Posts Tagged ‘Calgary Flames’
Eric Francis, today, in the Calgary Sun:
Young blood is needed behind the bench and in the locker-room, which is exactly the way it’s going to be as Sutter claims he’s re-stocked the shelves.
Although the injuries cut deep into the Flames lineup, they are not an excuse as this club had been mercifully spared of notable ailments the previous three seasons with the same result.
In case Mr. Francis doesn’t realize it, Keenan has only been the coach for two years. He certainly can’t be held accountable for the Flames failures for the last four (though I’m sure, at times, two years can seem like four when you have someone that competitive involved).
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The Calgary Flames vs. Chicago Blackhawks series has been a fascinating event so far. It seems to me that the Flames have outplayed the Blackhawks for the most part. In every game except for game 3 they have blown a significant lead. Even if only a goal in game 1, it was toward the end when they relinquished the lead. So, what can we make of this as it applies to the rest of this series? And what can we make of it as it applies to the future, should some semblance of what has already happened take place and they lose in this round or the next?
Blowing the leads has been a terrible development in the series so far. They could easily have a commanding 3-1 lead in this series, but they are also only a bad break in game 4 (after giving up those leads) from being down 3-1. This seems somewhat like bad coaching. It seems that in a couple of the games they went into a defensive shell, allowing the Blackhawks to pepper Kiprusoff until he broke. In game four I thought it was the opposite. They had a 3-goal lead halfway through the game and they failed to tighten up and dumb things down. That was the time to make sure you chipped pucks in deep and won battles on the boards. Without a host of odd-man breaks, it was going to be a game they should be able to ride out to victory (essentially the same grinding method they employed in the third period).
That said, Joel Quenneville is getting a lot of credit for the timeout he took when they fell down 4-1, as he should. At the same time, it seemed to be a no-brainer. In either case, if you are going to give so much credit to Joel Quenneville, after his team then faded into oblivion, don’t you also have to give the same amount of credit for the no-brainer timeout when they gave up the 4th and tying goal? The Blackhawks would fail to score for the rest of the game and Calgary would go on to a 2-goal win (including the Iginla empty-netter).
It seems that things are going to be very difficult with the Flames as depleted as they are in terms of human resources. They are already in a tough spot without Regehr in the lineup, and now they are without a couple of key centermen. Conroy, in particular, plays a pivotal defensive role by taking key faceoffs and performing well on the penalty kill. Langkow seems to be a key kick-start for some of the more offensive players. Whoever plays with him seems to get their chances, even if they don’t always capitalize.
If they should get one or both of those guys back, I like the Flames chances. If they get Regehr back I think they are clear favorites. The Blackhawks have done nothing spectacular in this series — nothing that looks like what they did to the Flames in the regular season. With any additional talent in the favor of an already-superior Flames team, and I think this series is quite skewed in their favor. On top of that, the Blackhawks have given Iginla the fuel to burn, and Jokinen looks like he’s figured out the level of determination necessary for the playoffs. Cory Sarich looks like a stud defenseman only a few months removed from being the worst defenseman the Flames regularly put on the ice.
Much was made about the poor record at the end of the season for the Flames. The people who were watching the games and paying attention know that it wasn’t as bad as the standings showed. They outplayed several very good teams in tough losses, and they failed to get games into overtime (when just a few would have sealed the division). Calgary appears to be the superior team in this series and it appears to me that only if Chicago can make their home-ice advantage pay off in games 5 and 7 will they be able to topple Iron Mike’s Calgary Flames.
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The Globe and Mail has a fascinating article about Mike Keenan today. In it:
“He still loves to win, probably more than any coach that I’ve ever played for,” Conroy said. “Sometimes a coach will say after a game, ‘Yeah, you won, but you didn’t play all that well and didn’t deserve to.’ Mike is not like that. He is a bottom-line guy. If you won, you won. And if you lose, well, it’s not a lot of fun around here.”
No wonder I can identify with the man. We need more Mike Keenan’s in the world.
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The common opinion around the hockey world following the trades Calgary made at the deadline to bring in Jordan Leopold and Olli Jokinen was that Darryl Sutter recognized the window of opportunity was closing and thinks the team is ready to make a run this season. I won’t deny that there is some truth behind this, but I think the trade had more foresight than this. I also think that the fact that Iginla, Regehr, and Kiprusoff “aren’t getting any younger” is certainly true (none of us are, are we?), it’s more a matter of those players not getting any cheaper.
When you take into account what the club has going for it this year, Michael Cammalleri is one of the biggest reasons for success to date, yet it’s unlikely they are going to be able to find a way to work something out with him unless he just loves the situation and is willing to play for under $5 million per year. Todd Bertuzzi has also been a key player (both in terms of wins and in terms of some of their losses) this year, and the size and play-making ability he brings to the team also may be short-lived for the Flames. Many people suggest that bringing in Olli Jokinen has killed off any hopes of re-signing Cammalleri. I think those hopes were gone when he hit the 25-goal mark, and he could be on his way to 40 (and more than Iginla — something no Flame has done for almost a decade). Jokinen kills two Canucks with one stone as he brings the playmaking and phyisical play of Todd Bertuzzi, as well as the scoring touch of a Michael Cammalleri. He also adds first-line center abilities that have been lacking the last several years. Langkow is as close as they have, yet he would be best shifting back and forth on the 2nd and 3rd lines, playing his solid defensive style, and also killing some penalties. Throw in Conroy at a ridiculously low price (a true hometown discount) and you have center depth as great as any team in the league. All of this, and Jokinen is signed through next season at only $5.5 million for the season. Langkow, alone, will haul $4.25. This makes Jokinen’s move something more than the typical deadline-day move — something that was done at that time to limit the cost for this season, but with an eye toward extending the window of opportunity at least through the end of next year.
Jordan Leopold, on the other hand, was a typical deadline-day move. His $1.5 million is very low, and he is likely to demand more next season. While I think it would be wise to try to find a way to move out Cory Sarich’s roughly $3.5 million per year deal (for several more seasons) and use that money to sign Leopold to a 3-year deal, I think there will be several teams looking at Leopold as a key acquisition in the off-season (in fact, I think my hometown Wild would be remiss to miss signing him to a 5-6 year deal, through the end of his most productive years). He would need to be treated well, and want to come back for another Stanley Cup run next year. The rest of this season and the run they are able or unable to make may play a key role in his decision.
The core of the team for next season would include Iginla, Jokinen, Glencross, Bourque, Langkow, Conroy and Boyd up front. Their defense would include Phaneuf, Regehr, Sarich, Vandermeer, and Giordano. And, of course they have a goalie who has stepped back into his all-world form so much that we don’t even know the legitimacy of his backup. All of this to say that they are pretty well prepared for this year, next, and have a good base for at least a couple seasons beyond. The deadline deals show some urgency, but nothing desperate.
*The salary numbers I used are based on those provided at a great site, nhlnumbers.com.
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It’s not often sportswriters are willing to give Mike Keenan credit for anything anymore. Here’s one who has owned up to his criticisms and says he gives Keenan a lot of credit for the Flames’ success this year.
I’m ready and willing to eat my words based on what I’ve seen this season. Sutter deserves a ton of credit bringing in Mike Cammalleri, Todd Bertuzzi, Rene Bourque, Curtis Glencross and Mark Giordano. But it’s Keenan who’s responsible for working them into ideally suited roles and being wise enough to mix them up to create freshness and hunger.
He wants to see more before he’s convinced. I just want to see more.
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The Calgary Flames are mired in their first three-game losting streak of the season following a 5-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks last night, and there are certainly reasons to be concerned. Then again, there are reasons not to be as well. Here are three of each.
Concerning:
- All of the theatrics involving Sutter and Keenan did nothing for this club last night, and that is disappointing. They didn’t look dead, but they didn’t look great, either. Worse, the top players were among the worst last night. Regehr was a -2, Iginla a horrendous -4.
- Todd Bertuzzi had become one of the keys to success, and I still think he is. But one of the ways he got there was the elimination of penalties 75-200 feet from his own net. I’ll concede that probably 20-40% of the penalties called on him wouldn’t be called on someone else (both his strength and his reputation make things look worse for him), but he is now putting himself in those positions again. The Flames depend on momentum off of a sustained forecheck, and you simply cannot keep momentum when you are killing penalties.
- Kiprusoff has shown mortality again. While he has made some incredible saves to keep them in games (especially in the Dallas game), he also has let in a few back-breaking stinkers. The one that rolled in over his shoulder from a poor angle last night was the twist of the knife.
Not concerned
- The Dallas game looked like any game with Dallas (either team could have won), and the other two games could have been far different with a break or two early in the game. The Flames are still getting scoring chances, and they have been in this boat before. Perhaps they need another defensive mini-camp to sharpen their skills. They have some two-day breaks in the near future to take another look at this.
- They have positioned themselves well. This is the first three-game losing streak of the season for them, which is impressive for them but also can be taken for this being the worst they’ve played all year. I see it more as the former. They were not even in some games early in the year, and those stretches weren’t necessarily including Dallas and Chicago.
- The GM and coach idenitified this rough patch long before it was critical. Often-times a team waits until it’s been 5 or 6 games. These two guys have short fuses, and you can expect Sutter to make a change or two soon if this isn’t resolved. In fact, Sutter rarely waits right to the deadline to make his moves. I think the next two weeks is the prime time for Darryl Sutter to make small improvements (small is all that fits in the current budget). All of this said, coaches are lying if they say they don’t like a little of this in the middle of a year. Even the best of teams need to remember that they aren’t invincible, and that the hard work has to continue. These little glitches give the coach some credibility back — they make his voice heard again.
It’s a good thing that there are a lot of tough games coming. The worst thing would be to come out and play uninspired against the bottom-feeders. The Flames have several chances to prove they are one of the top teams in the league. Over the next 2-3 weeks, up to the deadline, we’ll find out if their success this season was a mirage, or if we are looking at a true cup contender. I tend to think we’ll be expecting a push toward June.
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They can’t help it. At the very smallest possibility of some descension, the media pounces on it and builds it into something larger than it is. Take Darryl Sutter’s post-game meeting with his club after the Stars loss the other night.
After the media was shuffled out and the doors closed Tuesday night for the discussion, Keenan chose to leave without speaking.
Maybe he didn’t want to say anything that would land him in the same sort of hot water his team was in.
Nevermind the fact that the next paragraph quotes Keenan as saying he welcomes a different voice now and then. This is after Keenan has been praised all year for no explosions reminiscent of his earlier coaching days. Perhaps Sutter, hoping to keep the everyday operations on a somewhat even keel, figured that he could best be the bad cop and not turn things upside down. Keep in mind, they still are one of the top few teams in the last 30-35 games (maybe the best).
I wouldn’t doubt if the whole thing was Keenan’s idea. Still, to assume that Keenan would have any problem with this even after stating that he welcomed the statement from his boss proves that the media is only looking to create something that isn’t there. They tried with the Kiprusoff situation last year, and that failed. They tried to wedge Tanguay between Keenan and management, and they failed (both the team and Tanguay are having much better seasons after parting ways). Apparently this is their next attempt to make news where there isn’t any.
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Todd Bertuzzi will never get the credit he might deserve again in his career simply due to people not liking the guy. It’s understandable considering the mistakes he has made in his career that he is not warm in the hearts of hockey fans, but what he has done this year has been a critical piece to the Flames winning puzzle. Sure, he only has 12 goals, but 4 of those have been game-winners, often with a few seconds left or in overtime. He also has at least one or two game-winners in shootouts that do not show up in the main goals account.
Simply put, Bertuzzi’s impact is lost in the box score. There are very few guys in the league who can shoot, pass, or skate like Bertuzzi can, and there isn’t another 230-pounder who can at all. These abilities make teams back off and be wary when Bertuzzi is free-wheeling in the offensive zone. It’s not as if you are going to knock him off the puck without excellent body position on him. He’s got a Godzillian reach, especially when he takes one hand off the stick to put the puck even further from the defensive player, and his 6′3″ frame between it. And then there is the fact that he can make the seemingly impossible pass off of his forehand or backhand. Back off too far and he’ll step in and shelf one on the goalie.
I’m not going to say this was a genius pickup. Bertuzzi has been on and off for several years, and there is always some risk with those typs of players. The point is that the unwatching follower will not see all of the missed opportunities Bertuzzi has created for himself (he could have 25 goals right now), but more importantly will not see the positive impact that he has when he is on the ice. As an added bonus, he has toned down the ridiculous 75-five-feet-from-the-puck penalties he seemed to take early in the year. For the Flames to be firing on all cylinders as they begin a run for the Stanley Cup, they can ill-afford to lose Bertuzzi.
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Brian Costello notes that the Flames are in a good position and must take advantage: Starting tonight against the Islanders and going through March 1 against Tampa Bay, the Flames play 12 of 22 games against teams not holding down playoff positions. Four of the other 10 games are against bubble teams — Minnesota and Phoenix. In other words, just six games of the next 22 are against premium teams.
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The way head coach Mike Keenan sees it, a little rest will do them a world of good. After a quick two-game road trip which also includes Minnesota, the Flames have a season-long six-game homestand over two weeks.
“Your schedule can be and often is your best friend. Or not,” he said after Friday’s defeat.
Case in point, having to play so quickly after a tough road trip, mostly in terms of late-night arrivals. An extra day before facing Florida, in his mind, would have meant a world of difference.
“I think our guys were fairly focused, paying attention to it, but it’s the time of year a lot of families have family in town and there are preoccupations,” he said.
“We have a lot of players with a lot of young children, and those little people don’t care if their father plays hockey or not.
“They want to see their father, be with their father, and rightfully so. And the fathers want to see their children.
“It’s not a preoccupation, but it gets you out of your routine. I can’t disagree with little people.”
Amen.
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