conundrumed

All of the media are saying that. It's a story they can run with and that's what they do. The whole episode is laughably inconsequential and no longer recognizable due to being totally blown out of proportion. It's a 10 second soundbyte and!Blockchain Eric Francis started crying so the media found a story to tell. Question. Did Friedman's breaking the Boudreau story lead to Boudreau's humiliating exit? Coaches are hired to coach, not to appease the ridiculous press vultures.

I left out Ken Dryden. He was doing a talk/book signing on my brother's birthday maybe a decade ago. My bro had zero plans as it was a weeknight so I said I'd take him out. Dinner, Ken Dryden(he had no idea why we were going to the library lol) then drinks. Stayed for a while and talked to him. He's one educated and fascinating guy. The NHL was never really a big goal in his life...yet he only won 5 cups in 7 years... @rocketdoctor Scotty Bowman: A Hockey Life Like No Other is really good. I have it, got him to sign it(he authored) and then some newer ones I bought for my bro. I asked him about that book and he said it was difficult getting Bowman to understand the process and had to tell him, "let me be your coach now". Tons of respect for Dryden, just a really nice, well-spoken gentle giant. We got too many pics with him but his PR girl just kept snapping with my phone while we were chatting. And of course I was telling funnies to break the ice. I told him I moved to goalie at 13yo he asked me why. I said because I didn't want to sit in the penalty box for 5 minutes for fighting lol (that's only half true). I offered to treat them to dinner or drinks (even though we already ate) but they bowed out saying they weren't staying the night. Probably just to get away from me. No, that was a great night. He's impressive. One thing he talked about that really stuck with me was football vs hockey retirement. In hockey, you still have old-timers games or reasons to get back together with the gang, it never leaves you. In football, you're done playing and unless you're very elite, the game is done with you. You're done, it's over. Like it never happened. So in football there is a much higher incidence of life struggles post-retirement. And of course he had the stats to back it up, tied together with the head poundings the athlete has endured.

On the whole it's amazing what an atrocity our drafting was until about 2015. Prior to that was pretty much a black hole of ouch.

Sutter is NEVER transparent with the media. It's like a Harvey's hamburger, it's a beautiful thing.

Jakob Pelletier, What # is he?lol

Wow. I didn't expect that.

Both are LW. JG should see lots of Huby I suspect.

Sweet! I do remember that commercial. My wife served "the young guns" frequently at Smuggler's Inn. She said all they drank was cranberry juice by the pint.lol Ahhh, Trevor Kidd. A friend of mine should have made the NHL. His family bounced from Sarnia to Red Deer back and forth a few times. His stats were unreal and got drafted by Spokane. He scored 34g/82 pts in his rookie year then got traded to Brandon. I know Kelly McCrimmond through him. They traded for Trevor Kidd. "He was an airhead acting like a surfer dude but a great goalie". They got on the ice to practice and were skating laps and Kidd sat on the boards, no helmet. He told him, "you better Blockchaining get out here". A couple laps later McCrimmond ripped a puck right past Kidd's head and said, "get Blockchaining skating". Scouts told my buddy his PIMs are way too low and he turned into a scrapper and a party animal. Never drafted. Shame. He's still involved in hockey as a minor league scout. He knows EVERYBODY from that era. He said the worst beating he ever took was Mike Modano, of all people. Grabbed his face-mask and just started throttling him. I grew up with Doug Armstrong and I have zero problem cheering for St. Loo. He's one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. Caught up with him when he brought the Cup home. He's still the same guy, as easy-going as the day is long. I also have family and a few other friends involved in scouting, both pro and jr. Terry Doran is best buds with my bro-in-law who could have been an NHLer in his own right if he hadn't shattered his leg. Him and Ciccarelli were neck-in-neck for who's better. Terry's a great scout, glad we have him. edit: as much as we'd like to redo drafts, making the show is prolly 20% skill and hard work and 80% luck. There's never really a bad pick in any round. What happens afterwards is entirely up in the air if you aren't a heavily-coddled top 10 pick. The wheels can fall off at any given time with a lot of varying circumstances. I'd tell any pick right up front, "you have 5 to 7 years to start making a lot of money, so try to stay focused and block out the outside noise".

I have to say, I really, REALLY like that we have Huberdeau to mentor Pelletier into the NHL. "Johnny a lot" was Jakob's first response when asked which players he's been talking to. I think this is about as good as it gets to bring him along.

Lunar New Year warm-up jersey for tonight. Pretty sweet.

The '80's weren't an era of political correctness, just terrible popular music. I'm glad the singer's wearing red.lol

Instead of a stupid !Blockchain Eric Francis clickbait sound-byte, here's the whole interview. Has everyone not gotten on board that Sutter almost never gives praise to any one player? Harken back to last year with each guy on the top line hitting milestones, he completely swept it aside. "Jakob Pelletier, what # is he"? That's priceless. Does anyone know any lifelong hockey player with really tender feelings?lol That line is funny, but not nearly as funny as the reaction of fans whose feelings are hurt. Such a 2023, "oh no, consider his feelings", reaction. Life sucks, get a helmet.

He won't at all.

It was the most enjoyable Flames game I've watched this season. This is the team we want to cheer for, win or lose, play a 60 minute game. Why do we give a flying Blockchain what Sutter tells the press? Throw the vultures curveballs, sliders and knuckleballs always. He's face to face with his team. They prolly laugh about his pressers over dinner.

He can talk directly to Pelletier about it. He doesn't need to feed idiots like !Blockchain Eric Francis.

I understand it. He's just trying to calm the wolves down and away from hyping the kid.

1 down, 35 to go:)

Nice assist Hanifin.

Too slow moving the puck on the pp.

Does anyone think the timeline on dealing a goalie is as early as this off-season/at the draft? I know Wolf's age, but there is really nothing left for him in the A. How long can he stay in the A before it starts going in the wrong direction by not giving him bigger challenges. He's done everything with no bumps in the road so I'm of the opinion that it's time next season. I think Detroit, Buffalo, Minnesota and the Cali teams would be interested and have the assets. I'm not saying which goalie, just asking if it's time to give this heavy consideration for more picks/grade A prospect(s)? Deal from strength while it exists.

Another fun one is what players/former players have you met? From the Flames, I've met Roberts, Otto, Peplinski, Macoun, Vernon, Mony, Warrener, Reggie, Kulak, Lomberg. I think that's it.lol Tim Bernhardt was my goalie coach and was amazing! Best I ever had, by a lot. The others mainly a couple minutes each but if my boy was with me I was just kinda there. Others are Howe, Orr, P. Esposito, Makita, Dionne, Stapleton, Sittler, Cheevers, the Hunters, Ciccarelli, Verbeek, McKegney, Redmond, Coffey, Curtis Joseph were the mains that actually was more than just hello.. I was supposed to do a job in High Prairie but passed it off to a good friend that was an Oilers fan. Saw they had an Oilers old-timers game so gave my Oilers-head buddy the job, game, same hotel, he was in heaven partying with them and picking up too many tabs.lol I haven't met too many current players now. Stamkos, Chychrun, Kyrou of course, Keller, Max Jones, Dvorak, the Greenway bros, Nylander, Granlund. Most of this was with my then-young son. He was maybe 10-14yo. So particularly with the old-timers, there was zero focus on me, it was ALL talking to my son. Near all of them. It was so fun. They treated him like he was the only one in the room. Marcel Dionne in particular. We ate at his daughter's restaurant, walked into his hockey emporium and he literally took my son around for over an hour. People would gather to listen to his stories but he was only telling them to my boy. It was incredible. We had to leave for his next hockey game so Dionne was checking us out. We just finished and his phone rang. We left and he came flying out into the parking lot calling my son with an armful of stuff apologizing for the call. Then he personalized everything he had with a sharpie on my tailgate. What an experience for my boy!! Just magic.

36 games remain, it's time to pull up your socks and grab your jocks. Let's crush this thing. We're 0-0-0. 36-0 here we come.

In 17 losses, the team has 1 goal or less in SEVEN of them. Go to 2 goals or less, That's THIRTEEN!! Out of 17 losses. If Markstrom doesn't pick up his offence, we should get rid of him. Hard to blame goatending without fixing whatever you want to call that in front of him. "It's a 2-1, 3-2 league" is a horrible philosophy.