ScorchStack Issue #78 - It’s about the legend that is Mikael Backlund
If one day, they only Forever A Flame this guy, we're going to [redacted]
What a time to be alive to look at the remaining schedule for the season for your Calgary Flames and not only think “Yep, definitely winnable,” but “They should actually probably win that game.” You love to see it.
What’s inside?
Tonight, Mikael Backlund becomes the Flames all-time leader for games played by a player who was drafted by the Flames, and we celebrate him for being everything.
It’s trade deadline on Monday, and Tibs whittles down the actual list of players the Treliving might trade for. No, it doesn’t include Claude Giroux. This is a real list.
Ramz continues to teach us more about farmers, this time delving into what type of phone Darryl Sutter uses.
Since last issue
ScorchStack Issue #77 dropped and folks it truly doesn’t get any better than that.
Oh wait, yes it does, because we were also blessed with yet another Big Monday Thing.
Noted Scorchie fiancée Jessica responded to Floob after not one but several (two) articles about what he would be wearing to the wedding of Jessica and Nathan.
The Flames played a lot, and perhaps too much? They won each game where they didn’t play a game the night before, going 3-for-5. Thankfully, they didn’t get embarrassed in the games they lost, despite being held scoreless for the first time this year, which is yet another step in the right direction.
Oliver Kylington disappeared for a bit and Mike Stone emerged. Thankfully, that seems to be over for now, but you never know with Stone.
Celebrating Mikael Backlund
The Perfect Beautiful Swedish Angel that is set to become the best Calgary Flames draft pick ever
By Nathan (@hanoten)
Last week, Mikael Backlund — who, let the record show, is the greatest player in the world — played in his 800th game, all with the Calgary Flames. The achievements continue this week as during tonight’s game, Backlund will be playing in his 804th game, surpassing Al MacInnis for 4th on the all-time games played list between living legend Jarome Iginla, newly-discovered villain Mark Giordano, and also Robyn Regehr who was likely never as good as we made him out to be but it never got old watching him beat the piss out of Aleš Hemský.
Why it is notable that he’s surpassing MacInnis?
That’s right, Backlund will become the longest-tenured Calgary Flames draft pick ever. What an incredible moment, which was questioned along the way by haters from the very beginning, as many couldn’t believe that Darryl Sutter and Mike Keenan would select a European player in the first round of the 2007 draft.
Take that to everyone who had him theoretically traded over the years. Take that Jim Playfair.
Very specifically, take that to the North Hill FanAttic employee in May 2017 who told me that buying a Backlund retro jersey with the A pre-emptively stitched on was a waste of my money. I hope that you are cursed to work retail jobs for the rest of your days.
But this isn’t about me, it’s about the legend that is Mikael Backlund, so today, let’s take a look at some of the all-time highs that he’s accomplished along his journey to 804 games.
The only game-winning goal past the first-round of the playoffs since 2004
The Flames have not been very good during Backlund’s tenure with the team, except for right now and the regular season of 2018-2019. But they have had their moments, particularly the 2014-15 season when they just refused to lose despite being badly outplayed, making their way past the Vancouver Canucks onto the second-round. There, the Anaheim Ducks mostly had their way with them, but for one beautiful night, Mikael Backlund gave some extreme joy on May 5, 2015.
Seven years later, the buzz it created that night was palpable. Living in downtown Calgary back then, it was easy to hear Red Mile actually return during that brief run, and it was electric. It’s also important to remember that it was also problematic, so let’s curb that for any run this year. Instead, more of this energy.
The 3M line
One of the best free agent signings that Brad Treliving ever made was Michael Frolik. The chemistry between him and Backlund would blossom into something beautiful for many years, both on the PK and at 5v5. What made it even better was a young Matthew Tkachuk completing that line and turning it into something truly special to behold: the 3M line (with absolute credit to Scorchie Mike for coining that name). In fact, let’s take a look at some of the highlights of 3M thanks to Mike.
Cannot believe we got to witness this for years, and the subsequent variations of MMA or 3M 2.0. Truly one of the best lines in hockey, squandered by coaches who always insisted on breaking it up before reuniting it and an extreme dearth of depth that meant the team could never truly contend. Backlund was always the perfect 2C, even if he never got treated like it.
Scoring the incredibly rare 3v5 goal
Since Backlund was drafted into the league, only 13 players have scored while down two men on the ice, and I’m reticent to count Owen Nolan as the net was empty when he did it in 2009. It certainly didn’t look as magnificent as this on Jan. 2, 2020.
Mikael Backlund is the complete hockey player because he defense is sterling, but never forget he can burn you offensively too. Speaking of…
The goal of the year candidate
If he wanted to, Backlund could win every game by himself, but he knows hockey is a team game, and he isn’t selfish like some of the clowns a bit farther north. But every once in a while, he shows that dynamite ability culminating in goals like this against the Capitals back on Feb. 1, 2019.
Yowza. The rest of the Flames go for a line change so Backlund decides to take on the entire Capitals lineup at once. First there’s the pass to himself that cause Dmitri Orlov and Tom Wilson to take each other out. Chandler Stephenson is caught victim watching the play and is out of it before he knows it. Jonas Siegenthaler desperately tries to keep up to the play, but they all fall victim as Backlund embarrassed Braden Holtby singlehandedly, pun intended.
Two-time winner of the Ralph & Sonia Scurfield Humanitarian Award
Look, I know that a Calgary Flame winning an award exclusively presented by the Flames gets an asterisk, but this one actually matters. With his work with the ALS Society of Alberta, as well as Special Olympics Calgary and Kids Cancer Care, Backlund has been just as large a presence off the ice. Was that not enough for you? How about their recent partnership with Parachutes for Pets, which is committed to assisting low-income families in our community work toward better health & welfare for themselves and their pets through accessible programs and resources. There is also likely a bunch of unheralded work that Backlund puts in that we don’t know about because he’s just making this community a better place for his family. Truly an icon.
The avocado debate with Frida
This is a deep cut but I think about it constantly. Over the year, Homes by Avi and the Calgary Flames have shown off the homes of Flames players, to varying degrees of success. But the tour of the Backlund home was one of the better ones, which featured a great unscripted moment where Mikael gets a little rattled that Frida put avocados in the fridge as opposed to leaving them on the counter. (Skip to the :33 second mark or watch the whole thing)
It takes up maybe 10 seconds, but it’s burned into my brain. Thank you Mikael for your passion for avocados and where they should be stored. Also thank you for showing that you are just like us, storing a signed Miikka Kiprusoff puck in your basement.
Captain Sweden to a gold medal at the 2018 World Championship
Didn’t happen in a Flames jersey but still absolutely ruled and demonstrated once and for all that Backlund was a leader that knew how to win.
There are so many incredible Backlund moments over his career, and I would be genuinely thrilled if you shared some with us on Twitter. Here is hoping you hit 1000+ games with the Flames, win a Cup, and that both Tillie and Oliver grow up and lead the Calgary teams to future success as well. Thank you for everything over the years.
Mike Thoughts
My tea’s gone cold I’m wondering why I got out of bed at all
by Mike (@mikeFAIL)
I don’t have anything to say other than I’m extremely proud of Mikael Backlund, my favourite Calgary Flame. Oh, wait… Scorchstack and BreakingT have partnered up! That’s right! Officially licensed NHL merchandise is available for you, the astute and fashionable Scorchstack readers. Buy merchandise from BreakingT so that we can save up enough money to buy a minority stake in the Flames.
Additionally: if we can move enough merch, we’re hoping to come up with some collaborative pieces (Harris, if you read this please let us do the shirt idea we want).
Some random guys the Flames could trade for this trade deadline
Not Ben Chiarot. Never Ben Chiarot
by tibs (@decayinwtheboys)
The Flames have already decided to do away with one trade deadline tradition: teasing their fans for weeks by being in on the One Big Name and then missing out by one yard. Tyler Toffoli is a Flame, and we don’t have to torture ourselves putting together plausible packages and then kicking ourselves when nothing comes to fruition.
Thankfully, they can still honour their yearly tradition of adding depth by trading a mid-round pick for some guy you’ve never heard of to address a need you didn’t think they had. Like Nick Shore, Derek Forbort, Anthony Stewart (not a trade, but they did try passing him off as a trade deadline acquisition after claiming him on waivers. That was very funny), Oscar Fantenberg, and Erik Gustafsson from deadlines past, the Flame To Be Named Later will play 5-15 games of the most forgettable hockey you’ve seen and then move on to his next league minimum contract. Later, he will score two goals against the Flames in their next regular season meetup.
Curiously, Brad Treliving loves sneaking these ones in under the wire. Who’s to say whether that’s because teams spend the majority of deadline day working on big deals before getting to the smaller ones, or because Treliving wants to at least claim he did something after weeks of hype for a big trade, but it’s always a weird surprise regardless.
To spoil trade deadline for you, here is a list of guys the Flames could trade a third- or fourth-round pick for right at the buzzer:
As always, if any of this happens, Scorchstack had it first and must credit Scorchstack.
Vinnie Hinostroza
Mark Pysyk
Kevin Connauton
Thomas Trunch
Gerald Mayhew
Sam Lafferty
Sam Carrick
Jakob Frizzelle
Nick Seeler
Mark Jankowski (ed. note: ???)
John Hayden
Läärpi Heloulä
Vinni Lettieri
Colton White
Justin Braun
Robert Hägg
Colin Blackwell
Michael Raffl
Ryan Dzingel
Lynn Lyons
Carter Rowney
Kevin Rooney
Jaycob Megna
Sam McMichaelson
Jason Fart
Congrats to one or more of these future Flames and we wish them the best this playoff run.
Phones Darryl Sutter uses
He doesn't know what a text message is
by Ramz (@ramzreboot)
Last week, Johnny Gaudreau scored a hat trick against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning took out their goalie in the last few minutes of the game and the commentators were saying they need to get Gaudreau out there to help someone win $100,000 with a fourth goal. They said, “Let’s send a text to Darryl!”
Scorchie Floob made a great point about this. He said, “Like he’s ever looked at a text message in his life.” This begs the question: What kind of phone is Darryl most likely to have?
I did lots of research on this (I Googled “phones for farmers”). Here are the phones I’ve found that I think Darryl could use. Also, I just want to mention that no matter what kind of phone Darryl has, he definitely doesn’t have any sort of phone plan. Like he definitely still buys calling cards.
Also after my initial extensive research (Googling phones for farmers) and putting all the phones in this piece, I decided to do some more research (Googling phones for old people). Side note: I looked up synonyms for extensive and apparently catholic is one? With that extra research, I found this website titled “50 best cell phones for seniors”. I was going to include a couple of them but after I got further down the list there were so many goodies on there. So he would also have every phone on that list, so take a look there too.
VTech DS6161 Dect_6.0
Yes, it’s not a cellphone, but he obviously has this one. Just look at one of the photos they use to show this:
This brand called Sudroid
I don’t know the exact name for this, but the brand is called Sudroid I guess. I think there are too many apps for Darryl to use on this specific phone and it has too much screen, but if Darryl is going to use a brand, it would be called “Sudroid” and that’s why it made the list.
Cat’s S61 and S41 smartphones
Thank you Scorchie Nathan for making us aware of this. This was found on a blog post on this website titled “Croptracker” and the blog is, “Tough Tech for Farmers: Rugged Phones & Accessories Round-Up” so you know it’s the real deal. Again, too many app options which is why he won’t have any of that on the screen but would have a brand called Cat.
Ruggear RG100 phone
This one’s apparently popular amongst UK farmers. I found it on a website called “Farmers Weekly”. This website seems trustworthy although the blog is titled “The best phones and tablets.” Excuse me? You think Darryl has ever heard of a “tablet”? You think he knows what the players are doing on the bench when they pull out the iPad? You’re out of your fucking mind.
Now this phone, in my opinion, is the perfect type of phone for Darryl. Buttons for the keys and a small screen. If it doesn’t have a camera on there, even better.
Snapfon ez4G
It’s Snapfon ez4G.
NGM Explorer
This is another one on that Farmers Weekly website. Are you kidding? A compass? Perfect.
I can’t find the name for this one
I apologize to all you farmers but I don’t know the model for this. While the phone seems like a good fit for Darryl, I don’t think he would ever get a “Samsung”.
RugGear RG500 phone
Yeah. It’s this one.
Up Next Week
The trade deadline comes and goes, and despite all the hubbub, Sean Monahan will not be going anywhere. Unless he does. But he won’t.
The Flames continue to play back-to-backs as they have one again this week, but it’s against Buffalo and Vancouver so that is way less demanding.
Konnie (and maybe Floob?) will be at the Vancouver game, as Scorchstack ramps up its live presence ahead of the trade deadline.
Matthew Phillips. We’ll keep saying it until it happens.