Heartbreaker

Love.

Also, dark chocolate. Seriously. Love.

Ha! You're new to Sutter hockey I see! Love.

Yeah, I totally agree with this. I'm a big fan of Barzal, and would love for him to be a Flame, but there was no guarantee that they would have taken him with that pick. You've got to give to get, and I still make that trade seven days a week. The Hamonic trade, on the other hand... Love.

It's also possible that we would have eased him in on the fourth line left wing, or set him up with Lance Bouma and Troy Brouwer. Love.

It's true. Sutter Hockey is boring. I would have told you that 15 years ago. The fact that it's a welcome change from what we saw earlier in the year doesn't change what it is. That said, it's nice to see the team do well, and I am hopeful that in the 15 years since he was last the coach, he's learned a few new tricks. He has definitely had some success, so, here's hoping! Love.

I could never figure out why Sam was so rarely used on the PK. He seemed like an obvious choice to me. This should not be a revelation. Plus, it might take a few hard minutes away from Lindholm and Backlund, and I think that will help them as well. Love.

Really rootin' for that guy. Love.

I highly doubt that we'd go full rebuild. There is too much talent to blow it up. It is a very different situation than in 2013 when our top prospects were Sven Baertschi, and Mark Jankowski. We had to trade our aging franchise right winger, our Vezina winning goaltender was retiring, and the only real asset that we had of much value was Jay Bouwmeester. That said, there could very well be some player movement, but I don't think that you blow it up when you still have a few good seasons of a pretty good goaltender, and players like Lindholm, Tkachuk, Monohan, Gaudreau, Hanifin, and Anders Rasmussen. I think that if you flip one, or two of those guys, then you'll have retooled your team adequately. Basically, it's no guarantee of success, but we're still a few steps away from going scorched Earth. Love.

Zary is a centre, but I think he's a ways out. Hopefully they develop him, and then bring him up as a centre. Love.

Are you feeling salty? I've agreed with almost everything that you have said, and Chucky is my favourite Flame... but there are a few gems on the current roster. Mangiapane brings it every game. These guys are right, Tkachuk hasn't been right since the Muzzin incident. Last night was his best game in awhile, and I look forward to seeing more of that from him. Hopefully he's back to his usual self sooner than later, but I think he's getting pretty frustrated, and I can't blame him. Love.

You have posted this in a number of threads now. Matthew Tkachuk is one of the best, but I think that if you think that he's the only one playing with heart, you should take a closer look at number 88. He shows up for every single shift, and he's as tenacious as they get. Love.

I'm really pulling for him. Big BOA tonight. I think he's going to bring it. Love.

I realize that this is becoming less and less a popular opinion, but I both like, and trust Brad Treliving. I have been seeing some banter around the boards lately where people are calling for his head, and in my opinion, that'd be a mistake. Most of us aren't great at assessing the value of the assets that we do have, and we are even worse at assessing the value of the assets that other teams have. Being the GM is much more complicated than it was when there were two captains picking their road hockey squads. It's possible that he offered Hanifin and Monohan for PLD. Maybe that's a great offer - but it doesn't factor into the equation that maybe Columbus was really hot for Laine. It's possible that his hands were tied when they needed to hire a coach. There have been rumblings for many years that while the Calgary ownership group is willing to spend to the cap, that they are also meddlers. He was in on Seguin, he was in on Hall, he's tried to address goaltending for years (MAF, Bishop), his drafts have been pretty good, and for the most part, we've come out better after the trades that he has made. I realize that the Hamonic trade wasn't awesome, but I understand why he made it at the time. I also didn't love that Ryan Fox was a part of the Hamilton/Lindholm deal, but maybe it was a deal breaker for the Hurricanes. Show me a GM that hasn't made a few regrettable trades? Early returns on Markstrom and Tanev are obvious. This team is really out of sync, and Tanev is consistently our most reliable defenseman, and he's half of our only truly reliable pair. Markstrom is our MVP, and the reason that we aren't currently in a race for the bottom. The team in front of them is playing terribly currently, and while I am not convinced that they are a Stanley Cup team at this point, I do think that they should be much better than they are. Augmenting what was looking like a pretty good team with those two guys was not a mistake. I trust that if management determines that it is time to blow it up, Brad Treliving will get good value for our players. If you don't think so, I would encourage you to look up the Jarome Iginila and Jay Bouwmeester trades, and reflect on how they are helping us now. Love.

Oh, Man... Who ever went into battle listening to Uncle Kracker? I suppose it could have been on while someone got into a fight at a roller rink, but that was over a girl. Love.

Jaysus. I didn't even realize that Rinaldo was in the lineup. Love.

Maybe, but when you carry it up to the red line, and pass it back to a guy that's at the hash marks in his own end, he's never going to catch up to you before you have to stop anyway. This is an excellent point, and I agree with you - the examples that Jeremy used were not exceptional, but I'll take him at his word that he only had a portion of the game recorded. It sounds to me like he's pretty frustrated with a play that he sees not working quite regularly. You're right, though. A successful zone entry is the objective, and after that, well, that's something different to work on. Yeah, but what about when it doesn't work? What's the next play? I would say that with the Flames, if it's the first unit, they'll try the bump back pass again and again. In the 4-1 loss to Winnipeg, they had two power plays very early, and they couldn't get anything going. A few games before that, I think that it was you that correctly expressed frustration because they were trying to dump it in on the power play, and they were just giving the puck away. If they have no speed on the zone entry, though, how are they supposed to actually retrieve it? So, I mean, the bump back pass is not "the problem", per se, but it's predictable, and when the other team plays it well, what are the other tools in the set? I remember one game, it may have been against Anaheim a couple years ago where they played it perfectly, and even picked off the pass and scored. That all said, I totally agree that if it's working, and they lose the zone, that's a separate issue. When it doesn't work, though, they sure are ineffective. Agreed. Sorry it took a few days to reply to this thread. I've had login issues with this site that date back to 2018, so I'm in awhile, and then I'm out awhile. Love.

So, I wasn't sure where to best put this as it's not exactly Flames related, so starting a new thread seemed like the wrong call. I am a peewee (now called U13) coach in Vancouver, and I pick up a lot of drills from Jeremy Weiss. Sadly, he's a die-hard lifelong Leafs fan - but he has a break down from the play-in round last year, and I thought that it was pretty good. It really illustrates what is, in my opinion, the sad reality of the Flames power play. The bump-back pass is so predictable, and I do not understand how the best way to break into the zone includes having four players standing still on the blue line. Totally worth the watch. Love.

This is good info, but the sample size is far too small. Personally, I don't actually think that this is the best spot for Bennett, but I'd bet that this data would look a lot better given a few games. Love.

This is the correct configuration. Love.

Who can watch live right now? Love.

Interesting article today in the Globe and Mail about blackouts. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/article-blackout-rules-make-watching-hockey-in-canada-confusing-frustrating/ The Reddit thread echos a lot of the frustration as well: Love.

Yeah, surprisingly, I like the Blasty jersey - I hated it the first time around... but it's not really a "reverse" retro, what, with it being the same colours and all. It just has less red. Love.

They're cool, but it's so hard to not think of this: Love.

Canucks fans be jaded. There are some inaccuracies, no doubt - apparently they are unaware that the Oilers are the only western Canadian team permitted to select first, but nevertheless... https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/canucks-hockey/the-flames-have-signed-canucks-players-and-stolen-their-jersey-whats-next-3141082 Love.