On Sober Second Thought...

I'm still not a fan of the Jokinen/Lombardi trade. I'm not sure we get decent value out of the deal, besides the part where we obviously get to shut up concerned commentators who are worried we don't have a playmaking centre.

What really worries me about this deal is it tells me the status on Daymond Langkow's hand is, "we had to amputate and replace it with a cybernetic implant; we're trying to program him to not take over the world now." And that conclusion in itself is kind of depressing... there are few centremen in the league so underrated as Langkow.

Lombardi, in my eyes, was starting to hit his stride this year (of course, I've said this every year since the lockout). He's invaluable on special teams, was starting to not suck so much on playoffs, and well. We all know he's easy on the eyes. Prust is a "meh" type thing for me; it tells me the Phoenix brass are thinking long and hard about how to make sure all their hot little prospects stay safe on the ice.

I thought the Leopold move was a stroke of genius. You have to feel bad for Nycholat though; the Herald just this morning published a glowing puff-piece about how the local boy works hard and moves around a lot and finally comes home. Butnotsomuch.

My biggest concern with the moves today is that we traded younger steady players for older, more erratic and injury-prone ones. I'm not going to even thinking about the mutterings about Jokinen as a "locker-room cancer"... I do believe the leadership in the room (primarily Iggy and Regehr) is strong enough to keep the team together, but... sigh.

It is what it is, but it is not a cliché

What a crazy season this has been. We're at the half-way mark already? That can't be right. I'd like to apologize for the infrequent postings to this blog, but the real world cannot be PVRed and life goes on. But in the meantime, Kent, WI, and Matt have all been prolific and analytical and highly entertaining.

I'm not sure many people predicted that by the midpoint of the season, the Flames would be a "top six" team in the league. And if they did predict that, they probably changed their mind after the infamous events San Jose beat-down on November 13th. They've pulled it off, somehow. The team has simply looked consistently good since November 13th, and even our 3rd and 4th lines are looking good.

What is notable about this season is how little our "top three" guys are contributing to this. In most years, Iginla, Kiprusoff, and Phaneuf are all-stars and there's a dropoff from there. This year, all three are arguably underperforming: Kiprusoff is getting wins, but he's still not performing like an elite goaltender in my eyes. Iginla has been good, but he hasn't been exceptional. Phaneuf needs to work on his aim and still work on his defensive coverage -- I don't think "lazy" is the correct word but on many goals, I see "#3" skating well behind the player that scored. The Flames' success has come from the hands of the team as a whole, and it's a great thing. The work ethic, speed, and skills of Rene Bourque and Curtis Glencross have, in my view, inspired this whole team -- I believe they supply additional motivation to the rest of the team. It doesn't have to be the Jarome Iginla or Dion Phaneuf show each night, and these guys keep proving it. The effort and consistency from everyone on the team, and the continued underrated efforts of Daymond Langkow, are ensuring that this team is ferocious and firing on all cylinders each night. Even Todd Bertuzzi, oft lamented by my fellow bloggers, has been playing fairly well all season. I still stand by my assertion that he's not even close to being the "biggest disappointment" on our team this year, in fact he's overperforming if you take into account his salary in my estimation...things are looking good.

But now we've had a break. The Flames have been sitting idle since Thursday, and now we're facing off against St. Louis tonight. It'll be all too easy to underestimate St. Louis (especially since they've lost their one-man-army in Lee Stempniak), combined with potential overconfidence from their recent record and 5-2 wins and the challenge of getting back in the saddle after a long weekend, this may be a bigger challenge than is expected. In a lot of ways, I'm looking at tonight's game against lowly St Louis as a barometer for future near-term success. If the Flames can shake off the little bit of rust, play competitively, and put in a solid game tonight I think we'll be okay. It's about forming those good habits again.

We can't forget that Vancouver isn't too far back. With Loungo back and Sundin on the team, they will get better. I'm glad we've extended the lead as much as we have with Loungo out and Sundin playing like a Maple Leaf, but that can be short-lived. Vancouver's a one-man show, and that one man has returned.

Calgary Flames: Offensive Powerhouse

Iginla is on pace for 49 goals, 82 assists for 131 points.
Langkow is on pace for 66 goals, 49 assists for 115 points.
Tanguay is on pace for 16 goals, 74 assists for 90 points.
Huselius is on pace for 49 goals, 33 assists for 82 points.
Phaneuf is on pace for 25 goals, 49 assists for 74 points.
Aucoin is on pace for 8 goals, 41 assists for 49 points.

Now, I'm not saying they're going to keep this up. I sure hope they do. But how unreal is this? We're not so far removed from a time where all the talk was on getting Iginla a playmaking centre and we were winning 1-0 games and proud of it. Now we're scoring goals like it's going out of style, tied with Detroit with most goals scored in the Western Conference.

This does come at the expense of defensive excellence, as we've seen. Normally I'd be upset that Kiprusoff's stats are suffering like this, but the timing really could not be better. A statistically sub-par season will do wonders in bargaining for a lower wage for him, which means good things for the team and a better chance of keeping him and Phaneuf.

I'm not one that thinks you have to choose between strong defensive play and strong offensive play. I'm not seeing anything systemic with the Flames' system that is inherently poor defensively (with the exception of the 4-forward, 1-defense powerplay configuration we've seen on occasion), just lots of little brain lapses, puck hops, and some poor puck control defensively. I think that given the time for our defense to find its groove (and to be fair, half of them are new to this team), this team will become even more of a force to be reckoned with.

Looking at the shift chart for last night's game, the defensive pairings at even strength are as follows:
Sarich - Regehr
Phaneuf - Aucoin
Hale - Warrener

I've been slightly impressed with Hale as of late -- he's better than I expected, and certainly better than Eriksson has been. The biggest surprises for me this season has been the play of Aucoin and Sarich. I was less than thrilled to hear about either acquisition initially, but Aucoin and Sarich have both greatly exceeded my admittedly low expectations. The pieces are all here for a very solid defensive corps, they just need to work with eachother. Every single pairing is a new pairing, and it does take time to slip into that groove and work well together.

Our forwards in the last game were arranged in the following lines:
Tanguay - Conroy - Iginla
Huselius - Langkow - Nolan
Moss - Lombardi - Nilson
Smith - Yelle - Godard

Conroy was also initially as suspect choice for a top line centre for me. But distributing the scoring power across two lines is clearly working, and who am I to disagree? I also think Lombardi and Moss can work some magic together, though Nilson's more of a dud on that line (but decent defensively).

I'm also liking the grit the team seems to have compared to last year. Both the intangibles (like last night's come-back victory with five unanswered goals) and the tangibles (Flames are tied with the Ducks for most fights this season with 10). [Sidenote: The top 10 teams in terms of number of fights are all Western Conference teams. Real hockey!].

I can see big things for this team if and when they find their groove and start firing on all cylinders. The inconsistency (period 1 last night and the entire SJ game) is a bit upsetting, but not at all unexpected at this point in the season. As Leanne has pointed out, the passing is suddenly "crispy" as opposed to "crunchy" rather suddenly in the 2nd period last night. Maybe Keenan is getting through to the boys.

Clarification from Leanne: I actually didn't have an opportunity to watch last night's game, but the crisp passing is something I've observed in several games this season, already. This is something Keenan's specifically been working on in the team - recall all those statements about "muscle memory" early on. I rather like this - work on the simple things, like making clean passes, and suddenly the hard things aren't quite so hard.

I remember a time where we were short on centres

Yelle
Langkow
Conroy
Nolan
Lombardi
Primeau

Who is going? Who is staying? What are we getting?

Let's have some late-night fun with these questions:

Primeau: Seeing as he just signed a new contract, I'd reckon he's staying. (Projected: 4th line)
Nolan: Seeing as he just signed a new contract, I'd reckon he's staying. (Projected: 3rd line) [Edit: He's a RW, not traditionally a centre. My bad.]

That leaves us with two more starting centers to place, and four players: Conroy, Langkow, Lombardi, Yelle.

Lombardi: I have to believe he's staying, because I love him. The other part of me thinks he's probably going to be traded. Lombardi was never really a Sutter type of player...and he's certainly not a Keenan type of player. Plus after the Conroy acquisition he's sort of been the odd man out. [Edit: Seeing as Nolan's not really a centre, I say Lombardi stays.]

Yelle: I love the guy, but I think Primeau's liable to replace him, seeing as he's younger, potentially more durable. A lot of teams could use Yelle's PK expertise and leadership, so he may be moved. My prediction is he is going to be moved this summer.

Langkow: He's going to stay. (Projected: 1st line)
Conroy: He's going to stay. (Projected: 2nd line)

Now, I'm well aware Primeau is also listed as a LW...so potentially one of these guys can stay for 5 centres. But 6? There's no way. Expect a trade.