Conroy

A little more than a month into the Jay Feaster era, and in so many ways, life is much better in Flame Country. The team has clawed its way back into playoff contention (honestly, how the hell did that happen?), Brent Sutter and people around him are cracking smiles occasionally, and GM Feaster is starting to slowly clean up the mess Darryl Sutter had left behind. But in Feaster’s first significant move as GM, he showed that maybe the organization hasn’t changed as much for the better as we might suppose. Last week, Feaster placed Craig Conroy – one of [...]

A few more thoughts on Craig Conroy, who is coming back at least for a minimum-wage tryout with the Flames this fall/ One of my colleagues in the Flaming Circle, my old buddy Daryl Leman, had this to say a couple of days ago - reminding us how much this guy can still bring to the table, and how good he was a few years ago when both he and the team were at their best: “Having Conroy’s personality around the dressing room and in front of the cameras is always a good thing. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to hear him place a [...]

In what continues to be a quiet summer in Flameland, the big news of the week was the surprise re-signing of Craig Conroy – surprising because most observers had assumed the veteran centre was no longer in Calgary’s plans. Well, upon closer inspection of the deal, he may not be after all. Conroy signed a one-year deal at the league minimum $500,000 (U.S.), a pittance for a 16-year veteran with a reputation as a solid two-way centre, a leader and a great presence in the dressing room. What’s more, it’s a two-way deal – meaning the Flames can send him down to [...]

I can bear witness to the fact that when Iain was 22, you would have found his picture next to “bad decisions” in the dictionary…  I gotta say, the fact that this was reported in a couple of different blogs on the Web hardly establishes anything, other than how easily stuff is repeated in blogs on the Web (case in point…um…well…you’re reading one). Still, it restores at least some of my faith in Darryl Sutter if there’s any truth to it. I’ve spent the past several months grumbling – way, way too often, to the point where a hockey-writer friend of mine [...]

Wow… how bad are the Flames this December? Just terrible, after coming out of November looking like one of the teams to beat, they have proven to me, and fellow Calgarians that this is probably another early playoff exit team. In December they have won 3 games and lost 6. They need a Christmas break like Gary Bettman needs a heart attack. They have looked very uninterested in winning since December began. In November their problem was that they would play hard for all but 5-10 mins of the game, and in that time they would give up a few [...]