The Big Monday Thing - Now Back On Mondays
We tried Tuesday for a while, it's a decent enough day, I guess, but there's just something about Monday
Aaron Rodgers walks into a bar. He saddles up on a stool as the bartender approaches.
“What’ll you have, friend?” asks the barkeep.
Aaron Rodgers does not answer because he’s being silenced.
Just a little topical humour to kick off your week.
The Week of: January 17th-23rd
Results From Past Week: A tale of two teams, with your Calgary Flames getting a measure of revenge against the Panthers, decimating the best team in the league, before, well…I guess the chance to do the same thing against the Oilers remains an elusive opportunity.
Flames Overall Record: 18-12-6, 42 pts
Standings: 5th place in the Pacific Division, 9th in the Western Conference. When you play .500 hockey, you tend to remain in the same spot.
Soundtrack: Robot Writes A Love Song - PUP
I mean, come on. It’s never a bad week when PUP drops a new track. This band’s progression is incredible. This tune whips ass.
What We Liked:
So I’ll admit, I only caught one period of Flames hockey this week. It was the second period against Florida and it went just okay. But even without witnessing the game live, it’s pretty clear the team did something special in that outing, with the Flames rebounding both from a bad loss in their last game and an ugly result in the previous matchup against the Panthers - literally the top team in the league- and having their way with them.
The early part of this season is a bit of a faded memory at this point, but you’ll remember the Flames were dominant for the first quarter, and games like this one against a formidable opponent give you a glimpse of what this team has the potential to be when everything breaks the right way. The capability to wreck teams lies within their makeup somewhere, it’s just a matter of finding a way to keep it unlocked. Teams have adjusted to the Darryl Sutter attack (one system is never going to be poorly defended against all season long in the literal NHL), and we’re starting to see the effects stemming from a lack of depth we all foresaw plaguing the Flames eventually. But they proved last week that their top players can go toe to toe with anyone on a given night. If they can address a few, uh, glaring weaknesses, these guys can close out the season the way they started it
What We Would Prefer Not To See:
HOWEVER.
The loss to the Oilers on Saturday might be the worst result all year, and not for any reason that directly affects the Flames.
The Oilers have been in freefall mode since last month, going 4-11-2 from December 1st into Saturday’s Battle of Alberta, and had dropped seven in a row, including a 6-0 lambasting at the hands of the aforementioned Panthers two days prior. There have been tensions between some of the team’s less notable players and the city’s Hall of Fame media, to which Oilers fans reacted, you know, predictably. There have been calls all week for the dismissals of both Head Coach Dave Tippett and GM Ken Holland, as well as some less than quiet voices demanding team owner and all-time creep Daryl Katz put the Oilers up for sale. This is the usual fare for that franchise dating back to about 2007, but it never gets old, especially at times like these when tensions are at a boiling point and about to blow into the stratosphere.
Think about what a loss at the hands of the cross-town rivals on a nationally broadcast game would have done. I’m not even sure I can articulate just what level of media civil war and deranged takes we would have been treated to. We all needed it. NEEDED it.
But the Flames let them off the hook, which is pretty unforgivable. Especially seeing as they coughed up a lead to do it. That’s a game you want to win for a myriad of reasons, but none of that matters now. Never give anyone hope, all they’ll do with it is crush themselves beneath it.
Enemy of the Week:
If you ask Milan Lucic, the enemy of the week is the dang government!
Always funny to me that the richest guys with the multimillion-dollar homes are the ones who are the most upset that they have to spend a bit more time in them than usual.
Athletes read Facebook too! They’re just like us.
What Comes Next:
This is something we’ll have to start getting used to again - especially in February where all those postponed contests have been moved to - but after seemingly going weeks with one or two games at the most, there is a full slate of competition ahead of the Flames over the next seven days. We get to see the St. Louis Blues twice, and I have no idea who’s even on that team so who knows what that’s going to look like. They travel to Ohio for a tilt with the Blue Jackets (same thing as the Blues, who even is on this team?), and another Saturday night nationally broadcast date with our old friends, the Vancouver Canucks, who are no longer in their honeymoon period with Bruce Boudreau and have returned to being dogshit.
Theo Fleury Tweet of the Week:
Fun fact, I did a Theo tweet on the very first Big Monday Thing, and the idea was that this space was going to be solely dedicated to his work. The thing I hadn’t really counted on was in a given week he would send out about 100 depressing tweets, and maybe one funny one every few months, so I had to rethink this plan.
But thanks to a bunch of anti-vax truckers who want to send Justin Trudeau to jail or whatever, Theo’s back on his bullshit, and this one made me laugh really hard.
Thanks man.
Unrelated Fact:
So Meat Loaf died, and my thoughts range from “I don’t care” to “the aggressively anti-vax, anti-mask 74-year-old died from covid, which is pretty funny”. I know maybe three of his songs, I’ve seen him play a bit part in a few movies, and that’s about it.
The only other thing I know about Meat Loaf (lmao mfer literally changed his name to be Meat Loaf) is that he “claimed” to be have been around for the JFK assassination, saying his dad knew Jack Ruby and says Lee Harvey Oswald didn’t kill the president, but can’t elaborate because of his safety.
I don’t know how much of this is true, but you can’t deny that it is an unrelated fact.
See You Next Week:
Just going to throw this out from time to time until everyone gets so annoyed that it actually happens just to shut me up: call up Matthew Phillips.