Hot Coals – Flames news

As Darryl Sutter continues his march to the Cup with the L.A. Kings most Flames fans are waiting for the off-season to start. The playoffs seem low-key this year. No real team to cheer for, no real team to cheer against.

On one hand it would be nice to see the Kings win it, little bit of redemption for Darryl Sutter.

Personally, I hold no ill will against the man. He never should have been made a GM, not a iota of GM experience and it is all on Ken King in my view. The Peter Principle of promotion to a point of incompetence is clear but you don't rag on the guy who lacks the ability to do the job, you look at the guy who hired him.

The Rangers are the last team that I have a slight hate on for due to Tim Erixon and his snub of the Flames last year. Little turd is doing time on the farm and I do not wish him well. Torts is a bit of an asshat but whatever, that is all a sideshow.

The only thing I wonder is if the Kings win the Cup and the Lakers are still in the NBA playoffs, will anyone even notice in L.A.?

Your Flames links after the jump…

Coaching rumors for the Flames are hot and heavy.

• The latest name to be bandied about is Mike Sullivan as discussed here and here. This one makes sense to me.
• Troy Ward was the apparent front runner as per the Herald and Flames Nation. Ward doesn’t make as much sense to me personally, mainly because he has just so recently taken over on the Heat, had great success and it seems a bit premature to promote him so quickly. It just creates another hole on the organization. Ward is doing a good job, should be lauded and allowed to marinate for a bit longer.

Up the road in Edmonton the coaching hunt is on as well as the Oilers have recently terminated Tom Renney. It was a bit of a low road move to leave Renney hanging on for so long. The guy should be respected and if the decision was made to terminate him, why not do it right away?

Speculation on this front is that the Nervous Nelly Oilers had already targeted Brent Sutter to replace Renney but needed to court him at the World's and make sure he would take the job before firing Renney. That strikes me as incredibly lame and disrespectful to Tom Renney but par for the course in Edmonton's track record.

Why Tambellini couldn’t just spit that out (firing Renney) and show some dynamic leadership himself is a condemnation of him in his own role.

The whole handling of Renney’s departure didn’t look good on Tambellini nor did it when came to letting Pat Quinn go well after the season.

It smacked of the brutal public relations which has been a constant throughout Tambellini’s time as general manager.

To wait more than a month after the season to make up his mind and then do the dirty deed with a 5 p.m. press conference the day Canada lost at the world hockey championship on the eve of the Edmonton Oil Kings opening game at the Memorial Cup was not unlike the political strategy of releasing unpopular news late Friday afternoon to minimize play during the news cycle… ~ Terry Jones – Edmonton Sun, May 17, 2012.

The Calgary Sun seems to think Brent Sutter being hired by the Oilers is some kind of horrible news for Flames fans?

Personally, I don't get this, maybe someone can explain it to me. Aside from inside knowledge on the Flames I am not sure what makes Sutter being hired by the Oilers any skin off the Flames nose? It suits his personal decision to live in Alberta, closer to home, but I am not sure how it fits the Oilers perspective so perfectly?

I guess it is better than Gretzky, as this fantasy suggests.

The whole coaching debate for me is a bit of a sideshow anyway. A different coach is not going to turn the Flames around for next season and whoever gets the job is going to have a huge challenge ahead of them.

• Laurent Brossoit is looking like a nice 6th round pick.
• Brendan Morrison is looking for work.
• Little blurb on Kipper by the Hockey Writers.
• Sven is taking a well-deserved rest.
• Karri Ramo is anxious to get to Calgary but stuck with one more year on his contract, unless something gets worked out.
• CBA issues and fan’s concerns about losing a season of hockey loom, in my view it is not going to happen. The NHL has done extremely well since the last lock-out and in the middle of a historic Great Recession nonetheless. Regardless get ready for a lot of CBA links as we go into the offseason. National Post

by M Smith