Flames Nation Roundup

It’s time for another weekly installment for the Flames Nation roundup, where I tour around the ‘sphere and share the Flames-centric stories that catch my interest.

– First up, Domebeers and Hayley from M&G decided to take on the Jay Bouwmeester issue. With Dion Phanuef and Olli Jokinen shuttled out of town, grumbles and baleful glances have started to settle on the $6.8M defender in light of his rather lackluster results this season. DB go right for the jugular, investigating both JayBo’s counting numbers and underlying stats and finding them wanting. Hayley, in contrast, looks at the underlying context surrounding his performance this season, dipping into a prior examination by Robert Cleave on the issue.

My take is that even in context, Bouwmeester’s results are somewhat underwhlming this season. He’s a dude that’s been buried by less than rosey assignments, but it’s not like he’s been outperforming them – which is what one would expect of a player at his payscale. That said, I’ve mostly liked what I’ve seen out of him this year and given his age and previous output, I’m going to give it another season or so before I really get on his case.

– Next up, the 4th lines Justin Azevedo shares some his backstage pics from ANA/CGY game the other night. It’s woth clicking the link for the Toskala shot alone. Also of note – Glencross is none too happy about being injured apparently. 

– Moving outside the Flames blogs for second, we find that Dustin Boyd is performing well in Nashville. This break-down shows his underlying numbers have been very solid as a Pred thus far. Appropriately enough, Boyd would go on to score two goals (one a game winner) in a game versus the Blues shortly after that analysis was posted.

– And finally, in the wake of the first ever CGY/EDM trade, Bruce Dowbiggen from the Globe and Mail reports that the Flames and Oilers are working on another deal outside of the rink that would see them combines their broadcast rights and sell them as a package. The Canucks were originally part of the alliance as well, but that fell through when they proved to be TOO DAMNED GREEDY:

Having the Olympics and first in the division just isn’t enough I guess…

That’s it for this week. Feel free to add anything I missed in the comments.