Ever since the Calgary Flames missed the playoffs in April, fans and media have been speculating on whether the team’s irrational love affair with general manager Darryl Sutter would blindly ignore his colossal failures of the past 12 months (never mind the past five years), or if the increasingly bizarre series of management stumbles had finally put the Viking Curmudgeon on thin ice.
Well, now we have the answer. He’s on thin ice. Very thin. So thin that the guy likely to take his job is now sitting in the next office down the hall, holding a blow torch and an ice [...]

Just finished a half-hour as the special guest on Rinkside Rants, a weekly podcast hosted by Tim Redinger, lead blogger for the Buffalo blog, Sabre Noise, and Frank Rekas of the Florida Panthers blog, The Rat Trick. The subject: What the hell is in Darryl Sutter’s head?
I’m not sure if the other guys found it as entertaining as I did, cuz I didn’t give them a chance to get a word in edgewise. Hadn’t realized just how pissed off I was about Sutter’s signing of Olli Jokinen (OK, maybe I DID realize it, just hadn’t said it all out loud), but it [...]

This is what happens when I decide to take a little vacation. I go away for a few days, and Darryl Sutter goes insane.
OK, maybe “insane” is the wrong word. But I fear that while I was away from my post, the Flames GM developed Alzheimer’s.
For evidence, I compare Mr. Sutter’s behaviour with that of senior citizens I have encountered who are suffering from senile dementia (bear with me, I was a Psych major in a previous life):

Senile old guys forget things they’ve already done, and do them again, blissfully unaware.
Senile old guys can’t keep track of which year it [...]

My blogging partner on Flame for Thought – Iain Godsman, the founding father of the Flaming Circle of Jerks and perpetually its funniest member – sent me a link the other day to a great blog on Yahoo! Sports showing the goofy “glamour shot” photos the NHL has draft picks pose for after they are selected on draft day. Thanks to Iain for spotting it, but even more thanks to Greg Wyshynski, author of the Puck Daddy blog on Yahoo, for bringing such hilarity (much of it unintentional) to public attention.
The standout for goofy photos was a guy who was clearly [...]

By almost any standard, this was a dull NHL draft for the Calgary Flames. It was bound to be, with no picks in the first two rounds and little appetite for a blockbuster trade. But it was made even more dull by GM Darryl Sutter’s typical lack of imagination at the draft table.
For a guy with a dismal track record for drafting and developing players (The Hockey News noted recently that the Flames rank tied for LAST in the entire league in drafted players who are on the roster, and in the bottom third of the NHL for drafted players who [...]

The rise, fall and (almost) redemption of Theoren Fleury made for great human drama. Now it looks like it may make for actual theatre.
Alberta Theatre Projects, one of Calgary’s premiere theatre companies, is workshopping a one-man play based on the turbulent life of the former Flames great, who battled sexual abuse, alcoholism, drug addiction and a diminutive body to nevertheless become one of the most successful and electifying players of his era.
The play was written by Kirstie McLellan Day, the ghost-writer who “co-wrote” Theo’s autobiography that came out last year – right around the time he was attempting a (failed) comeback with the Flames. [...]

The rich tradition of the Calgary Flames providing the Toronto Maple Leafs with leadership via misguided trades has added a new chapter.
Dion Phaneuf, dealt to the Leafs by the Flames last January for a puzzling assortment of Leaf parts that didn’t quite add up to what the Flames needed to make the playoffs, was named the Leafs’ captain Monday – succeeding, well, no one, since the Buds went captainless last season. (Apparently coach Ron Wilson and GM Brian Burke didn’t think anyone was up to the task. They were probably right.)
The announcement adds yet another echo from this trade to [...]

While my partner on this blog, Iain, is a longtime Flyers fan and would be in no hurry to join me in this sentiment, I want to take a second to congratulate the Chicago Blackhawks on their Stanley Cup win. But this is a Flames blog, so rather than dwell on what a young, skilled, exciting team they have in the Windy City and all the things they did right to earn their first championship in 49 years, I want to give my Flames some of the credit for the Hawks’ success.
How so? Cast your memory back to Oct. 12, 2009.
The [...]