Somehow he convinced Brian Burke to accept Wayne Primeau and a 2nd round pick in 2011 for this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xMh0mTy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuY6ZZ-xlqE&feature=related

The Flames also receive Colin Stuart, a 27 year old forward who played 51 games for the Atlanta Thrashers over the last two seasons while being a PPG player for the AHL Chicago Wolves. It’s possible that he gets a bit of time on the 3rd/4th lines in the Sutterdome at some point this season, but its pretty crowded in front of him and its more likely that this is just another veteran acquisition for the Abbotsford Heat - who all of a sudden are looking pretty darn competitive.

I’ll miss Wayne Primeau. While he was overpaid at $1.4M per season and often injured, he was one of the better 4th line centers that I’ve ever seen in this league while healthy. His size and surprising speed made him a demon on the penalty kill and forecheck, and he should contribute some good minutes in Leafland.

A 7th round pick comes the Flames way to round out the trade, but that’s really neither here nor there. It sure would be nice to draft in the 2nd round sometime, but…. Anton Stralman!!

To be honest, I haven’t seen Stralman in action much since the Leafs are one of the few teams who I avoid on the tele-tube. That said, comments by Leafs fans are generally well into the outrage-zone and I know that the community over at dobberhockey.com was really high on this guy. Before Burke took hold of the Leafs, Stralman was regarded as one of the better under-the-radar, young defensive prospects to own in fantasy leagues.

It’s interesting that this is the second young former Toronto property hailing from Sweden that the Flames have acquired this summer. Together with Kronwall, Backlund, Sjostrom, and the newly drafted Erixon and Bjorklund, there is actually a bit of Swedish spice being added to the Western Canadian base in Flames country.

Whats more, the additions this summer of Bouwmeester, Seabrook, Kronwall, and now Stralman certainly signals a change in strategy by the Sutters; a shift from grizzled and slow to mobile and skilled on the back-end. Make no mistake: this is a team that coaches like Brent Sutter and Dave Lowry are clearly having input into building.

This should be fun.

In a somewhat surprising move, Calgary has claimed diminutive Junior scorer and former Ranger Nigel Dawes off of waivers from the Phoenix Coyotes. Dawes scored 19 points in 57 games with the Rangers, but stepped into an elevator shaft when he moved to PHX, managing just 2 assists in 12 contests.

Dawes was a sniper in Junior whom, it has been rumored, was coveted for years by Darryl Sutter a la Jamie Lundmark. Dawes scored 47, 47 and 50 goals in his last 3 seasons in the WHL and has also managed 27 and 35 goals at the AHL level (the latter in his rookie season). He has yet to translate his scoring at the NHL level, although he’s been confined mainly to 3rd and 4th line duties.

I like the Dawes addition purely from a risk/reward stand-point: he cost the club nothing and has the pedigree to eventually develop into a capable forward. If he stagnates, however, it won’t be a big deal.

One has to wonder what this means for the rest of the Flames forward roster, however. Dawes is an RFA and will be wanting a one-way deal. In addition (assuming Dustin Boyd get’s re-signed) the club already has 13 NHL forwards on staff - and most of them occupy the space Dawes will be looking to fill. This has to signal that at least one bottom-end forward is out the door; the natural choice is Wayne Primeau, of course, but the fact that Dustin Boyd has yet to sign a contract worries me…

This also means is guys like David Van Der Gulik, Kyle Greentree and Mikael Backlund will not be making the club out of camp this season.

I liked watching Dawes when he played for Team Canada under Sutter, but I have to admit that I haven’t paid much attention to him since. Fantasy hockey is pretty much my #1 concern when it comes to players on other teams, and for whatever reason I never really got all that excited about Dawes (size bias, perhaps?).

That said, every hockey-savvy person with Winnipeg connections that I know raves about the kid. Ian Fergusson at shallowfrozenwater once commented on his moral character… which is enough for me.

Dawes has always had to face questions about his stature and whether he would be able to overcome that hurdle to make it as an NHL regular. Just by taking a quick look at his stats from after he was drafted until last summer, the short but sturdy sniper sure seemed to follow a perfect development curve: 47 and then 50 goals in 2 extra years of junior, 67 points in 77 games in his AHL rookie year, 61 points in 65 games in his sophomore, and then finaly blasting past the PPG mark in Hartford (34 points in 20 games) in 2007/2008, earning his way to the big league where he posted a tidy half point per game.

Things derailed somewhat for Dawes this past season, where the lack of any superficial development over the previous season made him trade deadline fodder and promptly resulted in banishment to Phoenix.

Dawes plays a fast, energetic checking game which obviously made a good impression on Brent Sutter the past 2 years when they were bitter division rivals. A look at BehindTheNet’s advanced stats shows that he had a slightly positive +/- relative to the rest of his teamnates last year (both NY and PHX), goals were scored by his mates at a slightly higher rate while he was on the ice, and he drew more penalties than he took.

I love this move (assuming they get Dawes signed to a contract) as it gives the Flames another depth option to toy with once the search for dangerous line combinations begins in September. His energy and character can only help, and I think there is a decent chance this turns out to be a steal of Glencross-ian proportions by Darryl Sutter.

Welcome to Calgary, Nigel.

Lundmark resurrected his career somewhat last season under coach Mike Keenen, playing some valuable minutes and scoring some big goals down the stretch to prop up a floundering offense. The highly touted draft pick of the New York Rangers in 1999 was never able to translate his high-risk offensive game to the big leagues all that well, although he does seem to have a believer in Darryl Sutter who has now traded for him once and signed him in two consecutive summers.

The Alberta native with the Swedish last name displays brief bursts of crazy skills, but usually these “ooohhh” moments are just a precursor to an errant pass or some other head-slapping giveaway. A line of Lundmark, Bertuzzi, and former Flame Kristian Huselius would probably be the most frustrating combination of players ever to carve ice. Still, he has certainly made steady (if small) improvements in his consistency as a Flame and has shown a dedication to proving himself so that he can salvage a career that was quickly going nowhere.

The Lundmark signing comes on the heels of a savvy bit of thievery yesterday as Sutter also signed career AHLer Jason Jaffray away from the Vancouver Canuck/Manitoba Moose organizations. Another guy raised in Western Canada, Jaffray is a speedy winger who showed some promise in brief call-ups with the Canucks over the last two seasons, while helping to lead the Manitoba Moose to the Calder Cup finals this past spring.

Jaffray and Lundmark join other low key free agent signings in Freddy Sjostrom, Riley Armstrong, and Garth Murray to give the newly relocated Abbotsford Heat some veteran bite for their inaugural season. Clearly, after a string of terrible finishes by Flames farm teams, the organization has made it a priority to put a successful product on the ice in BC’s Fraser Valley. They also head into training camp competing with the likes of Kyle Greentree, Mikael Backlund, Kris Chucko, and David van der Gulik for the final spots on the Flames’ NHL roster.

Personally, I love these recent minor league signings. Developing a blue chip prospect like Backlund is a lot easier when it happens in a winning environment. He will be well insulated should be start the year in the AHL (as I expect will happen), but will also be given an opportunity to play with some veteran linemates who are skilled enough at that level to score loads of goals.

Nice work, Sutter.

Whats best of all is that the Flames largely skipped the whole process by inking stud defenseman Jay Bouwmeester to a 5 year deal before the mayhem even started.

Many speculated that the big contract given to JayBo would mean that another significant piece of the team would go elsewhere, but with Aucoin, Vandermeer, Cammalleri, and Bertuzzi on the outs that doesn’t seem to be the case. I’ve yet to really run the numbers, but withsome cheap young players set to make the team, the Flames look largely ready for the season to start tomorrow.

The Flames also re-upped Adam Pardy to a nice 2 year contract worth $700K per year, which is perfect for your #6 defenseman.

RFA Dustin Boyd was qualified, which means a 5% raise unless I’m either mistaken or an ill-advised offer sheet is signed.

A ridiculous draft day trade swapping Jim Vandermeer’s $2.3M boat anchor salary with beloved punching bag Brandon Prust helped clear cap space for Bouwmeester. I’ve heard rumours that this was actually pre-negotiated in the trade deadline deal that brought Olli Jokinen to Calgary, but I can’t be certain. Basically, the deal was for Lombardi/Vandermeer/picks, but Sutter wanted to keep Vandermeer for the playoff run as it’s well known that he likes to stock up on defensive depth for potential summer games.

Later on July 1st, the Flames added a depth forward in Freddie Sjostrom. Before being run out of Phoenix and let go by the Rangers, Sjostrom enjoyed some good years playing the Calgary Hitmen in the WHL. The speedy Swede has never been able to translate his game to the NHL as strongly as he probably would want, but he gives the Flames a serviceable depth/bench forward with a small pricetag ($750K). And who knows - maybe the Sutters will be able to craft a Lundmark-like turnaround for the 11th overall pick in the 2001 draft.

On day 2, the Flames signed some AHL depth in Riley Armstrong, Garth Murray, and defender Staffan Kronwall. The two forwards are unlikely to receive NHL paychecks this season and will instead be counted on to steady the youthful Abbotsford Heat. Kronwall is a guy who can play short stints with the big team in case of the injury bug bites hard.

As it stands now, the roster looks like so:

If you consider the top 12 forwards, top 6 defensemen, and the 2 goalies, the Flames are counting somewhere in the vicinity of the $54.2M mark against the $56.8M salary cap. Unless Primeau and his $1.4M cap hit is moved, I’d say the team is likely a finished product.

The common refrain now is that this team will struggle with scoring goals compared to last year’s squad.

Really?

If you agree with me that Jokinen can replace Cammalleri’s output and Bouwmeester will exceed Aucoin’s (shouldn’t be hard), then all that the team needs to replace is Todd Bertuzzi’s 15 goals and 44 points. I think that should be easily managed given some further development from Bourque, Moss, and Boyd, a bounceback season from Phaneuf, and contributions from rookies such as Greentree and Backlund. Factor in a presumed improvement in the powerplay coaching from Sutter and Lowry over Keenen’s “what powerplay?” approach, and I’d be surprised if there was a significant drop off last season’s 8th best 251 goals.

And if that 2nd line doesn’t inspire you, just swap Jokinen and Langkow. Lanks plays better with Iginla than he does without him, and Jokinen is a bit of a lone wolf anyway.

…

Oh, and I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw the Habs sign Cammalleri for 5 years at $6M per. That is a terrible contract, and its exactly why he wasn’t coming back to Calgary. For those that doubted Darryl Sutter’s genius… well, we now have a far more complete player with a lesser cap hit. Beauty.

First, did they really misspell “calgary” in the URL? Nicccceeee…

Second, why is this news? The moment Olli Jokinen became a Calgary Flame, this outcome was obvious. And if you’re wont to look between the lines every now and then, you could surmise that preliminary discussions with between the Flames and Pulver before the trade deadline established that Cammy would be asking for more money on July 1st than the Darryl Sutter thought he was worth.

Essentially, Jokinen was brought in to replace Cammalleri.

Which makes this quote from Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos all the more laughable: “It’s gonna be tough for Calgary to replace a 40 goalscorer and especially a guy that already has such great chemisty with Iginla. They’re going to be behind the 8-ball not having Cammalleri next year.”

Well, if losing a streaky one dimensional player who doesn’t hit, backcheck, work the boards, block shots, force turnovers, turns our 50 goalscorer into a bloody playmaker, and will be overpaid in a falling cap world is being “behind the 8-ball”… then shucks, that doesn’t seem like such a bad place to be.

The only question I’m left with is this: when talk of trading Bouwmeester’s rights is all over the place, why can’t Calgary trade Cammy’s rights for a 2nd or 3rd round pick? Is it because teams aren’t tripping over themselves to dish out assets for a guy who may not sign with them anyway?

And if so, what’s so different about the Bouwmeester situation?

As far as I can tell, it’s all just media hype.

The 2009 draft class is fantastically deep, with anywhere from 40-50 really quality players available. Sitting at 20th overall, Darryl Sutter and the Flames will have the opportunity to draft a high quality prospect to add to the good work the scouting department have done the past two summers. 

Unfortunately, for the 5th straight year, there will be no 2nd round pick unless a trade or two shakes up the situation. As it stands now, the Flames will draft one player in the 3rd round (67th), two in the 4th (107, 111), and one each in the 5th, 6th, and 7th rounds (141, 171, 201).

Prospect Pipeline

As always, the most important pick for Flames fans is that #20 overall. But what are the Flames’ most pressing needs? Here is what the Flames pipeline depth looks like at all 5 positions:

As most know, the Flames are not known for having a deep group of prospects by any stretch. I believe that this is consistent with Sutter’s (Darryl, that is) win-now approach. I also think that he is quite content with having just one or two players in the system projected for each specific role.

The system is pretty well stocked at defense, with Pelech probably transitioning into the NHL this upcoming season. Negrin and Aulie will follow over the next 2-3 years.

Irving is still the future in net, but don’t get impatient with him. The Flames are doing everything right with him, and he’ll be brought along slowly and begin to relieve Kiprusoff after another 2 seasons of mostly AHL action. Matt Keetley also has a bit of NHL potential in him, but that is more likely as a back-up, similar to the role Curtis McElhinney is filling now with the big club.

The forward ranks are stocked with mostly grinding forwards to fill the bottom two lines in Calgary. Greg Nemisz and Mikael Backlund are the two most skilled guys, and Mitch Wahl may one day turn into a decent 2nd/3rd line centerman like a Peca or Langkow-lite. The depth at LW is really suspect, especially if Kyle Greentree moves up to the NHL this fall as I expect him to. Kris Chucko is next in line for a 4th line role on the left side, and should get into more games this season.

Team Needs

Like many teams, the Flames pretty much have a need for players at every position. Expect them to use one of their late picks on a European or College-bound goaltender on Friday… a project that can take a few years developing while Irving and Keetley get their AHL reps in.

The two biggest needs are for a scoring forward (LW, if possible) and a puck-moving defenseman. Luckily, there should be quite a few of these types of players available in the 20-30 range, allowing for Sutter to possibly trade down and gain a pick in the 2nd round.

Possible Selections - Scoring Forwards

There are a number of intriguing options in this draft.

My first choice would be Landon Ferraro, one of the lone bright lights on Brent Sutter’s Red Deer Rebels this season. He’s an extremely smart and mature kid with lightning fast wheels and a pro-calibre wrist shot.  To top it all off, his bread and butter in the WHL these past two seasons has been his responsible defensive play. The only downside here is a slightly undersized frame, but his father Ray was able to rise above that without too much trouble.

Also on the small side is another personal favourite, Kyle Palmieri. A tireless worker who excels in board battles, the size issue seems to less of a worry with the thicker Palmieri, who showed a high level of physical development at the draft Combine. The oft-raised red flag here is supposed “character issues” prompted by his dismissal from the USNTDP U18 team in late winter. However, some reports have surfaced that he was kicked off because he refused to rat out some teammates who may have joined him in some underage drinking. In other words, it was a bit of message-sending by the coaching staff for an offense that is practically a given here in Canada, and for some his commitment to his teammates may erase any concerns the incident may have produced. Many mock drafts I’ve seen don’t have Palmieri until the 23-24 spot, if in the 1st round at all. This may be an opportunity to trade down and gain picks, and still get a gifted American player with lots of heart and Sutter-ethic.

If the Flames decide they want to stick with the Nemisz trend and go for a larger (but perhaps slower developing) power forward, they may consider the smooth skating Peter Holland from the OHL’s Guelph Storm,  a western boy in Lethbridge’s Carter Ashton, or Kingston Frontenac and Doug Gilmore-coached Ethan Werek. Of these three, I lean slightly towards the more familiar Ashton, although I’d be hard pressed to defend the decision.

Pre-draft chatter seems to suggest that American highschooler Chris Kreider is destined to be picked before the Flames have a chance to hit the podium, but if he is indeed still around his size (6′2) and reputably superb skating would be hard to pass up. Kreider is bound for Boston University as well, which is a great program. Nashville’s Colin Wilson, after all, will likely graduate to the NHL after only a single year at the same school.

Three other American options are a good all-around center in Drew Shore, a pure sniper with possible “character issues” in Jeremy Morin, and the freakishly-well-developed-Lebron-like power forward, Zach Budish. Again, most rankings seem to have these guys in the 25+ range, and if the Sutterite colony feels they are nearly as good as the names mentioned above then this might be a good opportunity to trade down.

I’ll mention one other player who may slip to #20, and that is Quebec-born but Harvard-bound Louis Leblanc. The center’s vision and playmaking skills are much talked about, and I respect the hell out of anybody who can get into Harvard, but I do feel like his slight frame and school choice (Harvard doesn’t play as heavy a schedule as other development choices) push his NHL-impact too far out for the Flames.

Potential Picks - Defense

I’ve seen quite a few mock drafts that have the Flames choosing one of David Rundblad or Tim Erixon, both Swedish defenders with very different games. Rundblad is a high risk/reward skater who loves to join the rush, while Erixon reminds some of a young Mattias Ohlund. Both would be decent picks, but I wonder if experiences with Anders Eriksson and Andrei Zyuzin have scared the Flames off of European defenders.

Interestingly, both of TSN’s mock drafters (Pierre McGuire and Todd Button) have the Flames picking local product Dylan Olsen. The Camrose Kodiak is a big and steady blueliner, known more for defense than offense, although there does seem to be some upside with the puck. It wouldn’t be a terrible pick by any stretch, but I think I would be disappointed if the Flames didn’t try and upgrade their scoring options with their 1st rounder this year.

Simon Despres is another option; a kid with all the tools who wasn’t quite able to put them all together this past season. At one point in the year, he was in that 10-15 grouping in some rankings but now his position fluctuates wildly list-to-list. Given that the Flames aren’t known for their Francophone content, I wouldn’t bet much money on this pick.

Two interesting guys that could be found later in the 1st round are Calvin de Haan from the OHL’s Oshawa Generals, and WHL product Stefan Elliott of the Saskatoon Blades. Both are offensively minded and slight-framed.

De Haan started his rookie season being mentored by an excellent offensive defenseman, Michael Del Zotto. It was only after Del Zotto and Tavares were traded to the London Knights at the deadline that the rookie really came into his own, posting the majority of his points and really stepping up to lead a weaker team. If finding a powerplay quarterback for the future is a priority, de Haan may be a great pick.

Elliott has recently garnered comparisons to some guy named Mike Green, a likeness that will be near-impossible to match and one sure to set-up unrealistic expectations the more it gains momentum amongst media types in the next few days. Elliott is an excellent puck-rusher who nonetheless lacks Green’s physical aggressiveness at the moment… a homerun pick if he can develop his all-around game.

Mock Draft Results

Pierre McGuire / Craig Button (TSN) - Dylan Olsen

Dean Millard (TPS) - Landon Ferraro

Guy Flaming (TPS) - Carter Ashton

HockeysFuture.com - Landon Ferraro

Ryan Kennedy (THN.com) - Peter Holland

Matt Bugg (dobberhockey.com) - David Rundblad

My Choices

1. Landon Ferraro

2. Kyle Palmieri

3. Carter Ashton

4. Calvin de Haan (trade down)

5. Peter Holland

But really, I’ll be excited whatever happens!

Given the twitchy, vitriolic, and often brain-cramping nonsense filtering through Calgary newspapers and radio call-in shows in the days following the Flames’ game 6 loss to the young Blackhawks, I think that would probably be true.

Fans, and even some “journalists” (*cough* Dowbiggen *cough*) are calling for a blow-up, stringing together any and all combinations of frenzied demands: fire the coach, fire the GM, trade Iginla/Langkow/Kiprusoff/Phaneuf (especially Phaneuf!).

They call it being an “armchair GM” for a reason… you can’t do any damage from there.

And if you think I’m going heavy on the sarcastic quotation marks here, then you’re right. It’s the only way I can keep my sanity.

I have huge respect for the radio voices of the Fan 960 (Calgary’s only sports radio station). Kerr, Boomer, Richards, and the rest of the boys have done a pretty good job of keeping a level head and not degenerating into pitchfork-armed witchhunters.

Breaking down this season will be a huge task, and I’m glad that Darryl Sutter is taking until early next week before making any comments to the media. If you’re going to run a pro sports franchise, making snap decisions while emotions are still frayed will get you nowhere. Sutter is absolutely doing the right thing in taking time to evaluate everything and letting people cool off a little bit.

In this and my next few posts, I’ll try to drop the short term disappointment and look at the options with a longterm perspective. So here we go, option #1:

1. Fire the GM

I think this is a hilarious notion. This is a team hailed by nearly everybody from September up until the start of Game 5 that people were praising as a team built for the playoffs. This is a team that was (unfairly, and it shouldn’t have happened) overhyped by the media as being “elite” in December and January. It is not Sutter’s fault that fan expectations are through the roof when they shouldn’t be.

Sutter brought in Glencross, Bourque, and Bertuzzi this summer, all on good contracts, and all played well for this team. He recently signed David Moss to a SWEETHEART deal (3 years, $1.3M per). Nevermind that he’s drafted extremely well in the last four years (Backlund, Nemisz, Aulie, Negrin, Pelech, Irving, Keetley, Lalande, Wahl, Baldwin, Chucko, Prust, Pardy, Boyd, in no particular order) from deep in the draft, all while making draft-day deals that get the whole city talking (Tanguay, Cammalleri).

Sutter rolls the dice, and I love it. Everybody jumped all over him for his deadline deals this season because it resulted in salary cap hell down the stretch… but I would have done the same thing. He gambled that the team wouldn’t run into a catastrophic run of injuries and unfortunately he was wrong. That said, I would way rather have a GM whose unafraid to go for the homerun than one who gets fired for being too timid/conservative to do anything (Doug Risebrough, raise your hand).

And, lets face it. Even if you suppose that the money existed for a full lineup and that resulted in 2 extra points, would the playoff result have been any different? Maybe this battered group makes it through the league’s hottest team in the 2nd half, maybe they don’t. Either way, there’s no way you win two series with hobbled players like Regehr, Phaneuf, Sarich, Langkow, Bourque, and Conroy.

Jordan Leopold was a fantastic addition. Can you imagine our defense down the stretch without him? There are Leopold haters out there in this city, and frankly, I do not understand it. But then, I played defense all my life, so maybe I have a better understanding of the position than the average Joe (no offense to you above-average Joes!).

Get ready for controversy here… Olli Jokinen was an even better pick-up. The common rant right now is that Olli’s big salary resulted in the Flames having to play with a short bench during the last few regular season games… which I’ll grant is at least partly true.

But the true genius of the Jokinen trade is this: Jokinen is Cammalleri’s replacement.

Maybe I’m giving the GM too much credit, but I would be pretty surprised if he didn’t have at least one conversation with Cammy’s agent (or with Cammy himself) before the trade deadline about signing a possible extension. This is a player who wants to see what July 1st can bring him, and good for him! To do anything else would be foolish, given that pro hockey players only have a few opportunities to cash in and make their money during their relatively brief careers. If you think that Sutter didn’t have a strong suspicion that Cammalleri’s great season was going to price him out of Calgary’s salary structure, then you’re dreaming.

There’s also the fact that unless Cammalleri is scoring goals, he’s not doing anything. I don’t want to rag on the guy because of his stature, but the truth is… how many times was he just a few inches away from completing a pokecheck? How many times did he bounce off a bigger player along the boards, or shy away from contact completely? The bottom line is that Cammalleri at $3.5M is a great player in the salary cap world.

Cammalleri at $5M-$6M, however, is not.

For that big a chunk of a team’s salary cap, you had better do more than just shoot the puck a lot. Especially when you’re taking passes (and presumably, stealing goals) from the team’s other best shooter. And definitely in a world where the cap is expected to go down in the next two years!

So now we head into summer without needing to wonder who fills that role. We don’t have to worry about whether Matt Lombardi (bless his little rocket feet) can finally become a 1st line center. We finally have that big 1st line center that Langkow has never been.

And what’s better, you get him for the last year of his contract and with an entire summer of working with the Flames’ training and conditioning staff (if you heard Rob Kerr and Eric Francis being nice and calling him a “throwback to the 70s or 80s… physically, that is… then you get what I’m saying). Flames fans: if you liked Mighty Mite Cammalleri this season, I’m thinking you will love Olli Jokinen next year.

There are deficiencies on this roster, that is for sure. One only needed to see how the powerplay took a nosedive once Giordano went down. The team needs more mobile defenders who are confident with the puck. And while the GM isn’t responsible for motivating his players, he is responsible for ensuring that a coaching staff is in place that can.

That’s my defense of the GM.

Thank you for delivering the Flames to the playoffs for a 4th consecutive season.

We appreciate Your far-reaching wisdom, bestowed upon us in the form of near crippling late season injuries in the knowledge that it will make our team stronger and more resilient.

Thank you also for wrecking the hopes of our good friends to the North. We especially appreciate how You made them give poor Curtis McElhinney his first career NHL win in the process. It has been a fun experience, not hating those Oilers and all, and we thank you for this brief reconciliation before they bring in Jarkko Ruutu, Jaromir Jagr, and Martin Gerber and once again become the greasiest team in the Western Conference.

Thank you for returning Rene Bourque, Dion Phaneuf, and Curtis Glencross to us. Would it be too much to wish for a miracle recovery for Your avenging, skill-erasing angel, Robyn Regehr? We really need him to deal with those adolescent Blackhawks.

Please give your blessing to Olli Jokinen, too. We really need him to show up, and You know that he doesn’t deserve the hammering he gets from those vile false-prophets in the media. Playoff experience, schmayoff experience!

Thank you again for another year of exciting first round match-ups. In Your wisdom we trust, and if You do indeed wish for the Jackets, Canadiens, and Flyers to prevail, we will understand. Especially the Jackets.

For all this, we pray.

.

.

.

PS. I don’t suppose You could visit a bit of minor flu upon Nikolai Khabibulin, could you? After all, his god-like play against the Flames seems a bit… I don’t know… presumptuous? Blasphemous, even?

In fact, I hear that “captain” Roberto Luongo is saying he’s capable of miracles too. Smite away!

Seeing Vancouver go into overtime in their afternoon game yesterday certainly didn’t help matters, and meant that the Hockey Night in Canada match-up last night between the Flames and Oilers was, at the face of it, meaningless.

But if there is one thing that is certain for a playoff bound team short on confidence, it is that game #82 is anything but meaningless.

Anf for the NHL’s unluckiest back-up, this one couldn’t have been more important.

Yes, thats right. Curtis McElhinney is finally a winner. And to watch the way that his teammates reacted after the final buzzer, it was obvious that this small victory against a humbled rival meant more than the playoff position it failed to affect.

Hopefully this is a bit of positive momentum that can be carried forward. Next up: best of secen against the Blackhawks… and they’ve been rolling.

Last night the WHL’s Hitmen completed their second consecutive playoff series sweep by destroying the Lethbridge Hurricanes in game 4 by a score of 6-0.

The Hurricanes made waves earlier in the season by trading for WHL bad-boy and Chicago Blackhawks 2008 1st round pick Kyle Beach at the trade deadline. Beach was supposed to add grit, power, and scoring to a Hurricanes team headlined by the pint-sized Zach Boychuk (Carolina 08).

Instead, Beach was blanked by the powerful Hitmen, only showing up on the scoresheet for the wrong reasons (-5 and 34 penalty minutes in 4 games) as his team was steamrolled 7-1, 2-1, 4-2, and 6-0. Beach 4th season of playoff experience will end with him picking up just 1 goal and 1 assist to go along with 61 penatlty minutes in 10 games.

The win was Calgary’s 28th win in their last 30 games, if you count playoff and regular season games together.

The Hitmen once again relied on dominant defensive play in their own zone, combined with timely saves from Los Angelas Kings free agent signing Martin Jones, who let in just 4 goals on 73 shots in the series (and just 7 goals on 157 shots in 8 playoff games).

Paul Postma led the attack from the blueline. The Atlanta Thrasher 7th round pick had 2 goals, 2 assists, and was a +4.

Keith Seabrook, a Capitals draft pick, went 1-3 and was +3.

Future Coytoe Michael Stone also went 1-and-3, but was a +6 to lead blueliners in that category.

The depth of the Calgary attack is evidenced by the fact that despite scoring 20 goals in the series, the individual leaders only had 3 each.

Brandon Kozun - 4GP - 3G - 4A - +6

Joel Broda (Capitals) - 4GP - 3G - 2A - +6

Kyle Bortis - 4GP - 0G - 7A - +3

The Hurricanes had to know they were in trouble even before Game 4 started when it became known that standout forward Brett Sonne would be returning to the lineup. After missing 4 games with an upper body injury, Sonne needed hadn’t even completed his first shift of the game when he found the back of the net to open the scoring.

The Hitmen now wait for the Brandon Wheat Kings to finish off the Medicine Hat Tigers tomorrow evening. Brandon leads the series 3-0 after finishing 3rd in the Western Conference regular season and sweeping Kooteney in the first round.

The Wheat Kings sport a fairly deep offense led by likely 2009 1st rounders Bradyen Schenn and Scott Glennie, as well as veteran forwards Jay Fehr, Andrew Clark, Matt Lowry, and Matt Calvert (Columbus 08). Keith Aulie (Calgary 08) and Colby Robak (Florida 08) form an imposing top pairing on the blueline, while undrafted goaltender Andrew Hayes has been decent but unspectacular in net.

Elsewhere in the WHL:

Vancouver Giants vs Spokane Chiefs - Series Tied 2-2

Tri-Cities Americans vs Kelowna Rockets - Series Tied 2-2