The Big Monday Thing: Week 4
Who is the greatest quarterback of all time? That's easy: it's the Scorchstack
It’s funny what beating the Edmonton Oilers will do for your outlook. A victory over the hapless rivals from up Highway 2 happens literally all the time, but the emotional high over a win remains as prevalent as ever.
The Flames — by most quantifiable metrics — have been… let’s say fallible of late, but capping it off with a Blasty-clad Mikael Backlund leading your Calgary Flames to another dismantling of alleged “best player in the world” Connor McDavid only makes the perspective going into this week a positive one.
Now to look ahead and preview this week’s action against…the Winnipeg Jets? I’m so fucking tired of these guys.
The Week of: February 1st-7th
Results From Past Week: Since our last check-in, the Flames played the back pair of a three-game set against the team that is still the Atlanta Thrashers in our hearts, and if you thought they looked at all impressive during that stint (the team came away with two out of a possible six points in the series), oh boy, let’s talk, because I have multiple business propositions for you.
As mentioned up top, a 6-4 victory over the Oilers on Saturday was the perfect salve, and the Flames ascent back to the top of the mountain is surely underway.
Flames Overall Record: 5-5-1, 11 pts
Standings: 6th place in the North Division. This is misleading, as almost everyone else in the division has been able to get some reps in against the Ottawa Senators, while the Flames still long for the opportunity to earn those easy points. (If the Flames drop any games in the nation’s capital, this article will cease to exist, as will any acknowledgment from me that it ever existed in the first place)
Soundtrack: One Great City! - The Weakerthans
I’m so fucking sick of Winnipeg.
What We Liked: What can you say about Johnny Gaudreau that doesn’t already have a diametrically opposite quote from The Scorchstack’s own Francis Ericsson? Our tiny boy is on a tear, and it’s fun to be along for the ride, especially if we’re going to be treated to gems such as this one from Hockey Night in Canada’s Harnarayan Singh:
Remarkable.
Gaudreau had his point streak snapped in the loss to the Jets, but he’s still on an over a point per game pace, with underlying numbers that suggest this offensive pace is sustainable, and the game just looks like it’s coming easy to him right now. There used to be a controller for the Super Nintendo called the Ascii Pad, and one of the features was it allowed you to slow down the speed of the game you were playing. Total cheat mode stuff. Right now, Johnny Gaudreau is an Ascii Pad.
(Take a second to anoint me as King of Analogies, thank you)
One thing that hasn’t been mentioned much is the Elias Lindholm transition to centre thus far appears to be paying off in spades. Having Matthew Tkachuk on your wing will never, ever hurt your chances, but the pair are playing some tough minutes together and they are killing it out there.
Undefeated in Blasty? Undefeated in Blasty.
What We Would Prefer Not To See: Ohhhhh golly, I will try to keep this brief, there’s a long list of grievances here.
No one will argue that the Flames 4th line needs improvement. I think we can all agree that recalling Byron Froese and Zac Rinaldo to team up with the worst forward on the line in Joakim Nordstrom is NOT the way to do that. The recalls each played less than five minutes against Edmonton, with Rinaldo just barely breaching the two-minute mark (to put this in perspective, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl were on the ice for over five minutes each in their last shift of the game, which is hilarious for a lot of reasons). Limiting the ice time of a line that is not contributing is a good idea, but not like this, and not with this line. I know Derek Ryan is injured and Dominik Simon has had a tough go of it to begin his tenure in Calgary, but Josh Leivo has been fine and taking him out of the lineup for THIS is just stupid. The deployment, or lack thereof, suggests Geoff Ward knows it too. Baffling.
The team needs to tighten up on defense immediately. Jacob Markstrom erases a lot of mistakes, but he is not a miracle worker (at least, that has yet to be determined), and while there is enough firepower in the lineup to outscore their deficiencies on a given night, we’re already seeing what happens when the scoring dries up, as it has for many in the Flames top nine. Hopefully the dam burst after that game against the Oilers, but an inability to prevent a slew of scoring chances against look like it will be the Achilles heel all year. Again, a functional bottom six will go a long way, but everyone across the board could afford to lock it down a little better than they have been. Easier said than done.
Lastly, I can’t say I care for how this Sam Bennett situation is being handled. From the coach burying him in comments to the press, to deciding to scratch him for reasons not related to a trade, then not really telling him about it(?), this whole thing has been sloppy. It was already going to be hard to recoup much value moving Sam elsewhere, but the actions of the team seem to be sewering the process even further.
Enemy of the Week: Mike Smith
Extremely rude of Edmonton Oilers starting goaltender Mike Smith to wait until after Saturday’s tilt against his former team to return to the lineup following his injury.
We will now have to wait until next week before we hopefully get the chance to see Smith, a fan favourite in Calgary over the past two years, defend the cage for Edmonton during the Battle of Alberta. This is agonizing.
What Happens Next/We Were Right:
One player who has perhaps surprisingly yet to make an impact this season is Andrew Mangiapane, with 1 single point in 7 games. My prediction is the Bread Boy will finally settle in with his new linemates, and I can confidently say by this time next week, he will have at least doubled his production. Lofty goals, but I believe in him.
Swish.
Your Calgary Games play, ugh, Winnipeg again, before diving into a four-game set with the Vancouver Canucks. My prediction is that Juuso Valimaki, in one of the first two games of the Vancouver series, will dislocate his jaw, swallow Canucks rookie Nils Hoglander whole, consuming his essence, thus leading to a 1+ attribute boost to all major offensive stats.
I know, I know, that one is a bit of a gimme, and everyone else is predicting the same thing. Sometimes you just have to go with the sure thing.
Theoren Fleury Doomsday prophecy of the week:
Uh….what in the wide world of sports is all this now?
Unrelated Fact: In 1995, a study was conducted that deduced that pigeons could be trained to discern art created by Pablo Picasso from work by Claude Monet. Big deal, I can do that too, and you don’t see me bragging about it. Act like you’ve been there before, pigeons.
See You Next Week: If you were wondering if a quarantine from a global pandemic could prevent a person from wanting to die after overeating a haul of fried and greasy food over the course of one Super Bowl, I am here to tell you that I am barely living proof that it could not.