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No Big blog from me during the draft, a couple in the days after, but follow us on Coveritlive.com at the fan960.com

Tuesday afternoon Brent Sutter will be introduced as the 4th head coach under the leadership of his brother Darryl, of course he himself was the first before he stepped down in the spring of 2006. This is not a well kept secret nor is it s surprise, is it proper or ethical is a debate others will have, I will say this it better work.

I believe the Flames owners have stuck their neck out again for Darryl by allowing him this time to hire his brother. There is no shortage of people already complaining about nepotism, just take a quick glimpse in to my e-mail inbox, there is not shortage of those who are suggesting that this has been a well orchestrated plan with roots to last season. Well neither are an issue for me they are going to be an issue that the Flames will have to weather. Winning is the only thing that will eventually deflect the criticism that the team will take.

This is what I think of Brent Sutter as head coach of the Flames, he is a very gifted coach who is a hard ass, and will immediately grab the corp of this team by the scruff of the neck a push them in the direction he wants them to go. I also know he will practice the power play! The wild card in this scenario for me is his relationship with his brother.

No new news on the outdoor game front, although friend of the program Scott Burnside of ESPN wrote some rather scathing thoughts on Friday night suggesting that the game at McMahon is the result of “Canadian Whining”. Huh, I guess it could be, but maybe you are making a mountain out of a mole hill here Scott. The building will have infrastructure that isn’t normally there, the flames are celebrating their 30th anniversary it has seemed all along as more a matter of opportunity.

This Canada versus the US stuff gets a little old from both sides, doesn’t it?

Despite the cautious approach taken in the last 12 hours or so by the Flames it looks like it is a reality, there will be a Winter Classic double header with game number 2 being held here in Calgary. What I find most interesting is that the opponent will likely be the Leafs, once that cat gets out of the bag then the national media will be all over this one.
Why the leafs? Simple it is an NHL event and while they would be happy to accommodate the Flames desires to celebrate their 30th anniversary they want it to be a TV success so the Maple Buds would be the obvious choice.
In a perfect world this game would be versus the Oilers or even the Canucks, but to have the event in our back yard I think is going to give the Flames a little boost of FUN.
I have blogged a couple of times this post season that Flames fans deserve something fun something to celebrate, I think whole heartedly that the Flames have tried with varying degrees of success to improve the on ice product, but way from that they have be very boring. Calgary does an amazing job of giving back to the communities in its marketplace, but I am talking about doing something that is fun.
Follow boomer on Twitter at www.twitter.com/boomer960 or me at www.twitter.com/HSLRob

My Friend EJ Hradek has apparently done something that I haven’t be able to do for a couple of weeks get confirmation from league sources that the Calgary Flames would like to host a outdoor game this new year’s day.
Hradek, who works for ESPN, reported tonight that he has been told of plans to turn this year’s Winter Classic into a double header with McMahon Stadium the site for the 2nd game.
The Boston Bruins are expected to host the Washington Capitals in the first game, that announcement is expected to come from the NHL later in July after the league releases its schedule .
I did talk to the Flames this evening and they have no announcement to make and explained that any announcement on a possible Winter Classic would come from the league.
The Flames are celebrating their 30th anniversary this season and could use this to help celebrate the anniversary.
According to Hradek the Flames are expected to play another Canadian team, I have heard whispers that it maybe the Leafs.
It should be pointed out that since the Stampeders are hosting the Grey Cup extra infrastructure is expected to increase the number of seats of McMahon, it would make sense that these would stay in place for the New Years Day game.
It should be noted that there will be no official confirmation on the game for up to a month, so expect a lot of rumour and conjecture between now and then.

As the Stamps prepare for their first game of the CFL preseason I am fairly confident that a new deal to keep Henry Burris a Stampeder maybe close at hand. Despite the declaration that Henry made on the FAN in early May that if there wasn’t a deal in place before camp he wouldn’t talk contract until the end of the season, he has said that the two sides are talking.

The latest CFL drama involving the owners of the BC Lions and the Toronto Argo’s once again shows me that the commissioner position in the CFL remains somewhat neutered it always has been and it likely always will be. Why is that a problem? An old boys club can’t continue to hold the league back by limiting the power of the head of the league especially with the possibility of growth, NFL intrusion, and the ongoing financial crisis. Leadership has to come from the head office not at the whim of any one or two owners.

Congratulations to Glen Gulutzan of the Las Vegas Wranglers of the ECHL, he was named head coach of the Dallas Stars new AHL affiliate the Texas Stars. Glen has been the GM and head coach of the Flames number 2 development team and has spent time with Adam Pardy and other players currently in the organization. He has been a consistent fixture at training camps over the past 6 years.

No news out of the Flames offices when it comes to naming the next head coach and it is beginning to look like there won’t be any announcement before next week. The interesting tidbit this week is that they are actually going through the due diligence of interviewing possible candidates. I am a little surprised but think that is a good thing they maybe talking to other people.

Is this the week the Flames announce Bren… the new head coach? My guess yes, and if my luck holds true it will be Wednesday when Boomer and I are scheduled to be at Speargrass golf course south east of the city. For the record the Flames brain trust has been airtight of late, and there isn’t really any whispers one way or the other of who and when.

Curtis Glencross will be live in studio on Tuesday to promote his upcoming golf tournament for Crime Stoppers, but I am sure we will get him to weigh in on the summer so far for his club.

Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Penguins for their outstanding turn around and Stanley Cup win this past Friday. I did not think they would beat the Wings but they did and looked good doing it. When you think about it they really did defy the odds, they started in Europe in the fall after a short off season, and they changed their coach in February while not in a playoff spot. Twice in the post season they trailed a series going into game number 6 and came back to win, and dropped the first 2 to Detroit and then beat them 4of the next 5. They are Champions and will wear the mantle well.

Continue to work on the NHL entry Draft coming up next week in Montreal, we are nailing down a ton of guests and currently tacking down a number of the Calgary area and Western Canadian kids expected to go high in the draft.

You can follow Boomer on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bommer960 and me at www.twitter.com/HSLRob

Hearing from a couple of different sources that one way or the other Ryan McGill will be an assistant coach with the Flames this fall. It has been rather quiet on the McGill front over the past month, with Jim Playfair taking over the reins in the AHL it left him with out a job. Ryan was the coach for the Flames in the A for the past 4 seasons, and will assume an assistant’s role with which ever Sutter takes over as the head coach.

Talked to former Calgary net minder Brent Krahn, he says he recently resigned a two way deal with the Dallas Stars and is expected to be the number one goalie in Austin next year, and will push for a back up job in Dallas in the very near future. Krahn is finally healthy for the first time in a longtime, and looks forward to getting his career back on track this season.

The Calgary Stampeders are a very progressive bunch these days, particularly when I comes to their website, over the past year or so the Stamps have clearly poured money and resources into their website and for fans of the team it has become a real source of all things red and white. They have however rankled some in the media recently, JoJuan Armour as you are probably aware has been kept out of practice because of a heart murmur, and yesterday and today refused requests to talk to the media. As of mid day yesterday you could however read Armour’s blog on the Stampeders website where he talked about the issue. It is neither a complaint nor a compliment it is an observation that the sports media business is changing.

I believe I made some comments last summer that the Stamps maybe going in a direction of taking ownership of their coverage and that it maybe a wave of the future. The uncertainty of the newspaper business and the dramatic and drastic cutbacks in the electronic media likely make moves like the ones the Stamps have made necessary.

It should prove to be interesting to see where the Stamps go from here will they continue to prioritize player and coach availability in house before external media sources get served? They may! At the end of the day the sports consumer will decided where they want to get their info from and the red and white are betting that they will choose the team.

Meanwhile there will be no shortage of arguing back and forth between the Stamps media concerns and the traditional Calgary media on how this issue should be handled.

I believe that the Flames are or will actively pursue Brent Sutter as the next head coach of the club now that he has left the Devils. I think the Devils will allow Brent to take an opportunity that is closer to home. If there is a sticking point in making this happen it maybe in Brent’s desire to be around the Rebels in Red Deer and the ability to map out how the two brothers will work together.

Still waiting to hear from Dany Heatley to publicly say he wants out of the nation’s capital, he is a big ticket that could prove tough to move because of his contract. The next couple of weeks leading up to the draft are going to be very interesting for a number of teams who have contracts they need or want to move.

Craig Conroy was on the program the other day and among the interesting tidbits I gleaned from our conversation were that Mike Cammalleri and Todd Bertuzzi really want to come back. The other thing that intrigues me is his willingness to have Darryl comeback as coach, I was always under the impression that most found Darryl very taxing as a coach.

Calgary and Abbotsford will introduce the new head coach of the HEAT tomorrow, the heat of course are the Flames new AHL farm team. I am sure that when the press conference in convened Friday morning former Flame head coach Jim Playfair will be the man.

Playfair has had great success in the league before previously guiding the Saint John Flames to a Calder Cup, he will be key in developing the Flames prospects.

One question though, what does this mean for Ryan McGill the coach in Quad City? My guess is that he will be part of the new Sutter staff in Calgary, which ever Sutter is ends up being.

Quietly the Flames have added the title of GM of the Heat to Duane Sutter.

I say this with all do respect to Playfair and the Flames, but I hope that Playfair won’t be the coach in the AHL, because if he wasn’t that will mean he got an NHL job, and in my mind that is where Jim Belongs.

Not much to add from the local hockey hero’s perspective these days, but it looks like Craig Conroy is going to come in and co host the show on Monday.

Last week I spent some time talking on air about the great work that the Calgary Flames Alumni do in our community, a further example of that over the weekend. Former Flame and NHL tough guy Terry Johnson was named the coach of the year for Hockey Calgary. Coaching Novice in Glen Lake Terry has picked up the nickname “the kid whisperer” for his ability to handle the youngsters.

Just a thought nothing to serious but it isn’t it about time that the Calgary Flames had some fun or did something fun. It seems that over the past couple of years it has always been about the on ice and expectations, why not have or do something fun. It seems like their 3rd jersey is not going to happen this year, but something like that to break the tension a bit. It is the 30th anniversary season coming up so maybe there will be some fun things to come.

Stamps are days away from beginning and news made official today about our friend Randy Chevrier he is now an offensive linemen. Chevy’s primary responsibility remains long snapping, but the long time D-linemen is working his ass off to be ready for his new duties.

I can’t speak for the rest of the team, but coach Huff is in midseason form as he was somewhat combative and evasive on a couple of softball questions earlier today. The Stamps boss has no love for the media or desire to engage in long drawn out conversations with us and that’s fine when you win, and the guy has won.