Brendan Morrison is back on the injured-reserve list due to “inadequate rehabilitation of ACL knee surgery,” and will be replaced by centre Paul Byron.
Anton Babchuk had his left hand had been fractured blocking a first-period shot Tuesday against the Minnesota Wild — and T.J. Brodie is back in the National Hockey League.
Calgary’s new line combinations have been posted.
There has been some shuffling around, and here is what the new lines look like heading into the Wednesday game against Colorado.
Who doesn’t love 2011-12 NHL prediction time? I love predictions, even if they are always wrong! So here we go…
As for me? I’m going to predict that the Flames will compete with the Blues, Blue Jackets, Stars and Wild for the last two playoff spots. Five teams, two spots. Yikes.
Here is my Western Conference final prediction (I don’t really care for the East), sorry once again Calgary fans:
Well that changes the lineups a bit…
Check out the opening day lineup any time of the year on the Calgary Flames current line combinations page. Here’s what Saturday’s opener against the Penguins will look like.
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Forwards
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Left
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Centre
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Right
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| First line | Tanguay, Alex | Moss, David | Iginla, Jarome |
| Second line | Glencross, Curtis | Jokinen, Olli | Stempniak, Lee |
| Third line | Hagman, Niklas | Horak, Roman | Bourque, Rene |
| Fourth line | Jackman, Tim | Stajan, Matt | Kostopoulos, Tom |
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Defencemen
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| First pairing | Giordano, Mark | Bouwmeester, Jay | |
| Second pairing | Hannan, Scott | Babchuk, Anton | |
| Third pairing | Butler, Chris | Sarich, Cory | |
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Goalies
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| Starter | Kiprusoff, Miikka | ||
| Backup | Karlsson, Henrik | ||
The final roster will be announced on Wednesday, but because of some injuries and being only four players above the required 23-man roster, we have a pretty good idea of what this team will look like come October 8th.
I really didn’t want to see Roman Horak cut, especially to give Matt Stajan his (potential) spot. But you (and Feaster) have to make decisions with your head, not your gut or your heart.
I also haven’t heard anything about Ivanans, but the Flames have him on their website as no longer injured. With the suspension to Letourneau-Leblond Ivanans is likely to fill in on the fourth line. Unless of course Bourque is ready to go for the start of the year, which Sutter says he will be, and then Stempniak will be bumped to the third line, Jackman to the fourth, and Ivanans will sit.
*not actually final
I love starting rumors.
So Jay Feaster said on Thursday that the Flames don’t feel like they have a bonafide number one centre. Talks with Brad Richards were close, oh so close, but Richards didn’t want to play in the Western Conference (lazy ass). And now with the Langkow, Regehr and Kotalik deals in the ledger, the Flames have about $3.5M in cap room. So let’s have a look at the top five candidates that will definitely probably become a Flame at some point in the very near future, maybe.
#5 – Paul Stastny
Currently with: Colorado Avalanche
Points last year: 22G 35A 57P
Reason why he’s expendable: Two words. Matt. Duchene. Duchene outperformed Stastny last year and is 5 years younger. And let’s face it, Colorado isn’t going anywhere this year.
Reason why he’s not: Stastny makes $6.6M/year. Ouch. Plus at 25, he has got 10 years of hockey left in him. Why would the Avs get rid of that?
#4 – Mikhail Grabovski
Currently with: Toronto Maple Leafs
Points last year: 29G 29A 58P
Reason why he’s expendable: Because Toronto is dumb, and they have a history of dumping guys right before their breakout year. And we have a history of picking up their trash.
Reason why he’s not: Toronto has a producing hockey player for less than $4M/year, even they can’t screw this up. Can they?
#3 – Nicklas Backstrom
Currently with: Washington Capitals
Points last year: 18G 47A 65P
Reason why he’s expendable: Because teammates in Washington have recently come out saying that Backstrom doesn’t try hard enough. If your teammates lose confidence in you, it becomes a steady march down trade street – or perhaps to the KHL. The Caps are also over the cap, so they have to dump some salary before the season starts.
Reason why he’s not: $6M/year for the next four seasons. Enough said.
#2 – Joe Pavelski
Currently with: San Jose Sharks
Points last year: 20G 46A 66P
Reason why he’s expendable: Jumbo Joe will always be the number one guy in San Jose. Mini Joe will have to go elsewhere for the opportunity.
Reason why he’s not: The Flames would have to find another half million dollars to make this deal possible. Which isn’t that unrealistic.
#1 – Tuomo Ruutu
Currently with: Carolina Hurricanes
Points last year: 19G 38A 57P
Reason why he’s expendable: Carolina has two centres already ahead of him on the depth chart in Staal and Skinner. He is also an unrestricted free agent at the end of this year.
Reason why he’s not: He only had 2 more points than Jokinen, so he’s not that much of an improvement points-wise. The Flames would still also need to find a million dollars in cap space somewhere. Sorry Sarich.
There you have it, my money is either Pavelski or Ruutu in a Flames jersey at some point during the year. You guys may as well get both jerseys numbered up now just to make sure you beat the rush.
You’re welcome.
Here’s what I took away from the Fan Forum/Town Hall last night…
Also the ticket plan is a little different this year, and I like the release of all games for one week, then changing it to only two months at a time.
From the Flames:
Hockey season is just around the corner and now you can purchase tickets for the Calgary Flames pre-season games! Tickets for regular season games will go on sale on Sept. 16 at 10:00 AM. They are only sale until Sept. 20. After that point, only tickets for October and November games will be on sale.
Pre-season game dates are as follows:
Sept. 20: Canucks vs. Flames (7:00 PM)
Sept. 20: Flames vs. Canucks (8:00 PM)
Sept. 24: Flames vs. Oilers (6:00 PM)
Sept. 25: Oilers vs. Flames (6:00 PM)
Sept. 27: Islanders vs. Flames (7:00 PM)
Sept. 29: Coyotes vs. Flames (7:00 PM)
And we’re only three weeks from pre-season, can’t you just taste it? the pre-seasons? yeah? no limits.
Anywho, the highlights of the season are this… the Crosby-less Penguins open the season here at home on Oct 8. The Winnipeg/Atlanta Jets visit Calgary on March 9. Calgary plays Toronto twice this year, which means that the Flames will be covered on TSN for at least two days this year – although they will refer to them as Toronto’s opposition.
Here is a link to the Flames’ full TV schedule this year, and for kicks here is the new Winnipeg Jets logo and jersey. I like it.
Hannan made $4.5M last year. This year with the Flames he will make $1M. Why the change… has he gotten that much worse in the past year? Nope. Is he too old to contribute? Nope. So why? Puck Daddy explains his theory as to why Hannan had to settle for a measly $1M with the forsaken Flames.
Now the Flames have seven defenceman on one-way contracts including Scott Hannan, Jay Bouwmeester, Mark Giordano, Cory Sarich, Anton Babchuk, Chris Butler, and Brett Carson. That’s pretty much your defensive lineup for next year, not really striking fear into the hearts of other teams are they?
Peter Loubardias let go? Cripes! After spending a couple years getting used to that terrible timbre of his, I have realizied that Peter was one of the best play-by-play guys I’ve heard. This is too bad, because we were lucky to have him. That said, I think Robb Kerr knows more about hockey than than even me (yeah, shocking!) and he’ll make a great play-by-play guy. Except when there’s a fight. Not cool Rob, that’s not cool.
Rob Kerr will move up to the Rogers Sportsnet broadcast booth for the 2011-12 regular season after serving eight years as the host of the Flames on Sportsnet Radio The Fan 960. Kerr will take over for Peter Loubardias, who was let go last week by Sportsnet. <full story>