ScorchStack Issue #5- For a lot of reasons this is insane
Back to the regular format
After a few weeks off schedule, we’re back, doing the normal ScorchStack as it normally is. Except most of our issues have been outside of this normal format. We’re back, doing the abnormal ScorchStack as it abnormally is.
What’s inside?
The return of Floob’s Like It Or Not, although not really.
Mike ruins your week with an absolutely fatal dose of nihilism exploring the Flames’ recent history, their future, why none of it matters, and neither do you
With the Dallas Stars advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals, Nathan re-assesses the Flames performance against the finalists
The case for Brian Burke (yes, we went there)
The astrology section returns, the reigning champion of “longest ever ScorchStack semi-recurring segment”
Since last week
We broke from our typical format and gave you the worst Flames of all time. It’s a good issue to read if you don’t like feeling good about things.
There’s also the wonderful third issue of the ScorchStack, which featured no sports at all. It’s two weeks ago, but we didn’t link to it in our other post so now we’re doing that here.
We’re also film critics now, with our new super special extra bonus movie review posts. Ramina looked at a baffling romcom with Wayne Gretzky’s son, and Christian reviewed an equally baffling 80s movie with Patrick Swayze and six seconds of Keanu Reeves.
Also I think something happened in hockey or something. Is that still going on?
Like It Or Not
Like A Thing. Hate Another Thing.
By Floob (@itlooksreal)
E̶v̶e̶r̶y̶ ̶w̶e̶e̶k̶ Some weeks, the Scorchstack will feed your ravenous little bellies with the cupcakes of inspiration, and the hot, leaden gruel of pure spite. Things you love. Things you hate. Related to your Calgary Flames. This really doesn’t seem like it needs much of an explanation, so let’s just jump right into it. Or don’t. I do not care if you live or die.
What You L̶o̶v̶e̶ Tolerate: Keeping Geoff Ward
(Or as Nathan so eloquently put it, “Love to TolerHate”. That is so good that I’m kinda mad about it)
No one is here to defend Geoff Ward’s abilities as a head coach, but rather to rationalize the decision to make his tenure permanent by officially removing the shackles that come with the “interim” tag.
I know a segment of fans were not enamoured by Ward in the waning days of a pre-COVID 19 NHL, and they especially did not care for his tactics in the playoffs. They believe that he buried his top line in defensive zone starts, was unwilling to shake things up when that obviously would not transition into offense, nor was he willing to shake it up when Sean Monahan and Elias Lindholm disappeared (I refuse to implicate Johnny Gaudreau here). There is merit to that.
Others love Geoff Ward, with your various Hockey Men and the people who seem to inexplicably enjoy listening to them all shouting praise on him for his affable and player-friendly demeanour, or what some call his propensity for looking good in a suit (that’s me, that’s the thing I think). Many have been taken by what they believe to be his interesting backstory, which is not a real thing. What’s interesting is Oliver Kylington’s mother fleeing her native Eritrea to escape the Ethiopian military and finding sanctuary in Sweden with her family. Geoff Ward’s story is about how he and I happened to both not be NHL head coaches up until last year.
I understand why Ward has his detractors, and I believe the criticism surrounding him is more prescient than the blind praise he gets, but the real question we should be asking here is rhetorical: who cares?
Is Ward a Jack Adams calibre coach? Despite a solitary, surely unbiased vote he got from a PHWA voter who likely just coincidentally resides in Calgary, probably not. But this current iteration of the Flames is not built to last, and while good coaching can, on occasion, push a mediocre team further up a hill than it should, it’s not prudent to try it until you’re sure you can crest it altogether.
The New York Islanders; that’s our example. They are a middling team, dreadful to watch, with a couple of potential star players surrounded by pure dreck. They spend so much time in their own end, and they expect to do so, yet still made it to the Eastern Conference final of a luck driven fake playoffs held in an arena where most people agree the participating teams would rather not be in to begin with. Much of their credit is attributed to Barry Trotz, an extremely well respected and successful coach, yet a season as fruitful as this one is still unlikely to ever happen to the Islanders again.
Look at it this way: Geoff Ward is the third head coach in Calgary in three seasons. Considering its current roster construction, would you wager Glen Gulutzan or Bill Peters would have taken the team past Dallas? The Stars might not have dominated in every facet against the Flames the way they did, but they’re still probably the last one standing in that series regardless.
Your coach should reflect the team you have, and while the Flames have a lot of desirable pieces, there are age and talent gaps between the current core, developing prospect graduates, and the remaining role players, and when those things don’t add up, your team doesn’t enter that elite upper echelon. THAT’S when you want to get your S Tier coach. That’s when you need it. It’s fun to be the underdog Islanders with Barry Trotz at the helm going on a PDO bender two or three rounds deep in the playoffs, it’s another thing altogether to become the team that is so deep and so talented that they’re supposed to contend for the Cup every year.
If a franchise isn’t looking to build that, what good can any coach even hope to do?
What You Hate: Trading for Darcy Kuemper and Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Trends among the aforementioned elite cluster of teams is opting not to add aging players signed to big money long term tickets or trading away assets to shore up a position that isn’t really a problem in the first place.
This seems counter to what the Flames appear poised to do if the things we’re hearing on the rumour mill this week have any legs to them.
Depending on who you listen to, you’ve likely seen the names Darcy Kuemper and Oliver Ekman-Larsson bandied about, with Arizona focusing in on a team like Calgary’s first round pick, just to start.
For a lot of reasons this is insane.
Let’s open with the most obvious detraction, one Christian wanted to devote an entire article to with just this sentence: “he is about to turn 30 and is going to make 8 million dollars until he is 36”
That’s fucked up.
OEL is already starting to see his production diminish year over year and is currently making $1.5 million a year more than Mark Giordano. And will be for years after Gio (and the rest of us) have all died. Yes, the team has a need for defensemen, but realistically need to be looking more towards shoring up some affordable third pairing depth way more than they need to swing for the fences on a bad gamble like OEL.
More specifically though, these rumours give me pause when trying to make the case for Darcy Kuemper. In a lot of circles, the Coyotes netminder has been unheralded for years despite being very good, but the one thing I want you to remember is this:
GOALTENDING IS NOT THE PROBLEM FOR THE CALGARY FLAMES
Many of you soured on Cam Talbot over the course of the playoffs, which, sure, fine. The Flames bled chances for 6 games in a row and perhaps Talbot let a few pucks slip past him that he had more than a fair chance on, but the team in front of him let Dallas do whatever they wanted to; the goalies played their part, but there were a lot of holes on that sinking ship, and they could only plug so much
During the regular season, if any of us can even remember that far back, both Talbot and David Rittich turned in higher than league average save percentages, with Rittich posting a better than league average hdsv% in 48 starts. That is to say, if you can’t win when your goalies are doing their job, perhaps you don’t dangle a first round pick to fix that facet of your game when it’s clear you need upgrades somewhere else.
Darcy Kuemper had some of the best xGA60 numbers this season, and does likely represent an upgrade in goal, but is he a head and shoulders over Rittich, and does that entice you to give up valuable assets like a first round pick to get a guy that makes $2 million a year more than Rittich and is two years older? Absolutely not.
There are lots of flaws on the Calgary Flames, and while ideally you always hope to trade up at every position, if the cost doesn’t align with priority, it’s not something you do.
The Flames Ouroboros
Why do we even bother when we all die in the end.
By Mike (@mikepfeil_)
At some point in the near to mildly present future, when this global pandemic is over, this Calgary Flames' team we’ve loved or despised will be dismantled. Teams like the Flames are in a constant struggle of avoiding the mediocrity and underwhelming successes akin to the Jarome Iginla-era team: a perennial first-round exit team or barely on the outside looking in. Sometimes teams prolong their suffering with constant retooling, looking to augment whatever they can to chase the “get in and anything can happen” motif.
Other teams may see the writing on the wall sooner than later and enter the next epoch: a rebuild which will then begin the great sports ouroboros. Hell, even teams may venture deep into the maws of hell like the Florida Panthers or the Edmonton Oilers; toying with breaking out only to fall back into holding patterns.
The team moves out the old for the new. Players drafted, complete with fan or analyst-led declarations of what’s to come. Coaches put in no-win situations are fired after shepherding the team through a phase of the rebuild; maybe even all of the rebuild. Maybe there is a premature start or glimpse of “get in and anything can happen” during that rebuild; of which often sets ablaze belief that, that current phase of the ouroboros is over.
Maybe the aging stars you adored, idolized, and defended to the bitter end of their prime years are simply husks of their former selves; one breeze away from looking like the Avengers at the end of Infinity War. Eventually you start feeling the effects of this misery. You’ve suffered through the rebuild. You’ve suffered through false starts. You’ve suffered through the smartest acquisition in the team’s last 15+ years of trades only to see him traded out in a retooling trade. You’ve suffered.
Within that suffering there is the peddling of hope, of what could come — examples made of successful rebuilds and comparisons to teams that beat the odds. All the while, the growing pains set in and local media calling for sacrificial lambs to be brought to the altar for another divine gift from the hockey gods, is a silencing of dissent or critiquing the progress.
How does this all relate to the Flames though? What further misery can you dare to dance with in words, Mike?
This team, this amalgamation of talent, of missteps, of questionably sound decisions is becoming everything they sought to avoid: perennial disappointments.
Four coaches, when you factor in the now-official promotion to Geoff Ward. One of which was a toxic, racist, abusive man who apparently had a background check. Did I mention that the handling of the situation, both by the team, and by the likes of local media raised significant concerns about the subject matter?
No real permanent or bonafide starting goalie. There have been 16 different goalies to take the crease since 12-13. Of those 16, you could make the case that seven of those (Mike Smith, Cam Talbot, Brian Elliott, Chad Johnson, Jonas Hiller, Karri Rambo, and David Rittich) were 1A/1B guys in the “starter” role at various instances of time. Miikka Kiprusoff was also next to death but there will be no Kipper slander here.
Countless promises, poises for greatness, declarations of successes to come, and predictions that in hindsight look migraine-inducing
Wasted draft picks where year over year the results of shortsightedness and “safe” picks being proven to be foolish. Hunter Smith? Are you fucking kidding me?! Brayden Point exists. Brayden Point existed then, too. WHAT GIVES?!
This team has teased and toyed with breaking out. 2014-15 was an aberration. Everyone and their grandmothers believed it. Local media called from the highest peaks near Calgary that the best was yet to come. It didn’t come.
Glen Gulutzan and his bench of progressive thinkers came in. The best was promised to be coming - don’t you fret, fans, it’s coming! Things looked up despite clearly observed and quantifiable lapses in goal scoring. They made it back to the post-season though, with a team that was decent. Sure, they wouldn’t be a real threat but fans believed they could prove something.
Then they got swept in four games against Anaheim, a team whose arena smells like an open septic tank in peak of summer heat. What an atrocious experience that was and no volume of cheap, easily accessible alcohol that I could reach while in Las Vegas for a bachelor party could satiate the sadness there.
The real fear at that point was setting in and I had to ask the question: was the ouroboros of hockey coming so soon for this team? It felt like it and suddenly another retooling: Dougie Hamilton and Micheal Ferland out; oh and Adam Fox but who cares about him because he never wanted to be here (which is probably true). In return? Elias Lindholm, who could easily steal my girlfriend and my mom; and I would probably shake his hand. Noah Hanifin, who was framed around the narrative that he would make up for everything Hamilton lacked.
Oh and the racist coach was hired to replace the pencil-neck Gulutzan who could likely double as the actor portraying a live-action Frank Grimes story. They kissed greatness in that first year under the racist, awful coach. First in the west in the regular season! A 50-win season! Mike Smith a playoff goaltender again!? The sky was the limit and then everything collapsed.
We know what happened. This season? We know what happened, again. When you look back on this era of hockey, when the senescence of this team is settled, when the mourning is over what is the storyline? What is the tagline of this ordeal of Calgary Flames hockey?
More importantly: what is this team going to do in this weirdly timed offseason? Is it time to trade the players that you built this era around, the players that carried this franchise on their shoulders? Certainly the reality of one (or even both) of Sean Monahan or Johnny Gaudreau could see their time with the team end. Faults be damned, they were what helped drive this team to whatever level of success they achieved.
What do you do about Mark Giordano, who despite the belief that he is some sociopath on ice out to end star players’ careers has given every ounce of his being for this franchise? Who knows and the end is nearly nigh for the blueline mainstay.
Even if we try to separate the logic from the heart of this damn game that we continue to tune in for every game we still feel some sort of emotional connection with all of it. We suffered with these players. We endured the same pains by proxy of our fandom with these players.
Which brings us to the hardest part of the ouroboros that will come for all hockey fans: what are you willing to see sacrificed to retool and potentially stave off the inevitability approaching? This team has more star-power than the era before it, but it won’t stop the fact that
Treliving is all out of “hire a new coach” cards. He’s long expended his “find a goalie” card but we’re going to go through that exercise again; as we have reports that Darcy Kuemper could be the guy. He’s retooled the core, multiple times already, and he’ll probably do it once more. There are no more options before you determine whether or not Treliving has run his course here.
Maybe he has and the new guy (probably promoted internally because expenses need to be low, after all there is an arena coming!) will be tasked to pick up the pieces. It’s not easy and being a fan of this team — being able to objectively look at this team and find solutions is not easy. It’s just an exhausting, laborious ordeal in loving something so nonsensical that when you stop and think about that alone you get a headache that won’t stop.
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Since Dallas is in the Stanley Cup Final and the Flames were 11 seconds away from going up 3-1 in their series, does that mean the Flames are actually very good and ready to compete for a Cup?
By Nathan (@hanoten)
No.
Talent Evaluation: Why the Departure of Brian Burke has Lead the Flames down a Path of Mediocrity
Brad Treliving and Don Maloney are not good talent evaluators
By Konnie (@Konnie49)
I’m going to start this post off with a controversial statement: Brian Burke was not a good GM. I know, very brave of me to say.
However, if there is one thing that Burke was successful during his tenure as GM of Vancouver, Toronto, and Anaheim, was the importance of talent and its impact on a team. His faults range pretty large, from poor drafting, over emphasis on truculence, and willingness to fight other GMs. Which is why a President or Vice President of Hockey Operations is a much better role for him, as he does not need to worry about doing the day to day tasks of a GM, while still having the authority to oversee large transactions.
And the Calgary Flames just let him walk, and have not been able to replace him.
Now, I am not saying it was a complete success with Brian Burke as President. During the year that Burke oversaw the team without a GM in place, Burke ran the team pretty much the same way he had during his tenure in Toronto, which was pretty mediocre. The lowest point would have to be the 2014 draft, which was mostly overseen by Burke due to Brad Treliving being hired less then 4 months from the draft. The less said about the 2014 draft class, the better.
One year later, things are a lot different. With the team going on an unprecedented run to the 2nd round of the playoffs, the braintrust realized that this up and coming young team filled with a bunch of not good players needed more talent. On draft day, the Flames went out and traded for Dougie Hamilton.
It was a shocking move at the time of the draft, with reports of other team’s executives being irate at the fact that they didn’t even know that the Boston Bruins had Hamilton on the trading block. It was a slam dunk win of a trade.
Yet, 3 years later Dougie was sent packing in a deal to Carolina that is still a head-scratcher. In a short period of time, the entire organization had soured on one of their most talented players, with questionable logic to say the least. What changed in that window? Well, the president of the Calgary Flames.
Burke stepped doing from the role 2018, a whole year before the Dougie trade part 2 were to happen, but it was obvious that Hamilton was a guy who Burke coveted highly. It was he that said it would take 20 1st round picks, so it is pretty clear that he liked the player a lot. When it comes to his guys, especially the ones that took a lot of assets to acquire, he hangs on to them because he understands their importance to team success.
First, lets take a look at the Sedins, and the sheer amount of work he put in just to get to a point where the team could draft the twins in the 1999 draft. Both Henrik and Daniel Sedin were taking heat for their lack of superstar production as originally advertised, but Burke held on to the twins despite the criticisms that the players were “soft”. We all know how they turned out.
Toronto might be the hard case to make, as the Leafs from 2008 to 2013 was a dumpster fire to put it mildly. Still, there Burke once again realized that the team had no legitimate scoring threats and saw to acquire one. Phil Kessel is definitely a unique personality, but during his prime days, he was a very underrated scoring machine. Nazem Kadri, who struggled to get into the Leafs lineup after being drafted, was still defended by Burke, assured to the media that this player is a special one.
Burke is the type of executive that knows when to fight for a player because recognizes the talent that the player processes, and how much important they are to team success.
Since Burke’s departure, the Flames have shipped out a significant talent and have not even been able to bring sufficient talent, let alone being able to surpass it. Looking back at the Hamilton trade, the team gave up one of their most talented players in Hamilton, one of their most talented prospects in Adam Fox, and a complimentary RWer for a forward with good but with an unproven track record for success in Elias Lindholm, and Noah Hanifin, a defenceman who is not nearly as talented. Then, in the same week, signed a 30 year old James Neal to a 5 year 28.75 million dollar deal that had to be immediately traded out of less than a year into its existence with the thought that Neal would be a fit on the top line.
The Flames still have not been able to address their lack of talent. In fact, most of their trades since Burke’s resignation have been uneventful and downright pointless, such as the Oscar Fantenberg or the Derek Forbort trades. When a guy like Erik Gustafsson, who by all means is a fine if not great top 4 defenceman with powerplay time, is your best trade in recent memory, it’s a major problem.
Even when Brad Treliving and current President of Hockey Operations Don Maloney have attempted to bring in high end talent, they either overvalue their own prospects in the case of the Mark Stone trade, came in way too late with way too weak of an offer with Taylor Hall, or get spurred at the last moment in the Kadri deal. Hell, these two couldn’t even make a proper Zucker deal at the deadline due to incompetent time management and did not even bother to try to acquire him anytime that offseason.
Now would having Brian Burke at the helm magically have made this team into this amazing talent dynamo in such short order? No. Obviously not. But he was the only person in the organization that knew that high ranking talent players is always worth fighting over, even if those players don’t always fit in with the supposed culture. Its safe to say that the main reason Hamilton ever stayed as long as he did in Calgary is because of Brian Burke.
He really should have stayed on, as the team is stuck with executives value being good in the dressing room over being great on the ice. Just the same as it always has been in Calgary since the turn of the century.
Ramz' Ass-trology: Water
I’ll have some trology, hold the ass
By Ramina (@RaminaShlah)
Welcome back my Flames Astrology series girls and gays! I already know none of you straight boys are reading this and if you are then prove it by giving me $5. As you already know, I’ve been doing this Astrology series and we’re at the halfway point now! Just two more elements left of me having fun while I talk about Astrology and how that applies to the players. Please read the first week’s newsletter to know of some minor basics and what I’ll be talking about for this series.
Like the last two times in the first two weeks, I’ll be talking about the players’ Sun signs, guessing their Moon signs before looking it up, however this time I won’t be guessing what their Rising sign could be because it becomes too lengthy and honestly? It’s too stressful for me. I'm too much of a Libra to do that and frankly I just don’t want to do it and you can’t make me. Again, read the first week’s newsletter if you don’t know what those words mean, I give basic definitions!
I’ll be using this for the players as usual, but again I’ll be using what I already know and understand of the signs as well. This week, we made it to Water! Ah, the quench. There aren’t a crazy number of Water signs on the team, unlike last time with too many Air signs and all those asshole Airs made me put in hours of work into it.
Element: Water
The Water element consists of Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces with six players that fall into those signs. In short, the Water signs can be described as creative and empathetic. A longer description is that they can be quite intuitive, emotional, and very sensitive (not necessarily a bad thing!). They can be quite intense on either ends of the spectrum, either very refreshing or they can drown you in their depths from how intense and passionate they can be (like water, wow what a coincidence). They’re also big on security and feeling safe and comforted.
Cancer
The first sign of the day is Cancer. Cancer’s positive traits are that they’re intuitive, loyal, sympathetic, and protective. But they can be a little too over-protective in that they can be a little smothering at times (think of an Arab dad), over-sensitive, and moody. The Flames have two Cancers on the team with Dillon Dube and Cam Talbot.
Let’s start with Dube. When I think of him, I think of excitable, hard-working, and just an overall Nice Dude (sympathy). But he seems like he can be over-critical of himself and somewhat lacks confidence yet tries to hide it. For that, I’m guessing his Moon sign is either a Gemini or Virgo.
Just checked and it’s a Gemini, I’m literally the smartest person in the entire world. The website describes his Moon as him being a sharp intellect. He likes literature, and will adapt to all situations and social groups. He will also work in contact with the public, have literary occupations, and travel. However while he may have ideas, he may lack the actual follow-up of those ideas, he can be indecisive and go back on decisions. I mean yeah, he had to play with Lucic and Bennett on a line and still managed to do well, so he’s certainly able to adapt. I don’t know his intellectual level but he has great sense in fashion, so I definitely agree. I wrote that sentence with the full intent of posting a photo of him in his cool Whitney Houston shirt but his Instagram is now private so I cannot, I apologize.
Next is Talbot. My impression of Talbot is that he’s a hard-worker as well, very approachable, but he seems like he can be a little impatient. I’m going to guess his Moon is either Sagittarius (restless) or an Aquarius (friendly and charming).
Damn, he’s actually a Libra, so turns out I’m not the smartest person in the world. It’s alright, I’ll settle for second. The website describes his Moon in Libra as him being sociable and popular (basically as I said, so I’m still smarter than all of you). He also has good judgment, he’s intelligent, very reasonable, and likes social pleasures (ok dude too much info). However, he’s unstable when it comes to romantic relationships, he’s wavering, and may give too much weight to the views of others and to public opinion. That last point is undoubtedly a trait of a Libra. Libras are the best signs in the world (no bias) but we are the most insecure people.
Scorpio
Next we have Scorpio. Scorpios are motivated, loyal, independent, and magnetic, but they can be a bit compulsive, impulsive, and obsessive. The lone Scorpio is Rasmus Andersson. When I think of Andersson, I think of someone who has great leadership qualities, a good sense of humour, is intelligent, and likable, yet can be a bit quick-tempered, a bit too blunt, and maybe a little lazy. Like, he’s just naturally good at what he does, but if he tried a bit harder he would literally be better than Connor McDavid, so McDavid should be thanking him if you think about it. What I mean is, you know how in middle and high school you could just do things and not have to study? Like you were naturally just good at school, so then when you finally went to some kind of post-secondary institution you struggled because you didn’t put in any effort and it was painfully obvious? That’s what I mean. He definitely has many qualities of a Scorpio, but I can also see some Aries (ambitious but quick-tempered) or Capricorn (ambitious but can appear cold towards others) qualities.
After looking, his Moon is in Taurus, so I’m really not on my game today. I blame my dog who threw up right before I started working on this, she threw me off, but it’s also her birthday today so I forgive her.
The website describes his Moon in Scorpio as him being sweet and romantic (I’m sorry I wouldn’t know that), convinced of his ideas, strong-willed, is foresighted and willful, knows how to trust people, and appreciates the good things in life. However he excesses in pleasure, which in turn makes him lazy (as I said), he can be thoughtless at times, and his sensuality is described as an issue (again, too much info). Next.
Pisces
The final sign of the day is Pisces. I want to mention that some believe that the signs learn as they go through time, I guess is the best way to describe it. So, Aries is the first sign, which is why they can seem overly ambitious, whereas Pisces is the last of the signs, meaning they’ve learned all these lessons from the previous signs, which means many Pisces can appear mature. Pisces are described as empathetic (from learning all these lessons), kind, and imaginative, but they can be escapists, and be easily manipulated. The three Pisces are Mikael Backlund, Derek Forbort, and Erik Gustafsson. Gotta be honest, I was completely convinced that I had already done Forbort, turns out it was Rieder. So. That’s where I’m at.
When I think of Backlund, I think of very friendly and charming, loyal, generous (I can go on and on), but maybe too trusting of others where they can be easily manipulated. Like, I don’t know, maybe? I can only think of good things when thinking of Backlund. Anyways, for those reasons I’d say his Moon is probably in Leo (warm-hearted and generous) or an Aquarius (friendly and charming). When I think of Forbort, gotta be honest here folks, I have nothing to say. I know nothing about this man. I was scrolling through the forwards not finding his name before finally finding him under the defenders. Didn’t even know that. I don’t even know what he looks like.
So I guess forgetful? I don’t know, I’ll guess he could be Virgo because they’re shy, but don’t put money on that. Lastly, when I think of Gustafsson, OK listen. I don’t totally know what he looks like either or anything about him really. It’s not that I don’t know about hockey or the Flames, I just simply do not give one little rats ass about hockey this year. Just being honest. Yes I am still going to write for a weekly newsletter all about the Flames and there’s nothing you can do about it. Anyways, I guess I’ll say he seems nice. Cool let’s leave it at that. I’ll guess he’s a Taurus for no other reason other than why not.
After checking, Backlund’s Moon is in Leo (hell ya I’m right), Forbort’s is also in Pisces, which isn’t too common! You only have a 1/144 chance of having your Sun and Moon signs being the same. Damn, pretty unique, can’t say the same for him personally. Finally, Gustafsson’s Moon is in Cancer. Alright, I got Forbort and Gustafsson wrong, but literally I don’t even know who these guys are, so they don’t count, so really I was 2/4 which isn’t terrible.
Backlund’s Moon in Leo describes him as brave, knowing how to take risks and possessing the courage of his convictions, honest, imposing, and sharp. He has a great respect for justice, is organized, and isn’t overly influenced by his friends (whoops, wrong about that but I even said I don’t know about that). However, he can be emotionally demanding, overly proud, and brooding when attention is not forthcoming. OK site, mind your own business since nothing is wrong with Backlund. Forbort’s Moon in Pisces describes him as imaginative, sharp insights, impressionable with an abundant imagination, gentle, warm, humorous, and artistic. But he can have some troubles due to too much sentimentality, he worries easily, can sometimes have an unhealthy imagination, an escapist, and very nervous. Damn worries easily and very nervous? Go to therapy dude. Lastly, the site describes Gustafsson’s Moon in Cancer as him being likable and sociable, sensitive to environmental conditions and surroundings (believes in climate change, good), likes his home, habits, finds comfort in his own world, and he’s very caring and protective of loved ones. However he can be subject to indolence and inertia (ok what), he’s impressionable, can be too insensitive at times, and has family problems. Yes absolutely, definitely thought that as well, those were all my second guesses.
Thanks for reading this week! Come back next week where I stick my entire hand in a tub of almond butter.
Up Next Week
A very special guest appearance (for real this time)!
Movie review on Sunday! Which movie? Well, that’s a secret and no it’s not because we haven’t figured that part out yet.
Harvey the Hound- a broken soul, or a sordid past?