Sunday, March 18, 2007

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt

I have to admit, I've been trying to stay away from the Flames this weekend. No reading the papers online, barely touched all the goodness that is the hockey blogosphere. I did listen to part of the game before it was time to hit the bar for St. Paddy's, but sigh, I heard enough.

Part of it was the exhaustion that resulted from doing the liveblog the other night. It was a lot of fun, I was flattered that so many of you stopped by and camped out, and I totally want to do it again. But it was more tiring than I might have thought it might be. Worth it though!

The other bit is (as everybody I'm sure is doing) trying to decide whether I want to look hard at the Flames right now. The way the last couple of weeks have been, I wonder whether they're so brittle that looking at them the wrong way might just break them into little pieces.

It doesn't look good, does it? The abysmal road record wasn't much more than a curiosity going into this month. Now it's a glaring weakness. The idle speculation we had about Playfair and how he might feel about his job security has turned into a fairly common rant amongst Flames fans and the mainstream media. We've dropped two games against divisional opponents over the last couple of days, and Colorado is within striking distance as of tonight, a mere four points away.

And it gets worse. The remnants of our last real homestand before the playoffs consist of games with Nashville and Detroit. The remnants of our season consist of a road-heavy schedule against teams we won't eat for breakfast (or midnight snacks).

I don't know where we're going. I'm not ready to do a post-mortem on the season (and post-season) that was, but at the same time, I have to acknowledge that it doesn't look good, eternal optimist though I am. I don't see Sutter deciding to walk into the dressing room tomorrow and taking over - I am convinced at this point that barring, say, a Stanley Cup win, Playfair will have a different job next year, with the Flames organization, or outside of it.

I will say this much more. If the guys can pull through this and fight to keep that playoff spot, I will be much more confident about their chances making it through more than one round of the playoffs. They will have managed to prove that they can pull together through adversity, through challenges, through a whole lot of shit that's getting thrown at them.

Will it happen? I dunno...

3 comments:

  1. The other bit is (as everybody I'm sure is doing) trying to decide whether I want to look hard at the Flames right now.

    I understand exactly what you mean - I'm trying to decide when my optimism from earlier in the season up and left (I think it was around the All-Star break actually and then when Andy and Shazam left).

    I don't know where we're going. I'm not ready to do a post-mortem on the season (and post-season) that was, but at the same time, I have to acknowledge that it doesn't look good, eternal optimist though I am.

    This crossed my mind the other night as well as I wondered if doing an early farewell to the season would have a positive or negative effect on my expectations (or continued lack thereof) for the post-season.

    Will it happen? I dunno...

    Me either, sista, me either...

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  2. I was perhaps overconfident last season, so I think my early acceptance of defeat this year has more to do with me subconsciously preparing myself for the perceived inevitability than anything else. Also, I'm sure it's because Playfair sucks.

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  3. Things sure are getting ugly. Literally 3 weeks ago I still considered the Division title up for grabs. Now I'd be half surprised if we made into the post-season at all.

    Talk about a fall from grace.

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