Well, we lost in the first round for the third time in a row. We have an aging team, which is funny, it seems that we went from the "young guns" to a "veteran filled lineup" in the matter of a few years with nothing really to show for it. I am just wondering, do we blow it up? get rid of a few bad apples (Huselius, Tanguay)? or do we keep it the same as much as possible?
Well, this is what i have to say. I think that the Flames need to get a coach in there that knows the players. The way Mike Keenan pulled Miikka Kiprusoff, i think it was wrong. you have to ride the goalie that got you there, and the defense was hanging him there with no help. I think Keenan needs to go. Second, we should have got rid of Kristian Huselius long ago. Hindsight is always 20-20, but the writing seemed to be on the wall. He was definitely not going to be getting better, and his contract was up, now we will just loose him to free agency. Also, Alex Tanguay, is over paid, and needs to be gone. we could do a lot better for the money we pay him.
I don't mind our Defense, as long as they can work hard all season. we need some guys that will sacrifice all season long and concentrate on defense first. Obviously Regehr and Phaneuf are great and should be here for a long time, but i view others as interchangeable parts. Sarich is good, but expensive, same as Aucoin.
I would like to see that hard nosed hockey that we had in 04 back again. Obviously with the way they call the rules now it wont be as hard nosed as it was before, but that is the way Calgary hockey is. Lets get back to solid Defense, and Let Jerome do the rest. Tough hockey is the way forward for us, not this fancy pants hockey with pretty little goal, i want to see teeth on the ice, and ice on teeth at the end of the games. that is the only way that we will get back to the big dance.
Too bad we lost, but hopefully this will wake Darryl Sutter up and he will make the right decisions this off season.
...the defense was hanging him there with no help.I agree with a couple of your points. I don't think Keenan should have pulled Kipper so quickly, I mean, he had 30 shots in less than 30 minutes. That's a testament to just how "awesome" the defense was last night. Erikson and Hale made many terrible passes, panicked with fore-checkering, and gave up multiple scoring chances. Getting rid of sloppy play like this will benefit the Flames next year. I think Keenan needs to goI think that Mike Keenan does deserve another season... that is unless Daryl Sutter returns to the bench?? The later is probably wishful thinking. He managed to get them into the playoffs and unless an excellent coach is available, I say keep Keenan for the time being.
It was unacceptable that Calgary's key players didn't score ANY playoff goals! Craig Conroy, Alex Tanguay, Kristian Huselius, and Matt Lombardi all were held scoreless throughout the 7 games while a 38 year old Roenick scored a couple, playoff rookies Pavelski and Setiguchi scored, Cheechoo scored a couple...and the list goes on. we should have got rid of Kristian Huselius long agoHowever, I don't agree that Huselius was bad deal for the Flames. It was actually a good investment. He made a modest 1.6 million a season and all three season's with Calgary he's been a twenty plus goal scorer and had 77and 66 points in the last 2 seasons respectably. I don't think that his play deserves a pay increase in the off-season because let's face it, Huselius was a ghost the last 30 odd games of the season.Alex Tanguay, is over paid, and needs to be goneAs much as a like Alex Tanguay, he is WAY too overpaid. $5.25 million a season is too expensive for only 18 goals this year. I understand that he may do a lot of the intangibles that lead to victories however, the fact remains, $5 million can go a long way in a salary cap league.
Hopefully Sutter can make some smart moves this summer and this time next year the Flames will be in the second round... and not polishing their golf clubs.
Check out the Quad City Flames of the AHL. www.qcflames.com About half these guys are on contracts that allow Calgary to call them up. The other half are terminal AHL'ers. Some good prospects. Brandon Prust is a total head case - indiscriminate fighter. Grant Stevenson is probably due for some NHL time. Chucko is a possibility - 2nd half of his season was very good. Then there is the nepotism candidate - Darryl Sutter's son.
The positives are Iggy, Kipper, Dion, Regher, Lankow, Sarich, Nolan, Yelle, Lombardi, Joseph. A smart move would be to get a quality defenseman (like Hamrlik) and to redo the forward lines with young blood and 1 fast 10 year veteran. #1 on the to-go list is Tanguay. Good D of late but WAY too expensive. I say give Keenan a chance. If he kills Kipper's confidence along the way, his exit will come shortly after.
It's weird . I'm not sure how Huselius and Tanguay got classed as bad apples. Huselius had twice as many points as character guy Owen Nolan. Their points are going to be missed
