to go to the gents and back in the Ship this morning, while watching Arsenal-Man Utd, the hockey world got turned upside down.

In brief: former Norris Trophy nominee Dion Phaneuf, Fredrik Sjostrom and defensive prospect Keith Aulie were traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs for forwards Niklas Hagman, Matt Stajan, Jamal Mayers and Ian White. Phaneuf had been billed as a franchise defenceman for years to come, but had become a lightning rod for the fans for the better part of a year. Rumours persisted about a split dressing room with him at the centre. The return is acceptable; it adds scoring in Hagman, and a much underrated defender in White. That would be fine for one day...

Until CalgaryPuck crashed again this evening; always the tell-tale sign something big is happening in Flames World. To the New York Rangers go Olli Jokinen and Brandon Prust in exchange for Ales Kotalik and Christopher Higgins, both posting horrible numbers for New York this season. OK, Jokinen has not turned into the #1 centre the Flames wanted, but the return is terrible.

In addition, the Flames now have six new players to try and embed in the system, and a game tomorrow night. I can only speculate there is another much larger move for a top top player in the works. Ilya Kovalchuk is the widely speculated player. He's an unrestricted free agent in the summer, and Atlanta are looking to deal him and get what they can back. But they are rumoured to want young players, prospects and draft picks. The Flames new acqusitions couldn't really be described as that, and they have no first or second round picks this year (lost in the Jokinen and Bouwmeester trades). And Kovalchuk might not sign in Calgary beyond the summer and then they have trashed their lineup for nothing.

Crazy theory: In the light of the emergence of Steven Stamkos, would the Tampa Bay Lightning deal Vincent Lecavalier? His contract is to 2020, so locked in for a number of years. Given centre Mikael Backlund was brought up from the farm team this week, was this to showcase him? Tampa would get roster players back in return. How about: to CGY: Lecavalier. To TBL: Sarich, Backlund, Langkow, Kotalik, Higgins. CGY gets their top line centre, TBL gets three replacement centres, plus defensive depth On the downside, if VL bombed in cowtown, that's a hugely difficult salary to move ($7.7m a year). And would TBL even entertain this? And there's a real iceberg on the horizon in having to renew Giordano's contract next summer.

It makes (with re-signed UFAs in green), roughly 3 million under the current salary cap :

Bourque (3.5) Lecavalier (7.7) Iginla (7.0)
Hagman (3.0) Stajan (2.5) Dawes (0.8)
Glencross (1.2) Boyd (0.8) Moss (1.3)
Nystrom (0.8) AN Other (0.5) Mayers (0.8)
Lundmark (0.6) McGrattan (0.6)

Bouwmeester (6.6) Giordano (0.9)
Regehr (4.0) White (3.0)
Pardy (0.7) Johnson (0.5)
Kronwall (0.5)

Kiprusoff (5.8)
McElhinney (0.5)

The Irresistible Force Meets The Immovable Object: Redux

The irresistible force - while only playing in third gear - win 9 (NINE)-1, in the words of the BBC vidiprinter. Words fail to describe the rank ineptitude on show tonight. So I'll let you just watch the video when it becomes available. Next up, Chicago, who have scored 13 in two games against us this year. I fear the worst. Thoughts on what to do next will come tomorrow, I suppose. And yes, the organ version of Gary Glitter's Rock and Roll Part 2 does get very wearing after the ninth airing.

The Irresistible Force Meets The Immovable Object

The immovable object, in the guise of the Flames defence, wins!

Vancouver won 5-1 in the Saddledome at the end of December and had been on fire ever since. The Flames had two horrible performances in Minnesota on Wednesday and at home to Columbus on Friday, prompting a televisual savaging from their coach in the post game press conference. Given how bad the Flames generally are on the second night of back to back games (last night was also their 9th game in 14 days), most of us feared the worst. And then the Flames who won in SJ and Detroit and won 5-0 in Nashville finally reappeared. Could they stay a bit longer this time?

The main talking point was the person sat behind the benches who was shining a green laser at Miikka Kiprusoff for some part of the evening. If that was a season ticket holder, I'm sure it just got torn up. Given the price of tickets, who would pay $200+ to buy a premium seat and then do that? I like it when sporting karma takes over so quickly. It wasn't quick enough for me, as I would have loved to use the "Everybody Loves Daymond" title I have been itching to use for weeks, but he hit the bar. Oh and for a franchise goalie who is the teams best player and is their highest hit on the salary cap, Luongo is useless in shooutouts. Hussar!

Come On Rocky! One More Round!!

So went the line from Mickey Goldmill's ghost in Rocky V. As films go, it's not the best. So Sylvester Stallone brought the Italian Stallion back many years later for one last, last bout in 2006's Rocky Balboa. It's a watchable, feelgood movie; a middle-aged widower Balboa ends up leaving the series leaving the fans happy and reconciled with his son, an arena full of cheering people in his wake with his legacy as a hero to his fans secured.

A similar sort of thing happened in Calgary this September when former Flames leading goalscorer and Stanley Cup winner Theo Fleury attempted a comeback. At the age of 41, after several years out of the professional game after being suspended indefinitely by the NHL in 2003 for repeated violations of the NHL's substance abuse laws and alcohol addiction, the odds were against him. He left the Flames on bad terms and was never short of something to say about them. It's fair to say he'd had to deal with some personal demons over the course of his life, largely stemming from the recent revelations that he'd been sexually abused by his junior hockey coach. In the autumn's feelgood story, the Flames agreed that he could try out, but under the understanding he would make the final roster as a top six forward or not at all. Generally speaking, he did respectably, but nothing to dislodge any of the established players.

In the home exhibition game against the New York Islanders on September 17th came the 'Rocky Balboa moment'. With the score after overtime tied at 4-4, the first four players in the shootout all missed. Enter number 14:

Game winning goals are no bad thing. He then scored from open play in the next game against the Florida Panthers, gaining four points in total in the preseason games. Ultimately, the coaching staff decided while the hands were still there, the 41-year-old legs had gone somewhat and the 5'6" frame was a risk too far in the modern game. Still, at least now Fleury had made peace with the Flames, the NHL and the fans, maybe some day soon his #14 jersey would be retired and hang alongside his two Stanley Cup winning colleagues in the Saddledome:That was until today, and a post on the blog on his website. In and amongst some sporting predictions about the new year, a remark on his 2009, and his preseason escapade:

"At this time last year, I was 45 pounds overweight and thinking about making a comeback. HAHAHAHA! Anyway, we put our nose to the grindstone and boy did we make a comeback. At one hundred and eighty pounds, I finished 11th out of 56 guys at camp in the fitness test and scored a historic shootout goal in an exhibition game after being out of hockey for six years. What does that say about the talent level in the NHL? 4 points and a plus 4 rating in four exhibition games and I get cut. What a joke! Craig Conroy goes the first 37 games of the season with zero goals. I wonder how many I would have had. Even with all the stupid people that run the game of hockey, it’s still a great game. Go figure."

Sad that he has to single out Conroy when he's generally a very popular figure online as the elder statesman of the team. And are we to suppose the 'stupid people that run the game of hockey' are the current coaching staff and CEO? The ones that have turned around an ailing franchise in the third-smallest market in the NHL? The same one that missed the playoffs seven years in a row between 1996 and 2003, and was in serious danger of going the way of the Winnipeg Jets, Quebec Nordiques and Hartford Whalers and moving to some part of the southern US where the public at large don't give a stuff about hockey? The chances of that jersey retirement just got a lot longer. Here's Patrick "I cannot hear Jeremy speak" Roy's jersey retirement from October 2008, to give you an idea what goes on:

Reverential, I'm sure you'll agree. I'm as sure Fleury would love to be the centre of such lavish attention. But his remarks today, to borrow that well worn phrase, were cutting off his nose to spite his face. Sad, really.

Happiness Is..

...chasing Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo out of a Flames-Canucks game by the second intermission. This was the Flames' most convincing performance of the fledgling season by far, and a 5-0 lead by 40 minutes could and should have been larger but for the goalposts. Sadly, they couldn't add any further scoring, and the last 10 minutes saw the officials take pity on Vancouver, rewarding them with a string of soft penalties. Three goals duly followed, making everyone twitchy, given what happened on Monday night (see below), but Canucks forward Alex Burrows did the decent thing by getting sent to the penalty box inside the last two minutes.

(How I haven't got to a nearly a year of this blog without mentioning Burrows I'm not sure. Think of the most annoying, irritating sportsman you can. And then multiply that by a thousand. The sort of player that dives repeatedly, and is the classy sort of guy that knocks out the front teeth of amateur Quebec goalies with his stick in the offseason. Oh, and he pulls hair in fights, like a girl. That an act of selfishness on his part torpedoed any hopes of a comeback makes me warm and happy inside).

Yet another game in which the Flames fourth line dominated. There was a little bit of scoffing when they signed Brian McGrattan as the 'enforcer' in the summer, but he had the last laugh tonight, destroying Darcy Hordichuk in a fight, before bagging both an assist and a goal. Two points each for Dustin Boyd and Brandon Prust.

So to Monday then. I'd ordered the Flames game at Chicago on Pay Per View. It was a holiday and nothing was on. I paid through the handset and saw the first four minutes. Then nothing. I put on the radio while trying to get through on the telephone. This happened:
Five goals in five-and-a-half minutes. I gave up on hold on the phone and left a cross email on the TV company's website. The picture came back, and within a minute, Chicago pulled one back. Jokinen missed a 1-on-1 in the closing seconds, but it didn't matter, leading 5-1 after 20 minutes? Game over? The Flames certainly seemed to think so, and coasted through the second period. And then this scoring sequence came to pass:This tied the league record for biggest defeat overturned in a single match. The only consolation in the end -aside from points galore for my hockey pool teams - was that my angry email resulted in me getting the game for free.

Hockey Multiple Choice

You are the Calgary Flames. You have turned a 3-0 deficit after 30 minutes to the Canucks into a 4-3 lead. You have just seen a Canucks equaliser (wrongly) called off with ten seconds left.,due to running round like headless chickens. Because of a melee afterwards, the faceoff is at neutral ice. Do you:

a) win the faceoff, work it down the ice, and win the game?
b) lose the faceoff, and run around like headless chickens in your own end for the second time in 10 seconds?
c) not pick up Daniel Sedin about five feet from the net
d) have a goalie who couldn't shut his five-hole if his life depended on it, even if the shot was completely mishit?
e) all of b), c) and d) above?

I know it's only a friendly, but I'm annoyed. Conceding a goal with 0.2 seconds to go will do that to you. For the first 30 minutes tonight the Flames were atrocious, to the degree that you wondered if it was some sort of drill to see if they could dig themselves out of a hole afterwards. That they did is testament to the skilled players playing tonight; Jokinen and Bouwmeester were great in the final period. If it was not a drill, several players played themselves into the AHL or press box tonight. Backlund is clearly not ready, he was virtually invisible and the less said about the game losing non-shot in the shootout the better. Pardy had a stinker for the third night in a row. Anton Stralman now clearly has the #6 defender position in his place. But the real concern is in goal. Kiprusoff has been shaky in his two games, and tonight Curtis McElhinney was, when it mattered, terrible. I stick up for him, but tonight was not his night. Three soft goals and a laughable poke-check in the shootout. Can you tell I don't like losing to V*******r?

Flames were: (F) Bourque-Jokinen-Dawes; Glencross-Langkow-Fleury; Sjostrom-Lundmark-Sutter; Nystrom-Backlund-Prust; (D) Regehr-Bouwmeester; Sarich-Giordano; Pardy-Kronwall; (G) McElhinney.

It's Back!

Hockey is back! After a wait of five months - always a longer wait when your team is knocked out in the first round of the playoffs yet again - tonight is the first warm up game, against Edmonton. Looking at the two lineups, the Oilers have much more experience, but haven't shown it all that much against what is largely the Flames' AHL team. They line up:

Dawes-Boyd-Moss
Greentree-Lundmark-Chucko
Nystrom-Murray-Cunning
Stuart-Prust-Jaffray

Pardy-Pelech
Kronwall-Stralman
Negrin-Palin

Keetley

1st period: Flames dominate early, but a super-weak goal from Patrick O'Sullivan gives Edmonton the lead through Keetley's legs. Lots of evidence of the new coach; each Edmonton rush sees all five Flames skaters in pursuit, rather than the floating of the usual suspects last season. On the debit side, Brandon Prust continues to be a useless fighter. He might have a heart the size of a house, but I don't think I've seen him beat anyone.

2nd period: Oilers make it 2-0 on the powerplay; another soft one. Keetley looks a little out of his depth here, and the penalty killing is all over the place. On the other hand, the Flames PP looks quite good, Stralman dictating the play from the right point. So the complete opposites of last season then. Leland Irving replaces Keetley on the 30 minute mark.

3rd period: A bit of a non event for ten minutes, but the Flames finally got the powerplay goal at the seventh attempt, as Jason Jaffray scored from Lundmark's long pass on a breakaway. The comeback doesn't last long as Tom Gilbert made it 3-1 on a four minute powerplay for a high stick, before Shaun Horcoff got the empty netter with 30 seconds to go.

All in all, an encouraging effort from the baby Flames; the scoreline was a hugely flattering to Edmonton. You can see a plan of how the Flames intend to play and so let's hope that when the big guns are put in the team they buy into the same system.

He Did It

Following on from Saturday's entry, Calgary Flames general manager Darryl Sutter this evening landed star unrestricted free agent Jay Bouwmeester on a 5-year, $32.5 million contract. He has signed him having effectively given up the negotiating rights to UFA Jordan Leopold and a 3rd round draft pick; tomorrow he may have gone for $7-8 million a year, so in anyone's terminology, a steal. Is there a better top four defence anywhere in the NHL than Bouwmeester-Regehr-Phaneuf-Sarich?

The real demonstration the Flames have stolen a march on their rivals? The egregious quantities of utter f*cking stupid spouted on canucks.com and HF message boards about 'salary cap hits', 'lack of top six forwards' and 'cancers in the dressing room'

Darryl Sutter, I raise my metaphorical hat in your direction!

EDIT: This evening's deal in Cowtown is not the only activity in the northwest division of the NHL this evening. Want-away Ottawa forward Dany Heatley - having waived his no-trade clause - has signed for the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for Andrew Cogliano, Ladislav Smid and Dustin Penner. A 50 goal forward swapped for a promising centre not fulfilling his potential, a second/third pair defenceman and a colossal, overpaid bust. Edmonton wins this trade hands down. I'd like to smoke whatever Sens GM Bryan Murray is smoking if he thinks that's a good trade! Yikes!

And what of the Sedin sisters in V*****ver? Still no signature on the dotted line. If they were to decamp as free agents to Montreal or Toronto, then it's fair to say they are the significant losers in the musical chairs of the last couple of days. It's all very well having a top three goalie, but if your entire forward corps are made up of journeyman third liners (and the incredibly-good-value-for-money Mat$ $undin), expect a regression in the coming season. Which suits me just fine :-)

EDIT 2: Heatley refuses to be traded to Edmonton and will not waive the no-trade clause. in this instance. Marian Hossa, Jaromir Jagr, Dany Heatley; all sane enough to realise that although Edmonton isn't the end of the world, you can certainly see it from there...!

Darryl Sutter: Magician

It just goes to show what you miss out on sometimes when you have a bit of a lie in on a Saturday morning.

Last evening was the NHL entry draft, in which the 30 NHL sides pick from the best available players wanting to enter the NHL. The teams with the poorest records in the season just gone pick first: the New York Islanders, once a powerhouse team in the 1970s but recently fallen on hard times picked the Ontario Hockey League's record goalscorer John Tavares. The top three players in the draft were all roughly equally talented and it was interesting to see who the Islanders picked. Had they picked either Victor Hedman or Matt Duchene, then a whole domino effect of trades could have been triggered, but as it was they took the star goalscoring forward. The Pittsburgh Penguins, a team in the same position five years ago, but now the Stanley Cup champions, due to a stream of high picks in Marc-Andre Fleury, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin an Jordan Staal, picked last. Calgary had the 20th pick in the first round, but general manager Darryl Sutter swapped with New Jersey for the 23rd pick, plus a pick in the third.

The Flames got the man they wanted, Swedish defenceman Tim Erixon (who they figured would go in the top 15, so they were pleased to get him at 23rd), plus a bonus pick for free. That concluded the evening last night at an interminable 4 hours, and bedtime soon followed. Rounds two to seven of the draft were this morning, and when I logged on to Calgary Puck this morning I found it lit up like a Christmas tree. The reason? The Flames traded their freebie pick to the Florida Panthers, in addition to the rights to negotiate with free agent rental player Jordan Leopold, for the rights to negotiate with defenceman Jay Bouwmeester; arguably the biggest catch in the free agent market this summer. Florida have been trying to trade away his rights to get something back before he walked for nothing for some time, but the rumour on the draft room floor in Montreal was that he wouldn't move before July 1st when he can field several offers.

So it is that the Flames can now negotiate exclusively with him till Wednesday, when he can then speak to other teams. This has already prompted sniping from Edmonton and Vancouver (where else?) that Calgary cannot possibly fit him into the salary cap for next season. Sutter's answer? To immediately trade the grossly overpaid Jim Vandermeer ($2.3m a year for a third pairing defenceman is 3-4 times what he's worth) to the Phoenix Coyotes in exchange for Brandon Prust (who was traded to Phoenix in the deal that brought Olli Jokinen to Calgary) on a salary of. $0.5m a year, so clearing up $1.8m a year on the salary cap at a stroke. (as an aside, it's hardly beneficial to the Coyotes finances to take that contract on, but the NHL has made it's own bed and must now lie in it)

If Sutter can succesfully tie Bouwmeester down - his girlfriend is a nurse in Calgary and he's building a house here, so it looks good on that front - having effectively given nothing up, he's nothing short of a genius. Contrast his under-the-radar style to the incessant stream of hot air that is Brian Burke from Toronto who talks a good game but cannot walk the walk (at least in Toronto, anyway). His being on a microphone last night just shouted out "look at me, look at me!" which I found equally amusing and a bit sad. 42 years and counting for the Maple Leafs; it might yet be a few more.

There is more cap room than people think. If Cammalleri ($3.35m a year, and wanting far more in free agency), Bertuzzi ($1.95m a year, 1 good game in 5) and Aucoin ($4m a year, overpaid and turning circle of an oil tanker) are all not renewed, there is now $11.1m of salary cap space available. For sake of argument, if Bouwmeester signs a long term deal at $6.5m a year, there is now $4.6m to fill out the roster and sign up the younger free agents to improved deals. A couple of players might get promoted to higher forward lines - a slight decrease in goals might come of this, but hopefully the new defence-first attitude of new coach Brent Sutter offsets this - then the 2009-10 Flames could look like this (with salary in brackets, and resigned free agents in red):

Forwards
Bourque (1.35) - Langkow (4.5) - Iginla (7.0)
Backlund (1.271) - Jokinen (5.25) - Moss (1.3)
Glencross (1.2)- Conroy (1.05) - Boyd (1.0)
Nystrom (0.688)- Peters(0.6) -Prust (0.5)
Van Der Gulik/Greentree/Lundmark (ca. 0.5 each, only one player called up at any one time)
(26.209 total)

Defence
Bouwmeester (6.5) - Regehr (4.02)
Phaneuf (6.5) - Sarich (3.6)
Giordano (0.892) - Pardy (0.9)
Pelech (0.85)
(total 23.262)

Goalies
Kiprusoff (5.833), McElhinney (0.535)
(6.368 total)

Total salary: $55.839 million, salary cap for 09-10 = $56.8 million. It's quite close to the cap, but to free up a bit more room, on the back of an indifferent year, Daymond Langkow could be traded. Olli Jokinen could then be moved to the first line and a couple more UFAs at 2m could be signed, thus letting Mikael Backlund develop a bit more in the WHL. When does the schedule come out again...?

Time To Get The Thermal Socks Out

It's just been announced this evening on one of the various sports channels that there will be an outdoor hockey game played in Calgary on New Year's Day. Such events are becoming a bit of a fixture on the NHL calendar; the first in Edmonton in 2003, Buffalo in 2008, Chicago this year, in addition to the possible one in Calgary. Here's the scene in Buffalo for the Buffalo Sabres-Pittsburgh Penguins (boooo!) game, where 71,217 attended:

(image downloaded from flickr; see here for the original and more images)

Calgary is hosting the 2009 Grey Cup Final (the CFL version of the Superbowl) in late November, so there will doubtless be temporary seating at either end of McMahon Stadium, boosting the capacity to somewhere approaching 50,000, and so leaving it in place seems good sense. The capacity of the Saddledome is 19,200, so demand will surely be high - the more available seats the better. How good is it that my plans for this Christmas season involve staying this side of the pond?!

Just one consideration; the weather. It could be -30C and brutal windchill., making it less than fun to sit and watch. It could equally be +10C if the Chinook is blowing that particular day which would make life difficult for the skaters. I'd better make sure the thermals are ready, just in case...

Falling Over the Finish Line

Tonights sporting happenings, by the numbers:

• Shots on target: 47-25 Calgary.
• Score: 4-1 Vancouver.
• Calgary powerplay: 0-39 in 7 games.
• FOUR blown 5-on-3's in 2 games.
• Calgary record in second night of back-to-back games: 2-10-1.
• Number of seconds between Calgary equaliser and bone-headed clusterf**k by Phaneuf coasting behind his own net to present possession back to Vancouver to score: 22.
• Number of posts on tonight's Calgary Puck game thread: 1,223.
• Number of posts in said thread calling for the head of the coaching staff (and specifcally the PP coach): about 300 of them.
• Number of posts in said thread cursing errant finishing/hitting the post/Luongo standing on his head: about 600.
• First star: Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo. He is in the Flames heads without doubt.

A flattering scoreline, to be sure. This was an excellent performace 5-on-5. But until something is done about the Flames apocalyptically bad powerplay, they can dominate games for 50 minutes all they like; the inability to put teams away when well on top means there will not be the desired end result. And do they practice this powerplay? Answers need only be two letters long....

This Is Not a Late April Fool

Colorado Avalanche 4 - 1 Vancouver Canucks

bwhahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaa!

It seems neither Vancouver nor Calgary want to tie up the Northwestern Division of the NHL. Here we are in the six days of the regular season; I'm sat listening to NHL.com with the beautiful silence of GM Place and a distinct lack of Canucks colour commentator Tom Larscheid spouting his usual biased drivel. After a defensive horror-show in their 5-3 defeat in Edmonton last evening, what could be better than a home game against a Colorado side that had lost 8 in a row before tonight? A Colorado team thought to be deliberately tanking to try and get the #1 draft pick in June. Except the evening isn't going to plan.

A Flames win tomorrow against the LA Kings could mean that the Flames could clinch the division in Vancouver on Tuesday. How good would that be? Really very good. But the way the Flames are playing right now I won't make any predictions; they missed three of their top 5 defencemen in a hideous 4-0 defeat in Minnesota on Friday. Once again it wasn't the stand in players to blame, but the complete no-show of the established stars. None more so than Miikka Kiprusoff who probably couldn't stop a beach ball on Friday. He looks shattered, having played 70+ games. Hopefully he gets rested tomorrow to keep him fresh for Tuesday...

Flames Watch

Calgary Flames 6 - 5 Detroit Red Wings (after shootout)

Holy wow, Batman! The end of this game is the most crazy five minutes of hockey I can remember seeing since being over here.

The Flames headed into game six of their seven game road trip trying to avoid their ninth consecutive defeat in Detroit. And for a good thirty minutes it looked like it would be. The shot-on-target count in the first period was a Flames franchise record 28-4 in Detroit's favour, largely due to a procession of Flames to the penalty box. Coinciding with (having seen the replay) a ridiculous major boarding penalty to Dion Phaneuf, the Flames then lost three other players to minor penalties. This resulted in a 4:45 5-on-3 which Detroit amazingly didn't score from, but did score on the 5-on-4 seconds later. Even so, the procession to the penalty box continued in the second period, and after nearly 40 minutes the Flames were down 4-1.

Detroit are the reigning Stanley Cup champions; it's like being 3-0 down to Man Utd after an hour. A little hope for the Flames came after fit-again Daymond Langkow tipped one in at the end of the period. But going into the last 4 minutes, chaos ensued. Jamie Lundmark, impressive since called up from the AHL, bundled one in. Then Olli Jokinen, who had a fine game, tipped one through Conklin's five-hole (between his legs). And then, something which seemed improbable three minutes before; Phaneuf did brilliantly to keep the puck inside the blue line, before Lundmark circled behind the net and flashed a backhand in off the underside of the bar. Crazy. There were still 80 seconds remaining, and with only 30 to go, from only Detroit's second shot of the period, Dan Cleary tipped in through Kiprusoff's five hole.

Cammalleri then hit the bar in overtime, before the dreaded shootout. Datsyuk and Cammalleri traded goals, Zetterberg and Iginla traded misses, Hudler missed before Olli Jokinen languidly sauntered up and lasered one into the top corner. Cue much cheering in these parts, and broken hearts in Vancouver. Just the way I like it.