On Loyalty

The internets were all abuzz yesterday with the Mike Modano love-in in Dallas last night; I'd like to take the chance to talk about another Stars draft pick.

The media has been all abuzz with how to fix the Flames, after this disaster of a season. Instant hockey experts have popped up everywhere, and most of them advocate no less than tearing apart what we have left to salvage what trade value we can.

I'm not going to get into the numbers games, and name names and stuff like that. Just want to remind our readers of a few things.

It is no secret that we're big fans of Jarome Iginla here. Even though we've spent much of this season in radio silence, we've followed the ups and downs of #12 quite closely.

And this season has been notable. It may not presage a return to the dark old days of yore (i.e, my high school days), but certainly, those of us who can count on our fingers know that this team is not getting younger, better managed, or just plain better. Things will get worse before we return to our winning ways. And at the day, we'll still be watching. Patiently.

And the captain's inconsistency through the new year has been frustrating, especially given his play during the Olympics, and that beauty of a setup for Crosby's winning goal in the final.

Is he tired? Is he bored? Does he think Rene Bourque is prettier than he is? Is it time to put him out to pasture? Or trade him, perhaps to New Jersey for all the broken sticks Lou Lamoriello can find? (Hey, it worked SO WELL for Atlanta)

I'm going to argue it doesn't matter. Until Iginla, the Flames have never really had a player who could be That Guy. The one who from his first day to the day he hung up his skates stayed a Flame. The one who had all the records, had the C, who carried this team on his back, who stuck with the team through thick and thin. And make no mistakes, times will be thin.

We've lauded Iggy all these years as the complete package. What strikes me most about him, this week of all weeks, is that through everything, he's stayed loyal.

He could have been one of a half-dozen Young Guns who didn't quite pan out.
He could have been a rising star who jumped to a team with better chances to win it all.
He could have lit out for bigger cities and larger paycheques. He could have even done it in the name of promoting diversity in the game.
He could have been any one of a number of great (or good, or half-decent) players we've let slip through our grasp over the years: Roberts, Fleury, Savard, Bure, St. Louis, Drury, Huselius, Tanguay, Cammalleri, Phaneuf.

He isn't.

He's Iginla.

Let him stay. Let him play his days out here, if that is his heart's desire.

Surely, we owe him that much.

Oh. Hockey's back?

Yes, we really have been paying attention. Really. Really hard.

The folks over at Melt Your Face Off asked us about a week ago to chip in a season preview for the Flames in our usual inimitable style.

It's a bit on the short side, especially compared to some of the other previews, but I've been in a wait-and-see mode here. Haven't really passed judgement on anything that's happened in the last three months or so ago, and won't get around to it for a bit. So I looked at the exercise as an opportunity to sharpen my (quickly dwindling) wits for another season. And here goes...

Go enjoy.

The Open Ice Hits Olympcs: Fencing

Today's post is going to address the Sundins and Sakics of the world; those players who are fence-sitting with regards to the future of their careers.

These are gentlemen who've paid their dues. In the case of aging elite players such as Mats Sundin or Joe Sakic, they've more than earned the time to consider their future. Of course, they've also earned (to a certain extent) the intense interest in the outcome of their meditations.

I can't help but contrast the difference between the coverage Sundin has gotten with the somewhat scanty attention Sakic has received. To be sure, Sundin is the captain of a team in the centre of hockey's universe (so they'd like to believe), and had made it clear that he would consider another team. He's articulate, and much like our own captain, has often carried his team on his shoulders when no one else was wiilling to do it. Too, this is a man who is weighing how to best have a shot at the Cup he hasn't yet won against his desires to (I suppose) stay right where he is, and dunno, eat sushi.

Sakic, on the other hand, has very little left to prove. He has won the Cup multiple times, has enjoyed success in international play in whatever tournament he's chosen to participate in, has seen his franchise go from struggling in Quebec into the Western powerhouse of the late 90s. Most importantly, in a role and city befitting his quiet, nonflashy nature, he's risen to the pinnacle of hockey success quietly, without the dazzle of playing in a Canadian or in the big lights of the Eastern Seaboard.

Perhaps that's what's the most telling about the Sundin drama. Unlike other fence-sitters, like Sakic, Selanne or Niedermayer, there is definitely the sense of unfinished business.

That said... I think I'd rather be watching fencing now than worrying about where he's going.

The Open Ice Hits Olympics: Swimming

Ahhh....! You thought these were going to be in alphabetical order, or something, right? Nope, it's just whatever sport I think I can use to frame some broad generalizations about whatever's floating through my head...

Dave and I have had several discussions over the summer, about the Flames, and swimming, and the big sea of mediocrity which we are now cannonballing into (they don't do cannonballs during the Olympics? I knew something about them was bogus).

I don't think the Flames will be contenders this year. Not serious ones. We won't sink to the bottom of the conference or the division, but we won't be great either. Basically, we'll be in the same position that we've all been in denial about for oh, the last two seasons now. Good enough to make the playoffs; not quite good enough to go deep.

I look at the moves we've made over the summer, and for the most part, they've been intelligent, rational moves. They are not, however, moves that inspire any particular excitement. They're moves designed to keep us where we are; but not moves designed to move us forward.

But you might wonder, didn't we have the same kind of lineup when we did go deep? I have the sense that Sutter believes he has a template from that year, and that if only he can find all the right spare parts, we'll get that magic team again. But the guys he's spent the last four years building around aren't getting any younger - there's no guarantee that even if he can assemble the correct elements, that the core will still work the way he expects it to.

So I hope we have our new hi-tech uniforms on... I'm all ready to go swimming in the sea of mediocrity... who's with me?

Um.

Anyone?

The Open Ice Hits Olympics: Boxing

Today I'm taking a look at other places in the league, and generating musings of no importantance whatsoever.

Was anybody else bemused as I was to see all the ex-Flames land assistant coaching positions this summer? Especially Gilmour and Berube, on the same day... remember they changed teams in the same trade.

Doug Gilmour as assistant coach for the Marlies.
Tim Hunter as assistant coach for the Leafs.
Craig Berube as assistant coach for the Flyers.

How weird is it that Gilmour and Hunter both ended up in the Leafs organization in the same summer?

Now, million dollar question to me is, if the Leafs and the Flyers should get into an extreme on-ice dispute in the forthcoming season? Which assistant coach wins this?

Ah, well, at least if Cliff Fletcher wants to gull Riseborough again, he'll have to phone the Wild instead of us now.

The Open Ice Hits Olympics: Baseball

If you happen to be stuck on a gorgeous August weekend with nothing to do, don't forget to check out the Vipers game... perhaps you'll get to see their newest signing...



Am I taking this seriously? Well, neither should you. Still, if it manages to fill seats, well, more power to them.

I have a soft spot for Theo Fleury - he was my absolute favourite player in my formative years as a hockey fan. I'm glad he seems to have got his shit together, and has time to do publicity stunts like these.

The Open Ice Hits Olympics: Opening Ceremonies

While the Olympics are on, I'm going to attempt to get our posting chops back into game shape by posting something marginally related to what this blog is about and which is also thematically related to the games. Most days this won't be deep, and probably won't even make much sense, but that's....not really what we do anyways, right?

Unfortunately, I can't blow up nearly quite that amount of fireworks as the real Olympics can. But! I would be amiss without pointing out all the good work that is going on in the blogosphere.

MG and Cynical Joe have been putting us to absolute shame this summer. They're pumping out a ridiculous amount of analysis, and it's good stuff. Go check it out.
WI had a fantastic series on the prospect camp.
Duncan is alive again! And he's kicking off his resurrection with a look at the depth of other teams, I presume in the NW. Go enjoy!

Now, back to waiting for like, sports to start playing over in Beijing.

Looking backwards

Fresh from the Herald's website: because he was teh awesome last time.

Honestly, as conflicted as I am about the Bertuzzi pickup (numbers make sense, hockey-wise, it's questionable, emotionally, NO, NO, NO!), this seems so much worse. Like we're gunning for death by mediocrity.

My summary of the last couple of weeks?

Sigh.

Looking Forward

I'm not even going to go into the whole Bertuzzi mess. Summary: Hate the guy; indifferent to the player; like the contract. Moving on...

While the team is not finalized, we've got a good idea what it will look like. We're currently over the cap a bit, so someone's gotta get traded or end up being the wealthiest bastard playing for the Quad City Flames. I'm quietly hoping Warrener and Primeau both disappear from the lineup somehow. Nilson? That guy gets no respect. His contract's light and he's not a bad 4th line player. Plus the ladies love him.

Looking at next year's roster, as of today, I can't help but think this team hasn't gotten worse, or better. Just different. We're a grittier team now, but perhaps a slower one. I'm not even going to pretend to know if that's good or bad, it seems like when the Ducks won the cup every team needed to be gritty...and now every team needs to be skilled thanks to Detroit. I think a good team will win the cup, regardless of the specific strategy behind how it's built. Sometimes it is just that simple.

As far as I'm concerned, this is Sutter's last year to see if he can get the Flames past the first round. Sutter earned a few years of good will with the '04 performance, but it's been all downhill since then. Iginla's years are dwindling and I'd hate to see them wasted on missing the playoffs or first round exists except for that one year... Unless we make it past the first round, I'd hope for a GM change at the end of the season. But maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.

Let's think positive. We've got some fresh lines to concoct, so how should they be used? I've got all sorts of forward combinations in my head, but they basically boil down to the following possibilities, in order of my desirability:

Bertuzzi - Cammalleri - Iginla
Bourque - Langkow - Boyd
Glencross- Lombardi - Moss
Nystrom - Conroy - Prust

Cammalleri - Langkow - Iginla
Bertuzzi - Lombardi - Boyd
Bourque - Conroy - Moss
Nystrom - Prust - Glencross

Bertuzzi - Cammalleri - Iginla
Bourque - Langkow - Lombo
Boyd - Conroy - Glencross
Nystrom - Prust - Moss

The biggest problem is to figure out if Cammalleri and Bertuzzi are going to be top line guys -- or rather, if one or both are. The next problem, as I see it, is how to give Lombardi, Boyd, and Moss the proper opportunity with quality linemates to see if they can get the scoring going. I fear they languish too much in the grinding/energy line role and that's why they don't get the points to warrant a promotion.

Not even sure if it's worth going through the defensive pairings. Not yet, anyway.

"That's appetizer"

Well, one afternoon into the annual free-agent signing rush, and I am increasingly pleased the Flames have stayed out of it.

Sundin?
Rolston?
Brian Campbell?

Jeff Finger?
Mike Commodore?

Pure ridiculousness.

On the Calgary front, I'm not displeased to see Cujo and Godard go; that said, we do need a player not named "Iginla" or "Phaneuf" to fight fights next year. And while they haven't been out and out shooed out of town yet, can't disagree with what's happening with Warrener and Eriksson.

Nilson, on the other hand, that's a WHOLE 'nother matter.

On the whole Tanguay/Cammalleri draft day tangle, we've stayed fairly silent here; I'm still waiting to see what happens with the cap savings before I deliver a final verdict of any sort. It's unlikely the team this year will be as good as it was in previous recent years, but... I need to see how bad the damage is.

So what's next? Well... I guess we get to see what happens to Huselius etc etc. And, we could use something to shore up those first two lines.

Millions Loses the Handle

So, Millions is out as the play-by-play man on Sportsnet, and Peter Loubardias is in. I've no idea who this is, but it will be a tremendous improvement. Perhaps I'll actually watch the "local" feed on Centre Ice next season rather than the away feed. You know something's wrong with the play-by-play guy when I watch the Nashville feed instead, complete with their explanations about icing and why people are fighting.

What else is going on? Here are some drive-bys, De-troy-it style:

• Marc Crawford is out as well. Cry me a river, Marcy-marc, but I still hate your guts from Vancouver.
  
• The Leafs: Gongshow Edition. I'll never understand why MLSE has such a hard-on for Burke. He's a great GM, but he's not the only one. Hey, it says here he's also under contract for another year. Huh. Oh, I know, let's give Fletcher a whole year just so Burke can come join us then. Because he really wants to. Who wouldn't want to work as GM in one of the most critical cities with one of the most truly-fucked franchises in all of professional sports? Because we know how hard he has it in Anaheim, what with their meddling owners that let him do what he wants. His life would be so much better under the thumb of the Ontario teachers pension fund.
  
  Did you know that Ron Wilson once played a few games with Burke in prehistoric times? They're BFF now, apparently. So now that the Leafs have hired Ron Wilson, there's no way he can turn down coming to Toronto once his contract expires next year. I CAN'T WAIT (for Burke to shut them down). I'm so sick of the BURKE BURKE BURKE coverage in Toronto here.
  
• The Sharks' new coach is Todd McLellan. I don't know much about him, but his resume as assistant coach in Detroit plus his junior experience is quite impressive. I'll be keeping my eyes on him. I'm surprised the Sharks didn't try to lure Burke for the coaching job.
  
• Linden retires. M-e-h.
  
• I want some bigass trades. Not necessarily on the Flames (but maybe), but I need me some juicy hockey news. I so don't care about Toronto or San Jose.
  
• What's the over-under on Nickelback doing next year's HNIC theme? I need to make sure my MUTE button is in working order before the new season.

New Uniforms

Entering a code in NHL 08 unveils what appears to be new uniforms for all the teams, including those who have yet to unveil them.

Let's start with Edmonton's ugly threads. The orange striping looks mildly awkward, and I'm sure the fact that player numbers are to be appearing on the biceps will not help.

Next up is San Jose.

St Louis:

And Phoenix's jersey somehow became slightly less ugly:

Source: Calgary Puck.

Meh

Sooooo... the new jerseys have been released. Not too different from the old ones - I could have hoped for black ties on the road jerseys which I think would have improved the look, but that's nothing a quick stop at the dollar store couldn't fix.

Thank goodness the flags are supposed to only be there for a year. For now. Let's hope it stays that way.

Not much else going...training camp is around the corner, and then the real fun begins. Perhaps I'll take advantage of my new life as a starving student to check out the various stages of camp. I'll have to see...

The World's Highest-Paid Opportunistic Forward Who Doesn't Play Defense

Our friends in the frigid tundra known as Edmonton now have them selves a shiny new toy: Dustin Penner. At the cost of $4.3M a year for five years. And a first round draft pick this year. And a second round draft pick this year. And a third round draft pick this year.

There really is no point in discussing the stupidity of such a deal. Here's the Coles Notes Version:

• This guy is unproven. He played with super-talented linemates on a stacked team. He's undrafted with one decent year (what is it, about 0.5 points per game?).
  
• How the hell do you become a minus player on the Ducks last season? That takes talent. I haven't exactly studied Penner, admittedly, but I'm not convinced he's a very solid defensive player at all. And, as I've pointed out earlier, the Oilers are severely lacking on solid defensemen in general with nary a plus-rated d-man in the entire group.
  
• Edmonton is essentially in a re-building mode. I don't think there's anyone expecting Edmonton to make a run for the cup next year, yet they've given up an enormous amount of draft picks

So who will he play with? From what I've been hearing, it's Hemsky. This is starting to look a seriously defensively-deficient team, and one hell of a porous top line. I'm really giddy right now, I'm terribly excited about the prospect of playing such a top line eight times next year. In their defense, a dangler like Hemsky may just work well with a "goal scorer" like Penner (note: 29 goals isn't really that much, in terms of being a top line scoring threat). But I'm still not convinced, at all, that this will materialize into anything substantial. I think the massive defensive liabilities of that top line will certainly keep their +/- deep in the red, even if they can pot a few goals.

And really, folks, I don't care if Hemsky gets 60 assists and Penner gets 60 goals if they are responsible for 120 goals against.

Dear 2007-08 Oilers,

Not to steal Dave or MG or Duncan's thunder, but are you guys really serious? All those draft picks and the big pile of cash for Dustin Penner? After all the other crazy attempted signings and things?

I'm sure the hugs and kisses from Brian Burke over your latest will make it all better.

Best. Summer. Ever.

Love,

Not (really) a hater.

PS. Dave may never take another vacation in the summer, the way this week has gone.

Dear 2006-07 Flames,

Are you spending your summer being the 2007 Stampeders?

Dammit.

With lots of sighs and fretting,

Leanne.

The Dog Days of Summer

Ick, it's that part of summer which makes it feel like hockey will never come back.

So here's a couple of items which have caught my attention lately:

• WI's posts about the prospects camp.
• A couple of re-signings, here and there. Are you celebrating, WI? Are you???
• Chris Clark's contract renewal. One of the ex-Flames out there who I find it impossible to hate on. Good on him for his awesome Ovechkin-juiced year.
• Andrew Ference's summer vacation: Another ex-Flame I find impossible to hate. Less for his on-ice play, but more and more for the man he is off the ice.

(Don't any current members of the Flames roster do anything interesting?)

I don't really have anything deep to say - at this point the offseason seems a long, long ways off.

Oh. Keep an eye on Duncan's fantastic series about the competition. Some good stuff there.

The World's Highest-Paid Defenseman Who Doesn't Play Defense

has been signed by the Oilers. 27 mil over 5 years. Edmonton is a defensive powerhouse now, with defensive stalwarts such as: Souray (-28 last year), Tarnstrom (-15), Pitkanen (-25), Smid (-16), Greene (-22), and Staois (-5). Not a single + defenseman on their entire defensive corps from last year, even though half of them are imports from another team.

Shall we place bets on Edmonton's GAA next year? I'm willing to bet it's in the 4.x range.

Bye-bye Stuart | Hello Incompetent Whiners

Dear Brad Stuart,

Goodbye. It's as if I hardly knew you at all.

Sincerely,
Dave

---

So, how 'bout that Lowe? What is it about Edmonton that players simply want no part of? Is it the weather? Is it the media? Is it the fans? Is it the coach? Is it the GM? Maybe it's all of the above.

The GM is making a case for being a top reason for staying away these days. Kevin Lowe and his brainiac counterparts in the Oilers organization seem to think that even with the contract left unsigned, it is binding. Nylander got a better offer (read: a city other than Edmonton) before he signed the real Edmonton contract, so he signed elsewhere (read: "I'd rather play in the US city with the highest crime rate and a bottom-feeding team than play in Edmonton").

Now the Oilers are throwing a very public tantrum. "But you said I could have him! No fair!! I'm telling Bettman!"

But hey, who needs Nylander when you signed Raffi Torres to a 3-year contract?

Glory be to the Oilers.

...Now featuring one less centre...

No more Byron Ritchie.

Not much to say...he impressed at times last year, far exceeding the expectations you'd have for a third liner, but is he a key guy?

Really?

Whatevers.

Dave, didn't you ask me last night whether Dave Nonis had a vacation scheduled for the first week of July? I think you have your answer.