Flame for Thought - A Calgary Flames blog

Just over two hours ago, the Calgary Flames managed to convince the Chicago Blackhawk to take on aging center Brendan Morrison off their hands in return for the young defenseman Brian Connelly.

Bye Bye Brendan Morrison (Photo: Geoff Burke-US PRESSWIRE)

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(Photo: Gary A. Vasquez-US PRESSWIRE)

With all this All Star Game talk flooding my twitter feed, it’s been rather hard to ignore (like I usually do, sitting around waiting for the Calgary Flames to come back).  The most surprising is the late minute withdraw of Alexander Ovechkin, citing his suspension will detract from the game.  Per NHL rules, because he was invited to the game, his suspension would not interfere with his playing if he so choses to participate.  A fellow Fansided writer, Sally M. Brown of Cardiac Cane, had much to say about Ovechkin Tuesday night when he announced his decision not to play:

@Esbee92 I swear this is my last tweet about Ovi. If you want to be the face of the NHL you have to actually BE THE FACE OF THE NHL.

Which prompted a response from me:

@_CaitMonster But is he really? I feel like they’ve given up on him lately

This simple question created a lengthy back and forth between her and I, leading us both to do a post on it seeing as Twitter would not allow us to ruminate on this, okay maybe not ruminate but think and discuss this way more than the allowed space of Twitter.  You can see to the conclusion Sally came to on Cardiac Cane or right here.  (Make sure to follow Sally on Twitter!  She’s good fun and knows her hockey!)

I’ll wait for you to finish.

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How do we define success? More specifically, how do the Calgary Flames define it, and how does it affect their plan for this year’s team?

To understand the course the team has taken this year, we need to look to the past.

Photo: Dallas Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk, by Jerome Miron, US PRESSWIRE

In the late 90s, the Flames weren’t really going anywhere. Their last playoff appearance had been in 1996, a year that saw the trade of Joe Nieuwendyk to the Stars for soon-to-be-franchise-cornerstone Jarome Iginla (among others).  They weren’t successful, ticket sales plunged, and revenue went down, which mean they couldn’t keep what little talent they had. You couldn’t give away Flames tickets in Calgary. A declining Canadian dollar didn’t help matters (for them or any other Canadian team at that time). Bad drafting meant that the pipeline of cheap, young talent wasn’t bearing fruit. When names like Rico Fata, Andrei Medvedev and Daniel Tkaczuk top your draft board, you haven’t really been hitting the jackpot.

Your normal Calgary Flames post will return soon!  I promise!  But for now, let’s talk about the All Star Draft:

(Photo: Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE)

As I sit here and catch up on the draft, because I was out eating dinner, I have to say I am impressed with the team assembled by Zdeno Chara.  With Joffery Lupul standing by Chara’s side, the two have assembled a much more coheasive team than Daniel Alfredsson and Henrik Lundqvist assembled.  This is not to say Alfredsson has a bad team, but come on!  Chara managed to reunite Jarome Iginla and Dion Phaneuf!  I can’t imagine the squeals of joy coming from some of the fans in Calgary when this happened. To see Iginla sit on the stage next to Phaneuf as the draft continued was a blast from the past.

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Today beings the official break for the All Star Game, while the Calgary Flames have been off since Tuesday night, the NHL did have one last game last night.

Making his 6th All Star Game appearance (2002, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009) Jarome Iginla will be the only representative for the Flames this time around.  In years past, Iginla has been joined by Dion Phaneuf, Robyn Regehr, Jordan Leopold, and Matthew Lombardi.

(Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images, thehockeynews.com)

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“We’re a team that’s fighting to get into a playoff spot, and you cannot have a second period like we had. We played the whole period in our zone. It was disappointing.”

—Flames Coach Brent Sutter.

This was Brent Sutter’s comments after the disappointing shut out the Calgary Flames had in the San Jose Shark’s game.  As someone who had hoped to see the Flames go on the All Star Break with a win, a nice send off for the week off, I understand Brent Sutter’s frustrations.  However, I don’t see what Sutter expects from this team.

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In tonight’s game, Calgary Flames versus San Jose Sharks, the third place Western Conference team will battle to win 2 points from the Flames.  With last night’s shoot out loss against the Edmonton Oilers, the Sharks must be shaken considering this just adds on to their string of bad luck.  With 4 out of their last 5 games ending in a loss, it is a small wonder the Sharks have managed to maintain a third place position in the conference and first in the division, but the division is more likely because of how poorly everyone else is playing not the great skill the Sharks have.

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