If a player like Roman Horak was assigned to the minors 25 odd games into his rookie season in just about any other hockey market the news item would hardly register for newspapers, radio programs and hockey web sites.
Calgary isn’t just any hockey market.
Calgary is an intense hockey market, where hockey fans are either astute enough to read between the lines of hockey executives or completely misjudge the actions of said executives and completely over react.
Horak, a first year pro has played quite well, but has seen his ice time reduced of late and was sent to Abbotsford on Thursday.
Big deal? No big deal?
That’s up the pundit and hockey fan to determine.
A number of years ago Jason Morgan, a journeyman forward was put on waivers by the Flames in the dark years and lost to the Chicago Blackhawks. The result was a 30 some page thread on Calgarypuck.com that left a lasting and epic footprint on the web site and its community.
People were out raged! Venom flowed! Fire the GM! The coach hates youth! What a waste of a young asset!
First some back story; Morgan was a 5th round pick of the Kings in 1995 after a pretty in-illustrious junior career. He played 14 games with the Kings over 5 hockey seasons scoring a goal, adding not an assist and going -11. The Flames signed him to an AHL contract for the 2001 playoffs which started the beginning of a three year stint in the Flames AHL system.
In 2003 he joined the Flames and played 13 games garnering two assists.
When he was lost on waivers Calgarypuck came apart.
The over reaction was so vast, so deep, so angry it was hilarious. Hockey fans were fed up, and the Morgan-Gate showed in a very real way that things were approaching the boiling point. With Morgan gone the Flames got better the very next season and the dark ages were behind the hockey market, perhaps just in the nick of time.
Yesterday the Roman Horak to the minors discussion went 9 pages deep with a lot of back and forth before losing a bit of steam with the announcement that Greg Nemisz has been recalled from the farm today. Without that call I’d suggest the Horak caper could have reached Morgan proportions.
So what to make of all this?
First my own thoughts …
Initially I thought it was a clear indication of a knee jerk reaction in Flame land again. The team was sputtering and youth was being injected into the lineup. The Flames are playing three young defenseman ahead of Cory Sarich, and Horak was dressed ahead of one of Matt Stajan or Brendan Morrison every night. The Flames were competitive but appeared to have their eyes on both the standings and the development of young players.
However with a 4-1-1 record in six games (now 5-1-1) was it possible that the executive group saw this as a playoff push and the scratching of Horak was a sign that the youth movement was over?
Yes it crossed my mind.
I’m guessing I was as guilty as most fans for over reacting to a relatively minor adjustment to a roster though it’s possible the Nemisz recall could be a reaction to the reaction of the fans.
Hockey fans love youth, and want to see youth served in the hopes that a franchise can develop the youth into a powerhouse down the road. Team brass has to have an eye on the present as well to ensure people are sitting in the seats and drinking bottom up beer.
A little run like this is good for both as long as the focus isn’t lost on reality. Ken King suggested the group may have put too much stock in the second half run last season so they had better not put too much stock in a solid 7 game set of games.
The .500 Flames are at least 5 points behind a playoff pace 1/3 of the way into their season. To rectify this they’ll need to go something like 31-16-7 the rest of the way; a pace akin to a 105 point hockey club.
It won’t happen.
So if the Roman Horak assignment is about youth in and youth out in an eye to developing 3 or 4 young forwards then bravo. If however, its a sign that the Flames think veterans are the way to the playoffs then I don’t blame hockey fans for over reacting at all.
If that was the case it would suggest the Flames need another addition to the specialty stable of their executive group; one very well versed in math.
