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Ownership Nixes Markstrom Trade, Questionable D-cisions, Game Day vs Kraken |
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The Flames will attempt to make it six in a row tonight against a Seattle Kraken team in hot pursuit of Calgary in the standings. Lots to talk about, so let's get to it.
Calgary Flames (30-25-5, 65 pts) vs Seattle Kraken (26-23-11, 63 pts)
Last Ten: Calgary (7-3-0) Seattle (5-4-1)
Time: 7:30 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.
TV: Sportsnet One, Sportsnet West, ROOT SPORTS, ESPN+
Ownership Intervention
Insider Frank Seravalli dropped a bomb today on the DFO Rundown podcast. Worth a listen, but we’ll just include the spicy part here. The topic was about the failed Jacob Markstrom to Jersey trade talks.
“I don’t know if he actually had a piece of paper in front of him or not. But the two sides had agreed in principle to a trade and then above Craig Conroy, so if you’re reading in between the lines and picking up what I’m putting down here, Don Maloney, on behalf of ownership, is believed to have nixed this trade.”
Wild stuff. Is Don just a mouthpiece for ownership to run the show? It’s wild to think about the trades that may not have gone down in the past due to Murray Edwards & Co. saying No way.
Things are hard enough for Craig Conroy in his first season as a general manager without having to maneuver around yes men and ownership playing armchair GM.
It seems like every month or so in 2023-2024 this organization has found a fresh way to look horrible in the eyes of the public. Being named the Flames has lived up to it's namesake in terms of fires to put out.
One final thought on that. Lindy Ruff was fired today after going 6-7-1 since Feb. 1.
Is it a reach to give a bit of blame to the Flames ownership group for Lindy’s termination? Not only are the Flames hurting their draft stock by preventing a Markstrom deal; you can make a case that they’re also getting Eastern Conference coaches fired.
All complaints aside, the Flames have been fun to watch lately. They’re not likely to get a bonafide star at the draft picking at 12-17, but they’re fun to watch and getting better.
Trade Related Healthy Scratch
Right. Game day. Kraken center Alex Wennberg will be sitting out tonight’s game due to an impending trade. Usually deployed on the second line, Jared McCann will take his place on that unit.
Speaking of Top Six Centers
Nazem Kadri and Yegor Sharangovich, you know, the top two centers everyone predicted the Flames rolling with in 2022, are playing their best hockey of the season of late. The two have eight goals and 12 points in their last five games.
Oh Boy
The chaos that is Jordan Oesterle is drawing back into the lineup tonight. It can be fun to watch his riverboat gambling style, but the guy takes all of these risks and has just two assists and is -6 at even strength to show for it. The team has won eight games and lost 13 with him in the lineup.
Those two assists aren't even spread out between games. He’s an offensive defenceman who has only hit the scoresheet once in 21 appearances. The 30-year-old had two assists against Tampa on Dec. 16, and that’s it.
Calgary Flames Projected Lineup
Kuzmenko-Kadri-Pospisil
Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman
Huberdeau-Sharangovich-Hunt
Pelletier-Rooney-Duehr
Hanifin-Weegar
Kylington-Andersson
Oesterle-Pachal
Markstrom
Vladar
Seattle Kraken Projected Lineup
Burakovsky-Beniers-Eberle
Schwartz-McCann-Bjorkstrand
Tolvanen-Gourde-Kartye
Tatar-Yamamoto-Tanev
Dunn-Larsson
Oleksiak-Borgen
Dumoulin-Schultz
Grubauer
Daccord
Puck drop is at 7:38 p.m. MST.
Trevor Neufeld
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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