The Big Monday Thing - Generic Title
The Flames have won six in a row and I don't want anything in this week's BMT to have aged poorly by next Monday
A few weeks back, I offered a very sincere thank you to all the fine readers of the Scorchstack, having noticed what felt like a pretty substantial uptick in readeraship across the entire site. We all felt pretty good about the development, a year and change’s worth of content sent out into the world, with the world shouting back and asking for more.
Or so I thought. Because this week, substack decided to roust us awake from our blissful slumber and hit us with a hot dose of reality:
Turns out you don’t love us more than you already did and are all just the same regular number of schmoes reading this that we’ve ever had. Some would say I should be grateful to have a loyal core of leaders, and my rage needs to be directed at substack itself, but that’s not how I’m choosing to focus my disappointment. This is on all of you. Now what are you going to do about it?
The Week of: February 7th-13th
Results From Past Week: PRETTY GOOD RESULTS FROM THE PAST WEEK.
If you took a gander at the schedule last week and felt like your Calgary Flames had a couple of statement games on the docket, you’re right. They also had to play the New York Islanders. The good news is they won all of them. TheVegas Golden Knights? More like the Vegas Goodnights. The Toronto Maple Leafs? Uh…I don’t know, fuck them, they lost.
Flames Overall Record: 26-13-6, 58 pts
Standings: 2nd place in the Pacific Division, 5th in the Western Conference. Big ol’ gains. Big ol’ gains.
Soundtrack: Time Escaping - Big Thief
Big Thief is a good soundtrack for lots of different things, like listening to instead of watching the show that was on when you were too lazy to turn off the TV, or writing The Big Monday Thing! Sometimes all of that is the same thing.
What We Liked:
The easy answer here is everything. See you next week.
I’m going to borrow from what was a big talking point from almost everyone over the past few games; the offensive production from the blueline of late has been a pretty big deal, and a continued focus in that area is going to be something the team will need to be as dynamic and strong as they’ve been during this six game winning streak.
I mean come on, when you see literally Erik Gudbranson having the green light and the confidence to make plays like this - especially when, again, you’re Erik Gudbranson - you can tell there’s a lot of buy in towards getting points from the defense. This is some structure. I really can’t believe how good this play was:
Beyond that, you’re seeing an offensive thrust from the defensemen you’re more likely to see it from. Oliver Kylington, Rasmus Andersson, and Noah Hanifin have all been jumping in on the rush a ton, and even Chris Tanev has seen a bit of a surge of late. Everyone keeps discussing the Flames’ need for secondary scoring, but this is certainly that. The results speak for themselves.
What We Would Prefer Not To See:
Dude, don’t wear out Jacob Markstrom.
Enemy of the Week:
The Flames play against the Seattle Kraken at the Saddledome on Saturday, which is the makeup game for what would have been a December 23rd matchup, and more importantly, a game where the entire Scorchstack would have been in attendance, an extremely rare circumstance.
Of course, that game was postponed due to Omicron, and this time around it’s being contested in a building that no longer requires proof of vaccination and all of our tickets are probably going to be sold or refunded at this point. So with all that in mind, this week’s enemy is, you know, all this.
What Comes Next:
Ahead of the aforementioned weekend tilt with the Kraken, the Flames line up against the Columbus Blue Jackets and Anaheim Ducks. Not the formidable opponents akin to the ones they just beat, but important games nonetheless, and ones the Flames need to put forth a strong showing in. Especially against the Ducks, division rivals who are doing better than anyone might have expected. Could be important down the line.
Joel Embiid News Update of the Week:
Ben Simmons news is done. Nothing left to report, so I need a new beat.
Enter Joel Embiid:
I might skip the entire Blue Jackets game just watching this replay on loop.
Unrelated Fact:
Do you guys want me to say anything at all about the Big Game? (legally speaking I have to refer to it as that) It’s pretty fresh in my mind, it literally just ended. I have thoughts.
Hit me up if you want to hear what I have to say about what happened.
See You Next Week:
All I ask is that you simply recall Matthew Phillips.