See if this reminds you of an old television show …
“Calgary Flames, an under achieving hockey club. A team challenged in a crucial game seven shows up barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild them. We may not have the cap space. Yet we have the capability to build the city’s first “past the first round” hockey club in four years. The 2008-09 Calgary Flames will be that hockey club. Better than they were before. Younger, bigger, faster.”
You buy that?
The 2008-09 edition of the Calgary Flames stand an average of 6′ 1.5″ in height and come in at an average age of 28.1 years.
The team that concluded last season in San Jose that fateful night stood the same height, but were 2.5 years elder at 30.5 years of age.
Now the leg speed thing is tough to nail down, but with the likes of Marcus Nilson, Owen Nolan, Eric Godard and Stephane Yelle departing the scene nailing down proof may not require much by way of forensic science.
With no less than eight bodies missing from that playoff series, there is very little debate that this team is different, really different and certainly retooled.
The debate however, is the most important date in all 30 cities in the circuit tonight; are they better?
You’ll forgive me if I reserve judgement?
Parity
Although most modern evils are blamed soley on the new CBA and it’s wretched salary cap, the truth is high end parity has been sneaking into the standings for about a decade.
Never before has the margin between winning and losing been so tight, leaving roster changes and teams on paper only a small portion of the end result and the actual standings at the end of the season.
The Flames have added pieces that Darryl Sutter and Mike Keenan hope better support the team’s entrenched core, both on the ice, and between the ears where a lot of the game is played. A boost in chemistry to a team that seemed to lack any last season could go a long way towards a much better ending in 2009 than we’ve seen in the past three seasons.
The Optimist
An optimistic look at the Flames will yield a few strong points that are hard to ignore when adding up the changes and looking into the crystal ball.
Kiprusoff Factor – an off season for Miikka Kiprusoff hurt the team. As one of the core, he needs to be one of the best players night in and night out. From a relative standpoint he’s bound to be better, and from a fitness standpoint he seems to have taken a positive step.
Forward Depth – the Flames suffered up front last season with only two players; Jarome Iginla and Daymond Langkow, producing with any regularity. The bottom two lines were space filler and momentum speed bumps. This season with added new players and what seems to be a push from within they appear to have a greater ability to sustain pressure from one line to the next.
Phaneuf Factor – almost sounds like a reality show doesn’t it? He was good last year, but his seven game playoff performance suggested that he’s ready to go to a new plateau. If that’s the case the Flames get better quickly with one of their pillars getting even more solid.
The Pessimist
Skill Bleed – as interesting as Mike Cammalleri and Todd Bertuzzi are as additions, the Flames lost a heaping of pure offensive skill and passing ability when Alex Tanguay and Kristian Huselius were shown the door. Can a more committee styled roster make up the slack? Preseason stats aside there are a lot of ifs and hopes on the Flames forward lines when it comes to secondary scoring.
Holey Blue – a lot of change to the forward group, there is little to debate on that front, but the team’s blueline is essentially the same going into this season with the exception of the return of Mark Giordano. Adrian Aucoin threatens to get slower, and a full season of Jim Vandermeer does little to suggest the Flames have a clear cut top four ready to handle the grueling schedule starting tonight. Their best hope is a Russian evolution from Giordano and his ability to move the puck up the ice. The team’s biggest weakness.
Kiprusoff Factor – this one appears on both sides. Jose Theodore won a Hart Trophy and then morphed into a disaster. It’s possible that Kiprusoff can get worse, or at best stay the same, making the cage one of Calgary’s biggest concerns this season.
Conference Cage Match – The West is tight, very tight. And there seems to be a trio of young hungry hockey clubs that have it in their zit infested faces to move up and take a spot from more veteran clubs this campaign. Even a small improvement by the Flames could leave them on the outside looking in.
The Verdict
Lots to consider, a puzzle almost impossible to piece together given the changes around the division, conference and here in Calgary this summer.
However, I just can’t get past this feeling that the Flames are going to surprise this season, and I don’t mean in disappointment. The team through the preseason seemed quicker, deeper, and more determined than any silly season club we’ve seen in Calgary in a long time.
The additions gelled with their new teammates, and added speed, size and aggression to the returning players, but the biggest surprise came from the solid play of bubble players from last season, David Moss and Dustin Boyd. Like so many NHL clubs of recent seasons, the push up the standings doesn’t come from summer signings, but from internal promotions, something the Flames seem to have heading in.
I see a rebound season by Kiprusoff, perhaps not a 2004 rebound, but one back to the top ten in goaltenders, and a massive season by Phaneuf leading the way to a divsion title and a 100 point season.
Change for change seldom works, but this time it looks they can rebuild them, … younger, bigger, faster, and finally … more successful.
Drop the puck!
