The Weekly Ignition: March 3 2014

Get set for perhaps the most tumultuous week of the year for the Calgary Flames. Or the least. There’s really no middle ground. It’s all dependent on how the trade market heats up.

If Brian Burke can start wheeling and dealing, except a radically different Flames team – and by extension probably a different Abbotsford Heat club – in the next 72 hours. If not? Well, maybe it’ll be quite similar. We’ll see what happens. For now, here’s your weekly rundown of what’s what.

The Flames returned to action after the Olympics with a tight 2-0 home loss to Robyn Regehr and the Los Angeles Kings. Joni Ortio and Markus Granlund made their NHL debuts. Ortio played pretty well and wasn’t really to blame for either goal, but still was on the hook for the loss. [Post-Game]

The Flames headed up north for the fourth installment of this year’s Battle of Alberta against Edmonton on Saturday night. Sean Monahan scored twice and Reto Berra was sharp as Calgary won 2-1 in overtime. Hooray! [Post-Game]

The Sun’s Wes Glbertson spoke to Johnny Gaudreau about how great Johnny’s been playing. Thankfully, he also spoke to Craig Conroy, who provided more gushing quotes about Gaudreau, as Johnny just talked about how great his teammates were and how lucky he is to be where he is. Conroy compared Gaudreau to Jarome Iginla, in that he doesn’t talk about himself that much. 

With the timing of the Angel of Death, I profiled Derek Smith, Calgary’s defenseman that never plays hockey despite being on the roster. Within 24 hours of the story going live, Chris Butler went down with an injury and Smith almost played a game. Then he didn’t, because Butler felt better.

Brian Burke expects it to be a busy deadline. We hope so, Brian. We hope so.

The Abbotsford Heat had a rough week. They began it in first place. They lost twice, once in a shootout, and fell to fifth place. On the plus side, Max Reinhart had four freakin’ goals (#maxpower) and Sven Baertschi had four points. On the downside, the team lost twice because nobody else did any scoring. In the ECHL, Alaska also had a bad week, winning one outta three.

Providence College came into the weekend needing to win both of their games to get a first-round bye – and a bye is a huge thing, as it gives all the kids a week to rest up. Mark Jankowski had a pair of assists and Jon Gillies returned to his prior form, holding the opposition to just four goals over two wins. As a result, the Friars get next weekend off.

Oh, and Johnny Gaudreau scored one more goal, extending his points streak to 29 games. Sadly, Boston College lost to Notre Dame in overtime, snapping their undefeated streak. Gaudreau leads college hockey in goals, assists, points, and filthy mitts.

In junior, Morgan Klimchuk had seven points, Coda Gordon had five points and Eric Roy had four points.

At this point, every single Flames prospect in college and junior will be in their league’s playoffs.

Trade deadline! Wednesday at 1pm MT! Chaos! Or nothing much. There’s probably no middle ground, and it’s all market dependent.

Outside of all of that, the Calgary Flames play hockey this week. A lot of hockey. Four games. Monday in Minnesota, Wednesday hosting Ottawa, Friday hosting the Islanders and Saturday in Vancouver.

The Abbotsford Heat also play a lot of hockey. Four games! Tuesday & Wednesday vs. Texas, Saturday & Sunday vs. Chicago. And I’m not sure who the heck is gonna be left in Abbotsford, as once again, trades. Alaska plays three games in three nights against Bakersfield, too.

We’ll have a live-blog here throughout the day on Deadline Day, so keep your eyes peeled, and we’ll be all over anything that happens.