The Flames: Quantity and Quality Moves?
Posted by jtbourne on February 2, 2010 · 16 Comments
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Weeeeee, trades are fun!
Burkes an idiot! No, a genius! The Flames are in chaos! The Chames are in flaos! LETS BLLLOOOGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!
Let me start the day by saying thanks to Craig B for the donation – I tried to write you personally, but I got “NoSoupForYou’ed” by your email address. It means a lot to me, and every little bit helps buy me time before having to go real job hunting. So yeah, thanks again, dog.
Always been a big fan of Irish pubs.
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Also, before hockey trade talk – I had an Anquan Boldin sighting here in Phoenix a few days ago. Just a casual dinner with his wife and kid out at an Irish Pub - he was wearing the preferred outfit of football/basketball players everywhere: huge basketball shorts, huge white t-shirt, hat with the 50/50 sticker on it and a diamond earring. Super low key, but also super “g”. What a win-win.
….Jokes aside, that man has my respect – had his sinuses collapsed with a helmet to the face, then played two weeks later after not taking any pain medication. That’s some tough-stuff right there.
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Hahaha…. um…. I don’t even know. Maybe the caption for these pics should be “Today, on Ellen…”
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So the trades. The Flames just overturned about 40% of their forwards and 30% of their total team, going from:
Oli Jokinen
Brandon Prust
Dion Phaneuf
Fredrik Sjostrom
TO
Matt Stajan
Nicklas Hagman
Jamal Myers
Alex Kotalik
Chris Higgins
Ian White
Mmmm, tastes like quantity over quality…. but really, they might be onto something. During my assessment of the Western Conference, I discussed how a few teams are overachieving – which is, by being quick, young and deep with good goaltending (Buffalo, Phoenix, Colorado). I usually push for stars over a bunch of “pretty good” players, but I think in picking up Stajan/Hagman/Kotalik/Higgins, they got players that have potential to be above “pretty good” status, especially together. Not stars, but guys that, in the right situation, could be very valuable.
I’m a little worried for my boy Eric Nystom. Not good when your team picks up a Costco-sized pack of forwards and your a guy who spends a fair chunk of time on the shelf.
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Dear major hockey networks: please stop showing Cammalerri’s buckling leg. The boards won. We KNOW. Ugh.
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Kurt Dusterberg has written a book called Journeymen: Bittersweet Tales of Short Major League Sports Careers, and sent me a copy to review. I have not yet done so (though it looks like it’s got some really neat stories to tell), because I’m a busy dude, but if the premise interests you, you can buy a copy here. Six of the 24 stories are hockey guys: Dallas Eakins, Scott Gruhl, Darren Jensen, Fred Knipsheer, Peter LeBoutilllier, and David Littman. I’ll tell you more once I get to it!
Also, the Moshansky boys sent me “A to Z Guide To Hockey Terms” for review. This great little book strikes me as something they should sell in the US, in the southern markets. Actually, the teams that live in those markets should buy them in bulk and have a night where everybody gets a copy. It’s a pretty handy compilation of the most common (and some not-so-common) terms, nicknames, penalties, etc. Great to help a new fan understand and enjoy the game all the more.
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Hey look: someone finally invented a formula PROVING Crosby is more valuable than Ovechkin. I mean, right? There doesn’t seem to be any flaws in a formula that finds an assist half as valuable as a goal (just ask the Sedins). Also (as the creator points out), we can finally prove that Mike Fisher is having a better year than Joe Thornton. Good-ness.
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Lets have your prediction: Do the Flames make the playoffs?
I'm a hockey player turned writer. After playing for Alaska Anchorage in the WCHA (NCAA), I carried on with an NHL tryout (New York Islanders in 2007) before spending a couple seasons in the AHL/ECHL (last year was 2008-09). My father, Bob Bourne, won four Stanley Cups with the Islanders in the '80's, as did my fiancee's dad, Clark Gillies. I'm now the web editor for theScore's hockey blog "Backhand Shelf."
No, the Flames do not make the playoffs. Because if they do, it lessens (is that a real word?) the chances of the Wings making it. I am a Wings fan. In all seriousness though, the cream ALWAYS rises to the top so maybe the Flames do as I think they are better than the Avs and Preds. Mark my words, the Avs WILL hit the wall….any day now. I like the Flames’ trades, they definitely got better….it is surprising the Leafs were able to absorb 2 (two) 7 million dollar contracts…WOW.
Maybe a second assist is worth less then a goal, there is a reason why most rec leagues don’t track them, that and the incompetence of the ref’s.
I don’t know how a team with Calgary’s road record could miss the playoffs. But its like they are starting the season all over again. The Olympic break should be treated as a new training camp, and they came out of camp really well.
But I still don’t understand that Jokinen trade. At the very least how it was handled.
Nobody proved anything in that Crosby over Ovechkin “theory”. The flaws in that logic are endless…. Keep in mind had Ovechkin been in first it would be iron clad and indisputable genius. So yeah, there is some bias here but its still not a good system.
It also proved I’m having a better statistical year than you.
Okay, that was probably not true in many categories. In calories, maybe?
I’m gonna give the Flames for the playoffs a great big fail.
Although, I will say, I like their team a lot more now without Phaneuf and Jokinen…They finally got what looks like a little scoring punch, and I’ve always thought that those two are extremely overrated.
Campbellnomics is the worst thing about The Hockey News, it’s almost as if Jason Kay was like “oh alright Ken we’ll include your stupid system. What’s that Dixon? Power Rankings? Yeah alright we’ll have them too.”
I see Flames battling it out for the bottom seed in the west, D and goaltending has, and should continue to be, enough to scrape by on. Personally, I think the difference between some of the younger, deeper, quicker teams you mentioned (Phx, Col, etc..) and Calgary after these trades, is that Calgary is may be deeper but I don’t necessarily see them as quicker or really younger. I always thought the problem with Calgary was they basically had 4 third-lines of varying skill level. Anyone who didn’t subscribe to the Sutter-way (aka ingesting horse tranquillizers and smashing your head against the wall to prove how tough you are), found themselves on their way out of town. I still see the same squad today, just with slightly better third-lines.
Justin, nothing about gigueres first real game back…he wait until he’s in the worst situation to get a shutout against the best goalie of all time brodeur and the devils…you were right about the Toronto band wagon…I’m already hearing these things in the locker room like, “I knew they were gonna have a good second half of the season.”
Whether the Leafs are good, great, average, or terrible, the Leafs fans remain consistent: delusional. I love the combo of Ron “Your Questions Suck” Wilson and Brian “I Can’t Think of a Good Middle Name for Him” Burke, those fans need management that is more willing to tell them to piss off when they start demanding trades and booing the player they have decided should take singular blame for a couple losses in a row.
I love Burke and it will be nice watching him silence the haters in his first couple of years on the job, even if that means listening to Leafs fans demand a cup or Burke’s head.
If the Flames don’t have another move in mind then the combo of the Phaneuf and Oli deals has been a mistake I think. With Oli they don’t shed any cap space and get two overrated players in return for one, who was going to go UFA after his big contract went up and probably would have signed next season for less money. Apparently Sutter likes Kotalik. Uh… ok. I agree MikeB, I don’t understand how the exact same players who dominated early in the year and killed it on the road turned into a team that couldn’t score and went on an epic mid-season losing streak before getting totally rebuilt. Still, I bet they make the dance on Kipper’s back.
Dion looks good in the blue! Stajan smiles too much. You too Bourne.
After thought…. Check out how much the Leafs are spending on their top-6 d-men.
http://nhlnumbers.com/overview.php?team=TOR&season=0910
Yeah, they are spending a lot. But, as per the rumours, once they trade Kaberle’s biggish contract for a forward with a biggish contract, it should be nicely in balance. Plus, if Shenn actually ends up being good, and Komisarek gets his shit together, they have one of the better d-corps around. If those two major “ifs” don’t pan out, it might make the difference between success and “Burkes head”. I’m not worried about Phaneuf.
I happen to live in the DC area, so I’m fortunate enough to watch the Caps, but must put up with listening to Joe Beninati’s play-by-play. Anyways, that’s neither here nor there. I guess its just taken me this long, but I’m just now starting to realize (and grow more and more annoyed) at how many open net goals Ovie scores.. and they (Beninati and Craig Laughlin) praise him for it! (ie. “so fluid,” “with such ease,” “makes it look so easy”) – sure it’s easy when you float in the neutral zone like he does at the end of games!! Why’s Bruce even have him out there?! He’s gotten in trouble for that before with playing his first and second lines late in games like he does in the SE Division. I guess it just all came around last weekend when they played Tampa Bay and Knuble and 8 were both in front of the net and Knuble tipped a shot from the point that went right to Ovie who had plenty of time to dish it back and give the man (Knuble) his credit!!… and he didn’t. He just put it away himself. Just as he did last night… It’s like when Grapes shows all those clips of Malkin on a 2 on 0 with 0:07 seconds left with a pulled goalie and doesn’t head man the puck, instead just pads his numbers instead… this is currently my biggest aggravation. I apologize, maybe this isn’t the venue.. ha.
Brian Burke missed his calling he should have been in charge of the detainees at Guantanamo. Burke is so full of himself he has become hockey’s answer to oprah. May he burn in hell for what he did to Peter Zezel
Penaltykiller9, I just googled Brian Burke Peter Zezel and it sounds like you might be right about the whole burning in hell thing….
I truly like their team..I watched them every time they play!!I really admire them..GO!GO!GO!I’ll go for them always..Hope they will always win..Thanks for sharing!!I love it!!
I watched some of the videos of their game!!Well,I enjoyed it!!But I am not a big fan of them!!I wish them luck in their next game.-:)