conundrumed

She'll be on radio so I'll be spared. I feel bad, she definitely has the chops but that voice makes it really difficult. It's like Roseanne Barr singing Led Zeppelin, I wanna listen but can't. Is there a phrase out yet for someone that is racialist about voices? I might be one of those.

Today's cuts, nothing much noteworthy: https://www.nhl.com/flames/news/flames-trim-down-training-camp-roster So that's only Lipinski as far as prospects, and all invites minus D Mikael Diotte.

I was thinking the same, he pulls it back ever so slightly. Made it look easy from there though.

This looks like a positive:

Is it just me, or does Meaghan Mikkelson really, and I mean REALLY, have to work on her voice to be a broadcaster? Is my hearing too sensitive?

I was kinda looking forward to watching all of the young prospects in Seattle, but it wasn't televised. By stats, looks like they were dominated by a vet team, but Vladar for the shootout win! Outshot 37-21. Well worth pointing out Solovyov having 1g/1a last night. Can't wait to see him. I think both rosters that we ran last night would have a 50/50 game vs each other. Likely unfair for 1st preseason game, but in a heightened role, I'm not sure if Mangiapane is uncoordinated or his coordination is just really awkward. We really need Rosie to take that 2LW spot now with Pelts likely out for at least a few weeks. In other former Sting news, Chychrun was a Blockchaining machine vs the Leafs. Love to see it. Hopefully his career is back on track. Outside of the 2 goals, he made a ton of great plays defensively and outlet passes. Likely the best player on the ice in that game. He was a beast. TML got to see what a real top dman looks like.lol 2 more years at $4.6...if he had played jr for SSM Dubas would have been all over him. We should all be thankful.

Looked like a dislocated shoulder the way he was bent over with his left shoulder and arm down leaving the ice.

Lalonde was discussing that he has so many options he'll be putting everyone all over the place for preseason. Interested in D pairs after Walman-Seider. Chiarot (yuck), Petry, Gostisbehere, Holl, Maatta. If Edvinsson were to make the jump it's likely Maatta that would be waived(not my call). But Ed's fresh back from surgery so pretty unlikely to start. Quite the kettle of fish this year. Lyon/Reimer both would have to clear waivers. See how that goes.

Sounds ideal to me. Should cut down on my venting...

The camp lines are ever evolving and Lalonde said he'll be mashing it up for games. The best look so far has been: Perron-Larkin-DeBrincat Fabbri-Compher-Raymond Rasmussen-Ladd-Kostin Berggren-Veleno-Sprong Fischer Colour me homer, but that looks great. A bit of everything on each line. Fabbri's health always a concern, but Berggren is an awesome backup plan. Raymond always looks dynamic with a playmaking winger. By all accounts him and Fabbri look great moving the puck up the ice together. Can't wait until Tuesday's 1st preseason vs Pitts.

4 yrs at a max of $15 total would be nice. $6, $4.5, $2.5, $2 would be nice-ish. Diminish as he ages. What is the line to just cut ties? I don't want him at, say, 3x$6. Sometimes we just have to start recognizing when it's time to move on. Add, let's not pay him based on last year's outlier for points, due to age. I'm sure the Flames are putting in a lot of effort projecting Ronni, Zary and Kerins because one of them will need Backlund's job in 2-3 years. Ronni for sure I would say, Zary I haven't seen enough of to comment and Kerins is still at the work-in-progress stage. Compher is likely a close comparison. But he's only 28. 5 x $5.1. So if Backlund gets near $20mil for 4 years I will definitely be wondering why we didn't take a swing at Compher, who also plays RW and is stalwart defensively, like Backlund. Staal's a decent comparable, but at the very low end I think. A few years back he'd have been a near identical comparison, but his O has significantly diminished. Which is something we need to be very wary of with Backlund. In 2 yrs he should be a 4C. And paid as one. Some older players are succeeding, but they're the exception, not the rule.

Not Flames related, but Logan Cooley saying hello in his 1st preseason game.

Pretty good interview with our latest fwd add. He has gone from NJ to hockeycentral culture shock. Hopefully he's okay with that.

I would extend Z for sure, but a # like 5+ could be a hard pill to swallow given our current cap issues. I'd have no issue with a 5yr deal honestly. For a total <$25mil would be ideal, but I might be dreaming. He always seems to have the right mindset and stays positive. He has his hiccups but overall he's quite effective and I don't think anyone loves playing against how heavy he plays. He's not a fun guy to accidentally run into. Sutter did a nice job of rounding out his game. We have to hope in a year Solovyov and Kuznetsov are ready. Suddenly our D is half Belu/Russian.lol

He gets fed up and goes on hiatus sometimes I believe. Completely understandable. He's very knowledgeable and a boon for the board. He's also very measured about sticking with being confident about the team and players. I respect him a ton. This board can be downright depressing when the overtones hit an almost crescendo of negativity. It truly isn't worth being around. I almost didn't bother returning a few years ago, I had better things to do than read about how everything sucks all of the time. It was actually seeing an email that @robrob74 dm'd me I thought maybe I'd try again after quite awhile away and renewed the "positivity" thread. He's only learned that right now, it was literally that email.lol As for @cross16, I'm a big fan. Reading comprehension is a skill. There are more than a few indications in his tone at times that he's had enough. And that's completely fair. I hope that he's had a great summer and we can have conversations again that aren't widespread pissing and moaning. Which is almost asking too much from CDN fanbases. What is the SC scoreboard now? Something like US franchises: 37 Canada: 0. I'm certain that there aren't reasons.🙄

I'm higher on Duarte to be a 4th line guy. He'll be 21 soon, undrafted, doesn't provide much offence, but knows his role. I'd compare him to some of Lomberg's attributes. Constant motor, upbeat personality, skilled enough to be a distraction. RW/C. Hopefully I can watch him in the A a bit. BT not recognizing his own find in Lomberg's attributes will always annoy me. He's a constant motivator for FLA, like we didn't need that. He keeps that team jacked right up. For BT, he can't be a middle 6 so you throw him away. This will be the same with Duarte. He isn't going to elevate up the lineup, he knows his role and hopefully he keeps perfecting it I've always been of the mind that the bottom of your roster has to be as solid as the top, in that role. Duarte had a solid tourney, let's see how camp goes, but he's got time to develop that game at the pro level. Just stop viewing guys that will only be 4th liners as throwaways, like we did with Lomberg. JFC BT, that guy should have been your pride and joy find FOR THE FLAMES...bet you'd love him on the Leafs...dummy.

This is the type of "me first" behaviour this team doesn't need! /s is for sarcasm in case anyone is way too serious all of the time. Not sarcasm: I know many are clamoring for his return, just keep in mind that it's a long, hard road and he's not out of the woods yet. There will still undoubtedly be triggers for him to recognize.

About that...the aspect ratio has been tiny on my phone for about 2 weeks now. Comes up on the left, 1/4 of the full screen. It's the only site I have doing that. Love the gameday thread separation though, that needed to happen.

No Kylington... https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/defenceman-oliver-kylington-to-miss-start-of-flames-training-camp-1.6571812

No reason not to!

I'm not sold. He was also one of the oldest/pro experienced in the tourney. Like a 20yr old still in jr, you should be one of the best. I noticed he's getting a lot of hype for a good tourney, but I'm very wait-and-see as the competition elevates. I doubt he's near Duehr or Rosie yet. I can compare him to another 6'8" guy in a similar tourney in Soderblom. Soderblom dominated near every shift to the point of, "why are you here"? Klapka wasn't really close to that. One of the better players, but not clearly scary in that environment. And Elmer's 2 yrs younger with zero guarantee that he'll make the Wings roster. So I doubt Klapka has a great chance. Most of his abilities seem pretty average imho.

Nope. Maybe he was over-compensating to make an impression, but him and Kerins were out of sync a fair bit. Just kind of not playing together so aren't getting open for each other/not sure where to be. Kerins is a good passer and sees the ice quite well as he showed setting up Klapka. Plays were dying on both of their sticks just not being in tune with each other, which is expected. But Coronato can do better keeping his head up with the puck. He was always trying to take the puck to where he could get a shot off as opposed to relying on linemates to move the puck around. Cross Hanas with the Wings does the same thing. We need shoot first guys, but they need to balance it with some playmaking or the goalie always knows. First game skates. I watched him enough in U to know that he'll be fine as he gets more comfortable. Gotta use his teammates more.

Thanks, as always, for showing that break down. I always have this mental cartoon playing in my head of BT: "What? The cap isn't going up much? I've gotta gtf outta here". He really left Conroy with very little wiggle room. Almost zero maneuverability. I can't forgive that part. He pretty much maxed us right out and ran away. I recall @cross16 wondering, "why did you give Vladar that contract"? This is BT's mess. I can't help but give Conroy a pass. Wtf is he supposed to do? This is what BT left for him. Conroy's really left with, "do what you've gotta do" imho. It's not Conroy's fault.

Watched the replay last night. Lipinski showed much better. Outside of Kerins having 2 dreadful giveaways on the same shift he seems more comfortable. I think most guys were, so the pace was much better. Morin loking a lot more comfortable. I liked Klapka moving down and Stromgren up. I thought Stromgren ran that line with Lipinski and Honzek with aggressive forechecking and hitting. Kerins and Coronato were together all tourney which makes sense. Same age, playmaking C with a shoot-first RW. I still think Duarte looked like the most responsible player and Pilling and Diotte the best invites. See how main camp goes if Pilling earns a contract. Parker Bell was solid and consistent in all 3 games, no complaints there. Murphy had a solid game. I agree with teams going 50/50 splits with goalies. Radomsky's only start was an awful team in front of him. Murphy got the next 2 where the team started gelling a lot better. Next year remind me not to watch Game 1.lol

There will be quite a few goalies equal to Vladar that will need to clear waivers. Detroit alone will need to clear Alex Lyon, who showed success with helping FLA get to the playoffs last year. Unless Reimer gets hurt, which is almost likely. But Wolf is currently just a scenario and perhaps not quite ready as he's really young. I wouldn't hate to see Vladar get a large volume of A starts though. How do we improve treating everyone as irreplaceable? He played bottom 6 in the A the year before. ARI is horrible. Valimaki isn't making the avg NHL team's roster. That Mackey didn't work out is whatever as well. Neither are making a difference on good NHL teams. Oesterle is a better 7D on an avg team. He'd be top 4 on ARI too because they lack defencemen. Most teams don't, so neither of those players are of any consequence. We just stay married to/overrate our players for no reason.