Everything Else

Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight – January 8th

By Sam Fels 974 0

First Screen Viewing

Oilers vs. Sharks – 9:30

It hasn’t quite taken off after Ken Hitchcock’s initial dead cat bounce (especially apt when talking about the Oilers).  They’re still stranded outside the playoff fun and still facing the same problems they had before, except their GM is picking up even shittier players than he was before. The Sharks ended the Lightning’s unbeaten streak on Saturday and have the Flames to keep up with. That win though exemplifies the raw power this team is capable of, and they might not sweat playoff seeding too much anyway. And hey, McDavid might be pissed off after being boarded in Anaheim even though Jabba The Hitch thought playing him with Kassian and Khaira would prevent that. So tune in for the comedy.

Second Screen Viewing

Avalanche vs. Jets – 7pm

The Avs are starting to fall, as the horseshit Stars are right on their heels for the last automatic spot. You can only do it with one line for so long, and whenever that line has a dip you’re going to suffer. The Avs desperately need someone else to step up. The Jets are going to be duking it out with the Preds at the top of the division, though having won without home-ice last year might decrease the urgency. They’re going to be without Byfuglien and Ehlers for a while, which might handicap their race. Still, two of the more explosive teams around.

Other Games

Wild vs. Bruins – 6pm

Devils vs. Sabres – 6pm

Hurricanes vs. Islanders – 6pm

Panthers vs. Penguins – 6pm

Flyers vs. Capitals – 6:30

Canadiens vs. Red Wings – 6:30

Blue Jackets vs. Lightning – 6:30

Stars vs. Blues – 7pm

Rangers vs. Knights – 9pm

Everything Else

The Real NHL Standings Halfway Through

By Sam Fels 1507 0

Everyone has played half their schedule now, so this is something I like to do. It’s what the standings would look like if it were a system that made sense. We do it two ways, so walk with me here. First, here are the standings as they are now:

Atlantic Division GP W L OL PTS
Tampa Bay Lightning 42 32 8 2 66
Toronto Maple Leafs 42 27 13 2 56
Boston Bruins 42 24 14 4 52
Buffalo Sabres 42 22 14 6 50
Montreal Canadiens 43 22 16 5 49
Florida Panthers 40 17 16 7 41
Detroit Red Wings 44 16 21 7 39
Ottawa Senators 43 15 23 5 35
Metropolitan Division GP W L OL PTS
Washington Capitals 41 25 12 4 54
Pittsburgh Penguins 42 23 13 6 52
Columbus Blue Jackets 41 24 14 3 51
New York Islanders 40 23 13 4 50
Carolina Hurricanes 41 19 17 5 43
New York Rangers 41 17 17 7 41
New Jersey Devils 41 16 18 7 39
Philadelphia Flyers 42 15 21 6 36
Central Division GP W L OL PTS
Nashville Predators 44 26 15 3 55
Winnipeg Jets 41 26 13 2 54
Colorado Avalanche 42 20 14 8 48
Dallas Stars 43 22 17 4 48
Minnesota Wild 41 21 17 3 45
Chicago Blackhawks 45 16 22 7 39
St. Louis Blues 40 17 19 4 38
Pacific Division GP W L OL PTS
Calgary Flames 44 27 13 4 58
Vegas Golden Knights 45 26 15 4 56
San Jose Sharks 44 24 13 7 55
Anaheim Ducks 43 19 17 7 45
Vancouver Canucks 45 20 21 4 44
Edmonton Oilers 42 20 19 3 43
Arizona Coyotes 42 18 21 3 39
Los Angeles Kings 44 17 24 3 37

Now, let’s get rid of this ridiculous OT system. So all overtimes and shootouts are just ties, and we’ll simply measure by regulation wins:

Atlantic Division GP W L T PTS
Tampa Bay Lightning 42 24 8 8 56
Toronto Maple Leafs 42 22 13 5 49
Boston Bruins 42 19 14 5 43
Montreal Canadiens 43 18 16 4 40
Buffalo Sabres 42 14 14 8 36
Florida Panthers 40 11 16 6 28
Ottawa Senators 43 12 23 3 27
Detroit Red Wings 44 8 21 8 24
Metropolitan Division GP W L T PTS
Washington Capitals 41 19 12 6 44
Pittsburgh Penguins 42 19 13 4 42
Columbus Blue Jackets 41 19 14 5 43
New York Islanders 40 18 13 5 41
Carolina Hurricanes 41 16 17 3 35
New York Rangers 41 11 17 6 28
New Jersey Devils 41 14 18 2 30
Philadelphia Flyers 42 12 21 3 27
Central Division GP W L T PTS
Nashville Predators 44 22 15 4 48
Winnipeg Jets 41 20 13 6 46
Colorado Avalanche 42 19 14 2 40
Dallas Stars 43 19 17 1 39
Minnesota Wild 41 17 17 5 39
St. Louis Blues 40 15 19 2 32
Chicago Blackhawks 45 11 22 5 27
Pacific Division GP W L T PTS
Calgary Flames 44 23 13 4 50
Vegas Golden Knights 45 22 15 4 48
San Jose Sharks 44 21 13 3 45
Edmonton Oilers 42 14 19 6 34
Anaheim Ducks 43 14 17 6 34
Vancouver Canucks 45 12 21 7 31
Arizona Coyotes 42 13 21 5 31
Los Angeles Kings 44 12 24 5 29

Not too much changes, but it’s also not the same. The Lightning are still running away with the league. The Wings would comfortably be the worst team in the league. The Hawks would be marooned in the Central, and the Oilers would look a little rosier. The Sharks would be in bigger trouble than they are now. Just a fun little experiment to see who’s doing the real work.

 

Everything Else

“I Have This Crazy GM Who Thinks The Hawks Are Playing Well Lately. Is He Crazy?” “No, Just Ignorant.”

By Sam Fels 1857 0

Had to wait a day on this one due to the Hawks playing last night, but you knew I was going to get to Stan Bowman’s latest oral trash-spillage to The Athletic’s Scott Powers yesterday. There’s some truly great stuff in here, and once again proves that either Stan is straight up lying to you, or doesn’t really know what he’s doing or watching any more, and either way is more than happy to toss his old coach under yet another bus even though at this point he’s flatter than week-old Sprite. Let’s jump right in, shall we?

Stan Bowman: Setting the standings aside, we dug ourselves a big hole that way, but the way we’re playing now is much more like a regular team. For a while there, we were sort of underwater where we’ve had some glaring issues and then we’d finally fix those and something else would (go wrong). Now we win and lose games, but we’re like a normal team, right?

First question, so real genuine, top-quality horseshit. At least he didn’t wait around! What in the living fuck does “regular team” mean? Clearly Stan is talking about the Hawks recent record, but as a very charming and handsome blogger recently pointed out, the team’s recent record is empty. The process is flawed. The Hawks recent record is due to Collin Delia playing out of this world, Cam Ward being shockingly competent, and the power play finding its feet for the first time since 1876. And hey, the last part is worth cherishing, and I guess you can go far with a power play and goalies playing well. That’s what the Capitals are. But that’s not what you’re aiming for, it’s not sustainable. Since the Hawks broke that second eight-game losing streak, how many games would you say they’ve clearly been the better team? Certainly Sunday in Pittsburgh. I’d say the Winter Classic too. Maybe last night for two periods but the Hawks were dong-whipped in the third last night by a clearly superior team. The second win in Colorado. Their win over the Predators. And the first win over the Penguins. That’s five of out of 13 games. Sure, you won more than that thanks to one guy mostly. That’s what you’re aiming for? You got killed by the Islanders! You’re giving up 40 shots a night! Your metrics blow! Didn’t you tell us one of the reasons you liked Jeremy Colliton is he would actually pay attention to those? Who cares, you don’t!

I was reading something about the Islanders — it was right around New Year’s Eve I read this story — and they said “now we’re finally getting what Barry (Trotz) wanted us to do.” A new coach came in, so it took them half a year. But they had training camp, so they had all of September, all of October. And then it’s almost like in November is when your schedule gets tougher. You don’t play a lot of games in October, so you have more practices. It was right when the schedule got tougher is when Jeremy came in. He had a few practices. It was a really tough start there. But I think now we’ve played a lot of games, so our second half we’re going to have a little bit more time to practice. The flip side of that is just guys are more wound down, so you probably don’t want to practice as much as you do.

Then maybe you should have fired the coach before the season like you wanted to anyway, y’know, if you had a pair of balls.

But so I think we’ve stabilized our situation to where now I think you can see we’re starting to play more like he wants us to play. Like I said, we don’t win every game, but we’re playing better in all these games. I think the process took a while to play out, but it was sort of understandable given our little time to practice.

Giving up 40 shots a night is where you want to be? I mean I appreciate the flair for dramatic but…

I talked about this the last time we met. You have to try to put players in places you think that your coaches really like or they have attributes that are important to your coach. Similar like, (Carl) Dahlstrom’s played really well, but he played great last year for Jeremy. Yeah once he’s got up here, he played a lot better. He was here last year and he was OK, right? But I think he’s playing much better now. You can say, well, it’s because he’s more mature and he’s used to it or you can say that the style we’re playing now is more conducive to his game.

We’re running out of buses to throw Q under. And while Q’s player evaluation could be weird for sure, I doubt he ever would have thought Brandon Manning or Jan Rutta were anything other than “the suck.” And this also raises the question of why the Hawks farm team is playing a different system than the NHL team and why you’d intentionally confuse any kid who came through both. The only one to be good right off the bat so far have been Top Cat and Jokiharju, who wouldn’t you know it never spent any time in Rockford.

I’m sort of the same way trying to evaluate we’re not where we want to be in terms we’re not at the top of the standings like we had been in previous years. You have to determine which of the players on this year’s team right now can realistically be contributors next year and in the coming years.

I think there’s no question we’re on the rise. We’re a team that’s going to be better a year from now than we are now and two years from now. We should be trending upwards. A lot of our best players are our young players with the exception of a couple guys. We’re not a veteran-laden team like some teams are.

The goal for the remainder of the year is to watch the team and evaluate areas where you’re deficient and then figure out, can some of these guys fill that as we go ahead or we do have to bring new players in? Do we have players coming that can (step in)? Sort of you have to make an assessment of where you’re at and then find out how you can bridge that gap. Really over the next whatever 35 games or whatever we have left, you have to watch our young players and see what role they can play for us next year realistically. Then how does that plot out on a roster and then for the areas that we don’t have that we will need, how do we fill those holes?

That’s not what you said before the season, except any goofus with at least one eye would have seen this roster wasn’t good enough. Are we supposed to trust you on the gear change after you told us this roster was good enough?

To answer your question, I do think we can turn it around quickly. Our goal is not to be in this position a year from now. We’re not trying to not win games. I think even if we brought the exact same roster back next year, which we’re not going to do, but if we did, we would be better because we would not have to go through the adjustment period. We’re playing now like a team that if we played this way from the beginning we’d be in the mix, right? Still not the team we want. We want to be a team at the top. We certainly need to add a couple players to the group we have here. Whether that’s through trade or draft or free agent, there’s no reason to think we can’t look at our team next October and be, like, really excited about where we’re headed next year as well as the year or two after that.

Didn’t you say this last year? And again, you’re not playing that well! You’re getting lucky! A goalie you never planned on being part of this team is playing incredibly well. And we don’t even know if that’s real yet. You don’t have anything here yet. Are you paying any attention at all or are you too busy booking Bobby Hull for another appearance?

Stan goes on to talk about Crawford and the World Juniors, and the one thing I’ll say about Powers and the rest is that when Stan goes off about Beaudin, Boqvist, and Mitchell there’s never any question about how the Hawks are going to crowbar those three onto the roster, even two years down the line, when we know Jokiharju, Keith, Seabrook, and Murphy are going to be here and Dahlstrom and Gustafsson are at least pretending to play themselves into long-term roles. That’s what I’d like to know.

I understand Stan can’t really come out and say, “Yeah the wins are nice but they’re total luck and really we still suck because we have less regulation wins than anyone (they do). And I don’t know how we get out of this because Keith and Seabrook have turned to dust and I can’t get rid of them.” He’s got to sell this somehow.

The fear is he actually believes this shit. Which means the Hawks are pretty much doomed from here on out.

 

Everything Else

Game #45 – She Said You’ve Taken Me For Granted Because I Please You – Flames 4, Hawks 3

By Rose Rankin 1725 0

If you looked at the score and thought, “Four goals? DEY GOTTA START WARD MY FRENTS” let me just tell you to shove it right up your ass. Collin Delia played an exceptional game against one of the best teams in the league right now, and oh yeah one of those was an empty netter so I don’t want to hear any shit. To the bullets:

Box Score

Corsica

Natural Stat Trick

– This game was fast and entertaining. The first period had a combined 28 shots, and both goals were beauties. Gaudreau’s was the result of a defensive breakdown (SHOCKING) as Dahlstrom got mesmerized by a scrum in the crease and left Gaudreau alone with a wide open net. He made it look easy. So too did Patrick Kane near the end of the period. A quick pass from Anisimov at the blue line, Kane skated it in alone, and David Rittich let the backhand by him with barely even a wave of his arm. Both goals would have been prevented by better defensive play but both were damn enjoyable to watch.

– In the second, the Flames came out a little flat and the Hawks actually took advantage of this with yet another beautiful Kane-to-DeBrincat scoring play. Watching this, hell, writing this, makes me want to curl up in the fetal position while thinking of how Top Cat and Kane could be a permanent second line with Dylan Strome, but I’ve done enough agonizing over the decisions of Chicago coaches for one week, thank you very much.

– In addition to that goal in the second, the Hawks were leading in possession with a 67 CF% at the halfway mark of the period (I’m referring to the second period only; they actually were underwater in possession in the first). Delia made some solid saves and the Hawks were driving the play, until Dylan Strome took a penalty during the very power play he caused by drawing a penalty. Cosmic, no? Anyway, the 4-on-4 seemed to ignite the Flames (SEE WHAT I DID THERE) and Monahan tied it up a few minutes later on yet another penalty, this one by Gustafsson.

– Despite that penalty, Erik “Scoring Machine” Gustafsson continued his point streak tonight with two assists, bringing it to six games with at least a point. He had a 56.8 CF% to boot, so if it weren’t for that dumb penalty I’d have actual nice things to say about him.

– OK, let’s talk about Collin Delia. He finished with a .929 SV% and he faced 42 shots, 18 of which came in the third. The first goal was, as already mentioned, the result of his defenders leaving one of the best players in the league with the entire net to himself and about 15 minutes to sit there thinking about scoring. The second goal was a power play goal, and it took multiple tries for Tkachuk and Monahan to elevate it past Delia, because when they tried their point-blank passing play and shot, Delia was in the perfect position and made the save. The third goal was the result of the shittiest change possible when three Hawks just ignored Gaudreau AGAIN and left him literally at center ice, alone, with the puck. None of these can be pinned on Delia because to get it past him the Flames had to be at their very best. And had it not been for Delia, this easily could have been 7-3. I’m happy to see Delia look calm under pressure and clearly be able to handle a barrage of shots thanks to this Swiss cheese they call a defense. But listening to Jamal Mayers and Steve Konroyd in the pre-game talk about how the “hot hand” should play, and how it really should be Ward if this weren’t the second night of a back-to-back, is just mind-numbingly infuriating.

– OK, enough of that. God damn the Flames’ top line is dominant. Not only did Johnny Gaudreau score twice, and seemingly at will because for some reason the Blackhawks kept ignoring him or pretending he wasn’t real, but he, Monahan and Lindholm had an 81 CF%. This isn’t news; I just had to say it.

– Brandon Saad was nearly having a minor resurgence of the bad old days where he couldn’t score to save his life. How he didn’t score on the open net in the second I’ll never understand, although credit to Sam Bennett who poked the puck away from Saad, and Rasmus Andersson who tied him up just long enough to deny him the rebound opportunity. He got the third goal with seconds to spare in the game, which unfortunately was pointless, but there is nothing to panic about with Saad.

– David Kampf hit the god damn post. Sometimes I marvel at the synchronicity of the universe but in this case I’ve had just about enough.

– The Hawks’ resurgent power play? Nonexistent tonight. It in fact did revert to the bad old days. I’ll leave it at that.

– Brandon Davidson had a couple nice plays tonight, including a nice stretch pass to Kane and preventing yet another shot on goal as Delia was getting pummeled in the third. It almost made me feel bad that we’ll never see him again once Jokiharju gets back from partying with the Juniors team.

It’s annoying that the Hawks blew a lead and couldn’t even salvage one point, but the Flames are a genuinely good team so that’s just the world we live in. We got another one in just 48 hours…onward and upward.

Photo credit: Chicago Tribune

Everything Else

Game #45 – Flames vs. Hawks Preview/City-Wide Wake: Is There A Chance The Center Could Bend?

By Sam Fels 1651 0

 vs. 

RECORDS: Flames 26-13-4 (1st in Pacific)   Hawks 16-21-7 (6th in Central)

PUCK DROP: 7:30

TV: NBCSN Chicago

FRIENDS OF CAL AND GARY’S: FlamesNation.ca

It’s a cruel world, this NHL. After the Hawks played what was maybe their best game of the season in Pittsburgh last night, outplaying the hottest team in the league, their reward is to wheel it back out there again tonight against another first-placed team who has been waiting for them. And one that’s already beaten them twice this season. It ain’t all waitin’ on you, as Sheriff Tom Bell’s brother told him at the end of No Country For Old Men. 

All seems pretty right in the world for the Calgary Flames, who are at least almost all of the way pivoted to David Rittich in goal, which was their biggest issue. The top line has gone absolutely bonkers, with all of Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, and Elias (I SAID WWE STANDS FOR….) Lindholm in the top-20 in scoring in the league. Matthew Tkachuk is having quite the free agent hear with 49 points his own damn self from the second line, where Mikael Backlund continues to beat anyone about the head and face possession-wise. They even get contributions from the bottom-six, even if James Neal will soon require a Hazmat treatment to be around.

The defense is the real key, where Mark Giordano‘s normal Norris-worthy year has been joined by a rebound from T.J. Brodie, and a bigger rebound from Travis Hamonic on the second-pairing. They’re even letting child Rasmus Andersson freewheel on the third-pairing, and he’s got wheels for days (and you got ass for weeks yeah yeah yeah).

Earlier in the year, the Flames were having defensive issues, even with that personnel. That seems to have cleared up a little, as only the Sharks give up less attempts per game at evens, and they’ve improved to middle of the pack in xGA/60 from near the bottom where they were. Any middling goals-against numbers are mostly the result of having Mike Smith and his arms that don’t work on the roster, and insisting on playing him any other time than when Rittich has the plague. As with most Bill Peters led teams, their metrics are glowing and this all appears to be real.

Whether the Flames can negotiate their way far in the spring depends on if Rittich is the real deal when it really counts, and if they can finish top of the division. Do that, and you only have to beat one of the Knights or Sharks to get to the West final. Don’t and you have to go through both, and that’s going to be a real trick.

As for the Hawks, they’ll turn to Collin Delia tonight, and you’d have to imagine given the Flames firepower he’s going to be awfully busy. In his limited NHL experience, this is about as good of an offense he’s seen, barring the uncaring Jets at the end of last season. Sure, the Avs have their top line but the Flames have that and then more. So this will be an interesting test, especially behind a tired team.

Shouldn’t be any other changes. Would expect Chris Kunitz to stay in the lineup after not being a toxic waste dump last night. Henri Jokiharju did fly back to Chicago last night and could play but I think Wednesday is more likely. They’d want at least one practice or morning skate, if only to figure out where exactly he slots. But you never know. Other than that, Drake Caggiula makes his home debut.

If the Hawks are going to get anything out of this one, they’ll need the special teams just like they did last night. The Flames aren’t a great PK team, and their power play is not as good as you’d think given what they have on it. A power play goal or two are close to a requirement.

 

Game #45 Preview Suite

Preview

Spotlight

Q&A

Douchebag Du Jour

I Make A Lot Of Graphs

Lineups & How Teams Were Built

Everything Else

Game #45 – Flames vs. Hawks Spotlight: Matthew Tkachuk Is The Next Nylander?

By Sam Fels 1471 0

Much like his father, Matthew Tkachuk is extremely annoying. Apple doesn’t fall far from the fuckstick and all that. He has pissed off pretty much every fanbase and player in the Pacific Division, and if he isn’t already he will soon reach Ryan Kesler levels of vitriol by anyone who has to deal with him regularly.

And much like his father, he’s a real weapon. Keith was a center you couldn’t move from around the net, when he wasn’t busy yapping about how much money he was making. You can’t move Matthew much either, and he could soon be yapping about how much money he’s going to be making. Which might make the Flames a little nervous.

Tkachuk is on a real heater this season, He’s at 18 goals and 29 assists, good enough for 47 points. His career-high in points is 47 set last year. So the 90 he’s on pace for now obviously blows that out of the water. Which makes him awfully expensive, as it just so happens that he’s coming out of his entry-level deal.

This is where the Flames might not want to hear the word, “Nylander.” As he’s reset the market for players coming out of entry deals, there are going to be others who want to take advantage of that. Keep in mind that William Nylander only put up 61 points in his year before his extended holdout. Tkachuk looks a good bet for at least 80. $7 million might not even be the upper-limit for what he seeks. Tkachuk can’t even be knocked for benefitting from playing with Johnny Gaudreau or Sean Monahan, as he’s spent most of his time taking on much harder assignments with Mikael Backlund and Michael Frolik in the 3M line you’ve heard so much about. Tkachuk’s agent will be thinking about a lot more than 3 Ms come the summer.

Which will put the Flames structure and policies under the microscope. Gaudreau earns $6.7M per year, signed out of his entry-level deal. He’s clearly the Flames top star. Monahan comes in behind that at $6.3M. Are they in a hurry to pay someone more than him? We like to pretend these aren’t big deals in NHL dressing rooms, but we also know that’s a fallacy.

The Flames aren’t blessed with a ton of room, with somewhere around $14M available next season. Tkachuk will eat up about half of that next year, or he could. Both of their goalies are free agents, and while they’ll be delighted to send Mike Smith on his way, if Big Save Dave Rittich takes them far in the spring he’s going to need a lot more than the $800K he’s getting now. The season after next both TJ Brodie and Travis Hamonic are up, and the Flames are going to require a second pairing. Brodie especially could command a raise from his current $4.6M.

Man, what a burden it is to have a lot of good young players in the NHL.

It’s another example of just how hard the line is to balance. Looking it over, the Flames only have one really bad contract on the books. That’s James Neal‘s free agent deal from this past summer. But they’ll still have to figure out how to fit Tkachuk and others around that in the next two summers, while adding so they can get over whatever obstacle presents themselves. One more bad deal, to either their own or another free agent, and the Flames could start losing talent.

Which makes the hardball Tkachuk could play this summer a real adventure for them.

 

Game #45 Preview Suite

Preview

Spotlight

Q&A

Douchebag Du Jour

I Make A Lot Of Graphs

Lineups & How Teams Were Built

Everything Else

Game #45 – Flames vs. Hawks Q&A: It’s Mad, It’s Not Pretty, And It Calls Itself Floob

By Sam Fels 1800 0

@BookofLoob is yet another creature we’ve unearthed from the darkest depths of the internet. We asked it questions, but don’t ask too many questions about it. 

The Flames are still in first. This thing has to be real now, right?
 
Nashville is finally being undone by their “I love domestic abusers and a 36 year old Finnish Mike Smith” GM, and good things are never, EVER allowed to happen to Winnipeg, so yeah, this is real. You get some goaltending and you let the fake goalie ride the pine, mix it in with a top line that’s scoring at will, plus you throw in that, aside from Garnet Hathaway, you essentially have a top to bottom roster with real, functional players, the results are going to roll in.
Power play still sucks.
 
Johnny Gaudreau is fourth in the league in scoring. And yet he doesn’t seem to get the press of McDavid or Kucherov or the Colorado kids. He should blow past his career high of 30 goals with 23 already. Why the breakthrough?
 
If we’re calling this a breakthrough, it’s only because the breakthrough has been going on for about three or four years now and progressing as Johnny H enters his prime. Gaudreau and Sean Monahan could always rack up the points together, but it used to be Gaudreau carrying his line while Monahan got the vulture goals, but in recent years, Monahan has added a few dimensions to his game as well. Having a legitimate number 1 RW on their line with Elias Lindholm doesn’t hurt either.
Or maybe it’s because Johnny doesn’t get black out drunk at Cowboy’s anymore. But it’s probably not that, because Johnny absolutely still gets blackout drunk at Cowboy’s.
 
What are the Flames going to do before the deadline?
 
If you ask Leafs fans, it’s trade Rasmus Andersson to them, but if you ask anyone rational, it’s probably just a depth move here or there. As good as the Flames have been, they’re probably not Tampa Bay Lightning tier just yet, and unless they can swing Mark Stone, not many of the rental players out there are going to bump them up to that level.
I think they’d like a backup goalie in case anything happens to Big Save Dave, because you don’t want to have to rely on Mike Smith for anything other than wearing cool hats on the bench. Ideally, if you could murder him or trade him somewhere or something, that would help. One of the big mistakes the team has done this year is bury a really effective Michael Frolik, to the point where I see him being traded sooner rather than later. Maybe there’s something there.
But goddamn how cool would it be to get Mark Stone?
 
Let’s have you bitch about James Neal some more…
 
How about something nice? He’s the first overpaid, underachieving, head scratcher of a Brad Treliving acquisition that isn’t an ex-Hawk.
At least not yet 😉
 
Finally…do you want to walk with Elias?
 
I have bought so many scarves, floral shirts, and a Fender guitar. I want everyone watching the game to silence their cell phones, hold your applause, and shut your mouths. There is one universal truth, a tenet I hold above all else. You see it when the top lines rolls over Brent Seabrook, and you feel it when you look into Cam Ward‘s eyes, his terrified, self aware that he is Cam Ward eyes. It becomes a part of you when the game is over and it’s 5-1 for the Flames and the Hawks are salivating over Jack Hughes while Calgary looks to wrap up home ice throughout the playoffs, and that truth is…. WWE STANDS FOR “WALK. WITH.ELIAS”.
Say it with me now Sam.

 

Game #45 Preview Suite

Preview

Spotlight

Q&A

Douchebag Du Jour

I Make A Lot Of Graphs

Lineups & How Teams Were Built

Everything Else

Game #45 – Flames vs. Hawks Douchebag Du Jour: Anything That’s Not These

By Sam Fels 1496 0

There are myriad reasons that the NHL isn’t as popular as it could, maybe even should, be. And a lot of them are little reasons. But add them up enough, and the NHL could be a different landscape. And one of them is teams running from their retro jerseys.

Nothing pops on HD television like bright NHL jerseys, at least not ones bordered or splashed with black, on a white ice surface. The Flames’ throwbacks are a prime example. The Oilers’ old blues were. The Flyers orange. The Penguins figured out to go back to their plainer yellow, both home and road, because it contrasts better. The Islanders’ blue is another prime example.

Games on HD TV would grab eyes a lot better if both sets of jerseys pop. Look at the NBA and how their alternates almost always are brighter. Cool college football jerseys go the same route. Cast your mind to what it looks like with the retro Flames and retro Oilers away jerseys looking like on a Saturday night, and how much better it would be if all games looked this vivid.

Look at these beautiful things. Why would you douse them with unnecessary black lining and pants? It shades everything. Deadens. Why would you run from this? Especially as the Flames won their only Cup wearing these, why wouldn’t you hang onto this?

There should be a decree that you can’t wear black unless it’s actually one of your colors. Flyers, Hawks, Ducks, Kings, Sharks, Knights, Penguins and that’s it. Everyone else needs to be brighter, to make the game look better. It doesn’t sound like much, but it would make a bigger difference than you think.

 

Game #45 Preview Suite

Preview

Spotlight

Q&A

Douchebag Du Jour

I Make A Lot Of Graphs

Lineups & How Teams Were Built

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Game #45 – Flames vs. Hawks: Lineups & How Teams Were Built

By Sam Fels 1262 0

Notes: That top line is going to be quite the challenge for Murphy and Dahlstrom. Gaudreau has 11 points in his last four games and Monahan has nine…Rittich can’t quite seem to fully grab the #1 job yet, as Smith got two straight starts after the turn of the calendar, but Rittich has gotten the last one and they won so expect him to go tonight…Bill Peters still hates Michael Frolik…Tkachuk also has seven points in his last four games…

Notes: Wouldn’t expect too many changes. There’s an outside shot that Jokiharju plays tonight as he came back last night, but without a morning skate or practice to bleed him back in Wednesday seems more likely…Delia will start, and he will be busy…Toews’s line absolutely destroyed the bottom six of the Penguins last night, which was curious that they weren’t eventually combatted with Crosby…Caggiula didn’t look helpless, and they’re already making noise about moving him to center, so you can look for Kruger’s name to come up in trade talks…

 

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Lineups & How Teams Were Built