Craig Conroy

07-08 Projection:

Left the team after FA negotiations with Darryl Sutter fell apart in the summer of ’04, but seems ecstatic to be back. Was inconsistent in his return with the Flames in the spring, occasionally taking bad penalties. Either he has good chemistry with Iginla, or Iginla is so good he makes it look like he has chemistry with Conroy. Can be physical, but isn’t, or at least isn't often enough. Most talkative Flame.

07-08 Evaluation:
As much as I enjoy Craig Conroy, there is little to suggest he isn't on a relatively steep career decline in terms of ability. While the mind seems willing the flesh seems weak. Kent has made it a mission to articulate Conroy's offensive deficiencies and while I don't completely agree with Kent (I believe there are worse options on the Flames as well as better) he does have a very valid point. Conroy should not be on the first line.


While Conroy's behindthenet.ca column here actually looks pretty respectable I think there are a couple of things we need to remember:

Firstly, he was playing with topnotch teammates. Funny enough, Langkow is rated as having better teammates than Conroy which would imply that Langkow was bringing down the line, not Conroy - hey, I guess desjardin's system isn't perfect. The most important teammate anyone on the Flames can have though is Iginla, and Conroy often played with Iginla, and there is no doubt Iginla was hoisting Conroy's numbers up. Other things to note; Iginla always played against the top competition, therefore, Conroy played the top competition.

It is curious of course that Conroy had the top 2nd assists on the team. 2nd assists are a bit of an anomaly because there are so many different ways we can conceive of them happening - while first assists would tend mostly to be a direct intention of a scoring play, a 2nd assist could be as simple as a breakout pass or a dump in. Why does Conroy have the best on the team?

One theory is that it's just pure fluke - someone has to have the most second assists and Conroy just happens to be that person. I think the mostly likely explanation though is that his linemates (Iginla and either Tanguay or Huselius) happen to finish a lot of plays, and judging from the number of 1st assists Conroy has, they finish a lot of plays that he's not directly involved in, at least not puck wise. Anyone disagree?

I've been ragging on Conroy a bit and I really should add that he does still have some value. He reads the play well defensively and is used to playing pretty decent competition. There shouldn't be any reason why he can't be a very competent shutdown guy for the Flames, something the Flames haven't really had for a while.

Projection: 4th line
Key Stat: 1st overall quality of competition

Calgary Flames - The Missing Piece?

MG has rightly spent a good part of this Flames season complaining about 3 key problems:

1. A top heavy forward lineup
2. An ugly group of overpaid veterans taking up spots on the bottom 6 from equally capable but cheaper youngsters
3. Craig Conroy's presence on the first line

Problem number one showed a slight sign of release about 2 weeks ago for the second edition of the Battle of Alberta. Owen Nolan, spurred on by linemates Matthew Lombardi and Eric Nystrom, scored a goal and also an assist. Lombardi had a goal and an assist. Nystrom had two assists.

From my vantage point the third line has been significantly less useless since this game. They haven't always been chipping in, but it seems like their assignments have gotten bigger and they've been getting scored on less. I wondered if this had something do with Eric Nystrom's callup, and if maybe his presence had given the third line that extra bit they needed. If in fact Nystrom was making a contribution to the team's success, it could affect the severity of problem 2. First of all, I'd like to mention my argument presupposes a number of things, one of them being that Nystrom generally plays on a line with Nolan and Lombardi. Sometimes that may not be true but basically looking up his timeonice numbers would have complicated the subject more than I believed it needed to be.

Anyway, here is a selection of his behindthenet.ca numbers:

Firstly, Nystrom is playing a pretty high level of competition 5-5. Desjardins has him playing a QOC of 0.04, good enough to be tied for 4th on the team with Robyn Regehr and Cory Sarich. To put it in perspective, Phaneuf is playing 0.03 and Aucoin 0.02. In other words, it seems like Nystrom is playing the second toughest competition in Calgary's lineup, with Conroy, Iginla and Tanguay playing the toughest.

Next, his GFON/60 is 2.02 while his GAON/60 1.61, which tells us that over a course of 60 minutes, the Flames tend to outscore the opposition when Nystrom is on the ice. While we find the Flames score more goals when Nystrom is off the ice (GFOFF/60 2.15), they also let the opposition score a lot more, his GAOFF/60 being 2.27. Not bad for a guy playing quality competition.

I wish I could have tracked the Desjardins numbers for Nystrom's linemates before and after he started playing, but I can keep track of their points. Before that game against the Oilers, Nolan had 1G and 3A with a -1. Since that game, Nolan has 3G, 1A and is a +2. Lombardi had 5G, 6A and was a plus 5. Since then Lombardi has gotten 2G, 3A and is a plus 4. Nystrom, for his part, has 0G and 3A +3 since that game. His totals are 1G 3A +/-0.

I guess looking at the raw numbers, the results are a little uneven. Lombardi's totals seemed to have slowed over this period, Nolan's have stayed steady, while we're working of a really small sample for Nystrom. The true positive is that all three have been positives for the team over the last 6 games, despite the Flames only going .500. While the team as a whole has been all over the map, this line has been pretty consistent.

Of course, I'm not really taking into account special teams performance, but I think if you can get your third line playing strong 5-5 hockey, that's at least a start. So I think the Flames can officially say they've made strides in correcting a couple of the problems that MG has been harping on for a while.

I believe the third problem MG has identified is slightly more complicated than the first. Firstly, I agree wholeheartedly that Conroy is not a first line hockey player. He's lost any finish he ever had, he's not playing physically, and all in all he's just not doing a lot of good out there. MG has suggested Matthew Lombardi take his spot on the first line, and Conroy replace Lombardi on the third. Firstly, we have to ask a couple of questions as to the effect this would have.

Would the first line become better?
It's undoubtedly true that the first line would be a better group with Conroy gone. However, even though Matthew Lombardi is eating up the competition, I feel his numbers are inflated because the level of competition he's been playing has been pretty low. Lombardi's QOC is -0.05, while Conroy's has been +0.09.

Would the third line become better?
Unlikely. While Matthew Lombardi is eating up his competition and using his speed and finish to put the puck in the net, Conroy has none of the above. Although his counting numbers have been terrible, his line as at least been keeping afloat. Put him with Nolan and Nystrom and the third line is unlikely to be very useful at anything. However, there is always the chance that lesser quality of linemates could be counterbalanced by the lesser competition and Conroy brings the 'A' game.

Will the better first line make up for the worse third line?
I think this is the most important question - will the increased GF/GA of the newly minted first line make up for the worse GF/GA of the third line? I don't know. I believe MG will tell you he believes the team will be better as a whole with this change. I'm not convinced - no matter how you rearrange a puzzle it's not going to be complete unless you have the right pieces - shuffling around the wrong pieces doesn't help.

I will say I'm up for the experiment though simply because I don't think there's much of anything to lose.

Craig Conroy - "Craigers/Conny"

Left the team after FA negotiations with Darryl Sutter fell apart in the summer of ’04, but seems ecstatic to be back. Was inconsistent in his return with the Flames in the spring, occasionally taking bad penalties. Either he has good chemistry with Iginla, or Iginla is so good he makes it look like he has chemistry with Conroy. Can be physical, but isn’t, or at least not often enough. Most talkative Flame.

Conroy on the Flames Road Woes:

Q: The Flames have the league's best home record, but no team in the NHL has won fewer road games. How do you explain the difference in play for this team?

A: It's unbelievable. I wish I could explain it, but there's really nothing to put your finger on. I think part of the problem is it has snowballed. Now, we put so much pressure on winning on the road, it just consumes us all day. That's all we talk about, and then, when we get out there, we play tight. We need to relax, but guys are scared to make a mistake. We just need to relax and play and let things happen. (Source)

Actually the whole article is really good, and I would highly recommend reading it.

Re-united and it feels so good!

Despite early predictions Conroy would play a 3rd line support role in Calgary, it appears his performance last game will vault him back into the coveted Iginla centreman role. TSN's Ice Chips and the Calgary Herald have reported the first lines in practice was:

Tanguay-Conroy-Iginla
Huselius-Langkow-Moss
Amonte - Lombardi - Nilson
Friesen - Yelle - Ritchie

As most coaches like to pair offensive players, Iginla/Conroy and Huselius/Langkow are not huge suprises, but I would say the inclusion of Moss is interesting if not totally suprising. Through various posts on here and through my comments on various other Flames blogs I have made my feelings about Moss be known - that is, he's shown to be a very impressive fill in for Chuck Kobasew. In fact, I would say he's been more effective than Kobasew, as he is finding ways to put the puck in the net on a consistent basis. Moss isn't a fancy player, but he's always willing to throw the puck on net, and he himself isn't at all afraid to plant himself in front and cause havoc.

This could be looked at as a positive or a negative for Matthew Lombardi. As has been noted by MG, Lombardi has simply not been as consistent lately. This third line 'demotion' though, is both a symptom of Lombardi's play, and also of Conroy's 'resurgence.' Having his ice time reduced is going to be disappointing for the young centre, however I think this is a good opportunity for Lombardi to simplify his game and get back to doing the simple things right, and at the top of that list: distributing the puck. In my opinion Lombardi has been relying TOO heavily on his speed and puck carrying ability, and he's had his head down when it should be up. It will be interesting to see if Lombardi's PK time increases (with his reduced even strength time) and Conroy's PK time decreases (with increased even strength time).

For other Flames news:
MG - talks about the growth of the Flames blogosphere and his usual awesome pre-game
HG - talks about her betrayal of Double Dion with Slick Rick and the Flames Sideburn Contest

Welcome to a couple new blogs (as mentioned by MG), Sean at Sea of Red - Flames/Columbus pre gameSteal Thunder at Completely Hammered - Flames/Columbus pre game

Time to update the sidewall I guess...

Welcome Back Craigers!

2 goals, team high 4 shots, 19:21 TOI, and +2. Seems like you CAN come home again...

You can never come home again...?

Wow. I mean, we all heard the rumours about Conroy coming back to Calgary (they've been around for a solid year or so) but as with every rumour, I just tended to ignore them. I heard an interesting take on the idea of Conroy coming back last time the rumours surfaced (beginning of the season or so I think), and it came from none other than ex-Flames GM Craig Button, the man who aquired Conroy in the first place (in exchange for a still underrated Cory Stillman). I'm paraphrasing here, but he essentially said bringing Conroy back would be a mistake because players never come back the way you remember them. Conroy played a huge role on this team, and because of the 03-04 playoff run, we all remember him with a rosy glow. Conroy will be under intense and perhaps unfair scrutiny to help this team to a similar (read: better) performance again this year, especially considering this time he was shipped into a generally adept team, rather than the rebuilding years mess he was jetisoned into last time around.

There is another peculiar thing thats bothering me about this aquisition. It's not that we had to give up Lundmark and a couple of picks, Jamie just wasn't working out (as I aluded to in my Mid Term Report). Its that when Conroy's contract with the Flames expired, he (as I understand) was basically told that he was not worth the amount of pay he wanted. In the end he saw sunnier skies in L.A., got the big contract, and proceeded to have 1.5 mediocre seasons. Losing Iginla as a linemate probably didn't help Craiger's cause, but we are essentially resigning him for more money than we initially believed he was worth and giving up several draft picks to do it. And, at least statistically, he's a worse player than the one we wern't willing to resign.

If this sounds strange to you, it's because it is strange, or it's at least a poorly executed strategy.

Is Calgary a better team than we were yesterday because of this trade? Absolutely we are. But is paying $3 million for a guy who we plan on slotting in on the third line a smart long term plan, keeping in mind salary cap constraints? You tell me.

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