In: Adam Burish, Andrew Raycroft
Out: Marty Turco, Mike Modano

Out with the old and in with the new. Big D has officially cut ties with career Dallas Stars Mike Modano and Marty Turco to make room for the up and coming stars: James Neal. Thats about it in Dallas. GM Nieuwendyk is clearly banking on a year of experience leading to more consistency from his young team. That, and praying that Jere Lehtonin and Brendan Morrow can lead the squad to victory. Marc Crawford is the worst coach in the league and back for another debacle. Down with Crow.

I just don’t see this working out very well at all. You can’t move out core players and expect the void to be instantaneously filled up. This is going to be a painful year, and the biggest pain in the west will be felt in Dallas.

Prediction: Crawford fired before the new year. 15th finish in the West.

PS- How could you ever not sign a guy married to this:!!??!

In: Matt Cullen, John Madden, Eric Nyzerman!
Out: Owen Nolan (currently UFA), Derek Booergard

The Wild dissapointed greatly last season under new coach Todd Richards. Big UFA signing Martin Havlat produced a paltry 18 goals last season and should be expected to increase his production. The signing of the two veteran free agent centers should also add some stability to the core of the Wild. However, when your top line is made up of Koivu, Brunette and miettenen you are definately going to struggle scoring goals.

The Wild do boast a great stable of young defenceman including yours truly’ darkhorse Team Canada pick Brent Burns (injuries did him in), Cam Barker and Marek Zidlicky. Niklas Backstrom is a good young goaltender who should be counted on to improve his totals as well.

Personally, I’m still not sold on the makeup of this group. The strongest part of the roster is also the youngest, and without some solid scoring support I don’t think they can be counted on to make much of an improvement.

Prediction: Another long season in Minny: 14th in the west.

In: Ethan Moreau, Nikita Filatov, Coach Scott Arniel
Out: No one of significance

The Blue Jackets are looking for a rebound year after their first playoff appearance in 2009 was tarnished by a 14th place finish in the Western Conference last season.

This is a young team that relies heavily upon it’s top players: Rick Nash, Kristian Huselius, Antionne Vermette and RJ Umberger. However, the real story with this team lies with goaltender Steve Mason. After an impressive rookie season, Mason struggled last year even playing behind the defensive system preached by now departed coach Ken Hitchcock.

With the lack of any real changes, the Jackets are relying on development from several of their young players, and are hopeful Mason can return to great form. I think Moreau is an excellent addition to the young group, he can add experience grit and a ton of enthusiasm after escaping the hell that is Edmonton without even getting convicted by a US court.

Nash is a true superstar, and I do think Mason can improve. Clearly a team with plently of young European talent was stymied by Hitchcock and things should look up for the Jackets this year.

Prediction: 10th in the western conference.

So to pass the time over the final few weeks before training camp begins, The Flaming Ring of Fire is going to preview some teams with a quick overview of what changes they have made looking towards the upcoming season.

First up the Edmonton Oilers:

IN: Taylor Hall, Justin Eberle, Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson, Martin Gerber,
OUT: Nikolai Khabibulin(?), Fernando Pasani, Sheldon Souray (?), Pat Quinn

Well the good news for Oilers’ fans is that things certainly cannot get worse than last season. Decimated by injuries and overreliance on youngsters, the Oilers finished a dismal last place. The silver lining occured when they were able to nab potential superstar Taylor Hall with the 1st overrall pick.

Hall will undoubtedly headline a much more exciting forward corps. Along with Eberle and the return of sniper Ales (pronounced ALICE) Hemsky, the oilers will once again rely heavily on the talent of youngsters Cogliano, Gagner, and last years leading scorer Dustin Penner (yes you read that correctly).

However things look decidely less optimistic on the defensive side of the puck. With Souray still waiting for the first trip out town, it’s looking like the better option to get out of Edmonton is being convicted of a DUI in Phoenix. It certainly is unclear as to whenter Khabibulin will ever play another game for the Oilers. This means a renewed reliance upon Devan Dubnyk and Jeff Deslauriers who last year combined for a league worst GAA (3.39)

Forecast: The oilers start the season strong and ride some of the optimism out of the gate. However, Alex Hemsky’s hangnail reappears around november and he is once again sidelined. With no chance of the Olympics this year, Dustin Penner returns to his Homer Simpson form. Fans get on the case of Cogliano/Hall/Eberle/Gagne by xmastime for failing to lead the Oilers to the top of the division. And Gerber will be forced to be called up to replace the gruesome twosome in net; whose confidence will surely de destroyed after watching Gilbert and Smid serving up giveaways like Gary Bettman at a Phoenix fundraising BBQ.

Conclusion: Improved, but hardly noticable. 13th place in the Western Conference.

7uongo on his performance: “No matter what happened out there, I’m going to leave tonight with my head up, unlike last year. I battled for 60 minutes and kept it under seven goals so an improvement was made.”

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=528924

Keep it up bobby loooooooser. So glad you will be in the Canucks net until 2022.

“He’s not playing well, something like that, I don’t know what. But I know one thing: I know next year he should ask not to be the captain. I’m not saying that’s the fault, but think about it: All the pressure he’s got, you see your best guy pulled and you’re captain’s sittin’ [on the bench]. You don’t think that’s depressing?

“I doesn’t make any difference anyhow. The captaincy means nothing anymore. It’s when the players voted it meant something. Your peers vote. And the organization makes you captain.

“What makes me laugh: The media guys who said ‘Well, he’s your best player, he should be the captain.’ No that he’s not doing very good, the same guys are saying he shouldn’t be captain. I said right off the bat: Dumb move to make the goaltender [captain]. They’ve got enough pressure on him.”

Those outside of Calgary’s hockey circles may be suprised, but those within were just waiting for this story to break after the trades.

For the first time, Darryl Sutter volunteered Monday that troubles in the Calgary Flames locker-room prompted him to deal Dion Phaneuf to Toronto and Olli Jokinen to the New York Rangers.

“I think there’s two separate parts to the Toronto trade and the Rangers trade,” the Flames general manager said at a post-mortem news conference for the 2009-10 regular season. “I think the Toronto trade, number 1, you have remember that first off, three of those guys ended three, four and five on our team in scoring.

“So you have to think they accomplished what we wanted.”

Sutter did not elaborate on whether Phaneuf asked to be dealt from Calgary. At the time of the trade, Phaneuf emphatically denied requesting a new area code.

As for dealing Jokinen and agitator Brandon Prust to the Rangers for the underachieving Ales Kotalik and Christopher Higgins, Sutter offered this:

“I’ve said this about the player, about Olli going to New York,” Sutter explained, cryptically. “I think he’s a really good player and I’m not sure it was ever based on how he played.”

Jokinen’s time in Calgary can only be described as underwhelming. The chemistry between the strapping Finn and Iginla was non-existent.

Given a chance to elaborate on the locker-room issues, Sutter offered few details.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” he said. “It’s just a fact that it’s something as a general manager that you should have your finger on all the time, because of the relationships you have with some of your players for a long time.

“That’s probably an oversight on my part.”

So the unspecified dressing-room issues led to the trades?

“I think it was part of it,” Sutter conceded.

Considered untouchable one short year ago, Sutter sent Phaneuf and Jokinen packing within a 24-hour period. The Flames proceeded to miss the playoffs for the first time in seven years.

“I think on paper we’re a really good hockey club,” Sutter said. “I think if we can get to three of four guys to the numbers that they have to get, then you’re right back.”

Sutter said he’s not on the hunt for a top-flight centre to play with Iginla.

“With Stajan being a 35-40 assist guy, which is what you want,” he said. “It looks Mikael (Backlund) is going to be a really good player, but you need Daymond to bounce back.”

As for the rampant speculation surrounding a possible Iginla trade, Sutter simply rolled his eyes.

“The rumours and speculation don’t start from us or from him.”

Still, Sutter didn’t rule out shopping for first- or second-round picks at the upcoming draft in Los Angeles.

“We’re going to work at it,” he said. “We’ll see what we can do.”

Team ownership, Sutter said, has not guaranteed that he’ll be the man in charge as the Flames move forward.

vhall@theherald.canwest.com

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/hockey/calgary-flames/Problems+locker+room+trades+admits+Sutter/2875929/story.html#ixzz0l0D7d932
]]> http://flamesringoffire.wordpress.com/2010/04/13/locker-room-issues/feed/ 0 flamesringoffire http://flamesringoffire.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/burn-baby-burn/ http://flamesringoffire.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/burn-baby-burn/#comments Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:50:12 +0000 flamesringoffire http://flamesringoffire.wordpress.com/?p=450 ]]> The 2009/10 Flames have been officially eliminated from sipping out of Lord Stanleys Holy Grail, but was this team eliminated long before the Avalanche clinched a spot in the post season?

“We couldn’t get enough, so we had to self destruct”  This year was definately an  inferno (disco inferno if I may) .

The Flames couldn’t get enough at the deadline, they couldn’t score enough, they couldn’t win enough at home,some think it’s the systems in place and others say this team just wasn’t good enough. the list could go on.

This year was an exit prior to the first round and with a salary cap greater then others in the post season -Flames fans, look for a new team come 2010/11.