Lines updated. Bottom six has been shuffled. Vladar starts.
Today’s matchup between the 17-8-6 Calgary Flames and 22-8-5 Tampa Bay Lightning is sure to be one of the better games this season. Don’t get me wrong; there are a ton of interesting aspects to this matchup and we’ll get to them.
First, we have to talk about something— Or, to be more specific, someone.
Elliotte Friedman brought forth some interesting statistics of a player on the St. Louis Blues. Instead of paraphrasing clumsily, I’ll show you the excerpt from his 32 Thoughts column.
In the pregame piece for the Florida Panthers, I mentioned how it was a huge mistake to let Ryan Lomberg walk. He ended up scoring a back breaking goal late in the second period. Thanks for backing up my statement, Ryan. Pun intended.
But that got me thinking.
What is the biggest mistake GM Brad Treliving has made in his seven and a half seasons managing the Calgary Flames?
It’s a vague question loaded with “what if?”s. Low hanging fruit such as the Troy Brouwer or James Neal signings are easy to justify as moves that set the team back.
Paul Byron on waivers.
Not finding room for TJ Brodie.
Jyrki Jokipakka and 2017 second round pick (47th, Alex Formenton) to Ottawa for Curtis Lazar and Michael Kostka— that’s a really bad one.
None of those are, in this writer’s opinion, the worst. The worst would go to the knee jerk trade of 2016 second round pick (35th, Jordan Kyrou) and conditional 2018 third round pick (not converted) to St. Louis for current Lightning backup Brian Elliott.
Confirmed by several insiders, Brad Treliving had been in discussions with Penguins GM Jim Rutherford at the time regarding bringing future Hall of Fame goaltender Marc Andre Fleury to Calgary. By draft day, the leaked price of 6th overall pick for Fleury was public knowledge. An easy price to turn down. That pick became Matthew Tkachuk. Rutherford was being unreasonable and Treliving was counting on him to blink first.
He did not.
From the outside, it seemed like negotiations went sour. When it was Calgary’s turn to pick at #6, Treliving specifically congratulated “Jimmy Rutherford” followed by the Penguins organization for winning the Stanley Cup. The broadcast jumped to a shot of Rutherford crossing his arms with a sour grin on his face.
Maybe I should take the tin foil hat off for a second, but personally I think that was one of the greater “between the lines” moments in the history of the NHL Entry Draft.
It’s also worth mentioning that Rutherford, a year later, had to package a 2nd round pick to Vegas in order for the Golden Knights to take Fleury off their hands. Rutherford’s work as a GM has been highly criticized in the last decade and he is now interim GM of the Canucks.
That said, what followed was Brad Treliving trading a high second, 35th overall, and a conditional third for Blues goaltender Brian Elliott.
The swap reeked of the word “contingency”. Brian had finally put a good string of playoff hockey together posting a .921 save percentage in the Blues’ push to game seven of the Western Conference Finals, but anyone following the Blues could tell you that he was no bonafide starter. He needed a good system and even then he would get cold for stretches.
Flames fans learned the hard way what Brad and the Flames brain trust should have already known if they had conducted proper due diligence. Elliott’s lone season in Calgary didn’t go well. The lazy fan can look at his .910 save percentage and 2.55GAA and say “hey he wasn’t that bad.” He was great for two stretches that pulled his stats over .900, but aside from those— he had a bad tendency of letting in easy goals at the worst of times.
It was all underlined in the playoffs when Elliott completely fell apart. He started four games and let in at least one easy goal every game. Four starts, four losses. It was a massacre. In Brian Burke’s autobiography, he mentions that the Flames leadership group strong armed Head Coach Glen Gulutzan into giving Elliott the starts despite poor results. It was a mess.
Then to see the trade really develop, Jordan Kyrou for a season of Brian Elliott is bad. It’s just a bad trade top to bottom.
What is Treliving’s greatest blunder in your opinion?
All of this was kindled by seeing Elliott is currently the backup on the Lightning. Flames fans, for the most part, wish him well, but would rather forget about his season with the Flames. Jordan Kyrou’s point production is a grim reminder of the cost of poorly formulated contingency trades.
Lines will be updated at warmup, but this is likely what to expect.
Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk
Coleman-Backlund-Ritchie
Dube-Monahan-Mangiapane
Lucic-Richardson-Lewis
Hanifin-Andersson
Kylington-Tanev
Zadorov-Gudbranson
Vladar
A hero’s welcome
Blake Coleman received his cup ring today and will play his first game against his former team. His goal and twelve shots against the Panthers is clear evidence that this sequence of games means a lot to him— also that he hates the Florida Panthers. Tonight he’ll be welcomed back by an enthusiastic Lightning crowd— they might even cheer if he scores.
Return of another hero
Nikita Kucherov returns to the lineup today after taking 32 games off to recover from surgery after sustaining a lower body injury chasing a puck on October 16th. The 5’11” right wing has four points in three games this season. He led the Lightning with 32 points in 23 games last playoffs.
In typical Lightning fashion, Steve Stamkos may draw out tonight. He is considered a “game time decision”.
These teams can relate
The Lightning and Flames rosters have both experienced Panthers hockey recently. The lightning lost 9-3 on December 30th in similar fashion to the Flames’ most recent 6-2 drubbing. The Stanley Cup winning Lightning have been showing fatigue lately going 2-2-1 in their last five. Largely due to MVP goaltender Andrei Vasilevski being one protocol. Well he is out of protocol and the Lightning proceeded to stomp Columbus 7-2 in his first game back. That kind of difference maker makes one wonder why McDavid is regarded as a shoe-in for the Hart.
Teams getting a bead on the Flames
Tuesday’s loss to the Panthers underlined something concerning; a strong forecheck is essential to breaking Sutter’s system. By the end of the game the Flames had to bring one forward back to support the breakout pass maker. Credit to the Panthers coaching staff and pro scouting staff for finding a weakness. The same thing happened to the LA Kings and what resulted was a more supportive, conservative breakout being implemented, which was fine— Just more of an observation of the meta the Flames will have to adjust to.
Rough four days
The Flames are in Raleigh tomorrow to finish off a back-to-back against the 23-7-1 Carolina Hurricanes. That’s playing three contenders in four days and two contenders within 24 hours. At least the Flames had a break before, but this is likely the toughest week of the season. With any luck it will be a rude awakening as to how much the Flames can still improve on their on-ice product.
Enough reading. Enjoy the game and stay warm out there.
Trevor Neufeld
Follow me on Twitter @Trevor_Neufeld
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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