Who’s to blame?
I’ll keep this short and sweet…
1) Darryl Sutter - Simply put, he put this team in a tough position cap wise and put too much faith too soon in young Dion Phaneuf to carry the defence. Every knowledgable fan I’ve spoken with says we were better off with Lombardi who has too much promise for a high rental like Jokinen.
2) Mike Keenan - Darryl Sutter’s hand picked coach to replace Jim Playfair has had two full seasons and there was just no stable element to his coaching… Pulling Kipper in Game 7 of the 2008 playoffs when the Flames only had 8 shots for and 30+ against; line juggling like he was rolling the dice; playing his goalie 75+ games… call it what you like, he didn’t get the job done.
3) Mikka Kiprusoff - His stats have dipped every year since the Cup run and 85% of fans will say it’s his work load and that comes back to Sutter but he didn’t steal any games in the playoffs and the cracks were more visible than ever.
4) Dion Phaneuf - Was it the increased work against better players? Dating Elisha Cuthbert? Whatever the case was, you don’t become the whipping boy in Calgary if you’re a smart, heads up player but he wasn’t… I like the previous entry by Josh that may have pointed to the hidden secret of his downward play… http://calgaryflames.net/2009/01/11/explaining-phaneufs-performance/
Always a please and there’s Always next year (Geez, I’m sounding like a Leaf fan…)
naoto
April 27th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
I completely agree with your list. There has to be some accountability and something is going to have to change soon.
Darryl Sutter pulled the big deals at the trade dealine, only to see his team slide backwards into the playoffs (again). Now he is stuck with some HUGE salary that is going to be very hard to get rid of.
Kipper is the Flames highest paid player, but failed to perform this year. While he won a lot of games this year, his statistics were terrible. 32nd in the league in GAA and Save % is just not going to cut it for this team. I remember back in the day when Kipper could steal any game at any time. Those days seem to be long gone. My confidence in him has totally disappeared.
My biggest beef is with Dion Phaneuf. A supposed superstar, Dion posted a -11 rating. For someone making $6.5 million per season that is unacceptable. He was painful to watch play most of the year, and showed no emotion or enthusiasm. Would it be wise to trade him this off season while he still has some value?
Lastly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Keenan is fired by week’s end.
April 27th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Seemed like Cammalleri was taken back by the trade as well because he seemed to sit back and watch Jokinen or Iginla score rather than take the bull by the horns and light up the scoreboard like he did all season long…
Bertuzzi has to score… no other way to put it… he was a former 40 goal scorer and could’ve been here if he wasn’t always ’swiffering’ the puck with one hand.
April 28th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
I agree with most of what you wrote, with the exception of the bit about Lombardi. Lombo had PLENTY of time to mature into the player we were all hoping for. It didn’t happen, and its never going to happen. Sure Jokinen was and is a rental player, but you need to make those moves to make a run in the playoffs. It didn’t work, but I don’t think you can blame this mess on Jokinen.
Kipper was a huge disappointment this season, his status as an “elite” goaltender is over. Too many games played??? I don’t think so, I think its the same thing to a lesser degree that happened to him in San Jose. Great start in that city and then a downward spiral from there.
I don’t know where to start with Dion. So much potential, so much skill, so much size and speed…so much of a liability out there. I just don’t get it. When he is “on” there is no one better, but he is just so inconsistent.
Speaking of inconsistency; thats really the story of the Flames this year. When they were on their game, they were unstoppable. When they were off, they were just a mediocre team at best. I don’t know why they were so up and down, but they were. I think we have the talent to make a run at the cup, but every single player in that locker room last night needs to figure it out for themselves. It wasn’t a matter of 1 or 2 guys not making the effort…every one of them needs to point their finger at themselves…especially after game 5.
April 28th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
I agree that Lombardi had a fair shot to become a higher level player but all in all, his salary and his style of play, along with age is more of a plus than Jokinen was… I like Jokinen in this series but did he make everyone else better? Jarome Iginla did (a la Eric Nystrom)…
With you on the rest of the analysis of the 08-09 Flames… would’ve, could’ve, should’ve but didn’t.
April 30th, 2009 at 11:25 am
That list said it all I think the real person to blame is the coaching staff. They played Dion over 28 minetes a game now we find out he was injured most of the season broken ribs hurt and to play the way he dose is bad. Kipper sure he played allot be he can handle it just not with taking so many shoots the flames averege shoot totals has risen through those years as well. Jarome needs to play more as well he use to be the guy that was always on the ice peanlty kill and powerplay every inportant minete he was on the ice Keenan comes and Jarome sits all the time. The flames are always in the top for peanltys so why sit Jarome all the time. So thats way I think the coaching staff is to blame