Calgary Flames- Retired

[First Round Pick]

I've been a big fan of the Copper and Blue for Oilers coverage, but this site is beginning to really start showing some similar quality coverage for Flames fans.

This week's coverage:
Discussion of the statistical deficiencies of a certain Flame goaltender compared to the rest of the league, a quick breakdown of the Canadian U20 camp in Edmonton, and some quick Flames forward analysis from last year. Let's not forget, this forward group is virtually the same going in to this year. Good reading for sure, and a site you should be checking our regularly.

http://flamesnation.ca/

[Riverboat Danglers]

I've been a big fan of the Copper and Blue for Oilers coverage, but this site is beginning to really start showing some similar quality coverage for Flames fans.

This week's coverage:
Discussion of the statistical deficiencies of a certain Flame goaltender compared to the rest of the league, a quick breakdown of the Canadian U20 camp in Edmonton, and some quick Flames forward analysis from last year. Let's not forget, this forward group is virtually the same going in to this year. Good reading for sure, and a site you should be checking our regularly.

http://flamesnation.ca/

flamesnation and copper and blue are 2 totally different sites. copper and blue is part of sb nation which has a sports blog site for pretty much every major team.

oilersnation is the one i think your referencing. there is just about a nation site for every canadian team now

[First Round Pick]

flamesnation and copper and blue are 2 totally different sites. copper and blue is part of sb nation which has a sports blog site for pretty much every major team.

oilersnation is the one i think your referencing. there is just about a nation site for every canadian team now

My apologies, it was Lowetide I was thinking of at around 1:00 am... great breakdowns of individual prospects and players, as well as some interesting historical stories.

[First Round Pick]

Here's some info tweeted about earlier, from Flames On Demand, this one chatting with T.J. Brodie about general stuff. Continue down the page for chats with Sarich, a look back on Iggy's draft day 16 years ago (??) and some other things.

http://video.flames.nhl.com/videocen...d=11&id=121573

One interesting side-note from Brodie's interview. They let it slip that Giordano is a bench-press machine. Looking at him you wouldn't think he's that strong, but according to Brodie he can bench press 310. (for those of us gym rats, that means he bench presses 3 plates a side)

[First Round Pick]

Another good synopsis from FlamesNation regarding the Scott Hannan signing:

http://flamesnation.ca/2011/8/13/sco...rtunity-knocks


I have to agree with many of the points made. He's signed to a very friendly contract, $1 million for one year, and replaces a bunch of the traits Regehr had. He will definitely be counted on to solidify the shut-down role, so whether he fits with Sarich as a shut-down team will be interesting to see. He's a left handed shot and presumably will play the left side, though Sarich is also listed as a LD. And Hannan has had over 800 NHL games yet is only 32... I didn't realize he was that young still.

That moves the rest of the d back a step, and looking at the depth chart I have to feel a bit better about it. You would think Bouw and Gio play together to start, hopefully with Giordano asserting himself (to the coach) as the top offensive d. Babchuk falls to the 3rd pairing but I don't have a problem with that. That leaves Butler, Mikkelsson and Carson to fight for the last spot. Butler needs to have a good training camp and assert himself quickly. That would leave Brodie in the minors for one more year to develop what is hoped from him, being a top-4 D who can play a solid two-way game.

So as of right now, I can see the Flames going with a familiar approach of keeping 8 D and 13 F on the playing roster. That means Kostopoulos stays as the 13th F and both Leblond and Ivanans head to Abbotsford. I know Ivanans was brought here for a reason but they already have a player better than him in Jackman who can do all the little things needed. Ivanans stays if Hagman is waived.

In the end, not a monster signing, but it's at least one with little risk and makes the team better. Flames fans have to at least be happy with small victories right now.

[bondon]

Hey Chad, wondering what your thoughts are on Rene Bourque. Why did he struggle so much last season and more importantly why are his PIM's dropping? Is it the typical case of a grinder turned scorer that needs to focus on scoring and less on the rough business?
Also where do you see him lining up next season? Reason why I'm asking is I own him in one league and want to get an idea of what kind of production I can expect from him.

Thanks buddy!

[horrorfan]

Hey Chad, wondering what your thoughts are on Rene Bourque. Why did he struggle so much last season and more importantly why are his PIM's dropping? Is it the typical case of a grinder turned scorer that needs to focus on scoring and less on the rough business?
Also where do you see him lining up next season? Reason why I'm asking is I own him in one league and want to get an idea of what kind of production I can expect from him.

Thanks buddy!

Ooh good question, I'm wondering as well. Overall, his offensive numbers weren't that poor, but I noticed he was quite streaky, which is quite frustrating as I imagine it was for you.

[First Round Pick]

Ok guys, you asked for Bourque answers, I'll do my best to come up with an explanation... and maybe an answer.

Let's start with the penalty minute factor. I don't think I can put this more bluntly. Unless he changes his game back to where it came from two years ago, Bourque is no longer a PIM option. In 2009-10 he had 8 roughing penalties and 2 fighting majors. In 2010-11, he had 2 roughing minors and no fights. Yup, that's it, 2 roughing penalties. That doesn't seem like someone who's about to fill your PIM category. Case closed there, let's move on.

In his 2009-10 breakout year, his stat line was 73 GP, 27-31-58, +7, 84 PIM. Last year was 80 GP, 27-23-50, -17, 44 PIM. Same number of goals in more games played. Definitely he took a step back. One thing I remember watching him play back in November was that he was really skating well, getting into prime scoring positions and most people thought he was truly the first threat to end Iggy's goal-scoring title on the team. Then the wheels fell off... hard.

So let's look at that from two angles. First let's go with his month-to-month stats.

October: 9 GP, 6-3-9
November: 13 GP, 5-4-9
December: 14 GP, 2-5-7
January: 13 GP, 2-1-3
February: 13 GP, 4-4-8
March: 14 GP, 7-6-13
April: 4 GP, 1-0-1

This confirms what I had said before, in November things were looking great, we were looking at Iggy-lite, but then that streakiness came in... and lasted half the season. 40 games, 8 goals, 10 assists. Now to be fair the Flames were simply awful in December and January so it wasn't just Bourque's problem, but he certainly was not part of the solution either. He is very streaky, even during his breakout season in 2009-10 he would have months of 13 points followed by a month with only 6. He needs to somehow find consistency in his game, and by consistency I mean it has to be consistently good for more than 20 games. We just haven't seen that from him yet, and obviously many people in the league recognize that fact now.

He did find his groove again at the end of the year, playing with Jokinen and Glencross. Now we all know Jokinen is also very streaky so we shouldn't be surprised by that. Those two lined up with Hagman for a fair number of games through the middle of the season though, so there's no question his struggles are due in some part to how poorly Hagman played all year long.

In looking forward to this year, the Flames have kept their entire forward core together, so I see them continuing with the Bourque-Jokinen-Glencross line... just be prepared for a yo-yo season from that group. Glencross will hopefully keep them a bit more even-keel with his work ethic and willingness to dig in the corners for the other two. If I was looking at this from a fantasy perspective, I'd seriously look at selling on one of his highs - even in his last two years where he's played his best hockey, he has yet to produce back-to-back months with 10+ points.

Now the one thing that needs to improve in 2011-12 is his Northwest division play. This to me is a staggering breakdown that defies explanation, because only Vancouver should have been a tough group to score against.

2009-10: 24 GP, 15 G, 12 A, 27 Pts, +8, 35 PIM
2010-11: 23 GP, 3 G, 10 A, 13 Pts, -11, 10 PIM

23 games against your own divisional rivals with only 3 goals just isn't good enough for your #2 winger. Yes the assists are decent but the +/- also completely disappeared. For some reason he just didn't produce against Vancouver, Edmonton, Colorado, or Minnesota - which wouldn't be bad if they didn't play 30% of their games against those teams.

At the end of the day, you need your best players to be at their best against your divisional rivals... Bourque simply was not at the same level last year as he was before. If the Flames want to make the playoffs, they'll need him to return to that form. He's a better player than the 50-point guy we saw last year.

[bondon]

Thank you for that brilliant breakdown Chad. I'm definitely going to remember this post once the season starts.

Its unfortunate because I thought he was going to be one of those multi-cat beasts in years to come. Its very discouraging to see the huge dip in rough business.

Rep to ya once I reload.

[TwoPuckCanuck]

Yeah, a bit disappointed to see Bourque shy away from that edge he once had. Not a bad player either way, but think he could be more.

[horrorfan]

Excellent analysis Chad - thanks!

[First Round Pick]

So the Flames trade Langkow for Stempniak, what does this mean besides what is on the main page analysis?

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=374721

First thing is that it definitely gives some direction to the top 4 centers. Backlund is on the team permanently now. I personally disagree with the main page that automatically puts Stajan in as an offensive center. He was dropped to the 4th line before Langkow came back, so there's no guarantee he can stay ahead of Morrison on the depth chart. Hopefully he's been working out hard this summer, but so far I have not heard any news regarding his off-season preparation.

Stempniak is interesting, he can be dynamic at times but still fairly inconsistent. There's a reason he's bounced around to his fourth team now - STL, TOR, PHX and now CAL. This seems to be a deal that helps Phoenix with a top-2 center to give Turris some buffer room, and allows Calgary to get a good 3rd line player who can help get some goals on the PP. He has been used on the point before, so my guess is he gets an audition there on the 2nd PP unit. He is useful in that he can be brought up onto a top-6 role for a period of time and thrive, but to this point he has justbeen able to stay there.

I will definitely say I like the new tone of the front office to explain exactly why a particular move was made. In this case, I think Feaster has been around the team long enough to see where it's weaknesses lie.

Feaster: "(The trade) makes us younger and provides an opportunity to evaluate a player who may factor into our plans for the future," Feater said. "It provides (Flames coach Brent Sutter) with options as Stempniak can play either wing and can be used on both the power play and the penalty kill and it creates healthy competition among the forward group for ice time."

There's no question Stempniak can and will contribute much more than Langkow did last year, and let's be honest - Langkow did an amazing job in being able to come back and prove he could still play at an NHL level from an injury that could easily have left him paralyzed. Without all of Langkow's hard work the Flames would have never gotten any kind of value for him, and hopefully he's been thanked accordingly for doing exactly that. The Flames magically saved $2.6 million off their cap this year without giving up any additional contract years. Stempniak can fill the void of a super-3rd-liner, and likely will fill a nice role on the PK with Morrison.

For the #1 C role, I see Morrison and Backlund swapping that spot back and forth for at least half the season until Backlund can finally claim the spot for good. Does it make sense for your #1C to swap with your 3rd/4th line C? No it doesn't, but the Flames don't have that luxury to be picky. The risk/reward/compensation level was too high for Langkow to be here another full year at $4.5 million.

This does make the wing positions a bit more ordersome (L1 Tanguay/Iggy, L2 Bourque/Glencross, L3 Moss/Stempniak, L4 Kostopoulous/Jackman) with Jokinen likely the only center to stay with his linemates on the second line. This pushes Ivanans to 13th forward, and Byron is likely in Abbotsford to start the year now.

At the end of the day it's not a huge trade, but again it's another move that Feaster is making to improve the team's flexibility. For a team with very little of that until next year, that's a welcome sight to see. If anyone had said in February that Calgary could get a borderline 2nd/3rd winger and save 2.5 million in cap space for Langkow, I'm sure nearly everyone would have been impressed.

[First Round Pick]

One other point I didn't mention... the salary they just traded away now allows the Flames to push Hagman through waivers and into the minors without having to spend extra cash... and if he's claimed/traded then more bonus money for the Flames to play with. I still say this is going to happen in my opinion, but have heard more than a few rumblings on it.

[First Round Pick]

The latest weekly update, from Matchsticks & Gasoline, regarding the loss of an opportunity with Langkow to "rebuild" properly.

http://www.matchsticksandgasoline.co...rade#storyjump

Now personally, I don't see it quite the same as the author. My view is that Langkow worked his butt off to be able to come back, but by no means is he guaranteed to be a top-notch performer this year. While I do agree with the poster's analysis that at best Stempniak will be "protected second-liner at best", there was nothing mentioned at all about this being a salary saving move for this year, nor did it mention anything about being confident in their one lone young forward prospect (Backlund) to show he belongs in the top 6. Even if Phoenix was the one that came calling, I'd hardly call it a position of "strength" that the Flames were dealing with.

[Shake]

Nice game from Sven Baertschi tonight. Couple goals, he's been involved in everything out there.