CheersMan

JG led BT down the make-believe path for 14 months then signed with the worst team in the NHL no where near his home 13 days later after exhausting every other avenue. Goes to show you where the Flames were on his list. He always wanted to be State side preferably in the NE but would never say it because it would hurt his potential offers in FA. I have moved on, most Flame fans have moved on, but he was never 100% honest with the Flames.

Lies

With my limited lip reading skills I think he said; “You 2 men are riding north with me tmrw to find that travel_dude. When we get there, Luc is gonna hogtie him and confiscate his keyboard and Hubs you’re gonna put a bit in his mouth. On the way back we’ll stop at the ranch and do a little steer wrestling and bull riding. Rendezvous at first light".

Kucherov is the exception, not the rule. Lightning strikes occasionally but there are far more cloudy days; -Nikolai Zherdev, 4th overall -Alexander Svitov, 3rd overall -Nikolay Goldobin, 27th overall -Ivan Novoseltsev, 14th overall -Maxim Afinogenov, 69th overall -Nail Yakapov, 1st overall

Let’s look at the so called "easy part" of the schedule. Since Dec 9 (your date) Flames have 6 regulation time losses in 21 games. 14 of 21 games (2/3) were on the road with trips to CLB, TOR, MTL, SJx2, ANA, LA, SEA, WPG, CHI, STLx2, DAL, NAS. They zig zagged across the continent flying 21,937 km, often arriving in hotels or home after midnight. 7 of the 21 games (1/3) were played at home vs VANx2, STL, EDM, NYI, COL, TB. They had 3 non game days over Christmas break. They finished 9 W, 6 L and 6 OTL during this time. I guess we could criticize their OT record while playing 3 on 3 or in the shoot out but that part of the game is non-relevant come playoffs. Other teams are greedy, they want points too while playing in front of their home crowd. DS needs to continually find ways to keep his team focused over the gruelling 82 game schedule. Expectations here need to be tempered because there is no easy part in the schedule.

Not certain I would call the team underperforming. DS lost 2/3 of his #1 line and most offensive contributing players then inherited 2 cowboys from Florida that knew nothing about, or payed little attention to defense while contributing nothing on offense, until recently. Hubs still hasn’t got it, fails to shoot and fails to get puck in deep. Weegar is slowly getting it as his wreakless pinching has disappeared, but hope he learns to use it again selectively. Don’t worry about COL they will grab a top 3 position in their division, there are other teams we need to be concerned about in the wild card position. The Flames identity this year is the same as last year, take care of your end first, the offense will come, play hard every shift .... but or goaltending has fallen off compared to last year. Did the effort today appear like DS lost the room? More the opposite. The SC champs looked ordinary today while the Flames showed up and played for DS.

I’m sure DS had plenty of nice things to say and talk about with Pelletier today and this week. You see him tapping players on the back, chatting with them and being supportive behind the bench. He was asked a question post game and gave an honest answer. Rather than saying the player played 6 minutes and had zero outcome on the game he instead read directly from the score sheet so that no one would misinterpret his answer to the question. FFS give the guy a break everybody. He plays a vet, he gets scorched. He plays a certain rookie, he gets scorched. He doesn’t play a certain rookie, he gets scorched. He gives an honest opinion, he gets scorched. He reads from a score sheet, he gets scorched. He supports a vet, he gets scorched. He plays the goalie Y instead of goalie Z, he gets scorched. He said this but did that, so he is scorched. He doesn’t get 2pts, he gets scorched. He gets a OTL, he gets scorched. He’s shows young players tough love, he gets scorched. He wins, he gets scorched for his post game interview. If this was LA, its just a normal interview and done. Here, every word is micro analysed, misinterpreted or criticized beyond belief. You would have to be nuts (or DS) to want to coach or GM in this city. DS is doing a great job, we all need to sit back, shut up and watch the man do his thing, enjoy it while he is here because the next coach will not be nearly as good.

Good to see the team show up to play this afternoon, we played with a little more urgency than TB. Let the winning streak begin.

I don’t see the comparison between Monahan and Markstrom. One was broken, the other is a proven #1 goaltender that is presently struggling with consistency and plenty of runway to sort things out. Markstrom will have value at seasons end with 3 x $6 remaining, but again there’s the NMC. If Flames forced this then it would probably affect the other Swede’s negatively giving us little chance to re-sign Lindholm. I’m not saying trade Markstrom, because I don’t think we need to, I’m saying if I was BT, I may put a discrete long line out in the offseason to see if there are any bites.

I think this off season is a year too soon but maybe worth exploring to see if there are takers. The year after would be the year to do it imo. However, I’m not parting ways with Vladar or Wolf. The question is how do you move Markstom with either 2 or 3 x $6 remaining with a NMC? A buyout after next season would be $9.7M over 4 yrs which is not very appealing.

Mang, Backs, Dube, Pelletier, Ruzicka, Andersson, Kylington were drafted Flame players. Hubs, Lindholm, Hanifin, Weegar, Vladar, Zadorov acquired with Flames drafts. JG was a drafted player, when he gave us the one finger salute it allowed us to sign Kadri.

Cheer up Dude. When Darryl is gone you can apply for the job. 😀

All true, except I'm not certain about the Phaneuf's downfall here, I remember the BIG hits, he contributed offensively but I think his defence began to fall. Seems to me he and Iggy had a feud maybe, possibly some knuckle sandwiches. Not sure and I'd hate to rekindle rumours.

DS is a big fan of the AHL, he won't apologize to those who think its old school guidelines or flawed development philosophy, he believes every player should start there, put some time in and learn how to play the game and mature amongst men. When you understand how that works then the NHL could be the next step. He knows how tough it is to get out of the AHL, his son spent his entire career (1000+ games) less 60 games at that level. DS has little time for the privileged, those who think they can bypass the learning curve. He’s probably had a few players who graduated quickly to the NHL, Iggy comes to mind, Kopitar maybe, sorry no time to research it. We’ve all read over and over and over again about how some posters here feel we ruined certain players (ie. Bennett) by allowing entitlement to the big team, bypassing the learning curve at lesser levels. DS doesn’t hand out lolly pops, he’d rather put up minor road blocks for the long term benefits of the player. Unlike last year, we are very much in a dog fight to the end of this regular season. 5-6 very good teams in the Western Conference are presently on the bubble, 3 of which will miss the playoffs by just a point or two, then fire their coach because of it. Which 3 of these 5 teams are missing? MIN, STL, CGY, NAS, LA. If you were the head coach of any of these bubble teams what are you doing or not doing to pick up that extra point to help you get into the playoffs? You can call DS scared but I think he has a reason to be, we are presently aligned to be 1 of the 3 to miss.

Half-way through the season and DS has taken looks at Ruzica, Zohorna, Duehr, Gilbert, Desimone and Mackey. Seems like he is giving opportunities to plenty. Others on here want to see Wolf, Meolche, Pelletier, Zary and Philips. That makes 11 players from the farm which seems ridiculous in half a season. I’ve got nothing against kids nor does DS, if they are talented and better than our pros then take the job. One rookie earned a job in training camp and that was Ruzica, the others will have to earn then wait their turn. DS knows who’s best option in each position.

Maybe we should just call up the entire Wrangler team and sit the entire big team for 10 games, get a real good look at the kids, you know, cause they deserve it. Then put an end to the nonsense that kid X, Y, Z should bump pro A, B, C while we are fighting tooth and nail for every point it will take to make the playoffs. You want to see a kid play, go watch the Wranglers or wait for the conditions DS mentions.

For sure some posters here are being over critical. This is where some come to offer ill advised opinions and create drama. DS wasn’t born yesterday, he knows what he has in both goalies. He’s not about to make negative statements about Markstrom in the media that will hinder Markstom's progression in getting to where he was last year as Vezina candidate. DS gives vets longer rope than the kids because the vets are pros while the kids are still learning to be pros. DS will continue to support Markstrom while giving Vladar more starts. DS doesn’t have to tell anyone who is getting the next 6-10 starts because he doesn’t know himself until game day. Even though 5 got by Vladar yesterday he should credited for blanking the Stars for periods 1 and 2, shots were coming through traffic from every direction in the 3rd while the team in front of him sat back. Vladar got the win and I think we will be seeing more of him before the All Star break.

I hear ya. We have already given up 10 pts this season to the 6 teams we face next, and we haven’t played COL yet who appear to be warming up. Lets wait and see if we learned anything from the first go around.

Duehr looks fine, Ruzicka too, so much for the argument “DS doesn’t give young guys opportunity BS”. Something else I liked this game was Backlund on the PP, he worked along the half boards nicely and created opportunities. Maybe it was just a poor DAL PK, I don’t know. Flames probably didn’t deserve 6 and Stars probably didn’t deserve 5, I felt we deserved the 2 pts though. We got Wedgewood they got Vladar, it was a saw off in net. I agree, the Flames aren’t scarring anyone with the lead. We need to relearn how to shut teams down.

Well that turned out to be a little more dramatic than it needed to be. Flames owed the first 2 periods. Vlader made the big saves again in the 1st to keep DAL off the score board. Game was over after 2, except Flames fell victim to taking foot off the gas. DAL showed us why they are the highest scoring 3rd period team in the league to make it interesting. We have 6 games left before the All Star break and mini vacation. One more big game remaining on this road trip in NAS. This is a must win for NAS so we better show up. Then we have 4 home games with COL, TB, CB and CHI. COL is banged up and having a terrible season, but it will be a must win for COL too. TB in our barn will be a challenge, followed by the 2 worst teams in the league, CB and CHI. Then we got Seattle on the road the night after we play CHI at home. We need the Seattle game. Not a bad schedule leading into the All Star break.

There might be another way to look at this. Maybe the organization should be credited for calling up Philips as a reward and reacquainting him with the team on a road trip for several days while providing him with a Christmas bonu$. It’s better than not getting the call at all. I doubt BT calls up players without consulting DS first. DS took a look by offering him 2 games and 5:40 on the pp vs 2 original 6 teams, how cool is that. Maybe the next call he gets he grabs the bull by the horns and stays with the Flames for good, maybe he doesn’t. I’m not a fan of these power struggle rumours between BT and DS, it’s disruptive and poisonous. DS knows hockey, he recognises and rewards talent when he sees it. Players on his bench need to be contributing one way or another, if there is still learning or building to be done then he is a big fan of the AHL. I don’t think DS or any NHL coach has much time for 10 game try-outs on his team unless he has no choice. The road to the NHL is not an easy one apparently, if you happen to be the smallest player in the history of the sport then it’s that much tougher. Fleury and Gaudreau cleared and paved a path for Philips.

Good to see the knives put away, if only for a game, it was starting to look a little messy around here. Vladar made some big saves particularly in the first, kept us even or ahead which was a huge confidence builder. Big difference when you get the goaltending.

You are one of the very few on here that “likes” his posts from time to time, responds to his ridiculousness and calls him out of the woodwork when he goes quiet…. like during the winning streaks. He only comes out when some on here vent frustration or when Flames enter losing streaks. I don’t recall seeing many of his posts on here last year during our 111 pt season as it does not support his agenda. Try ignoring him like most do on here and maybe he will disappear for good. He thinks he is entertaining but “torture level” would be an under statement.

Wolf is firmly the #3 goalie in our org ATM, he will not get an opportunity to play for the Flames this season unless injury occurs above his level or we are firmly out of the playoff race. There are only 32 #1 goalies in the NHL and he is not one of those. There are only 32 back-up goalies in the NHL and he is not one of those, at least not in this org….yet. Wolf is under contract for another 1.5 years, he will have to continue to play well where he is and wait his turn should it transpire. Rushing Wolf up to the Flames this season by displacing either of the 2 goalies we presently have is nonsense unless we are playing meaningless last 5 games. People need to stop crying Wolf.

JG is living the Columbus dream, firmly in last place in Eastern Conference. Goes from a +64 to a -16 in same calendar year. He's no longer accountable to DS, he can just play his style of hockey and be closer to home where family members can drive 8 hrs to see him score, but be scored upon more. Maybe things cheer up for him next season and he plays with Bedard.