After a frustrating 9-10-2 start, the Flames moved Elias Lindholm from centre back to the right side of Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau on Saturday afternoon. Calgary’s pivot back to August’s “bubble lines” paid off quickly, too: they took a convincing 6-3 win over the Ottawa Senators. I have been, and remain, a staunch believer…
We all have different theories on Calgary’s frustrating start. Flawed construction. Subpar coaching. A checked-out core. Failing leadership. In reality, you probably have to scratch “all of the above” on your Scantron to fairly assess what’s going on here. The season isn’t lost, but it’s teetering, even after Monday’s 3-0 win in Toronto. If the…
“I just thought: you know what, what’s the one thing you can’t buy, you have to earn it, and you can only do if you’re in the NHL?” Ten years after first asking himself that question, Flames assistant general manager Craig Conroy remains driven by the same thing he chased for more than 1,000 games…
Reaction has been mixed since Elliotte Friedman’s Saturday revelation Sam Bennett has requested a trade. Knowing how these things go, it’s fair to assume Bennett will be playing elsewhere in the not-so-distant future. That said, there are two important angles to consider here. First and foremost: when is the best time for the Flames to make…
We’re only six games in, but an encouraging start through three games has turned sour less than two weeks later. With a third straight loss Thursday, and a frustrating one at that, it’s clear Calgary needs more from a handful of key individuals. In particular, the team’s two longest serving players are off to subpar…
The Flames decided to re-think the way they use their forwards this offseason in an attempt to be harder to matchup against. Now three games in, the new approach has been relatively successful, albeit with a small sample size. That said, what we’ve seen early on gives us insight on how Calgary plans to use…
After starting with three games in five nights, the Flames are in the midst of their longest break of the season. Calgary doesn’t play again until Sunday afternoon’s marquee matchup with Toronto, which gives us a good window to dive into some early season observations. At 2-0-1, the Flames are off to a nice start,…
Despite only having three full months of hockey to draw from over the last 365 days, coming up with a top five list from the last calendar year was surprisingly easy. The resurgence of the Battle of Alberta features heavily in our top five moments of 2020, but which game ends up number one? Let’s…
A deep and reliable blueline has been a strength of the Flames in recent years, and that should remain true for the coming 2020-2021 season. Calgary has reshaped their defence over the offseason and there are a few important questions to be answered as a result. That said, I still have the Flames near the…
When the Flames drop the puck in mid-January, they’ll have one of the deeper forward groups in the brand new, all-Canadian North Division. I see Calgary as a top tier group when looking at their forwards top to bottom, but rank them in the middle when focused solely at the top of the depth chart….
An all-Canadian division is a certainty if/when the next NHL season starts in mid-January. With at least nine games against each team, and with moves we’ve seen over the offseason, a Canadian division has the potential to be as tight and hotly contested as any in recent memory. So how do the Flames stack up…
This topic popped up out of nowhere on a radio segment last week (skip to about 1:42:50) when I asked: what jersey should the Flames retire next? It’s a fun question that became a whole lot more relevant when Calgary retired Jarome Iginla’s #12 in March 2019. Theoren Fleury and Miikka Kiprusoff are easy, deserving…
