Who says the Flames aren’t in the playoffs? Every time I turn on the TV, I’m seeing them – and they’re playing pretty damned well, too.
A shame for Calgary that they’re all former Flames.
They’re all over the place. Brad Stuart and Todd Bertuzzi played their butts off for Detroit. Matt Lombardi, Derek Morris and Adrian Aucoin were pillars in Phoenix’s exciting first-round run. Defencemen Roman Hamrlik in Montreal, Jordan Leopold in Pittsburgh and Andrew Ference in Boston are all playing substantial roles.
But the most conspicuous is, of course, Montreal’s Mike Cammalleri.
Remember him? He’s the guy who racked up 39 goals [...]

Gonna match Iain’s first-round playoff prognosticating with my own in a few minutes here, but first things first – lots of navel-gazing and yapping and questions already swirling around the emplying corridors down at the Saddledome. Who the hell knows if it will amount to anything, but lots of questions being asked and some guys taking a long, hard look in the mirror, so that’s gotta count for something.
One of the big questions is, who’s going to be run out of town on rails? Fans and media all figure someone will be – either because someone has to pay for [...]

Given the Flames current situation, I guess it’s natural to second guess every decision made by the team throughout the year.
On the radio today, they were discussing the Phanuef trade as a “milestone” moment of the season. At that moment it occurred to me that since he left, I haven’t really heard anything about Dion. You’d think if he was tearing the place up that would be big news in a “sure…we trade him away and he comes alive” way.
I understand that there are intangibles in every situation, so I’m not interested in discussing how either guy was “in the [...]

Imagine if High Noon had been written differently. Imagine if Gary Cooper, in the face of almost insurmountable odds and facing a deadline with fate, decided not to be the legendary hero and go after the enemy with guns a-blazin’. Imagine he simply didn’t show up.
Not so heroic, is it? In fact, that story pretty much blows, doesn’t it?
Yet the Flames’ version of Gary Cooper, in the Flames’ version of High Noon, has been doing just that. Jarome Iginla, when his franchise needs him perhaps more than it has at any time in his career, has skipped town.
Not literally, of course. Iggy’s still [...]

Gotta thank Dave Thomas (aka SundevilD) for not only slipping a Ringo reference into his last post, but also reminding me of a time when we loved the Flames so completely and utterly that we would commit a break-and-enter at the old Stampede Corral and then hide out in its various dark corners for three or four hours just so we could see them in the playoffs. (For the record, it was Game 6, quarter-finals, vs. the Flyers, 1981. The game was electric, Flames lost in a thriller, then dumped the Flyers back at the old Spectrum in Game 7.)
That [...]

As you may or may not know, this blog is being written by a group of guys who are not only Flames fans, but have been friends for 35 or 40 years. We have good chemistry (unlike the Flames) and share a common sense of humor.
I personally hope that this blog can retain the vibe of the email sewing circle that we’ve been maintaining for the last several years. What follows is a fairly typical example of how things roll out between us. It frequently gets weirder and funnier than this.
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Gus:
Well just when u thought it was safe to jump [...]

And my traditional role is to tell Iain he doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about, and that he’s too in love with the Flames GM and/or coach, one/both of whom needs to be fired. Then he tells me I should stop my knee-jerk Steinbrenner-esque “fire everyone” ranting, shut the hell up and let them do their jobs. Then I call him a name, then he insults my mom, and finally I tell him to meet me by the monkey bars after school so I can kick his head in. (This is how you stay friends for 35 years.)
In this case, though, [...]

I’m Iain. I tend to leave the in-depth analysis to Dave and Daryl, because they’re good at it. Most of my posts will be short and to the point. Like this;
“We’re not done. We have 7 games, we can get to 97 points.” – Jarome Iginla.
“ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…riiiiiiiiiiiight” – Iain Godsman