Aug long update

woohoo. what a month for the Flames. ok, it was July, but still, a good month for the Flames. they signed Bouwmeester to a deal worth 6.7mil a year. good signing. this makes the Flames defence ultra deep, also they traded away Vandermeer, which clears up room for more contracts, and traded Primeau to Toronto, for Stralman, who is a defensive prospect. the Flames also picked up Dawes (potential top 6 winger) and Seabrook (bubble player) and resigned key guys like Boyd.
so the Flames dumped some expensive players and picked up several guys in the key 23-27 age range, guys that may or may not hit their peak with the Flames. Sutter you are awesome. with Brent Sutter behind the bench and a stellar Dcore (Regher, Phaneuf, Sarich, Bouwmeester, Pardy, Giordano, with guys like Pelech challenging) and an actual system that requires players like Iginla to get back defensively, and hopefully more use of backup McElhinney, and more young guys challenging for spots on the forward ranks, this training camp and following season will be fun to watch!
Go Flames

as for the Stamps, they have had an off and on start. the first two games were rough, a loss to Montreal was hard to take but not as hard as a loss to bottom feeder Winnipeg. i guess there is alot more parity this season. the Stamps got back on track and beat Toronto and BC by sound margins, but couldn't complete a win over sasky last night, losing by one point on a touchdown with a minute left for the Riders. I should add that Burris was given the ball twice in the last minute with chances to drive the field, and he blew it, bad decision making. it really came down to a missed 49 yard field goal by DeAngelis just before Saskatchewan scored the go ahead touchdown. a field goal would have made it a 9 point lead instead of 6.
so the Stamps fall to 2-3, one win back of Sask and Edmonton (who upset Montreal this week), and one win ahead of the struggling Lions, who have lost twice to the resurgent Ticats (as per my preseason predictions, Tabbies are doing well!).
its a long season, but the Stamps need to turn it around by labour day, as the head to head matchup with the Eskimoes may be the difference between hosting the west final or west semifinal.
Go Stamps Go
(injury note, the Stampeders have lost star reciever, KenYon Rambo, for the season)

CFL picks for 2009 season

ok first off,
Congratulations to the Pittsburg Penguins, who won the Stanley Cup in game 7 over the Detroit Red Wings. I am happy Detroit lost!
hopefully my Flames will be the champions in 12 months

so the CFL season kicks off tomorrow, Canada day, with Hamilton playing Toronto, followed by Calgary playing Montreal, at McMahon
so here are my preseason picks for the standings

West Division - the west division again appears to be the stronger division. any of these teams could come out of the west, but Calgary is still the favourite. injuries may change things, but it seems every year lately that all these teams are in it. Saskatchewan should finish better than Winnipeg and Toronto and get a crossover spot.

1. Calgary (13-5)- defending champs didn't lose much, now know what it takes. they need to play as a team and continue to get consistent performance from guys like Lewis in the tough west division.
2. Edmonton (12-6)- Ricky Ray is always dangerous, now he has a good mix of run game and recievers, we'll see how the defence does. and how long it takes for Lumsden to get hurt... Edmonton is always in it, and BC will be right there with them all season long.
3. BC (9-9)- this is tough, they lost Cam Wake, so shouldn't be as good, but still have solid depth at quarterback and Wally seems to find guys to step in.
4. Saskatchewan (8-10) - this is a quarterbacks league, and Saskatchewan's QB needs some proving. Durant will need to find some chemistry with Fantusz, who is a great reciever. Im not sold on this team, but they do some some parts, tough battle with BC and Edmonton, but they will crossover and visit Hamilton

East Division - Montreal will be fired up to play hard and the other 3 continue to rebuild with new coaches and players. this division isn't quite as strong as the west, but Hamilton is starting to close the gap on the 4 west teams and Montreal. East will still be seperated and Winnipeg and Toronto are the toughest to figure out, I don't see alot of promise from either team

1. Montreal (12-6)- many players back and the coach will still have the memory of losing the cup at home fresh in their minds. The question mark here is does Calvillo keep going? he showed last year he is back, in a remarkable comeback. They get to beat up Toronto and Winnipeg again too
2. Hamilton (8-10)- of the bottom three in the East, Hamilton has the best chance of getting that home playoff game. Quinton Porter is the answer, ok well he looks like he could be. they need to keep developing him, Glenn is there to take some pressure off as well, but this team has some good continuity from last year and last season appeared to be getting better. they will keep up the trend and win some games by a few instead of losing them. Its been too long since Hamilton had a good season or hosted a playoff game.
3. Toronto (5-13)- close with Winnipeg, they still have a solid defence, it will be interesting to see how the new coach adapts to the Canadian game. Kerry Joseph needs to get back to his old form
4. Winnipeg (5-13)- with so many new players and a new coach, who is playing for this team now? it will take some time to fit the parts together and get some wins. head to head matchups with Toronto may decide who gets the first draft pick in 2010....


im going to pick my Stampeders to play the Allouettes in the Grey Cup, with the Stampeders winning again. back to back.

cup final prediction

west champs Detroit vs
east champs Pittsburg
the rematch, for first time in 25 years, a repeat of the previous cup final. Pittsburg has talent, Detroit has talent, Detroit has cup experience, Pittsburg has players who haven't won the cup. Detroit has Hossa. Hossa will be a non factor in the early games, that is when Pittsburg needs to win some games. Detroit is banged up and has to play the first 2 games in two nights, against a remarkably healthy Pittsburg team.
really, i want both teams to lose, but someone has to win. and Detroit won last year. so....
Pittsburg in 6


Its almost Stamps season, fanday is tomorrow. Grey cup tickets go on sale tomorrow.
Go Stamps go, its too warm out to watch two teams i don't want to win, go for the cup.

NHL 3rd round pics, and Roughnecks are NLL champions

NHL playoffs
2- Detroit vs
4. Chicago
this is really tough to pick. Im going to go with Detroit, as I feel like they will win, but i really want them to lose (ala i win my bet and because they won last year). Detroit plays a solid team game. Chicago can beat them though, they play well together and seem to be the young guys. youth vs experience. it will be interesting, I hope chicago can continue to score goals and Khabibulin plays well. Osgood seems to be a playoff goaltender, so they will have to get through detroit and beat him. this isn' the canucks.
Detroit in 7.

east final:
4. Pittsburg - vs
6. Carolina
should be a close series, Carolina seems to find a way to win this year and Pittsburg may let them hang around too long in this series. Cam Ward will have to continue to be solid in the net, I could see him playing for Team Canada very soon. Carolina seems to get it done with grit and effort. and thier crowd is electric. the atmosphere in Carolina vs the atmosphere in Pittsburg hasn't been close (on tv at least). they really make it an event down in Carolina, also Carolina has a place in my heart after they beat the Oilers in the final in '06.
Carolina in 7

I went to the NLL final last night with two of my friends (Nick and Justin) and watched the Calgary Roughnecks defeat the New York Titans to win the Champions cup. It was an awesome game, the Roughnecks won 12-10, getting two empty netters in the last minute before New York got a late goal. the crowd was great (not sold out though) and it was more fun then the final in 04. the Roughnecks won thier 2nd Champions cup, after posting a 14-4 record this season, the best in the league.

The Stampeders also signed Nik Lewis to contract extension, Lewis broke several records last year with the Stamps, in his 5th season, and wants to retire a Stampeder someday.

early May update

Well the second round of the NHL playoffs is well underway, and things are getting close to the end in junior hockey and in the NLL.
nhl:
I picked Carolina, Chicago, Anaheim and Washington to win thier series. Carolina is up 2-1 on Boston, Chicago and Vancouver are tied at 2, anahiem and Detroit are also tied at 2, and Washington is up 2-1.
in the WHL final, the Hitmen are playing the Rockets. the Rockets (Kelowna) won the first 3 games, but the Hitmen have stormed back and dominated games 4 and 5. I feel like they can win still and go to the memorial cup, history is against them though. only one time in WHL history has a team come back from down 3-0 in a series. but if any team is built to do it, the Hitmen are. game 6 goes tomorrow in Kelowna.
in the NLL, the Roughnecks dominated the Colorado Mammoth in the West Semifinal last week, 15-8, and play the San Jose stealth at the saddledome on saturday in the West division final. if the Roughnecks win, they will host the NLL final.

Team Canada is having success as usual in the world championships. today they beat Sweden 3-1 in the semifinal, they will play Russia (who beat the US) in the Gold medal game on sunday. I have trouble getting into this tournament.

Flames end of season thoughts

Its officially the end of the Flames 08/09 year. A season that started badly, but picked up momentum and had people saying things like elite, and talking about catching Detroit for second. For a few months, the Flames played consistent hockey, sticking to a system, with a good powerplay, great penalty kill and solid goaltending.
Then the wheels fell off, in late February, the team had a solid lead on the Canucks. In a horrible week, the Flames lost Giordano for the season, Bourque for 2 months and ultimately their focus. The Flames were facing a 7 game roadtrip to start march, after an ugly 8-6 loss to Tampa Bay at home. Many thought this team could handle it and keep control of the division. After the Olli Jokinen and Leopold deals, they looked like the team to come out of the west, for one game anyways. It fell apart, the system was gone, there was no consistency, something was off most nights. Iginla, Cammalleri and Jokinen all saw their plus/minus plummet.
They got home from the roadtrip still in control of the division, but it was shakey. More injuries hit, the team couldn’t win two in a row and Vancouver played lights out hockey. Regher, Sarich, Phaneuf and Langkow were out, the Flames were up against the cap and had to dress John Negrin and Matt Pelech for their first NHL games. The Flames got lucky as Vancouver blew weekend games against Edmonton and Colorado, but the Flames couldn’t beat Luongo and game 80 cost the Flames the division.
The Nucks swept the Blues. The Flames gave up leads in games 1 & 2 vs the hawks. Then won 2 at home. Things looked good again. Then game 5, the Flames were, brutal. 5-1 loss. In game 6 the beatup Flames tried hard, got 40+ shots on net, but for once a goalie stole a game in the series. The Blackhawks, surprisingly, were the ones in this series that had the killer instinct. Khabibulin played amazing, the Flames had defensive lapses and lost 3-1. at home.

That’s it. A season of players playing to their peaks, then either slumping or getting hurt at the worst of times. For a team with so much talent, it sucks to lose in the first round. Always next year as they say.Interesting to hear maher talk about the injuries the flames sustained last night on the postgame. Here are some he mentioned, as per calgary puck
Giordano - Season ending shoulder surgery. (We knew that one)

Regher - Season ending knee injury - possible surgery (We kinda knew that one too)

Aucoin - So far Undisclosed but Peter Maher stated it was groin

Sarich - Broken foot (Also knew that one - but wow)

Phaneuf - Knee injury could require knee surgery - happened before Christmas - Broken Ribs from game 1 - Hip injury that will most likely require surgery - was an injury from last year that was re-injured early in the year - all these injuries on the left side of his body

Todd Bertuzzi - Knee injury and a undisclosed wrist injury

Rene Bourque - Re aggrivated his high ankle sprain - should not have been playing

Dustin Boyd - Undisclosed leg injury

Craig Conroy - Separated shoulder

Curtis Glencross - Shoulder injury

Jarome Iginla - Suspected Knee injury - though he will not admit it

Daymond Langkow - Broken Hand If true, wow, that is a lot of hurt. Still, the flames blew leads in this series they shouldn't have, they looked disorganized at times, inconsistent, and we all know the powerplay had no power. The guys got out worked everytime out late in the season. Keenan juggled lines but wouldn't let Iggy and Jokinen apart. The Flames tried hard, but game 5 killed them. They weren't prepared. Iginla didn't lead the team to victory, but no one else showed up to play either.
Chicago is a talented team, 3 top 3 draft picks in that lineup. They wouldn't lie down and after game 3 and 4, avoided scrums and skated hard. The Flames just weren't good enough with the guys out of the lineup and injured ones in the lineup to beat a remarkably healthy chicago team. I'm sure some of the chicago guys are also playing through injury, like Barker's finger, but no players missed games, aside from Kane in game 3 with a flu.
Kipper also got outgoaltended by Khabby. Niether goalie was amazing for the first 5 games, both were average, niether got shutouts, but in game 6, when it mattered most. Khabibulin lived up to his billing as a wall the Flames just couldn't bring down. The Flames had over 40 shots in game 6 (though most from the outside) and could only squeak one by.
Bertuzzi was dissapointing the entire series. Badly timed penalties, floating around the outside, getting beat on the boards. Jokinen showed up for a few playoff games, I think you need to stick it out and give him next season. After how long Sutter wanted him, you can’t give up on him already, and no one would want him if the Flames are giving up on him too. Not many of the Flames played amazing in the playoffs, but injuries did play a part.

Its only one day after, but the Flames will need to do lots of evaluation this offseason to decide what they want to do. My feeling is to go with the young guys coming up, considering how close the Flames are to the cap. Maybe then they can afford to resign cammalleri, maybe not. Flush the coaching staff, Keenan and the assistant coaches need to GO. Part of the blame is on the core, part is on the coaches. The coaches are easy to change. The core may benefit if the Flames stop following the Oilers lead and inbreeding the coaching staff. Find a new coach. I don't know who, but it’s a long offseason. The Flames have plenty of young guys who can step up and replace the loss of Cammalleri and Bertuzzi. I’d rather the Flames spend their money to get an elite defenceman, like Jay Bouwmeester. Its him or resign Aucoin. Pardy and Giordano will be back next season, and Pelech will hopefully be what Pardy was this year. The Flames have some great players coming up, but maybe need an agitator type guy like Chris Niel or Steve Ott. Steve Ott would be great, but hard to get. Moss-Conroy and Glencross should stick together. Backlund may be ready for primetime next season and guys like Sutter, Greentree and Van der Gulik should be on the edge. Resign McElhinney or another backup goalie and have them play 20 games. None of this stupid Kipper starting 70+ games stuff. He may want to play that much, but it might not be a good idea. Brodeur and Luongo have shown how important it is to be fresh going into the playoffs. In 04 Kipper played 34 games and was ready for the playoffs. I think McElhinney is not a bad goalie, I would like to see him do well and he has developed in our system.

And get back to defensive hockey. That’s what wins in the playoffs. Play a defensive system that requires the whole team to be responsible defensively. (something Iggy was far from at times this season). If they can play solid defensively, maybe you can limit how good the goaltender is having an effect on the team. When Kipper has an off night, the Flames need to be able to play well defensively, then you can throw in the backup and the system shouldn't change. Clear example here is New Jersey, they make their goalies look good. Brodeur is all-world no doubt, but Clemmonson was great for them while he was out.

The Flames need to take a page out of the books of the other teams in this city. The Stampeders lost in the west semifinal for 3 years before Henry Burris took them to a Grey Cup victory.
The Roughnecks, well this year isn’t finished, but they took care of business in the regular season. Clinching first overall in the NLL.
The Hitmen were one of the best teams in the country. 12-0 in the playoffs so far, and they play Backlund’s Rockets in the WHL final. That’s taking care of business.

I guess the one difference between the Flames and these teams, is the regular season success. The Flames haven’t been able to step up to the elite level of the other 3 big teams in Calgary in the regular season. Maybe we expected to much, maybe not. We all would love another cup run. Even a division win and a first round win would do.
As for next season, I will find it hard to get overly excited over this team unless they can maintain a 1 or 2 position in the conference. They need to step it up, only one team finishing lower than 1 or 2 in their conference has won the cup in the last 15 years. At least that’s what I’ve heard.
Anyways, im done ranting for now, just some thoughts. It should be an interesting offseason!
until next time, Go Hitmen and Go Roughnecks this spring!

Adam

more indepth first round picks

1. San Jose vs 8. Anahiem
San Jose may be known for falling short, but they always make the second round. this will be a tough series, as anahiem and san jose have been playing well. anahiem is dangerous as they were playing well and have solid dmen in pronger, neidermayer and whitney. San Jose still has the goaltending and scoring in this battle. as thier season series was, this will be close.
(San Jose in 7)

Detroit vs Columbus
Detroit has been struggling lately, lucky vancouver cooled off the past few weeks or they may have caught them (ok probably not). anyways Columbus has reminded me for a few months of calgary in '04. the Blue Jackets have a hot young goalie, havent made the playoffs in 8 years and have an exprienced but young captain. Columbus plays thier system well, and will have to get huge goaltending from Mason. Detroit may have a talented team, but goaltending is a question mark.
(Columbus in 6)

Vancouver vs St Louis
as much as I would love to see vancouver get swept by St. Louis, I think St. Louis may burn out. 8-1-1 pace is impressive, they will need to play hard, vancouver has shown they can win when they play like they can. Luongo will at least show up and could win this series on his own.
(Vancouver in 6)

Chicago vs Calgary
the Flames have a better, more playoff experienced team, and should be able to beat the Blackhawks. they can't let Khabibulin get in thier heads. if they outwork and outhit the smallish hawks, they can win. they have to defend against the speed of the hawks. the Flames have been playing ok lately, getting better, but need to get healthy. with no salary cap in the playoffs, the Flames can finally call up the reinforcements theyve needed. guys like eriksson, palin, boyd, maybe warrener comes back. regher may come back and bourque should be back. the Flames will be getting healthy. aucoin and phaneuf will appreciate the days off before the playoffs. this is going to be close, but the Flames dont want to exit first round again.
(Calgary in 7)

East
Boston vs Montreal
It would be funny to see Boston lose to Montreal in the playoffs again. I have a tough time going against Boston, but they not playing amazing lately, so they are beatable. not by montreal though! that team has some serious issues
(Boston in 6)

Washington vs New York
Ovechkin, Semin, Green. this team has so much firepower, New York will be in tough, the Rangers may not like Avery so much in the playoffs... the Rangers haven't given me reason they will beat the Caps.
(Washington in 5)

New Jersey vs Carolina
...ahh I don't like the devils. ok i like brodeur. he is the only reason the devils win this if they do. Carolina has been playing inspired hockey since the trade deadline. picking up Eric Cole may have had a better impact than anyone thought it would. Cam Ward has been great. I smell an upset
(Carolina in 5)

Pittsburg vs Philidelphia
the Flyers had a chance at hosting this one but lost today. the Penguins are defending east champs that have been playing great since the coach was canned. Crosby and Malkin have been tearing it up this year, and Philidelphia's goaltending is nothing to be scared of. Fleury needs to be good though, as the flyers have some firepower on thier side as well.
(Pittsburg in 6)