No News is Bad News

I have Google Alerts set up to deliver any Calgary Flames news, blog posts, etc. to me every morning. I follow @NHLFlames on Twitter with filters in place to let me know when they post. I listen fairly regularly to Fan960, the official broadcaster of the Flames. It’s reasonable to call myself “plugged in”. Or at least as plugged in as a non-insider can be.

With all the above, here’s what I can report; a friend of a friend who works at Starbucks served a coffee to Jarome Iginla a couple of weeks ago.

Ever since the big post-season news conference with Ken King and Darryl Sutter on April 12, there has been no significant news coming out of the dome. We know Cory Sarich did some time at McDonalds on “Happy Meal Day”. We know Conroy got nominated for the King Clancy award. We know some dude named Bryan Cameron is playing in Abbostford now.

We can safely assume that Darryl Sutter still has his job. With the draft just of a month away, you’d have to believe that if a new GM was coming in he’d be here already getting a feel for things and preparing for the all-important 5th round or wherever it is the Flames first pick is.

Further, Calgary Sun columnist Eric Francis suggests that not only is Sutter staying but that he’s getting some help. Could uber-successful Hitmen GM Kelly Kisio be getting “a promotion” to assistant GM with the big club?

The worst news though, is that it looks as though neither Ian White nor my favourite Flame, Eric Nystrom, will be returning. Smart money says Nystrom is headed to Lawn Guy Land. It’s hard to fault Nystrom for wanting to double his salary while playing in his home town for the team his daddy played for, but I have to give this two thumbs down on behalf of Flames Nation.

Nystrom was one of the few consistently bright lights over his last couple of years here. He scored. He assisted. He fought. He hustled. He gave an entertaining interview. I’m gonna miss him.

The story behind the loss of these two players is covered more fully in Eric Francis’ May 10 column.

It’s taken a while, because I tend to be optimistic, but I think reality is starting to set in. My current mood regarding the Flames is “oh shhhhhhiiiiiiiitttttttt”.

🙁