Being a Fan and Writing: How I Look at the Flames

Personally, whenever I say something about the team, I’m looking at it from the point of if I ran the org. In general, yes, my tone is probably more negative then positive, but that’s because the moves that have been made are more negative then positive.

Hell, I don’t know what I’m saying.

Yeah, this is the kind of post I’ve had to write a couple of times in the past. I’ve actually given up doing it except for a comment defending the point of view here and there.

Myself, I’ve always kind of considered myself a “critic” of the team, in the sense of a movie critic gives thumbs up or thumbs down to films based on certain criteria. The people who complain about critical takes are the same people who don’t like Roger Ebert for saying that Transformers 3 is a terrible movie I guess.

The other thing to consider is the state of the team. Talk about Gio and it’s easy to say nothing but positive stuff. Talk about contracts to Stajan, Kotalik and Hagman – and yes, it makes sense to be negative. There is probably a lot more negative stuff to say about a team that has missed the playoffs 2 years in a row while having a Top10 payroll.

That said, I could gush about the direction they’ve taken in prospect acquisition (Baertschi, Gaudreau and hell, even Byron) and cap management in the last few months.

It’s easy to get negative, I do it, but most people should be able to draw the line between negativity and actual analysis.

If you are going to be critical I think you need to back it up with your metrics and explain yourself, after all you have to be conscious of your audience. Fans of the team obviously have a bias, so being critical has to be reasoned. If you are going to tell someone their sister is fat, you better have had her up on the scale and have the numbers ready, along with the population averages for relative comparisons etc.

If you are a Kool-Aid mixer, as I like to think of myself, I don’t think you need to be quite as strict in backing yourself up. You are writing for a receptive audience after all, not just yourself and there is nothing wrong with looking on the sunny side of life. "No, you don’t look fat in those pants, you look awesome, your ass is tight and have I mentioned lately you have great breasts as well."

I personally have been biting my tongue on Regehr for the last 2 seasons. Now it was just my impression and I never would have mentioned my opinion in 2009-10 because I lacked the ability to make my argument statistically and in any way beyond, "Well this is my take".

Now Regehr is no longer a Flame and I am more than happy to share my thoughts on how I think his game has been declining for the last couple years.

I also consider myself a realist. My take is not that the Flames are the greatest team but I also do not think they are terrible relatively speaking. They have decent balance across all positions and I see them realistically as a bubble team that has a realistic chance to be in the playoffs this season.

I still honestly see them, for next season anyway, as easily better than 10 teams anyway and when you are better than a 1/3 of the League that isn’t terrible. When you get to the point you are only better than 1/10 of the League, then you are terrible.

Regardless, I think M&G needs both.

The Flyers blog was humming with the Stamkos fantasy for quite awhile but seriously who thinks Stamkos isn’t going to get signed in Tampa. Regardless fans love that stuff and it is fun to think about.

Having said that Kool-Aid and Criticism should be at the prerogative of the writer. I see no problem with both perspectives, it is one at the cost of the other that isn’t ideal – imo, anyway.

Never, ever apologize for writing what needs to be said, Arik.

Over the last two years, we have been ridiculed and laughed at for the Olli Jokinen situation; lost our top prospect due to, what appears to be, poor communication and asset management; given away Dion for what has turned out to be a bag of pucks; handed out NMC clauses like they were candy to middling talents; had a brotherly spat over control of the team; and apparently attempted to bring in Ryan Smyth to spite Edmonton.

I don’t care if this team wins or loses, but I need to have faith in the direction management is taking us. That has been hard to come by of late.

 Just write from your heart.

I’m certainly not complaining when I say that many Flames bloggers are pessimistic, and I’m quite surprised and saddened to hear that people are actually telling you that you should be optimistic. However, I think it’s entirely fair to say that – more often than not – after you and many of your colleagues do your real analysis, you conclude that the team is doing things wrong yet again. That’s fine. You, me, and everyone else who gives a damn about this team are all entitled to our opinions, and that’s one of the great things that blogs provide – a forum for our opinions. And, sure, your conclusions are probably right more often than not, given the recent record of the team.

I disagree with you when you back up your views by saying that you are a realist. I think that when a hockey observer forms an opinion of the possible outcomes of player personnel moves, the observer has either a positive (i.e., optimistic) or a negative (i.e., pessimistic) view of the transactions. We have to be one or the other – optimistic or pessimistic – because we really don’t know how things are going to play out. Two different people can research the same facts and come up with two different opinions of an outcome, and both people are still being realistic – at least in their own minds. As Mitch Smith stated in an above comment, he does not consider himself to be any less of a realist than you do, and you two have formed polar opposite opinions of the same events based on your careful analysis and consideration.

We all do our own research (some more thoroughly than others) and then form our opinions based on that. I don’t for one second think that any of you are being negative, or pessimistic, for the sake of just trashing everything the Flames do. Likewise, I don’t think bloggers like Mr. Smith (and commenters like myself) are being positive, or optimistic, because of blind faith in our team, that absolutely everything the Flames do is pure gold. Even pessimists are sometimes optimistic, and optimists are sometimes pessimistic. At least when it comes to sports.

Everybody just keep on doing what you are doing – it’s OK to have differing opinions.

Sincerely, Chris.