Prayers for the Conroy/Huska era of Calgary Flames (also curses to anyone not part of the Calgary Flames)

[V1nny83at5]

Regardless of your religion, I think we as Flames fans need to unite on a prayer for [hopefully] prosperity for the Calgary Flames team/organization.

 

The following list of prayers/lists for the Calgary Flames. May we pray that:

1. Craig Conroy does not repeat the same mistakes of past GMs (I'm looking at you Feaster and Treliving and Sutter before going back to coach) and makes the right moves (trades/signings/draft) that builds a proper team.

2. Ryan Huska can be a coach that galvanizes the team to play well together (don't repeat the Sutter issues; out with the old, in with the new)

3. Huberdeau, Kadri, Weegar and other members of the Calgary Flames rediscover their joy in playing hockey and resurrect their careers to become key members of the Flames success.

4. The young players (Coronato, Pelletier, Zary, Duehr, Wolf and [hopefully] Phillips) blossom into core contributing members for the Flames future years.

5. The new arena can revitalize the city, but please Murray Edwards, no more meddling in organization operations (I don't care if you like Sutter, he's no longer with us).

 

Ultimately I pray for a brighter era in Calgary. I'm trying to be optimistic, but if everything falls apart (which it usually does according to the Flames history), may I express my pessimistic and sadistic thoughts and lay a curse on the following things that are not Calgary-related?

1. Edmonton Oilers and any non-Calgary Flames team. I frankly don't care about the Canada cup curse. Any cup not won by the Flames is a travesty to the organization. May any team not named the Calgary Flames not win a Stanley Cup in the future (also if Gaudreau and Tkachuk leave the Flames then I lay a curse that the same will happen to McDavid/Draisaitl of Edmonton and Marner/Matthews of Toronto). 

2. Matthew Tkachuk and the Florida Panthers. You had your fun in the sun with your cinderella playoff run and Tkachuk suddenly becoming a playoff monster. May this be the last time we ever see Tkachuk in the Finals (if not in the playoffs, even better). Curse to you Tkachuk and frankly all of Florida (Tampa Bay still triggers 2004 painful memories; Florida, the less said about Tkachuk and Bennett, the better).

3. Johnny Gaudreau and the Columbus Blue Jackets. This is karma for not resigning with the Flames. I curse your team to continue finishing dead last for the foreseeable future and continue to be unlucky at the draft lottery.

4. Brad Treliving. Talk about failing upwards. You were the reason why we no longer have Gaudreau and Tkachuk and stuck with Huberdeau, Kadri and Weegar. Yet somehow you get hired to be GM of another team, let alone Toronto?! I curse that Treliving will also be the reason why the core four (Matthews, Marner, Tavares and Nylander) all leave the Toronto Maple Leafs.

5. Gary Bettman. This may be petty, but I curse Bettman into eventually moving the Arizona Coyotes out of that darn city and put them in a city that will actually care about hockey. Please free Arizona from their suffering.

 

These list of prayers and curses can be boiled down to a few sentences but to summarize: if the 2022-23 Flames season is the lowest moment in franchise history in terms of maximum pain and misery, then I hope there is nowhere to go but up. We hope Conroy and Huska can ascend the Flames to prosperity. But if things go south or wrong (which it usually dose), then we shall lay a curse on anyone not named the Calgary Flames or not wearing a Calgary Flames uniform that they too should suffer just as much as we have suffered as a franchise post-1989.

[conundrumed]

You've nailed it I believe! This is a good spot for my own long-winded thoughts.

BT - I'll preface this by saying, after almost 20 yrs in Calgary, I'm back in my Ontario hometown bordering Michigan. The split here is about 65-35 TML vs Wings fans. I'm Wings. Moving to Calgary didn't make me a Flames fan, I already was one as I've always hated the Oilers style of play and like Calgary's blue collared approach which has always been similar to the Wings.

I hold no ill will against Treliving at all and I hope he's successful. And nobody hates the Leafs more than I do. That fandom is an absolute cesspool and I'm constantly inundated by it. BT is a top GM in the league imho. He had some real stinkers with the Flames, but I think he was always under the duress and discretion of ownership and never, ever had free reign. I believe ownership ALWAYS had to approve his moves and likely instructed him to give Huberdeau bank due to the JG bad-pub fiasco.

I feel like he's in a better environment now only having to work with Shanahan, an actual hockey guy. I think he'll flourish. When Sutter arrived, many of BT's moves looked very Sutter-driven.

Sutter - Gudbranson stated that he signed in Calgary due to an early offseason call from Sutter that basically told him, "before you sign a deal, talk to us last". Same year that we got Zadorov. That tells me Sutter had clearance from ownership to override BT.

If Sutter is exceptional at 1 thing, it's building up otherwise middle-of-the road or below average dmen. Z credits him, Gudbranson gets a way-overvalued contract. Waiving Valimaki was Sutter more than BT imho. Sutter then spent more time trying to "fix" Weegar's game rather than playing him to his strengths. Weegar was already a good dman.

Sutter really seemed to spend too much time downplaying the acquired players in the Tkachuk deal. Because it wasn't "his" deal, I can only surmise.

These all tie back to ownership. On one side of the coin, BT's doing what they're authorizing/instructing him to do. On the other side, they're giving Sutter authority to make GM decisions.

Sutter's actions and words, too often, circumvented BT. It is zero surprise that the team didn't perform well as ownership created a tug-of-war on direction.

Both Sutter and BT are great at what they do. Ownership created an oil and water relationship. The team resembled that.

 

Conroy - I don't love it, but I'll play wait and see. This isn't shiny happy people holding hands. Managing is the opposite of that. I'm a little leery of the chatty "buddy" act. That isn't the reality so I hope that he's ready for that and that, "fresh, new approach" does little to change the dynamics. You have to lay waste to being emotional and concise about being all business. Wanting to bring Tanguay and Iginla into the fold is a huge red flag for me. We don't need a buddies reunion, we need a cutthroat manager.

Huska - It's been a few short years since we wanted Huska in this role and now he's been behind the bench in a support role for a suitable amount of time to read the NHL game and other coaches. I like this hire and prefer it over Mitch Love. It shows Love that's not all for naught also. Maybe we lose Love now or he moves to Asst role. If we hired Love, I think we lose Huska with greater certainty. Huska is better equipped for the role. Guys we developed on the team now are guys that developed via Huska so the few connections we have are stronger ones. Even for, say, a Ruzicka. And if Phillips doesn't re-sign now, I think we pretty much have our answer on whether or not we consider him an NHLer.

I think it's the right hire.

Rookies - I think Coronato takes a 3rd line role next year at minimum. We'll collectively be underwhelmed and then wonder how he quietly puts up decent numbers for a rookie. He's a player that I think is good at everything, but not great at anything. He can put up 20g/30a almost unnoticeable. Should top out as a near-ppg guy and leave everyone wondering how he does it. Solid IQ player that Backlund can work with. I'm looking forward to following him. He'll be a great complimentary player in all situations.

Overall - The roster has a bit of everything with gaps to fill. Conroy really needs to assess what he wants the bottom 6 and D setups to look like. This is very typical for us and we have to stop doing the same thing. Which, to me, is running a "good enough" bottom 6 and D pairings. It's not good enough.

I want to see how that's addressed without Lewis and Lucic and the bottom 4 dmen. The bottom of the roster has been hot garbage like it doesn't matter.

My #1 player to lose is stats darling Mangiapane. Sell a little high. Replace his "goals" with assists. No more guys that fall down consistently or try to play "gritty" on the dirty side. Between him and Dube, I much prefer Dube. Mangiapane is soft af and taking up a roster spot under Backlund's protection. We need some forechecking size and skill. Not Mangiapane floating in the high slot hoping something aggressive happens that doesn't involve him being aggressive. My opinion.

And focus on Dmen that are actually good at protecting our net by tying up sticks and players and interrupt cycling with physical play. I'll trade anyone for that.

The SCF was just a clinic. We're going to crash your net. Can you handle it? Vegas imposed their will and strength at both ends of the ice. You can match it or you can't.

We desperately need size, and not just as a reaction, but as a rule.

[travel_dude]

26 minutes ago, conundrumed said:

The SCF was just a clinic. We're going to crash your net. Can you handle it? Vegas imposed their will and strength at both ends of the ice. You can match it or you can't.

 

There was some interesting iso shots of the Vegas netfront.  You could look from the net out and not see a FLA player within 20 feet in any direction.  The slot was vacant.  Any pucks from the high slot had to go through 3 layers.  So, the inability of the Flames to clear the netfront was easily the reason we had a lot of goals against there.  Oilers were using the guy on the far post to be ready for rebounds, but you take them out and there in the one-timer and that is it.