Since the dawn of the Brad Treliving era in Calgary, it’s been tradition around the Saddlesphere to ask the one question in which the answer has always eluded even the most scholarly among us: Are the Flames good?
I think the answer at any given time has vacillated between “eh, not really” and “maybe”, because even when the answer has been yes, it hasn’t been yes. Mediocre teams have overperformed, more talented versions have been handed stark reminders that they’re still lacking, even when they’ve flirted with being one of the best teams in the league. The most common through line for each roster the Flames have iced since around 2014 is wild stretches of sustained success or misery, with everything else padding the edges of these streaks to ultimately slot the Flames somewhere close to the tier of team they’re probably in.
I think this year’s iteration of your Calgary Flames are trying to bide their time until it’s time for that big winning streak that sends them into hyperdrive towards being the team I think we all suspect they actually are (or at least can be). The Flames came out of the gate looking nearly flawless but nosedived into a 7-game losing streak, and now appear to be treading water, waiting for something to happen. Individual performances tend to mirror the success of the team, as most of the top-end talent that’s been assembled have mostly just…been there. If they don’t take off soon, neither does the team. That’s pretty simple calculus. But if the goddamn New Jersey Devils can win 12 games in a row, the Flames can go on a run too. They might need to do so soon because we’re beyond the “well, it’s early” stages of 2022-23, and all the results now matter.
The Week of: November 14th-20th
Results From Past Week:
Hope you like your Flames hockey erratic! At no point did it ever feel certain that the team was going to win this week, let alone hold a lead. Makes for fun hockey to watch if you’re a neutral observer, but it probably makes you nervous, and renders Darryl Sutter so angry that he can’t even be bothered to sit in his Kubota M8-201 Tractor, which is his favourite thing to do!
The Flames started the week with a 6-5 victory over Los Angeles in which they let the Kings back in from a three-goal lead during the third period, and if not for some bananas saves by Jacob Markström would have undoubtedly seen the team lose in overtime. The team then began a swing through Florida by losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1, a game I did not watch, but you know how these things go by now.
But none of that matters, because the only thing that was important all week was on a presumably balmy Saturday afternoon in a gentrified suburb near Miami, as we got to see our perfect, beautiful angel Matthew Tkachuk for the first time since we sent him off into the world to spread his message of peace and love. Our cherubic prince scored the tying goal in the third - another blown lead! - but Jonathan Huberdeau returned to his old haunt, scoring a shootout goal before Rasmus Andersson bested Spencer Knight, who is not as good as Dustin Wolf, giving the Flames a 5-4 win over the Florida Panthers.
Flames Overall Record: 8-7-2, 18 pts
Standings: 5th place in the Pacific Division, 9th in the Western Conference. Look out, teams jockeying for wild card positions!
Soundtrack: Worst Is On Its Way (HEALTH remix) - Korn ft. Danny Brown and Meechy Darko
What do you do if you release a song that sucks and is bad? Put Danny Brown in it, and make it better. Never fails.
Actually, this song still sucks, so I don’t know.
Funny Big Bang Theory Clip Of The Week:
If it makes you feel any better, finding these every week has taken an unmistakably negative toll on my mental health.
What We Liked:
As mentioned up top, the percentages are going to have to start swinging upward for the best players on the team if they expect to become the squad we all expect them to be, and hopefully, that’s beginning to happen for Jonathan Huberdeau.
Jonny Hockey has a goal and an assist, as well as a pretty important shootout goal in 3 games since coming back from injury, and while that’s both not particularly impressive and also a small sample size, hey, you have to start somewhere. This author does not find it a coincidence that he’s looked better in this time after he was slotted onto a line with Mikael Backlund, and if the Adam Ružička PDO explosion is going to endure for any length of time, there’s no reason to take the Backlund Bump away from him (Blake Coleman, for similar reasons, has also looked much better of late).
There are a ton of expectations on Huberdeau, both now and for the better part of the next eight years, and he needs to deliver on them, or else this team is in trouble. Nazem Kadri set the world on fire to start the season and has finally settled down. Tyler Toffoli and Elias Lindholm seem to be hitting their stride, which is fantastic, but that’s probably not enough to guarantee results on its own, so it would be an opportune time for Huberdeau to pick up the slack. So far, so good.
What We Would Prefer Not To See:
Wins are wins, and it doesn’t matter when the goals are scored (or prevented) as long as you end up with more than the opposition after the final horn sounds, but you have to admit you aren’t particularly excited to see a Calgary Flames third period these days. That old adage of playing a complete 60-minute game is tiring and annoying to hear, but hey, it turns out it might be true, and the Flames are demonstrating that in the worst possible way.
If a team goes into the third period with a lead, the goal is to put the gears to the opposition and ideally cruise to a win that doesn’t stress anyone out. Giving up leads - and conceding loser points to the opposition by getting to overtime - speaks to a ton of bad habits that are uncharacteristic of a Darryl Sutter-coached team, and I’m not really sure what’s got to be done to address this, because the personnel and the on-ice philosophy all seem to be copacetic. A common theme in this article is the percentages rounding out towards the middle, and this is no different, as these kind of stretches are a bit of an anomaly for a team that is likely too good to be going through them long term, but it does identify that they have a lot of tidying up to do.
Getting some healthy bodies back on defense goes a long way, and Jacob Markstrom playing like Jacob Markström for an entire game will take care of most of this, but it still needs to actually happen.
Enemy of the Week:
It’s the dang Eastern time zone folks! Nobody likes a hockey game that starts at 5 PM (4 PM if you’re, uh, me) and the Flames play 2 this week. If you think that’s bad, consider that American Thanksgiving is this Friday and the Flames endure puck drop during your lunch hour. Pretending like you’re not watching the game on your secondary monitor in the office is the exact way we love to watch hockey, isn’t it folks?
What Comes Next:
Just mentioned this, but it’s the 4 remaining eastern road trip games all week for the Flames, starting tonight in the best sports city in the world, Philadelphia. They’ll stay in Pepe Sylvia for a match against the surprisingly mediocre Pittsburgh Penguins, before heading to DC for the aforementioned Thanksgiving game on Friday against the Capitals. Ovi will probably score, don’t know what to tell you.
Saturday sees the team land in Raleigh for a game against the Carolina Hurricanes. Gulp.
Theo Fleury Tweet Of The Week:
The little big man is back!
Anyway, about that part that says “I let go of old belief systems, unhealthy habits, irrational fears”, etc., gotta say I’ve got some bad news for you there Theo!
Unrelated Fact:
There’s a World Cup for SOCCER now????
See You Next Week:
Twitter hasn’t died yet, but I’m still mildly obsessed with starting a Scorchstack message board even if elong munk doesn’t blow the entire thing up. I guess we’ll see.