33 games left and the Flames need to win 20 of them to make the playoffs.

In looking at the year to this point is seems that Calgary needs to get more wins on the road if they hope to make the playoffs. The Flames have won 10 road games in 28 tries a success rate of .357. At home, the Flames are much better winning 62% of their games 13 of 21 .The total wins of 23 in 49 games is only a 40.8% success rate. Winning 20 of the last 33 is 60.6% Can it be done ?

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So, Dave Shoalts has this article in the Globe and Mail. If we leave aside the headline, which he probably didn't write, I still think it is fair to summarize his overall point as the following argument is not true:

There’s a funny thing about the NHL – despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, there are still plenty of people who argue that finding a goaltender doesn’t need to be at the top of every general manager’s to-do list.

Put together a great team, they say, and a good but not great goaltender will do. Don’t waste a first-round draft pick on a goaltender. You can get a decent one in a trade any old time.

Surely with a thesis like that he will have "overwhelming evidence" that a team ought to go out and acquire a top-flight goaltender. Let's take a look after the jump.

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Fellow Flames Fans,

Can I call you folks that? Anyway, I've recently fallen back in love with Hockey attending a few Flames Games. No, I'm not a resident of Calgary or Canada for that matter. This is where the story has the potential to get interesting.

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I was reading Ryan Lambert's latest at FN, and in particular his giving up on Jay Bouwmeester after having only scored 8 goals in 205 games. It occurred to me that this same feeling that a number of the Flames semi-recent acquisitions stepped into a shaft shooting wise after coming to Calgary did not only apply to Bouwmeester. I decided to put my perceptions to the test by looking at the shooting percentages of current Flames players with reasonably lengthy careers before coming to the Flames and with the Flames. Results after the jump.

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Hello Flames fans,

I run InLaxWeTrust.com, the SBNation lacrosse blog. As I have wrote here before, the Calgary Flames bought the NLL's Calgary Roughnecks this summer, saving the Roughnecks franchise.

Roughnecks season is starting up soon, their first pre season game on December 18 vs the Edmonton Rush. At some Flames and Hitmen games, Roughnecks players have greeted fans as they came through the door. One question I have is, have the Flames been promoting the Roughnecks? Commercials, in game promotions, anything?

This is important for the league, because if this succeeds, Toronto or Edmonton could be next for the NLL.

Thank you!

Has anyone noticed the strange look of the Flames defense core lately ? They are decidedly left leaning and I don't mean politically, though that would be just as troubling. Some reasons why I think its a bad idea.

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Those were the first words to come out of Brent Sutter's mouth to start last night's press conference.  I was absolutely floored by that quote. And, this morning, I still can't get it out of my head.

If that "effort", last night, is what's considered ample or efficient - then the Calgary Flames are in for a very LONG season.  Their LACK of "effort" is what cost them the game.  The New York Rangers were ripe for the picking and the Flames let it get away because they refused to do the extra-effort things that win hockey games.

The expectations for this team have reached an all-time low.  If you want to see real "effort", then you should have watched the Boston Bruins play last night.  You can argue the Leafs were on a back to back, had to travel and were on the road... that's all well and good - but the Bruins went for the jugular.  They weathered the early Leafs momentum and then gave them a beat-down.  They hustle to loose pucks, they body their man off the puck to create turnovers and when the puck gets dumped behind the offensive zone net - THEY CHASE IT! <- Can you believe that?

Jay Bouwmeester's short-handed turnover was a direct result of laziness (plus, brainfart). Had he skated to that puck and beat his man to it and even poked it ahead - absorbing a hit in the process - that goal would have never happened.  Instead, as Flames D are so apt to do, he refused to make the hard stride to the puck, let the forechecker overtake him (with ease) and, boom, puck in net.  A little "effort" would have prevented that goal.  A little "effort" would have seen our powerplay generate some offensive zone possession.  A little "effort" would have won that game.

I had to get this out of my system.  What I saw last night from my seat at the 'dome was nothing short of a lazy, lackadaisical team that's been getting away with a lack of effort and focus for far too long.  I don't care about the shots or the positive possession numbers, obviously that didn't translate into a win did it? Nor did it last year. It's a problem when you lose to borderline playoff teams, at home, who aren't playing their 'A' game - end of story.

And, if Brent Sutter really believes what he said last night - then, unless the players can pick up the pace without the prodding of the coaches... missing the playoffs won't be the worst of this organizations fears.

Hey guys, It was recommended by someone on hfboards that I pop over here to ask for your help.

I've just recently launched a new website www.1stopfantasyhockey.com and a small section of the site is devoted to constantly updated depth charts. I've done my best trying to comb through hfboards and other sites to rank all of the Flames players, but I've heard through hfboards that there isn't a better/more knowledgeable place on the Net that would know more about where these players should 'land'.

I've given it a shot myself, but I'm not naive and I know you'd do a far better job than I will ever be able to in ranking the players.

Here is the page:

http://www.1stopfantasyhockey.com/teams/teams.php?id=Cgy&type=dc

I've made it interactive (yet random) where a simple click on a button will gradually start to move players up and down the depth chart. The more people that rank the players, hopefully the more accurate the depth chart.

I apologize if you see this as 'flam'ing, and I wasn't sure the best place to post for help. I'm trying to keep the site completely free and don't even have any advertising. Thanks to all of you that drop by.

If you like the other features on the site, feel free to register. The hope is to create a single place on the net that will incorporate a ton of fantasy hockey information at your fingertips.

Last fall, in attempt to guess what to expect from Mikael Backlund we looked at players who were drafted in roughly the same position as he was in the years prior to his selection in 2007.10-11 Backlund guess. Studying centres drafted between positions 20 and 26 in the 5 years immediately prior to Micki's draft in 2007 gave us a sample size of 11. The average output of those players in their 21 year old season was 10 goals and 16 assists.  Backlund just about nailed that average dead on with 10 and 15. 

Close enough - so lets follow up for this year.

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A brief history of the fine work upper management has done of late. I think it's high time we won a big deal. Please?

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