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While the several teams have already kicked off their regular seasons, the Calgary Flames will start their season tonight against the Washington Capitals on the road.

With much anticipation be it positive or negative for this year’s rebuilding team, it seems that the unanimous goal for the season is hard work and player development. While there are fans who are cheering for a high draft pick this year, there are equally a number of fans who would rather see their team strive for wins despite what the notion of a rebuild might be.

Whether you favor the idea of not chasing the playoffs and legitimately competing as an attempt to draft high or not, the coaching staff and Flames brass have made it clear that their goal is to compete every night during said rebuild. The thought of this team competing for some, given their overall youth and inexperience, is something that they simply cannot fathom - this is a rebuilding team whose goal should be nothing but drafting high and stocking up youth.

If you’ve been reading my blog long enough you would know my thoughts on the above topic. For those who don’t here is the simplified version – this team will develop youth, work hard, play physical, and most importantly, compete. There is simply no room for players on this team, according to the GM, who do not want to win every night. As mentioned, if they find players who are not fully committed to their hard working systems, they have plenty of young guys who will gladly take their spot.

What is important for a team which decided to embark into a rebuild is to have a plan. A solid plan which outlines goals to achieve and in a certain timeframe to avoid sitting in the NHL’s basement for a few too many years.

That said, the Flames have a nice group of vets and a good selection of young players and rookies who will be given every opportunity to prove themselves as the season progresses. What is important according to Coach Bob Hartley is that the systems used in their affiliate programs mirror those taught at the NHL level in order to have seamless transitions between leagues an players upon call ups or demotions.

A few key things for the Flames this year will be to continue to assess which players remain in the teams long term plans, and which players may have more value to the team as a short term asset either through veteran leadership or in terms of potential trade value. As such, a player who will come up quite often in discussions will be Mike Cammalleri as he meets both criteria which will be heavily assess this year.

Cammalleri is a player who can provide quality veteran leadership to the group which Jay Feaster was quoted saying, but he also could have a lot of trade value if he has a strong season with the Flames this year. Which is more important to a team like Calgary? Well, as mentioned, it will all depend on the latter part of the assessment as if he can yield promising prospects or draft picks through trade, it will be difficult for the team to keep him around.

There will be plenty of debates, discussions, and comments to share as the season develops with a team that is going through a rebuild and I am looking forward to providing all my insight, knowledge, and opinion on everything Flames related as it happens. I will do my best to update all my readers with all transactions as they happen, rumors that are justifiable as I’m not one to typically comment on twitter “sources” who appear to be looking for attention.

That said, I hope you are all excited for the season and further, that I can help you all break down and or assess decisions or directions taken by the team this year.

Below are the expected lines for tonight. Of note, recently acquired Joe Colborne remains a healthy scratch as the coaching staff feels he will need more time to learn the systems/players.

Flames
Glencross - Stajan - Stempniak
Galiardi - Backlund - Hudler
Baertschi - Monahan - D Jones
Bouma - Street - McGrattan

Giordano - Brodie
Wideman - Russell
O'Brien - Butler

Ramo

Capitals
Johansson - Backstrom - Ovechkin
Laich - Grabovski - Brouwer
Chimera - Fehr - Ward
Erat - Latta - Wilson

Alzner - Green
Erskine - Carlson
Hillen - Carrick

Holtby


I hope you enjoy the blogs, and more importantly the season!

Thanks for reading!

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