Wounded Egos and Syntactic Atrocities.
Posted 7:16 PM ET | Comments 6
Well, there's only one wounded ego here. Mine. Yes, I have dragged myself back to my blog after a long absence. Coincidentally, my departure from my egomaniacal ranting coincides with the night my beloved Flames went out in the 6th game. God I was pissed off.
So what happened? Playfair happened, first of all. I know many of you are eager to shower me with praise for my year-long pilgrammage to oust Playfair as coach, only to see my educated jeers fall on deaf ears (except yours).
What else happened? Grit and passion. Where the hell was it? I was embarassed, as was many of my faithful.
I will not dwell, however, on these passings, as they are but a bitter memory.
So, the questions is now What Have We Done?
Playfair for Keenan.
Solidified blueline.
Added TALENTED grit.
Is this enough? No. Is this a start? Yes. We are well one the way to where we were in '04, highly upgraded skillwise. There is this nagging at my shoulder, however, that we need another big name. Almost placeboish, just a body that brings excitement or buzz, while molding into what we need.
I hear Eklund assigning Lindros as a trade rumour to Calgary. Who the hell knows where that comes from, but seriously, I'd jump at him just for the hell of it.
It's that type of player we need now, as I think we have all the essentials covered. Scoring, Defense, Goaltending, Coaching, Young Bodies, blah blah blah. Now we need a "holy poop he's in Calgary?" player.
Seriously.
So what happened? Playfair happened, first of all. I know many of you are eager to shower me with praise for my year-long pilgrammage to oust Playfair as coach, only to see my educated jeers fall on deaf ears (except yours).
What else happened? Grit and passion. Where the hell was it? I was embarassed, as was many of my faithful.
I will not dwell, however, on these passings, as they are but a bitter memory.
So, the questions is now What Have We Done?
Playfair for Keenan.
Solidified blueline.
Added TALENTED grit.
Is this enough? No. Is this a start? Yes. We are well one the way to where we were in '04, highly upgraded skillwise. There is this nagging at my shoulder, however, that we need another big name. Almost placeboish, just a body that brings excitement or buzz, while molding into what we need.
I hear Eklund assigning Lindros as a trade rumour to Calgary. Who the hell knows where that comes from, but seriously, I'd jump at him just for the hell of it.
It's that type of player we need now, as I think we have all the essentials covered. Scoring, Defense, Goaltending, Coaching, Young Bodies, blah blah blah. Now we need a "holy poop he's in Calgary?" player.
Seriously.
I understand your frustrations. When I list the forwards we have 11 NHL ready forwards, not including Goddard and Stevenson. I figured we needed one more big name forward. However as I thought about it I realized that that forward could be Taratukhin. Apparently he was the best player at the summer prospects camp and has made a real effort to adjust to living in North America. It is important for the flames to continue to move younger players up, especially with the new salary cap system. Last year it was Moss. This year it could be Taratukhin or Boyd. I was excited to hear about the Warrener rumour. I know he is a great character guy with a lot of toughness and defensive abilities however I found last year that he struggled to keep up with the speed of the game. He finally showed signs of frustration which I felt were partly due to ice time and injuries. Some of his comments in the press and some of the penalties showed a bad attitude which is uncommon for Rhett. I think it would be best for both sides for him to move on. (2.42 mil is a lot for a 5th or 6th D).
i agree on the playfair observation. the flames just didnt play as hard or as tough in the limited games i saw them
I understand your frustration as well. I had high expectations last year from the team. It was regarded as the year that we "needed" to win the cup. I believe the absence of gritty players that we're willing to go into the corners and win the battles that we use to win. The backend is solitified, Kiprusoff and the addition of Aucoin and Sarich. Perhaps with one of the best crop of defenseman in the entire NHL and the addition of Owen Nolan upfront is, I believe something that was needed. I don't understand the problem last year with the inability to win on the road. I don't know if it was the lack of preperation from the coaching staff or Playfair by himself but I think Keenan will fix that. It's just hard to have total faith in Mike Keenan while he was busy working on the show "Making the Cut"....I debate whether Playfair could have done better in his sophmore season?We'll see...Go Flames :]
You are right about the lack of grit. They lost to the Oilers that second last game of their season. And the Oilers iced their worst team in the organizations history. If you can't beat them it definitely shows a lack of grit and character.
Not to mention how they slid into the playoffs without winning their last four games, one point ahead of Colorado. Honestly, I could have died laughing.