Carty

I'll just pass along something that is an example of what a great guy FF52 was... One day not long after my house burned along with everything in it a few years back, FF52 and I were talking... He knew that I had a lot of hockey memorabilia, and he says something like "It's such a shame that you lost all that great hockey stuff... Decades of finding and collecting and it all just went up in smoke... Are you going to start to build another collection?"... I said "I don't know man, a lot of it would be pretty much impossible to replace"... Well one of the things he knew that burned was a complete set of those miniature chromed metal Stanley Cups with different team logos on them from Cup wins over the years... You know the ones that came in 24 packs of beer quite a while back, the original ones, not the re-issue 2nd run... A couple of days later, a delivery package shows up at my door... I look at the name and return address and wonder what the heck FF52 could possibly be sending me a package for, open it up and find the Flames Stanley Cup from the original set... So I called him up to thank him and he said "I know how much you love the game, and I know you had a really nice collection of memorabilia and I think you should start building another one"... Then he said "and I knew that to do that you had to start somewhere"... As usual, once again FF52 was right... and I will always treasure that first piece that started me collecting again...

Many of us here have noticed that it has been quite a while since Flyerfan52 has made a post... It is with a heavy heart that I tell you that Flyerfan52 passed away peacefully while at home the day after his last post... His name was Larry... A lot of us often called him FF52... and I will do that here... After months of some of us trying to contact FF52, yesterday Pyro managed to find an obituary that he thought might be his and passed it along to me... I knew Larry's full name and quite a bit of of personal info, so as soon as I read it, I knew it was his, and I needed a day to digest the sad news and make this post... I thought that I would post it here in the 'Flames Talk' section where he made most of his posts, as he deserved to have it here, and not tucked away in the 'General Discussions' section where many might not see it... As you know, FF52 was a true fan of the game of hockey, and we were fortunate to have him share his tremendous insight of the game, as he was as close to a human encyclopedia of hockey as I have ever known... Larry was also a very kindhearted and soft spoken soul and he also had a great sense of humour and wit... His posts would sometimes make me see a different angle on something hockey related, and he often brightened my day with his good sense of humour... We have lost a good fiend to the Flames Message Boards... Please feel free to post any fond memories of Flyerfan52 in this thread, and I know many of us have them... One more thing... When the Flames host the Rangers Friday night, raise a fresh cold beer and say "To Flyerfan52, SKOL!!!", have a drink and then say "GO FLAMES!!!... the Rangers suck", and have another... He would have liked that, and somewhere in heaven above, he will be smiling... FF52 hated the Rags...

I hear the sarcasm, but I will answer as if you were one of the hypocrites... The hemp your sandals are made of were grown with a petroleum based ammonia fertilizer, diesel powered equipment was used to harvest it, and different petroleum sources were used to process the materials...... Your bikes tires and all the plastic and vinyl on it are also petroleum based... So are the roads that you like to ride on... As for what you have left, unless you want to go build a lean-to in the woods (don't use nylon rope to make it) and live off the land (without using any petroleum based products), you are pretty much screwed... and don't build a fire to stay warm, as that will only further contribute towards climate change...

Re bolded: I am on the right, but I believe that putting a serious amount of money into more research to find actual and viable solutions to work towards limiting the amount of pollution that we produce as much as possible, and to also curtail the effects of, and clean up pollution that already exists... Until we do find all of the best answers, that is the best way to deal with it... Taxes that will only end up going towards funding and furthering other leftest agendas are not a solution to the problem... There is a problem with the lack of logic for the so-called "progressives", and also any of the 'other' groups of people that always seem to have their hands out asking for more money, that want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, because none of them have any freakin' clue as to how to find a realistic alternative for those eggs, including the eggs that they use every single day themselves, or where the money that used to come from selling the extra golden eggs will come from to buy things that they all need and other extra things that they want...

Unlike Calgary, Edmonton's contaminated site is not close to a river, but somehow it has been prioritized for re-mediation... The Bow River that runs through Calgary begins in the Rocky Mountains and winds through the Alberta foothills onto the prairies, where it meets the Oldman River, the two then forming the South Saskatchewan River... These waters ultimately flow through the Nelson River into Hudson Bay, so the waters that start in the Bow are important to many places downstream... Your co-worker is just another virtue signalling moron... Trying to associate building a pipeline with so-called "environmental racism" is pathetic and weak... Indigenous are still trying to block the pipeline, but the rest of the pipeline routing has been approved... Show me one group of indigenous people currently trying to block the pipeline that does not happily and hypocritically use petroleum based products and by-products for many things including heating homes, gas for vehicles, plastics, clothing, and several thousand other everyday needs... The indigenous anti pipeline groups are not the only hypocrites, as the same applies to anyone else guilty of similar hypocrisy... One has to wonder what the carbon footprints of Justin Trudeau, Jagmeet Singh and Elizabeth May are, and what the carbon footprints of the idiots currently in power in B.C. John Horgan and Andrew Weaver are... They are all just impostors and posers trying to stay in power and line their own pockets in the process... We all agree that pollution is destructive and there is much work to be done to find ways to minimize it, but that work has to be done in a logical way to find actual and viable solutions, and people just spewing 'feel good' rhetoric is not a solution... Currently we are all dependent on petroleum based products and by-products, and there is no immediate way around that... Those that say "just keep the oil in the ground" should either immediately stop using all petroleum industry related products, or they should just shut up and admit they are just a hypocrite... It is one choice or the other... Just food for thought...

Since the subject came up after the Flames made their proposal for an arena complex along the river, I'll add this here... Have to wonder why the site of a "creosote" wood treatment in Edmonton is getting so much attention while a similar situation in Calgary gets ignored... The province plans to take steps to re-mediate the site located in Edmonton if the companies involved do not complete the work before May... https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/domtar-high-levels-of-cancer-1.5047771 They are not fooling around getting this site in Edmonton cleaned up... From 2016: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/pretty-nasty-chemicals-alberta-orders-cleanup-at-former-creosote-treatment-plant-in-edmonton-1.3912726 From 2016, updated 2018: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/domtar-northeast-edmonton-dioxins-furans-1.4580057 Any thoughts of clean up efforts in Calgary have been swept under a rug and then ignored and forgotten as if a serious problem does not exist... Calgary is lucky that they have not been sued... Yet...

*Carty's conspiracy theory* Maybe Treliving is working on a goalie trade... Rittich (plus) for Bobrovsky...

I wouldn't write Smith off yet... I am not sure if he will get back to being a steady #1, but I wouldn't count him out as turning out to be what the Flames need for a backup either... Just can't see Smith ever being an assistant to Sigalet... More like if we were ever lucky enough to see Smith want to take on the job, send Sigalet down the road with a nice parting gift like a plane ticket to somewhere warm for a vacation and a shiny new set of golf clubs...

Rittich is only 26 years old and is healthy... He can handle more games... At this point the Flames just need a backup that can step up if/when needed. or when Rittich could use a breather or for a B2B scenario... Smith could still be that guy if he can get back in the groove and be dependable, and if he can't, then the Flame will have to go shopping... I have no doubt that they already have a list of potential candidates in case the need should arise... Rittich could turn out to be elite, and right now he deserves/needs the chance to do that... As others have already pointed out, he is close to the top of the league for SV% and GAA, and he is within a whisker of being right at the top...

Not trying to pick on Mike Smith, he seems like a good guy, and it would appear from all indications a good team mate as well... He has made some great saves, and has helped steal a few games going back a ways to last season... I also believe that if he stays healthy he still has a valuable part to play with the Flames this season... Big butt, get it?... Realistically it also has to be considered that out of the 45 goaltenders that have played at least 500 minutes, Smith ranks 44th for save percentage while the team is playing 5 vs 5... I have defended him several times when I thought that poor play in the D zone contributed to a goal or even just left him hung out to dry, but Smith also ranks 42nd out of that group for his save percentage on low danger shots... In other words he has let in too many softies... The Flames just can't bet the farm on Smith... The best option right now is to keep Rittich involved and playing regularly, and at the same time find out what he can handle... They could end up having to lean heavily on Rittich if Smith's play deteriorates, or he goes down with another injury... Smith could start shutting the door regularly and prove me wrong, and if that happens, that would be great too... But if it were up to me, I would not bet the farm on it, or the season...

Hard to say what is happening with Smith... Maybe he's got the start of a flu, or another bug... and I hope that is all the problem is... I've said it before, but I'll add it here again... I still think that Smith has never been 100% since his injury last February... He has been looking better lately, but earlier in the season there were quite a few times when he sure did not seem to have his usual mobility... He didn't have the same lateral quickness. and looked a lot slower getting up after he went down for a save... Even lately, Smith is looking better, but something is still off... If he has a lingering groin problem, overplaying him could bring an early end to his season... No doubt Smith wants to play as many games as he can, he would play all of them if it was his choice... As on old goalie I can say that's how i felt about playing, and I'm sure that the rest of those here that played felt the same way... The same desire to play no doubt affected my judgement when I had an injury, and I always thought I could play through it and it would just heal up... and I would always tell coaches or other players on the team it wasn't that bad even when the pain level was getting worse... I'm also pretty sure there are others here that did the same thing, it's just a desire to play the game and win... Let's all hope this is a minor issue for Smith, and he is back on the ice soon... But even if he is, if it were up to me I would limit the number of games he plays even if he is doing well... With Smith being 36 and having a pretty serious injury just last season, Peters has to weigh the odds and not take a gamble that could have a serious impact on the rest of the season... Rittich is doing just fine with a .921 SV% and 2.31 GAA (actually still better this season than Smith who has a .888 SV% and 2.99 GAA)... Let him play more often and keep him sharp... Rittich started out last season pretty well, but wasn't getting that many games in once Smith got hot, and when the Flames had to rely on him when Smith went down it seemed like Rittich had problems with the pressure. and maybe he just wasn't ready for it... At this point and under the circumstances, let both goalies play often, feed off the competition and try and outdo each other... If one of them falters, then you lean heavier on the one who is doing a better job keeping the puck out of the net... But either way you still don't let one sit out long enough that they go cold...

I bet the Pens wish they had not given away Fleury in the expansion draft...

We just got bored listening to Nenshi and King babble without really getting anything done to work towards getting a new arena built... Just think of it as a commercial break...

I did a little bit of editing to your post... I agreed with what you posted... I just felt it deserved to be expanded to better reflect the unnecessary hardship being imposed on us by clueless idiots that care more about social engineering to further their agenda, and imposing their unrealistic ideals on us than actually working on viable solutions that work towards reducing pollution with a more realistic approach... With just a signature on a document to exercise the right under the constitution for the sake of what is obviously in the best interest of the county, Junior Trudope could have already initiated construction of the pipeline(s) long ago... But he is obviously too busy virtue signalling and trying to protect votes in an attempt to stay in power while he hopes no one notices what he is doing to massively increase national debt... Junior sure doesn't have a problem using the same kind of powers he could use to get pipelines built in order to force a carbon tax that has already been proven to have no actual positive effect on reducing pollution on large masses of people that do not want it... He will continue to grant carbon tax exemptions to the big polluters in the East while he squeezes (steals) everything he can elsewhere including businesses and families that can least afford it, because he needs the money to try and buy more time to continue his efforts to remodel the country into his vision of dystopia... The new slogan is "He never will be ready"... The only viable solution I can see is to vote junior out, and dump his lapdog Nutley to the curb as well...

Damn... I was hoping that they would fire McLellan and make Gully their head coach...

Maybe they are thinking along the lines of vote yes and lose your left nad, or vote no and lose your right nad...

The part that was even more disturbing than the dolled up pig was when he followed it up with... I hope that's not the part flames-fan-in-jets-land meant when he said to leave his personal life out of this.... Unless maybe he has a crush on Miss Piggy...

If it were up to me, I would go back to Rittich next game... With the way Smith has been playing (moments of brilliance and too many moments of wtf), maybe Smith needs to have the push of feeling more competition and not be gifted the starters role... If he wants to keep playing after his contract is up this season, he should also keep in mind that how he plays will dictate what he earns on his next contract and whether he is considered a starter or a backup next season... He also needs to be more selective with how far he strays from the net, when he does it and how he makes his choices to try and make passes... As a goalie starts to get older, they have to adapt their style... It can be done, and Smith has shown often enough over his career that he was a good enough goaltender to be smart enough he should be able to realize that on his own, and if he doesn't he is screwed and so is the team... Because he sure as hell won't hear any pearls of wisdom from Sigalet who was never anything more than a very mediocre goalie himself... I have no doubt that Smith is still capable of playing better and more consistently than he has been, he just needs to get his head in the right place... The team needs that Smith...

Agreed... Because if you want to host the games, you should host all of the events... Besides, it's worth the $50 mil just to give the finger to BC... They are already costing us an an awful lot more than that... Agreed... This time they should do a better job of maintaining the K95 in the first place...

Maybe he just needs to smoke some more... At least that way Nenshi would have to pull his head out of his Hash Rate...

The K95 ski jump (the biggest one) at Canada Olympic Park was not maintained and fell into disrepair, it's a party shack now... The 5 other jumps are still used... So are the bobsled and luge tracks... Nenshi need to forget about Whistler and stay more local... He needs to get off his Hash Rate and see that the K95 at COP is repaired or replaced like he should have done already... Host some of the events at COP and use Canmore for the (all still used) biathlon, cross country and nordic combined just like they did last time... Host the other events at Nakiska like they did in 88, or one of the other Banff area ski hills... Even thinking about giving the gift of premier events like the mens downhill to a neighboring province that just screwed us over for a pipeline should be enough to have have Nenshi shipped off to a loony bin...