Darryl Sutter proclaimed during the weekend that he has no plans to pull off a major trade to shakeup his Flame team which has lost 5-straight games (winless in 6, including extra time loss).

   The GM put the team together and says, “We have no intention of breaking any of it up. You don’t have to shake it up. We have the intention of getting the most out of what we’ve got. You know those guys can play better.”

   Regarding the club’s lack of scoring, Sutter felt the top players and forwards were all at, or before, their primes so they should at least be matching their career scoring numbers.

   Fact is, none of them are and, for the most part, are away off pace.

   None of Ollie Jokinen, Jarome Iginla, Daymond Langkow, Dion Phaneuf and Jay Bouwmeester are on pace to be within 10 points of their point averages over the past 4 seasons.  Bouwmeester is the closest.  The defenseman with 18pts in 51 games is on pace to finish with 29pts — that’s 13pts from his 4-season average of 42.

   Goal-wise, Jokinen is on pace to have 19 less.  Langkow and Bouwmeester both 9 less.  The team’s all-time leader, Iginla, is on pace for 34 goals his lowest total since 2000-01. His average is 40 goals, so a good late-season surge could get him to 40.  Phaneuf is on pace for 13 goals which would be 3 less than his average.   

   Reverting to strong defensive play with the team ranking 7th in NHL goals against average after being 21st last season, could be accounting for the reduced scoring heading into Monday’s game against St. Louis. 

   I’ll let you decide.  Here’s the breakdown:

   GOALS                   Ave last 4yr         Current Total      Projection      Diff from Ave

Bouwmeester                  12                               2                      3                       -9

Iginla                                40                             21                      34                    -6

Jokinen                            35                             10                      16                     -19

Lawgkow                         27                             11                       18                     -9

Phaneuf                           16                               8                       13                     -3 

——————– 

  POINTS

Bouwmeester                 42                            18                      29                       -13

Iginla                               89                            43                      69                       -16

Jokinen                           77                            32                       51                       -26

Langkow                        63                            30                       48                       -15  

Phaneuf                         52                             19                       30                       -22                                   

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