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Where we are

June 20, 2021, 9:55 AM ET [102 Comments]
Guest Writer
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On March 4th last season as the calls to fire Ward were at it’s zenith, the Calgary Flames pulled the trigger and brought in Darryl Sutter as the replacement. I have my suspicions as to whether this was a decision made by the GM, in his seventh season with the team with very little to show for it, or by ownership, who has seen the same GM fire four Coaches and rank 20th in pinning percentage over seven years. With the core of the team seeming to regress* and having already gone “all in” on a 30 year old goalie with a solid history of missing time with injury; you could sense the desperation of some of his recent moves.

Elliotte Friedman passed on a great analogy given to him by an NHL Executive: “When you see another GM struggling to keep his head above water other GM’s wont throw life preservers, they’ll throw anchors.” I might have paraphrased that, but you get the idea.

This off season will be a big one for the Flames as an organization.Treliving has the challenge of deciding whether this core had a one-off bad year or whether the team as a whole is heading in a bad direction. He has to bet on a Coach that he may or may not have hired to fix what Darryl called a multitude of bad habits. He has to make the team better and be better himself. Even Treliving himself admitted this at the end of last season. Personally, I agree. While I thought Markstrom and Tanev were solid additions, Nordstrom, Leivo, and Simon showed once again that Brad has a difficult time finding a bottom six that is hard to play against. Something Sutter will emphasize in post-season internal review.

The good

Being optimistic is something that gets harder to do as a Flames fan. That said, we have a core capable of so much more than they achieve. Our defence is loaded with puck movers and our left wing is as deep as it’s ever been. Our goalie has the potential to steal a game or series if he is healthy. Lucic had a resurgence and was fully worth 4 of the 6 million dollars he earned this year. James Neal had a horrible year and the Oilers got swept in the first round.

The bad

The blue line isn’t scaring anyone. Gio throws a hit once in a blue moon. Andersson who has thrown some big ones had a quiet year. No one is worried about playing against Juuso Valimaki. Absolutely no one. Noah Hanifin… You get my point. Darryl Sutter historically depends heavily on big strong defensemen who make sure you pay if you’re heading down the wall. This was a big reason Stone had a re-appearance late in the season. Darryl will absolutely be asking for more of that.

The right wing. We all know the Flames’ issues with right wingers. We saw Nick Ritchie land a first line gig. The Flames’ strategy is under sizing/over skill on the left wing and spare parts on the right wing.



The ugly

There is something rotten with this core. Most of us saw the game on January 26th this year. The game it’s self an example of our struggling offence this season. Then came the final buzzer. For those who haven’t watched it (NSFW) it is a powerful metaphor for how this season went for the Flames. This picture sums up the way many of us felt last season.

[url=https://ibb.co/jRs7dBN][img]https://i.ibb.co/4d3Bc9q/A2-FD9-EA6-8784-4634-A1-D7-27-AD50356631.jpg[/img][/url]

The next day a players only meeting was held. This is what Elliotte Friedman had to say about it:

"Those players look really frustrated," said Friedman on a 31 thoughts podcast. I think Tkachuk was really frustrated by what happened. That whole puck flipping thing led to a meeting that I think just sent them sideways. I think Tkachuk feels that some of the players didn't want him to create something every game and I think he's confused by that. I think he understands only how to play the game a certain way and I think he's questioning it now. "

We saw a quieter version of Matt Tkachuk after that. He was drawing less penalties, posting worse numbers and putting in a quieter effort. Without him making his presence known, our biggest threat was Johnny on an island with an injured center and the ogre that is Nick Ritchie. It wasn’t until the end of the year that Tkachuk seemed to loosen up and remember how good of a passer he is. By that point the season was a wash.


What I would do (Part 1)

Trust Darryl
He’s working in a good direction with the group. While they lost a ton of games hammering out the dents of a new system, we also saw the team playing tighter as a group. We saw better effort every night. When Tkachuk started earning more minutes he did more with them. The same goes for Mangiapane.

Trade for Brendan Lemieux
I understand if you don’t agree with me on this one. He’s another left handed left wing. Opposite of what we need, right? Wrong. He plays with zero fear, he finishes his checks, and he has a nose for the net. Most importantly he was a rival to Tkachuk in junior. These two would push each other in terms of physicality and Lemieux is a guy that would back up Tkachuk in the scrums.

Sign Ian Cole
Cole dominated against us in our series against the Avs. Particularly against Johnny. Sutter is absolutely looking for mean defensemen like Ian Cole. Jamie Oleksiak also applies here, but he will be getting paid more this offseason. The blue line is easy to play against. That much is hard to deny.

Thanks for reading. What would you do if you were Brad Treliving?

Trevor Neufeld
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