Hello reader! It’s great to see people again!
The unfortunate news for myself is that on Friday, December 13, I was late getting an article published. It’s been a while, but it was titled:
Repeating the Past – No Criticizing Huberdeau or Kadri – Flames-Lightning
Finding myself dallying on the way out, I found the doors of
HockeyBuzz to be locked—with one beat writer still left inside.
That’s right, for every
Error 1016 you may have encountered over the past ten days, there I was, hidden within the data. Only an abandoned box of Meltzer's Nature Valley bars and a leaking hot water pipe over Maloughney's office to sustain me.
With nothing but time to kill, I took advantage of the extended archives. I would be lying if I tried to deny going through James Tanner's catalogue once or twice–or even three times. The comment sections were fascinating.
Mostly, though, my search was for trends, oddities, and significant events following the Calgary Flames.
One great aspect of the Buzz is that if you can remember
who was at the helm during any given era (the Flames, for example, we have had Shuane Vetter, Colin Dumbraskas, Todd Cordell, John Gove for a song, and myself), you can find out what was going on with a team down to the very day.
Let’s use the Shuane Vetter Era. What was going on in February of 2012?
It appears that the Flames found themselves barely clinging to the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Hours after Shuane’s article was published, the LA Kings passed the Flames for that eighth spot.
The Flames went on to miss the playoffs by five points, but proudly ended the season as the best non-playoff team in the standings.
With the coveted 14th overall pick secured, Calgary then drafted—well, they traded down in the draft to select Mark Jankowski at 21.
What a time to be alive.
Let’s get to the Flames of today.
With their last game before the holiday break, a 6-4 win over the Chicago Blackhawks, the Calgary Flames find themselves barely clinging to the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Hours after the publishing of this article, the Dallas Stars and the Utah Hockey Club will face off. One or both will pass the Flames by the end of the night, pushing Calgary back into their proverbial ass groove.
Like returning home for Christmas.
It’s fun to joke about time being a flat circle, but there
is progress. The Flames are doing what they do most years, but with a younger contingent of players. They're also playing competitive hockey with the lowest cap hit in the league at $68,862,630.
That call-back to February 2012 may also have a few other recurring trends. Positive ones.
The Flames finished 25th overall the next season with a 19-25-4 record and 42 points (it was a lockout year) in the standings.
2013-2014 saw the team finish fourth from the bottom with a mere 77 points. The Flames drafted
Sean Monahan and
Sam Bennett following those two years, respectively, but only after they needed a year to slow down the proverbial bus progressively enough for the hot tub not to spill onto the shag carpet.
Let’s play the archive lotto one more time. January 4, 2022. My first season with the Buzz. This time, we’ll just leave a few paragraphs here with zero context.
From the same piece.
It’s wild how things can come full circle.
That was the pre-game for a 6-2 loss to the Panthers. It would have been Sam Bennett’s first game against his former team, but the Holland Landing, Ontario product found himself suspended after delivering a hit to the head of Montreal’s Cedric Paquette.
Lomberg and Gaudreau both scored a goal, and Huberdeau notched a primary assist that evening.
This all leads to questions:
-Do you think the Flames will follow the same path that they were on in the early 2010's?
-Will the team truly sink into the role of
Basement Dweller next year?
-If so, how long will they stay there?
Movin’ on up
Wranglers skipper Trent Cull was promoted on Sunday to the role of Interim Assistant Coach of the Calgary Flames. He is taking over for Brad Larsen, who has taken a leave of absence for family reasons.
Joe Cirella, will move up from Assistant Coach of the Wranglers to Head Coach of the Flames’ AHL affiliate. Cirella, 61, is in his seventh season working in the Flames organization.
Here's a fun fact about Joe: Originally picked as the 5th overall pick in 1981 by the Colorado Rockies, he was also selected at #12 by the Florida Panthers in the four-team 1993 NHL expansion draft.
There is much to talk about. The March 7 NHL Trade Deadline lingers, Head Coach Ryan Huska is trying out a few different lineup strategies, and surely, we’ll be looking at a different roster by July 1, 2025.
For the sake of brevity and a cat that I should probably go check up on, we’ll leave it at
welcome back and stay tuned.
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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