Minn/Cgy Post-Game - Who Are These Guys?
by maimster on Mar 21, 2010 6:16 PM PDT
53 comments
My initial choice for the name of this story was "High and Wide", because the bullet by Jarome Iginla in the last few minutes that went, yes, high and wide, is a good metaphor for the entire season. I also thought it could be "The Kid Wasn't Hot Tonight" in honor of Vesa Toskala (and our very own Loverboy fanatic! Sorry, Bob, I couldn't resist!) but he's pretty old and it was an afternoon game, so that didn't work on multiple levels.
Well, hold on, before we get too far. Why the hell was Vesa Toskala in there? I mean, it's a nice story that he had a couple decent outings (by the results, if not necessarily the process). But unless Kipper is begging out of the lineup (which would surprise me), I want him in there every night the rest of the way except maybe next weekend in Boston. I'm guessing the game stories across the blogosphere (and in the MSM) will point to Toskala being the difference in the game, and not the right way. And they'd be right - I firmly believe that they win that game with Kipper from start to finish. But beyond this short rant, I'll leave that story line alone.
Anyway, I settled on the theme for the game noted in the headline above. And it's not because it's not clear from game to game which team we'll see. Whether it was Peter Loubardius noting multiple times "that's the first goal for (insert player) in a Flames jersey" or feeling the pain when one of the few long-time Flames, Daymond Langkow, was felled in a scary incident, it is clear that this is a team of strangers.
The first line is a stalwart (Iginla) and two relative newcomers. Sure, Rene Bourque has been here long enough to become a fan favorite, but it's easy to forget that although he's been here longer than over half the Flames lineup today, he's only in his second year here. Matt Stajan and Bourque will be here a while after signing the big contracts, and they're both good players (although unfortunately evidence has been in scant supply lately), so they'll probably eventually become more familiar in that way that long team players on your favorite team become like a favorite chair. Stajan, in particular, isn't there yet. The second line, again, is a long timer with two guys that haven't earned the Flame fan's affections through either longevity or production. The third line feels like they've been around forever, but that was Nigel Dawes out there today, not Curtis Glencross. Still, two guys beyond their first year in the red and gold is a novelty. The fourth line is back to the "one old guy-two new guys" formula that defines the lineup. The D is the same, of course. Each pairing has a longer term Flame and one in his first year.
So, it's a little bit weird watching these guys, and has been since the big trades. I'm frustrated watching two critical points lost to one of the few non-playoff teams left on their schedule, but I've realized the seeming inevitability of the Flames missing the playoffs isn't bothering me as much as it should. I can't help but wonder if it is because I'm not attached to these guys yet. When Staios scored the first goal, I was hoping someone else had tipped it because I wanted it to be someone I really liked who got the goal. (Of course, Langkow was the only non-first year guy out there, so I'm not sure who I was hoping had tipped it besides him). I know that makes no sense, but I have no attachment to Staios, or Niklas Hagman, or (shudder) Ales Kotalik. Sutter took a big chance in overhauling the roster to the extent he did mid-season, and it turns out it's taken me as long to get used to these guys as they've taken to get used to each other.
At the same time, I've been watching the Nashville-St. Louis debacle while writing this story. Our very own Dustin Boyd (OK, not anymore, but damn!) scored his first and second goals in a Predator jersey, the second one the game winner with three minutes left. And, just to help me remember how much I liked watching him play, he got crushed as he scored the winner but jumped up with a big smile on his face. And, by the way, he was also on the ice defending a one goal lead in the last minute and made the final good defensive play to ice the win. Hard to believe a guy like that couldn't at least work on a fourth line in Calgary!
This is not meant to be a negative story. In time, I'm sure I'll get to really like these guys. Again, I thought they played well today. The game was characterized by a possession advantage up and down the lineup, and considering they were without their best center for half the game (please heal quickly, Mr. Langkow) they were in a position to win that one. They had a strong 3rd period, I thought, except for a five minute stretch or so mid-to-late. Iggy showed more effort to greater effect than in a majority of the games this year. I really like watching Robyn Regehr and Ian White work together, with Reggie in particular showing that he's shaken off the effects of trying to figure out whatever Dion Phaneuf was trying to do and play accordingly. I again loved the Craig Conroy line. Eric Nystrom is improving leaps and bounds, and now getting goals as a result.
But nearly every name noted in the previous paragraph is a longer term Flame, and we're back to where we started. The season is coming to an end too quickly to make this team ours, and a playoff run which burns them into our collective retinas is a longshot.
Random Notes: There were comments asking who the color guy was, since it wasn't the usually reliable Charlie Simmer ("move those feet!"). Personally, I'm always happy to see John Garrett pinch hitting for Simmer, even if he usually does Canuck's games...Watching the Flames on an endless cycle to nowhere far too many times, juxtaposed with the Nashville Predators spending most of the time in the offensive zone off the boards in the middle of the ice, was a pretty good indication of why the Preds are nearly out of reach for Calgary in the standings. The game plan from the coaches to go to the scoring areas, which was so successfully executed during the four game winning streak just a week or so ago, doesn't appear to have legs...A game with only three penalties is always welcome, but I did think that the Wild's Greg Zanon should have received an interference penalty for knocking Langkow to the ice long before the shot that hit him was on the way.
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What in the Fuck? Timberlake with 2goals for nashville today including the GWG? Eughgggghhhhhhhh
by Rod Blogojevich on Mar 21, 2010 7:09 PM PDT reply actions
Doesn’t that just feel like a dagger through the heart? Puts the Preds out of reach, I’d have to think.
not a dagger to MY heart. it’s actually boyder slamming a dagger into darryl’s heart…. or maybe his back.
personally, i couldn’t be happier.
by walkinvisible on Mar 21, 2010 8:02 PM PDT up reply actions
Well if the Wings pick up at least one point tomorrow we are done. BUT! The Avs have quite the journey the rest of they way too. Call me the optimist of the group but the lets face it the Wings are going to the playoffs and the Avs are playing probably some of their worst hockey of the year right now.
I think the Avs and Flames could be the one’s fighting it out for that 8th spot.
Optimism my friends, optimism.
Also I really hope Lanks will be alright, he’s a warrior I expect him to miss one game tops.
GO FLAMES GO!!!
Yeah, I’ve figured for at least a week now that the team for Calgary to have their sights on is Colorado. That’s why I was discouraged after the win over the Avs, I thought that Colorado was better and figured that meant they had a better shot at holding their position. But they’re certainly the ones to catch, I’d think.
Well, that certainly sums up how unlikely it is that the Flames make the post-season then. I agree that it’s likely the Avs are playing for 8th. Detroit could crap the bed, but their schedule is very forgiving. It lines up like this with 96pts being the estimated/likely cut-off for 8th.
Det 11GR – 83pts – 4 vs opp w/ greater pts., 7H 4A, 0H2H, Magic #‘s for 96pts (6-4-1)
Col 11GR – 86pts – 8 vs opp w/ greater pts., 6H 5A, 1H2H – Cal. Magic #’s for 96 (5-6-0)
Cal 10GR – 81pts – 5 vs opp w/ greater pts., 4H 6A, 1H2H – Col. Magic #’s for 96 (7-2-1)
… at least we’re not St.Louis as they will need to likely go 9-0-1 in their last 10.
I wouldn’t bet more than $20 the Flames make the post season. Detroit’s schedule is too easy and I just can’t imagine Colorado falling apart that much. Starting today Calgary couldn’t lose and they did. They really f*cked themselves today. Big time.
At this point there seems to be a wealth of evidence supporting the fact that many of the Flames’ issues are at the top. Opinions and rumours aside, when you have a team that consistently fails to make good use of its players (who subsequently end up blossoming elsewhere once traded*), the most logical explanation for its failures is that the dudes running the show are the architects of said failures.
*I realize we haven’t seen Boyd with Nsh long enough to know, but I am betting he puts up career numbers next year
The thing is with these situations (ie. Boyd) that’s extremely likely for two reasons. First: he’s young and healthy so he should be putting up career numbers almost each and every year for the first few years. Second: he’s gone from Calgary to Nashville. He’ll get more ice time, more responsibility and because of that, likely more points.
Look, Matthew Lombardi didn’t become a first line centre in Phoenix because he is a first line centre anywhere in the league, he did because he is a first line centre in Phoenix. And now he’s performing more, because he gets more ice-time …it’s pretty simple.
As I’ve said with the Flames, we have/had a team where the top six guys (Kipper, Iggy, Lanks, Reggie, formerly Phaneuf and JBO) just don’t/didn’t consistently ‘bring it’ each and every game. When one is hot, the others are not.
Whatever the reason, and it’s frustrating as all hell. It hasn’t changed for years, and I don’t see it changing. I’m not here to defend the Sutters, because they’ve done more than their share to make this a shit-ass mess, but what do you do? What do you do when you cannot trade Iggy and he is Jarmoe 50% of the time. I never thought I would say trade Iggy, but that seems to be the only sensible option. You have players coming to a talented team and performing at career WORSTS, not bests. It’s an enigma.
Boyd going was sad to see, and maybe Lombo too, but when you got Iggy, Lanks, and now RBQ and Stajan sucking in those dollars and not putting out what can you do? And when you’ve given guys like McL, Boyd, Lombo etc. their chances and it doesn’t go, then they’ve got to.
They don’t “have to go” for the likes of Jokinen and a 4th round draft pick, Lawrence. Moreso, I disagree that they “have to go” at all. The current roster suggests that Boyd doesn’t have a place here right now. But that’s incredibly short-sighted. It’s more about projecting the needs of the team years down the road and assessing a players probability of performing versus what he might cost.
The season Lombardi was moved, he had better underlying stats than Jokinen did. He was almost $4M cheaper and a couple of years younger. He doesn’t have a high ceiling, but he was a useful player given his price-tag and the point he was at in the development curve.
I understand your take on this. It’s pragmatic (given X factors and Y assumptions). But make no mistake…Sutter fucked this up. And there’s no good, principled rationale for it.
In addition to what Kent is saying, if someone gave me control over the Flames for a day and said “you can either have Lombardi and Boyd for ~3 million, or you can have Kotalik for 3 million”, I would go with the former in half the blink of an eye.
You certainly make good points on the inconsistencies of the top forwards and everything, but I’ve already stated my opinion on that (that DSutt is probably at least partially to blame for the lacklustre performances, somehow).
by SmellOfVictory on Mar 22, 2010 10:28 AM PDT up reply actions
Sure, I don’t disagree with you two at all. However, the world doesn’t work in a way that you get to choose Kotalik vs Lombardi and Boyd.
Again, I’m not here to say that Sutter et al didn’t screw up. You’d have no problem convincing me on that.
My point is, that when the top end of the roster and big dollar players, for whatever reason, fail to meet expectations, fail repeatedly to perform as expected, fail to put up the counting numbers that they are expected to do AND your hands are tied with those players (high salaries, NMC etc.) then something has to give. Unfortunately, that mindbendingly stupid things Sutter has done over the last two years have plainly and simply been to get the suck out of Iggy. If you fail to see this, you fail to see the primary problem with the Calgary Flames.
I don’t want to see Kotalik here vs Lombo and Boyd EITHER, but he’s here because Jokinen was supposed to do what Lombo and Boyd and others couldn’t.
Eliminate Jarmoe from the equation.
And there’s no good, principled rationale for it.
Oh, and I disagree with this. The Flames were never going to win the cup with Boyd, Lombo and that make-up. So, things HAVE to change. The changes made didn’t pan out, or Sutter f*cked up, or whatever. But you can’t just sit on seeds and wait for them to grow, if they aren’t growing. You do, you starve.
That’s as good and principled rationale for it as any. If we didn’t get Jokinen back and we got ….I dunno, Alex Ovechkin, we wouldn’t have this conversation. However, Matthew Lombardi ain’t gonna get you Ovechkin, and his time ran out.
Oh, and I disagree with this. The Flames were never going to win the cup with Boyd, Lombo and that make-up
And I disagree with this! Last year’s team, pre-Jokinen, was pretty decent. Take that team (with Cammy resigned), add in Phaneuf being traded for a ‘difference-making forward’, and JBo being signed, and you have a dangerous team that’s not going to rely so heavily on el capitan to do everything offensively.
There are very few teams who have relied as heavily on one player to provide their offense as the Flames, and those teams are named Pittsburgh. Iggy, good as he is, is not Crosby; I think most people can agree with that. He’s been expected to shoulder too great a load for far too long, and when you get this mish-mash of 2nd liners to support him and half of them STILL can’t score, you get issues. Again, if this team had a Cammaleri and, just for example, a Carter or Plekanec in addition to its Iginla/Bourque/Langkow things would probably be looking pretty peachy right now.
by SmellOfVictory on Mar 22, 2010 2:35 PM PDT up reply actions
Ju-what..huh? gibble jaglenjhdfasf???
There are very few teams who have relied as heavily on one player to provide their offense as the Flames, and those teams are named Pittsburgh. Iggy, good as he is, is not Crosby…
If I wasn’t sitting, I would fall down in disbelief.
S.O.V. … Breathe and read. You have heard of Evgeni Malkin yes? You know, the guy that won the Art Ross trophy last year, for leading scorer in the NHL. The second line centre who has more points than Iggy this year. Right, him. Ummmm…he plays for Pittsburgh.
Only video games work in a way that you can say. If we had Carter, Cammy, Jbo, Iggy, Lombo, Boyd, RBQ, Lanks, blah, blah, blah, we would win the cup. But this ain’t a video game, it’s a team playing in a salary cap environment. Cammy makes as nearly much as Phaneuf did, how you going to pay Carter @ 5mil, Jbo @ 6.7, Iggy @ 7, Cammy @ 6, Lanks @ 4.5… and all the other players in your fictional line-up. AND, you’ve got to be able to trade for them in the first place. THIS IS IMAGINARY.
The problem with the Flames is, Jarome is paid to be a top-ten player and he isn’t. And this isn’t the old NHL where you can overpay Steve Yzerman to be on your team of other jillionaire superstars cause you have endless pockets of cash. Everyone has got to earn their bucks now, and us filtering through all the leagues second tier options to work with Iggy isn’t a sound strategy, when Iggy is turning into a second-tier option making first-tier bucks.
Lombo + the future was dealt for Joker in to help Iggy and he failed.
Cammy was unsigned to allow for Jbo and it’s failing?.
Dion was dealt for help for Iggy and it’s failing.
Joker was dealt for depth and it’s arguably no better.
There’s no crystal ball where you can say, oh, everyone we trade for is going to come here and put up career worsts, but it’s happening.
It’s not unrealistic to expect the Flames to have kept Cammaleri and added another top 3 forward by trading Phaneuf. That’s not video game shit, that’s “do a couple things differently” shit. If you trade Joker in the off-season, you’ve got Cammy’s salary almost covered. Then you’ve got Phaneuf’s massive contract to pay someone else (if it had been Carter, then you’ve got an extra 1 mil to give to another D-man as well).
As far as being able to trade Phaneuf last off-season, you don’t think that would’ve been possible? Come on. I don’t know what the return would’ve been, but I would be surprised if you couldn’t get at least a ‘difference-making’ forward for him at that point. Joker’s trade could be a salary dump, as far as I’m concerned. The fictional team that I’m talking about hinged on exactly two things: being able to resign Cammaleri (he seemed to like it in Calgary, don’t think that would be a problem), and being able to trade Phaneuf for decent return (again, I think that’s almost a given). Half of the discussion that revolves around sports is fictional/hypothetical; attempted predictions, complaints about what a coach or GM should’ve done/should be doing, who you’d like on your team. This is just another comment in that vein, and quite frankly I think it’s much more plausible than a lot of the shit people discuss.
I totally agree that, at this point, Jarome’s salary is a bit of a handcuff to the team, but it’s not the be all and end all of it. Sutter has done a pretty amazing job of poorly managing his salary cap; he almost got it right with the Phaneuf trade, and then we all know what happened not long after.
The real issue I take with the Joker/Cammy thing is that Cammaleri and Iggy were pretty fucking clearly working well together (even if Keenan was giving them softer minutes), and when Sutter gave him up I was shocked. He’d finally found someone who seemed to complement Iggy to a great degree, and just let him go elsewhere.
And yes, I know of Malkin. So I suppose your argument is that there are zero teams in the NHL that have relied as heavily on a single player to generate offense as the Flames; that works for me.
by SmellOfVictory on Mar 23, 2010 1:36 PM PDT up reply actions
*would have been much more plausible at the time
by SmellOfVictory on Mar 23, 2010 1:36 PM PDT up reply actions
Cammy’s money went to Jbo. Why can’t people come to terms with that?
It’s not Cammy-Joker. It’s Cammy-Jbo. If you re-sign Cammy, then you don’t get Jbo. Then you trade Phaneuf as well for a difference maker at forward? So what’s our “d”. Regehr, Sarich, Gio, Kronwall, Johnson, Pardy?
In what universe is a trade-off only between two players? You resign Cammaleri, you have the option of freeing up money by trading Jokinen, then you can resign JBo with a small roster tweak. Regardless of what Sutter’s reasoning was, that is a possible course of action. I really don’t give a shit what Sutter’s reasoning was, what his master plan is, or anything else, because it’s pretty clear at this point he’s not doing the right thing, and he’s certainly not doing what I want(ed) him to do.
Or really, sign someone other than JBo if it came down to it. There were a ton of potential directions that Sutter could have gone last year, and he went in one that made me a very unhappy fan.
by SmellOfVictory on Mar 23, 2010 1:52 PM PDT up reply actions
In the universe of a salary cap. Hindsight is not being friendly to your facts. We had Cammy and Joker at the same time. If Sutter wanted JBO, he would have had to trade Joker first, then trade/sign JBO, then hope and pray Cammy would sign for 4.5-5 mil., which he didn’t, so we would have lost him too. Then we would have lost everything (Lombo, draft picks, Joker, Cammy) etc. or at least it would have been a serious possibility. If you re-sign Cammy first, you have no money/space to get JBO, plus Cammy made 750k more than Joker, then maybe you’re over the cap.
AND, Darryl, if I can call you that, since you know, what if no one wants Joker, or doesn’t offer to take him, then what? You buy him out cause you’re over the cap…then what. Look, I’m (again) not saying Sutter hasn’t made mistakes, but we’re fools to argue about the past ‘possibilities’ because that’s pointless, or to be concerned with hindsight, because that’s equally pointless.
What I’m discussing is going forward, and my opinion is Iggy’s time has come and gone. He will get the largest return, it’s time to move on. It’s 7 million dollars we can re-build with and time to get some players in who are difference makers daily, not just once-in-a-while.
Is there any reason he couldn’t find out if Cammy was interested before trading Jokinen? Cammaleri didn’t resign because there was no offer made by Sutter, as he had no cap space. I admit that it would be a bit awkward to try to resign Cammy/trade Joker/sign JBo all in that short period, but I think it could have been done. And as far as the JBo signing goes, I don’t see how a cap hit of almost 7 million is a ‘discount’, as people stated at the time; if that’s true, then his market value was inflated, imo.
But yes, that is all in the past. I shall continue to dwell on it myself, as it was potentially the most infurating moment of Sutter’s career as GM for me, but I shall argue no further (I’m not speaking from hindsight, however, as I’ve held this opinion from the moment the JBo deal was made public).
As far as going forward, you may be correct in saying that trading Iginla would bring the Flames the greatest return (of this I have no doubt), but it’s something that is almost certain not to happen. I know the cliche, ‘if Gretzky can be traded…’, but Iginla really has been the personal embodiment of the Flames organization for basically a decade, and that is nothing to sniff at. He’s the one Flames who I absolutely do not want to be traded, despite the fact that his contract is a little bloated.
You want to free up nearly 7 million in cap space? Trade JBo for a cheaper defenseman who isn’t considered a “smooth-skating, puck-moving” defenseman (aka overpriced defenseman) or a good forward and sign a replacement UFA d-man.
As far as huge contracts go, the Flames have Sarich, Kotalik, JBo, and Staios; three of those would admittedly be hard to move since the guys under the contracts are pretty brutal at the moment, but if they could be moved, that would free up a ton of space as well.
by SmellOfVictory on Mar 23, 2010 5:44 PM PDT up reply actions
A few measures for ya
Ales Kotalik + Chris Higgins are on pace for 16pts combined! for a WHOLE season of 82 games. They make 5.250 million (they same as Joker did) who was on pace for 52pts. AND, Higgins is a UFA, who could walk.
Phaneufs money went right to Stajan and Hagman. They have 18points in 35 combined games. On pace for 21 points each next season. Phaneuf? 22 points in 55 games alone, and he’s a bigger difference maker than White as well.
And the measures of the newbies are during the most desperate of times of this season, when we need the biggest difference makers to make a difference.
And all of those moves were made because of Iggy. Joker didn’t work so he’s out. Stajan is in, Hagman is in, traded for Phaneuf, cause we had depth there.
Remember, you guys wanted Joker and Phaneuf traded, I’m not saying it’s worse or better now, but I am saying it’s still all because of Iggy, and that’s a problem. That’s THE problem.
You’re talking like Iginla is an unsolvable problem, though. I don’t think he is at all; Sutter is just doing the wrong things in order to try to ‘fire him up’ again. Again, Cammaleri worked very well with him. Your whole argument is the reason I find it so utterly baffling that Cammaleri was allowed to walk; Sutter has spent years trying to find “someone to play with Iggy”, finally found someone who COULD play well with Iggy aside from Langkow, and just let him float away in favour of Big Body Presence.
by SmellOfVictory on Mar 23, 2010 1:39 PM PDT up reply actions
what’s TRULY frustrating is the dichotomy between mindblowingly good sutter moves (kipps, bourque), and mindblowingly bad sutter moves (jokinen, staios). what’s become painfully clear is that young guys (backlund aside) aren’t given an opportunity to play here because “experience,” somehow, outweighs “skill.”
i think the good (narrowly) outweighed the bad in the past few years, but for some reason on march 3rd, darryl pulled a JFJ and hobbled this team for the forseeable future. this is not the course i want my team to take and it’s time to staunch the bleeding before he continues walking that road….
by walkinvisible on Mar 22, 2010 10:29 AM PDT up reply actions
what’s TRULY frustrating is the dichotomy between mindblowingly good sutter moves (kipps, bourque), and mindblowingly bad sutter moves (jokinen, staios)
Agree with this completely – he rarely has a ‘meh’ move, they’re all really good or really bad.
yep. you either jump up and down with glee (cammy), or you want to slit your wrists (brad stuart).
by walkinvisible on Mar 22, 2010 8:07 PM PDT up reply actions
You either dance a little jig (Glencross) or break an ankle while attempting to dance a little jig (Boyd).
Your turn…
You either do a backflip of joy (Bourque), or you faceplant in shame (Staios)?
by SmellOfVictory on Mar 22, 2010 8:56 PM PDT up reply actions
That was a good effort, but Bourque and Staios were already used! Should have thrown Dawes and Kotalik in there!
Oooh I forgot to check the big ol’ parent post. My bad.
by SmellOfVictory on Mar 23, 2010 12:05 PM PDT up reply actions
On a postive note is it just me or does Reggie look like a different man the last little bit?
He finally is playing more physical, and looks more confident to my eye.
yep. since the arrival of ian white (saying nothing of the departure of one dion phaneuf), he’s looked much stronger.
by walkinvisible on Mar 22, 2010 8:25 AM PDT up reply actions
Hey, I love Reggie, he is an excellent player and a superb guy, BUT, if your play is improving with a guy like White vs when you played with Phaneuf, then that’s as much and more Reggie’s fault as it is Dion’s.
Like Dion or not, Regehr can’t use that excuse. If Regehr sucked, then he sucked on his own otherwise, you can start blaming Gio and others for Jbo’s downfall and that’s crap. Jbo hasn’t needed any assistance being ‘not good enough’ and neither did Regehr.
i agree that it was as much regehr’s fault as dion’s, but those guys simply did not play together; they were singular defensemen on the ice together, and more often than not it seemed like they were almost trying to make the other look bad/work harder etc. etc. etc. for this i blame coaching, to be honest.
as for jaybouw’s downfall, well, as huge as his toolbox is (and i mean that in a pure hockey-skillset manner), when saddled with an aging/declining partner, your stats are gonna falter. i don’t think there is any coincidence that jaybouw started sucking when he drew sarich/staios over gio, just like i don’t think there’s any coincidence that sarich/regehr started to improve when given new linemates.
(’course, quality of comp/TOI definitely factors in as well).
by walkinvisible on Mar 22, 2010 10:34 AM PDT up reply actions
Lanks has been released from Hospital.
Daymond Langkow is heading home to Calgary with his neck in a brace, but he’s walking, talking and breathing.
And that’s a relief to anyone who witnessed the veteran Flames centre take a puck at the base of the neck Sunday in a 4-3 loss to the Minnesota Wild.
“I’n fine,” Langkow said before boarding a plane at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. “I’m OK. I’ll ne down at the rink tomorrow or the next day, so maybe we can set up something to talk with everyone then.”
Langkow was released from hospital last night after a battery of tests.
GO FLAMES GO!!!
So I think it’s probably safe to say he won’t play until later this week or the 31st or never again this season.
GO FLAMES GO!!!
since the ‘playoff’ could still be a possiblity, I am sure Langkow will be back before 31st. we need him.
Yeah the neck brace is for pure caution but I’d expect him to miss the east coast roadie for sure.
GO FLAMES GO!!!
i would doubt he jeapordizes his career/ability to walk with an ill-timed check. not with this many games left and with the postseason a grim reality.
by walkinvisible on Mar 22, 2010 3:12 PM PDT up reply actions
Haven’t been around the last little while. Are we still on the Stajan-is-a-first-line-centre train?
The range of reasonable expectations is wide open right now but there is room for both NSH and DET to fall just as there is room for STL to get hot and overtake the 8th and 9th place teams. I’m not worried but I’m not hopeful, I’m just meh. The season’s on a kinfe edge and that hasn’t changed in a month.
That said, a bit of hope died yesterday afternoon when Lanks went down. Sure he’s just a second line centre and sure he doesn’t deliver the POINTS this team requires and sure this team lives and dies with Iggy and sure Lanks doesn’t deserve to play with Iggy. But, I’m a worrier, and I worry about even the littlest things like which centre will play tough icetime. So it’s a bit concerning.
Oh well, at least we have Stajan’s hands and points and prime production years.
/Cliche mode OFF
The EX Flames factor.
Sunday’s Ex Flames goals
Kobasew 2 Boyd 2 Stillman 1 Lydman 1 Johnson 1 and Wooden Stick with the shootout winner.
i actually asked myself who the eff “wooden stick” was, before i realized how perfectly obvious that reference is… :)
by walkinvisible on Mar 22, 2010 8:07 PM PDT up reply actions
why would they let aucoin shoot when iggy’s the captain ?
*sigh
by walkinvisible on Mar 23, 2010 1:44 AM PDT up reply actions
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Tue 09/21 | 6:00 PM PDT |
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@
Vancouver
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Tue 09/21 | 7:00 PM PDT |
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Tampa Bay
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Sat 09/25 | 6:00 PM PDT |
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Phoenix
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Tue 09/28 | 6:00 PM PDT |
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@
New York Islanders
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Wed 09/29 | 5:00 PM PDT |
Last 5 Games
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Vancouver
|
Sat 04/10 | L 3 - 7 |
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Minnesota
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Thu 04/08 | SO - L 1 - 2 |
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San Jose
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Tue 04/06 | L 1 - 2 |
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Chicago
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Sun 04/04 | L 1 - 4 |
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Colorado
|
Fri 04/02 | W 2 - 1 |
In Association With
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