It's Finally Happened

After the Flames traded away Alex Tanguay a week ago, a lot of great hockey analysts around these parts have made some great points.

1. Mike Cammalleri is not a replacement for Alex Tanguay.
2. The Flames no longer have a second line
3. This move was made a necessity due to a long line of bad deals

I agree with all these arguments. Firstly, I'd like to admit that I personally advocated for a Tanguay trade after the playoffs. I think MG made a very good point at the time though, that deal away Tanguay and the Flames probably don't even make the playoffs, that without his presence the already paper thin depth of the Flames gets that much thinner, and he was (is) obviously correct.

Look at the mock lineup Matt has put together. Now that is ugly. Matt, I think, is overly optimistic.

Actually, 4th line aside, I don't mind this lineup. Iginla w/ Cammy and DL is a solid #1 line and PP unit; Lombo between RF and Moss should be able to keep the puck going in the right direction as much as the wrong one, and maybe pot a few goals; I definitely prefer Boyd as a centre, and with Gelinas and Nilson on the wings I think that's pretty workable as an ongoing proposition.

I'm happy with the D; my present mindset is that The Warrener is still serviceable as a 3rd-pair guy. Naturally, I'd love it if Pardy or Negrin or Pelech or somebody stepped up in training camp and bumped Eriksson even further down the depth chart.

The first line, as always, is respectable. The second line? Well, I like Lombardi, and Fedotenko provides all Flames fans with some painful memories. But as much I love Moss, he is not a second liner. Neither is Gelinas, or Boyd, or etc. There are no other 2nd liners on that team (theoretical as it is).

The defence starts out not bad. Regehr, Phaneuf, even Sarich. But watching Aucoin last year he is no longer a top 4 guy. He's too slow and his decision making has gotten pretty bad. He played 5th highest QOC for Flames defenceman (Phaneuf, Regehr, Eriksson, Sarich were ahead) and did ok, (+/-ON/60 0.94, CORSI 1.4) but I wouldn't be willing to give him much, if any more responsibility. Plus, Eriksson and Warrener are still there.

Darryl Sutter might want to take a cue from one of the most incompetent franchises in sports history. The Toronto Maple Leafs have taken time during the past week and a half to start buying out dead weight. Wellwood - gone. Tucker - gone. Raycroft - gone.

Calgary has a lot of deadwood, and if there's any chance of this team competing this year in any regard, they need to get rid of it.

Darryl Sutter, if you can hear me, buy out these contracts:
Anders Eriksson - $1.5 million
Rhett Warrener - $2.35 million
Wayne Primeau - $1.4 million
Adrian Aucoin - $4.0 million

This will give you room to put together a legitimate lineup.

If the Flames don't buy out at least 2 of these contracts it will be proof that it's finally happened. The Flames are more incompetent than the Leafs.

Calgary Flames: What Can We Expect?

I'm just sitting here watching Hockey Day in Canada and after the events of the past week or so I think the rest of the season is coming into focus for both Calgary and Edmonton, although tonight I will focus exclusively on Calgary.

Of note before I get into it is a conversation I had with a Flames compatriot at the Saddledome regarding Owen Nolan. After being a replacement Tony Amonte for much of the early season (as well as being injury prone), Nolan should be looked at as a pretty successful FA signing if he hits certain criteria. He's got 14G and I think 20G would be a respectable, he's on a pretty close pace. His ES quality of competition is ranked as 6th on the team (I'm going to ignore Ramholt), his CORSI is a +5.0 and he's got a On Ice/Off Ice/60 rating of 0.07, which although paltry compared to Iginla's +2.32, is at least on the positive end of zero. I think we can all agree that although Nolan might not be a captain on the ship, he's certainly not an anchor.

Ok, now onto what we can expect for the final quarter of the season:

A Trade:
MG at Five Hole Fanatics has done a lot of blogging about the Tanguay trade rumors, siding on the 'don't trade Tanguay' and the 'Tanguay is worth more than Huselius' side of the debate. So will Tanguay be traded? I think it was Duncan at Flames Blog who said that more than likely the trade that Sutter will make will be completely unexpected in terms of his target and who he trades. I'll agree. I think though that we can make a couple of statements with an near absolute certainty, and then I'll make a couple of completely speculative comments as well.

Firstly, I think I can safely predict neither Iginla, nor Regehr, nor Kiprussoff, nor Phaneuf will be traded. Secondly, the Flames will not acquire Petr Forsberg.

Now for the speculation: I agree with MG when he says that the Flames biggest problem is not the forward group, its the defence. There are two bonafied defenceman, a couple of guys who are not bad, and then some who are simply too injured or too terrible to be consistently counted upon. Would the Flames have the same record they do today if Giordano and Ference were in the lineup for Ericksson and Warrener or Hale? I know who I'd rather have, given the choice.

So we can speculate about Mats Sundin but for my money I'd rather have Sutter go after a solid defenceman to compliment the group.

Inconsistency:
I like watching Dr. Phil because I think it probably provides the most laughs per minute of any other scripted comedy show, but I think he's right when he says the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour. Last year about this time the Flames went on a surge, and then they played terribly through March and then limped into the postseason and got worked by Detroit. This year had a terrible October and November, followed by an outstanding December and pretty good January, now a mediocre February. Can anyone tell me a reason not to expect inconsistency? We've already had the monthly 'Sutter visits the dressing room' event, and we'll probably see a few more.

The Dion Effect:
If there's one singular area where Darryl Sutter has excelled it's that he has very aptly identified the core of his team and rewarded them in terms of dollars. While Calgary's salary is extremely top heavy, it's at least going to the right guys. (Sutter's job identifying value in his perimeter players is less commendable). Now it's time for those core guys to step up. Besides Iginla, I don't think we've seen the other core guys' best this year. I think Regehr can play better, Phaneuf has truly stepped up his game in the past couple of weeks, and it's obvious Miikka Kiprusoff can play better. Alex Tanguay should be in that group too, and despite my concerns about him I know he can put a few more pucks in the net. There's no more money to spend this year, at this point the guys earning the big bucks have to prove they're worth it. It's not just about leadership now, it's about results.

The Goal:
There's been some talk of the goal as being finishing 1st in the conference, but make no mistake about it, the Flames have one single goal in the regular season: DO NOT FINISH 8th. Playing Detroit does not look like it's any better of a matchup this year than it was last year, and I am sure it doesn't matter if the Flames finish 2nd or 7th, the matchups will all probably be pretty even. Obviously the Stanley Cup is the ultimate goal, but after two consecutive first round losses, I think we can qualify this season as a success by winning a playoff round.

Luck or Perseverance

The Flames played yet another game I was unable to watch last night, which perhaps makes me unqualified to comment on it, but I will anyway because I'm accountable to no one. And besides, I've admitted it so technically I'm not doing anything wrong.

I was...disheartened, to say the least, when I found out the Flames were down 0-3 last night. It made me wonder; Did we look good on Saturday because the team is coming together, or because the Flames played the Oilers who to no ones suprise are completely hapless. I thought I had my answer when the Minnesota Wild, the misers of the hockey world (both in GF and GA) had an early 3 goal lead.

And Kipper was booed to boot.

But Iginla and Co. (officially Tanguay and Langkow on this night) took over. That's the thing about this group, the part of this team that has kept the Flames-blog-o-sphere so interested and given us our (so far) false hope. This team, regardless of it's weak coaching and poor defensive group (at least the bottom half) have so much fire power that it has the potential to win any game.

The fact that Minnesota hadn't lost in regulation yet this year (or lost ever when leading by 3 goals according to MG). The Wild had the Flames in perfect position, this should have been a walkover.

Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not sold. The Flames teased us all last year with this sort of play - greatness one day, embaressment the next. And hell, even though the Flames were the first team to beat the Wild after trailing by 3, my position on streaks is that they're all due to be broken eventually. A team has won 31 in a row, it just seems more likely they'll lose that 32nd game. And even though Kipper wasn't stellar, it helped that Niklas Backstrom was probably worse.

But I'll say this about the team - they're keeping me intrigued.

Alex Tanguay - "Tangs"

One of the few Flames to have already won a Stanley Cup. Tanguay is ultra talented but sometimes a bit inconsistent, and I personally feel he sometimes spends a lot of time and energy skating around and not accomplishing a whole lot. Can make opposing defenders look downright stupid. Has been at or abover 1PPG his last three NHL seasons.

Tanguay/Yelle/Amonte/Playfair

Pavel Datsyuk puts in his second in as many games, just 1:02 into the 1st

Tanguay: about 1 minute into the game the puck comes to Tanguay on the boards. He mishandles it in his skates, Datsyuk steals it and scores. (01:02 in 1st) Detroit 1, Calgary 0

Yelle: Flames are down 3-5 and Kiprusoff makes one of his48 saves. Yelle gets the puck in the slot and has time to get it out. Insteading of putting it to the boards, or shooting it hard out, he fans the puck straight to Schneider, who passes it to Lidstrom. (PPG, 03:50 in 1st) Detroit 2, Calgary 0



Amonte: Calgary has miraculously put themselves within 1. Kristian Huselius gives Tony Amonte a beauty cross ice pass, and Tony has a wide open net. Tony fans on the pass reception/shot, the puck goes back to the blue line. David Hale makes an ill advised pinch and it becomes a 2-1. Huselius tries to catch up but is clearly gassed on the play. David Hale plays spectator and Huselius' man fires in the goal. (06:05 in 3rd)



Playfair: Mike Babcock is exposing Playfair's embarresingly bad system with a simple puck possession one. Wings get 51 shots on net, many quality. Calgary ties a team record for shots for futility, pointing only 15 at Hasek. (The only good news is that of the 5 games Calgary put only 15 shots on net, 1 was against Montreal in 1986, and one was against Vancouver in 1989.)



That's all you need to know for the game story. Oh ya, and Regehr looks doubtful for game 3.

The Blame Game

Sure, its easy to sit back and criticize after the fact. Thats exactly why I'm going to do it!

Forwards:

Alex Tanguay - totally invisible. Although several times I could've sworn you were playing with

Tony Amonte - Hmm...-2, good one Grandpamonte. Honestly, this guy HAS to have pictures...

Jeff Friesen - Just because

Daymond Langkow - not your finest game

Defence: Everybody, but in particular:

Roman Hamrlik - beauty game there. What, like 7 penalties and 1000 giveaways? Nice job.

Brad Stuart - Way to fire the puck out on the PK. Out of the field of play that is. Nice job 1-1 against Tootoo as well. I think you may be the best 1-1 defender in the NHL!

Dion Phaneuf - Wasn't the best time to pinch there buddy.

Andrei Zyuzin - lets say this, the high point of your game was when I thought you might be too hurt to continue.

Mark Giordano - I would say your biggest mistake of the game was the suicide pass to Amonte. Why couldn't you have placed it a bit more out of his reach so he REALLY got hammered?

Robyn Regehr - sadly, you were probably our best tonight, but can we cut down the number of breakaways against while you're on the ice to two a game or so?

Goalie: None. Kipper played average but wasn't the difference.

Good players:

Jarome Iginla - accounted for 2/3 of our offense.

David Moss - nice screen on the other 1/3 of our offense

Craig Conroy - Close but no cigar. Still, I thought your game was on.

Stephane Yelle - you won the important defensive zone draw at the end of the second, too bad you won it back to Harmlik.

Kristian Huselius - one of the few + players, set up Jarome for a goal

That's about it.

Does anyone notice that one list is shorter than the other? Oh, that reminds me, how do you think the golf courses are going to look in April?

Big Skates to Fill...

With Jarome Iginla out at least a week (lets face it, probably 3-4 weeks), the Flames will need multiple players to step out of the shadows of mediocrity and come to play every night. Byron Ritchie proved the other night that he is more than capable of filling and surpassing the role the disappointing Chuck Kobasew plays. Alex Tanguay had a 3 point night playing with Lombardi and Kobasew, but if Tanguay believes that takes him off the hook, he is dreadfully mistaken. Since Tanguay's dissapointing start to the season he has been criticized in the media for being nothing more than a supplemental scorer, first behind Sakic, and now Iginla. If there was any chance for Tanguay to prove he can handle the load, this is it.

Kristian Huselius is another man with a question mark after his name. As I've stated numerous times on this blog, I love how he plays, he's a very important member of this team; but can Juice make the most of tough first line minutes, or is his success due almost fully to the presence of Jarome Iginla taking heat from other team's top defenceman?

Will the hurt Daymond Langkow become invisible once his best friend in the whole world isn't around, or will he be able to prove that his impressive stats and sublime gameplay aren't just a biproduct of having Jarome Iginla as his wingman.

The hapless pair of Jeff Friesen and Tony Amonte will not be expected to step up, only because they've been so bad everybody has forgotten they used to be somewhat useful hockey players. Jeff Friesen called his last season in Anaheim 'an embarressement,' so one can only imagine the personal shame he's feeling now. Perhaps that shame is overcome by his hefty $1.6 million paycheque though, as Friesen continues to show very little heart or visible desire to be a help to this team.

Tony Amonte on the other hand, is nothing but hardwork, unfortunately it appears he no longer has the skillset neccessary to score goals. On last Thursday's game versus the Panthers, Amonte was given multiple chances to make a positive impact on the game. He received set up after set up but couldn't convert, although he did manage an assist on a pretty set up play by Warrener.

In my opinion, this is the list of people needed to step up if the Flames are to have success without their captain. Whether the Flames crash and burn like the Oilers without Ryan Smyth, or succeed like the Maple Leafs without Mats Sundin, is a question that will be answered very quickly.