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Hot Coals: Who wants Semin?

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Feel free to kick off your reading enjoyment with all kinds of ridiculous jokes about the title. Quite a smattering of articles from around the web today, since Flames news has been pretty quiet.

Oh yeah, happy Stampede, you figure out what the hell is going on in this picture.

Kent Wilson has been busy as usual with a look at Dany Heatley's decline. I love this type of analysis. It shows that everything isn't what it seems on the surface, with Havlat being a much better ES player at the moment, while Heatley has largely morphed into a PP specialist.

On the other end, Bryan Reynolds of Hockey Wilderness looks at where Heatley would have ranked on the Wild based on his counting stats last year. I'm not a big fan of this type of analysis as it fails to take context into account.  The Sharks were a much higher scoring team (2.96 g/gm) than the Wild (2.48 g/gm) and had a much better goal differential as well (+0.42/gm vs -0.30/gm). It also doesn't take into account the competition faced or the zone starts. It can represent an interesting first look, but ultimately can be deceiving.  

He also provided the inspiration for today's HC title, with speculation at Flames Nation that Washington could be a potential trade partner for the Flames. I love the idea and the Caps definitely need to make a move to get under the cap.  That said, they're glue-sniffing crazy if they trade Semin (talent wise) for less than he's worth.  The big issue will be whether they can accommodate top cap hits for him, Backstrom and Ovechkin, which is unlikely. Washington has really painted themselves into a corner and teams will know they don't have a lot of leverage unless they're willing to stash salaries in the minors.

Over at Arctic Ice Hockey, Gabe had some harsh criticism for the Florida Panthers moves and definitely felt the heat of some trolling for his opinion.  I added my own view on the Panthers moves (a little more wait-&-see-ish) at Hockey Prospectus here.

And easily my favorite story of the week is whether Mike Commodore will take #64 with the Red Wings and become Commodore 64! Puck Daddy has started a charity drive getting people to pledge $64 to Commodore’s charity of choice if he takes the number. I love stuff like this.

by Ryan Popilchak