travel_dude

I believe the phone thing was a big red herring joke being played on the media. Hartley was told about it too. Burke on the other end of the phone.

Regarding Spoon; he is as ready for the NHL this year as last year, when he played well after the first few games, leading up to his injury.

Well, there are numerous people, websites, and NHL sources that say so. Disagree if you wish.

You have to remember that all 3 goalies are waiver eligible. End of camp, you need to waive one if you haven't traded one.

The projected lines are downright scary: Brodie/Engelland Russell/Wideman Diaz/Potter I get what you are saying about Spoon being fed to the Wolves. But, if you manage the minutes, Russel could double shift in Spoon's place. You also have Potter available to spell off some of the extra minutes. The last thing I want to see is BNrodie playing his wrong side with Engelland. Potter was bad enough not to last on the Oilers. Spoon has played 2nd pairing minutes last year.

I think it would make sense to put Spoon (LHS) with Brodie to keep the other pairings in tact. Potter is not an NHL capable defenseman in my opinion. If you want to use him as a 7th D, then swap out Engelland.

There is a chance that Hartley goes with 7D, to help offset the loss of a 25 minute D-man. Forcing Russell or Wideman into 1st pair is a risky move. Spoon could probably play close to those minutes, but he still only had 14 NHL games.

Neimi is not a goalie people would have any faith in, considering he is on the outs with SJ.

I think there are games that Ramo's style does not work for. The same holds true for Hiller. With Ramo's last two games, he seems suited for the trap teams (Debbies and Rags), or teams with weak D. Teams that use cross-crease passes or overload one side cause Ramo to be out of position. I have not been a fan of Hiller's body of work lately, so I am actually OK with keeping both through till next season. Get rid of one of the 3 potential goalies prior to October. Yes, that means signing Ramo. So next year we have either a Swiss/Finn or a Finn/Finn goalie tandem.

Kipper masked a badly constructed team. When he stole games, the team seemed like a competitive one, but when he was getting lit up, it was somehow his fault. Ramo's worst games featured a bad goal (or 2) followed by some iffy ones. With proper play, they wouldn't have resulted in goals. Same goes for Hiller. Goaltending is not masking a bad team this year. We are a goog team with sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes awesome goaltending. When our goalies look amazing, part of it is that the team is clearing rebounds. The other part is that they aren't being knock off their games by the other team crashing the net.

I said a possibility that they re-sign him. Ortio is pushing nobody right now; he is expected to be here in the fall, and he is good enough, but if he hasn't recovered by April, do we know what he will be like next year? If the return right now was a 5th or 6th, I would pass. Keep him for the playoffs. You make your decisions before July 1st about re-signing him or not. Call me crazy, but goalies are voodoo. I don't consider Ortio to be a member of the Flames until he gets kept on the roster in October. As I said, I am not suggesting nor recommending that Ramo be re-signed.

Of the teams in the running, we are one of the least likely to be able to "offer" him NHL minutes right away. If you consider Ramo out in July, we still have Hiller signed for another year, have Ortio in the NHL next year on a 1-way deal, and could have Gillies opting to leave college and sign. Gillies would likely be #1 in Addy/Stockton. Ortio will be a backup until (or if) he wins the #1 job in CGY. It's great to have depth, and I would love to sign him. He just would be #3 or #4 in depth for the Flames. Would he be OK with that knowing that Gillies would be fighting him for the next NHL gig? And none of this takes into account our current 1b (or #2) goalie Ramo. Unless he is dealt before March 2nd, there is a possibility he gets an extension. You can then go into training camp with 3 goalies fighting it out for 2 spots; the loser gets waived/traded.

That athleticism is what I saw in Ramo. Playing in the KHL kind of delayed his career in the NHL. I don't think (or really know for sure) he has Kipper's abilities, but like any asset, I would have liked to see him kept a bit longer. Without Hiller, he may have become a great goalie. Inconsistent starts kinda derailed that. So did two injuries.

The only thing we knew about his case was that he began suffering from it afer the All Star game. During the game, he was hit twice in the mask. A possible cause is a blow to the head, but the inner-ear problems could have been caused by illness, flying or swimming (even showering). It's an irrational fear of mine that he starts suppering from it again....but there is always a risk.

My biggest fear with Hiler is the return of the vertigo. It hasn't happened, and he may be over it. But there is a chance that he gets run over and it comes back. Trading Ramo puts out out of the playoffs if that happens.

The timing of Gillies signing is the same as Johnny was last year. If PC is in the frozen 4, then he wouldn't be available till the last week of NHL regular season; maybe a week before the end of the AHL season too. Ramo had some good games and bad ones. People mostly remember his bad ones. Remember his b2b shutouts? Ramo's lack of playing has a negative effect on his play. He has had very few stretches of play, regardless of whether Hiller is struggling. Below is how the two goalies have been started: Segment 1 (Games 1-7): Hiller gets four starts, Ramo gets three starts. Segment 2 (Games 8-14): Hiller gets five starts, Ramo gets two starts. (Hiller has a five-game starting run beginning here.) Segment 3 (Games 9-21): Hiller gets five starts, Ramo gets two starts. (Hiller's five-game run concludes; Ramo gets pulled from a start.) Segment 4 (Games 22-28): Ramo gets six starts, Hiller gets one start. (This segment features a five-game run for Ramo, which coincided with the Flames losing streak ending and Hartley rewarding him.) Segment 5 (Games 29-35): Hiller gets five starts, Ramo gets two starts. (Back to normal! Hiller begins a seven-game starting run here). Segment 6 (Games 36-42): Hiller gets six starts, Ramo gets one start. (Hiller's seven-game run ends here. Ramo gets a start but leaves due to an injury, so Hiller actually plays in every game of this segment.) Segment 7 (Games 43-49): Ortio gets five starts, Hiller gets two starts. (Joni Ortio is recalled and goes five straight, getting pulled in his final game. Hiller gets his net back and begins a string of eight straight starts.) Segment 8 (Games 50-56): Hiller gets six starts, Ramo gets one start. (Hiller concludes a string of eight straight starts by getting pulled in his final game.) Segment 9 (Games 57-): Ramo gets one start, so far, and gets yanked. Hiller is expected to start against Minnesota tonight. Hartley claims there is no #1, but you can easily see who gets trusted (even with the 5 goal 3rd against ANA, Hiller was not pulled). Ramo to start against NY. From an asset management standpoint, it makes sense to move Ramo before his contract expires. That makes no sense going into a playoff run, though. If you don't trade him, you should sign him to an extension to allow you to trade him or just walk away July 1st. We shall see what BT thinks before the end of the June.

Ya know, that is not the craziest idea I have heard. Right now, we have no idea if Ortio will reciver 100% from injury in time to make the team next year. If he does, then we have a trade chip for the fall.

The Bryz was on waivers..... Might make sense to pick him up now, if we were going to trade Ramo. The other option is to wait till he clears and trade for him in the AHL. He could sit there as a starter ion Addy, and if we needed him, would be available to join the Flames. He's crazy, but you have t o be a little insane to stand in the way of 100 mph slap shots.

Potter isn't a prospect, but is no better than Engelland. Can only comment on Wotherspoon; he was good by the end of his call-up last season. Only reason to bring him up is if he plays every night. He would need to play left D and have Diaz play right D. I think we need a Regher style guy on the 3rd pair or 2nd pair; a guy that plays shut-down and makes the other team think twice about taking liberties. Engelland only polices the ice when he plays, so Johnny and Raymond (smaller guys) will get nailed on occasion.

Ya got me. Mixed him up with Jiggy.

Hiller does have a cup ring does he not? What I like about having him is that he knows what it takes to win the big games. Ramo is capable of coming in as relief or to give Hiller some rest if he has a bad game. Ramo actually has a better win/loss record than Hiller and was the starter last year down the stretch. He has had some bad games and has been pulled, but so has Hiller. He hasn't had that many stretches of games to hone his craft, post injury. I have more confidence in our tandem than I would for some other teams in the playoff hunt (SJ, NASH, LA, VAN). They are basically one goalie teams.

I can hear the crew from TSN (is there any left or are they on SN or CBC?) having a jolly-good laugh about us getting him for the 3rd time. I think he did have a good final year here, but I think his career might be winding down. If we did that trade we would need to insist SN get Peter Loubo to say "doink" every time he hit the post.

Not referring to Kessel, but the 1st is on the table (in my mind) for any top prospect or very good, young D-man. Sure, we need to stock the cupboards, but we are light on the 25-29 year old players. And we are really light on high rated defense prospects. If someone offered a Nurse, you are crazy not to take it for a 1st.

Sorry bud, but I just don't get your suggestions. How much better does splitting up the best pairing in the NHL get you? They are combined for the most points for a D pairing and Brodie is +23 and Gio is 44 points. Wdieman is sitting at 33 points, ties with Brodie. So, you move Brodie to the 2nd pair opposite Wideman; who plays opposite Gio? Russell moves down to 3rd pair and Smid sits, leaving Diaz or Wideman. Without getting a top 2D, there is no point in disrupting our top 4. Even if you bring in a #2, do you want to bump Gio or Brodie?

I wonder if Kessel could be a 60 point player outside TO or the East? Some players are/were better suited for the less physical East. We all thought (at least I did) that Olli would be a 60+ point player coming here, but only managed that the 2nd time he was here, in his final year. Different players react differently to different circumstances; Phil could maintain it or be another Olli.