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So where to start?
The Calgary Flames were surprisingly not as busy as most expected yesterday, moving only goaltender Reto Berra and veteran forward Lee Stempniak.
While it was expected by most that Brian Burke and the Calgary Flames would without a doubt trade their arguably biggest asset in Mike Cammalleri, there was ultimately no deal to be had which the Flames felt was in their favour.
With that being said, Burke explains that they did field several calls for Cammalleri, but I would imagine, as I predicted, that the deals being offered were not likely anything that the Flames needed. Most fans assumed Calgary could walk away with at least a first round pick for Mike, but with the number of similar forwards available, I didn’t see it happening. In fact, the way the day was going in terms of completed deals, I was starting to think that a 2nd round pick and a prospect was pushing it!
Here’s the thing folks, the Calgary Flames do not aspire to be a bottom feeding, rebuilding team who gets walked on night in, night out. They have set their goals, as established quite early in this rebuild, that they will be difficult to play against and want to compete. Brian Burke is not one to sit back and allow his team to “tank…, as it were, and throwing away players for the sake of completing deals was not something that he was interested in.
The deals which he did accomplish, however, was moving a player in Lee Stempniak who was neither part of the near or distant future plans for the organization. As such, the Flames would acquire a 3rd round draft selection for Lee and would part ways with the veteran forward. Some may question why Calgary chose to keep one veteran winger over another, and while both are the same age, where Stempniak and Cammalleri differ is toward what they can offer the team – a higher level of competitiveness.
Whether or not Burke will be able to re-sign Cammalleri to a contract which could hopefully be easier to move down the road, is left to be seen. However, I would imagine that given the fact Mike wasn’t traded, it means there was an actual level of interest from the player to re-sign with the club. Burke would have to be crazy to not trade Cammalleri for just about anything if he had the slightest idea that he wouldn’t extend his current contract. And with that said, Calgary happens to be one of few teams who can likely offer Mike a few bigger dollars right away, in order to establish a lower AAV.
There will likely be much discussion on this moving forward, however what I would like to offer at this point in time is this – Mike is likely to negotiate a healthy enough contract for both himself and the team, and help them maintain a certain level of competitiveness until he does eventually get traded.
With respect to Reto Berra, I am not entirely sure what to offer in terms of an assessment. For me, Berra had some potential which would likely take a few years to develop. He certainly had the raw talent to backstop for the Flames, however there was certainly not enough there, at the moment, for Calgary to keep him around. With the number of goalies moved around this draft, I don’t imagine that the Flames will struggle over the next couple of years to find a new starting goalie if Karri Ramo cannot prove himself worthy, but it will certainly be upsetting to see Berra establish himself in a few years with the Avalanche if he’s properly mentored.
After a deadline which many felt the Flames would be rather busy, Calgary took to the ice against the Ottawa Senators with, for the most part, the exact roster which they iced the game before. Missing Stempniak in the lineup was not a big shake-up for the team, while Berra’s trade did impact the team a little more as Ramo is still out.
That said, the team responded to the lack of trades with a big effort against the Sens. Thought to be a team who would push very hard for a win last night, Ottawa simply couldn’t muster up any offense against the Flames despite acquiring a new scoring winger in Ales Hemsky.
As they sit outside of a playoff spot, playing a team who isn’t really even thinking about the playoffs, the Senators were essentially dominated by the Calgary Flames through three periods. While the shots were very close, the opportunities would ultimately be much greater for the Flames who seemed to play with a little more chemistry than did the Sens.
How about that 2nd goal which started by a beautiful play courtesy of Kris Russell!? I think I watched the replay two or three times as it was a perfectly executed tic-tac-toe for the goal. These guys last night played a strong team game and a few players who were really due for a goal (Colborne, Cammalleri) found the back of the net as well.
Out of the entire game, however, I was quite impressed with Granlund and Ortio. These two players have less than five NHL games played each, and were both fun to watch. Granlund played in just his forth NHL game of his career and has registered two points in his last two games played. The smaller forward showed his compete level and skating abilities last night as he opened the scoring for the Flames.
Joni Ortio, in just his second NHL game of his career, stopped 27 of 28 shots thrown on net last night, and would have a phenomenal first period. The Finnish netminder certainly helped to keep his team in the game as he preserved their lead and did not allow a single goal until the midway mark of the 3rd period. It will be interesting to see how Ortio handles more games as the Flames finish out the season, though I’d imagine he and Ramo will split games moving forward…upon Karri’s return of course.
Outside of the big win, the Flames would lose two players to injury last night as both Dennis Wideman and Jiri Hudler left the game with upper body injuries and did not return. Hudler who has been playing great for Calgary this year, would get dumped rather hard into the board by Sens forward Clarke MacArthur in the third period.
The winger was slow to get up and the hit would lead to a few fists thrown as the team responded to their fallen teammate. I haven’t been able to find any updates on the injuries as of yet, but will update when I do.
The Calgary Flames will play the New York Islanders at home tomorrow night as they look to extend their current winning streak to two games!
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For those who kept track, my #TradePool contest went quite well with a good number of submissions! Thanks to all those who partook!
With respect to the winning submission (yes, there was just one), it was rather difficult to find as there was not one single accurate guess. That said, it would be Christobelle (…@DemetricSystem) who would have the closest prediction with this tweet:
Christobelle …@DemetricSystem Mar 4 #tradedeadline to #NHLPenguins Stempniak to #NHLFlames Dumoulin #TradePool #NHL
Despite being off with respect to what the trade yielded, Christobelle was the only submission who correctly guessed a specific player being moved to a specific team. Good job Christobelle, I will be reaching out to you with respect to your prize courtesy of @muchMOREdeals!
That’s all for today folks, thanks for reading!