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Tears, honest to goodness tears, when I heard Peter Maher call Sidney Crosby’s overtime winner and then attach the triple “yeah Baby’s” I was overwhelmed. Admittedly I am terribly jealous of all of my counterparts who worked this incredible hockey game today, I would have loved to be there to have worked alongside of Peter, I really would have, but instead I watched the gold medal game with my family which turns out to be more special since I rarely get to share hockey moments with them.

I can’t help but think of a rodeo after a game like this, where this game fits in the annals of history time will tell, but it will be one of the all time great Canadian victories because of the opposition. I will often compare Flames wins to those of a Bull Rider mostly when the other team isn’t very good, if you’re the cowboy you have to score yourself high and hope the animal gets a good score. If the U.S. was the bull today they helped the Canadians to a near perfect score.

The Americans were magnificent in this game and through out the tournament, likely it is of very little consolation to their team and their fans but it was because this gold medal comes against them that it means so much. Ryan Kesler was world class in this Olympics, what can you say about Ryan Miller named to the all star team, named top goaltender, and named MVP all richly deserved. I am no fan of Ron Wilson head coach for the Americans, but he admittedly did a terrific job with the youngest team in this tournament.

Credit Brian Burke for putting this team together despite his objections to the contrary, Burke did a masterful job, before and during of deflecting pressure and expectation and allowed his team to go in and just play.

Once again congratulations are in order to Team USA for a great tournament, and thus giving so much meaning to this Team Canada victory.

For you Flames fans how much did the final moments of regulation and overtime of the Gold Medal game remind you of game 7 in the first round of the 2004 play offs, funny enough in Vancouver. I plan on asking Jarome that question the next time I see him.

I hope that this doesn’t come out as pompous or corny but I am so happy tonight for the “Canadian Hockey Fan” who ever you are and where ever you are. It is impossible to define who is and what constitutes being a fan, I assume that just being Canadian was enough to make us all fans on this day. But the fans I am most happy for are those who invest themselves in the Flames, the Oilers, the Canucks, the Hitmen, the Royals, the Maple Leafs, the Heat, or what ever club team, but for the past 2 weeks have cheered for, and lived and died with the ups and downs of Team Canada. You got to go to the Top of the Mountain today with your team, so few of us get to do that with our club teams on a regular basis its fun to win isn’t it.

By now you are aware that Canada has set two very significant Olympic records, if not here they are 14 gold medals are the most at a winter Olympics and the most by a host country. Based on that information I believe we have indeed owned the podium!
Before the games I was very concerned that the Men’s Hockey would dominate the public’s attention and force our other athletes to the side, I am happy to report I couldn’t have been more wrong. Yes they were the dominate event there is no doubt of that, but all Canadian athletes seem to come together as one as Canadians, think of all of those other athlete’s wearing Team Canada jerseys in the final days.

Congratulations to Hockey Canada and all of the guys and gals behind the scenes who help make it Gold twice in the 2010 games. There is no equivalent in sport of this governing body; they have immense pressure on them to grow the game at the grass roots level and to continue to win at the elite level. I have gotten to know them from the outside and feel that their grunt work and behind the scenes efforts often go unnoticed but they deserve much credit for what has transpired in Vancouver so far. Understand that Hockey Canada’s mandate was to win 3 gold Medals; the third will be gold for the Sledge team at the upcoming Para Olympics.

Steve Yzerman deserves a ton of credit for the way he built and led this team to gold; he is easily a great candidate for any NHL GM vacancy in the near future. With that said watch for the Red Wings to promote Ken Holland to a President’s role and hand over the GM’s job to Stevie, just a guess but it is what I would do.

Kind of running of steam writing tonight’s blog, I know I will have more in the coming days, a couple of things as I wrap up:

Talked to Kelly Kirch our program director we will be replaying the Gold Medal game tomorrow night at 7pm.

Congratulations to Flames Captain Jarome Iginla for getting the assist on Sid the Kid’s Golden goal, Iggy has had no shortage of fires to deal with this, but for one day anyway he is a national hero, good on him.

The speculation was indeed true the Flames have locked up forward Rene Bourque to a new long term deal. According to sources it is a 6 year deal with 3.3 million cap hit. Seems like a reasonable deal that will keep him here until his 34, it will be an absolute steal if he puts a couple of healthy years back to back and continues to improve his 20plus goal total for a couple of years.

What a game last night for Team Canada, little they I can say or add that hasn’t already been said, but I’ll go this way that loss is a huge one for Russian hockey. I don’t think Russia falls of the face of the earth as a hockey power but politically what happened in Vancouver last night was devastating.

The Russians were hoping to make a statement by using 9 players from the vaunted KHL to show that the league was on par or close the NHL. Now other teams including Slovakia are using players from the KHL but the Russians were forced when assembling their team to include as many as possible.

Why is this a big blow for the former Soviet Union power? 2 things it doesn’t give them any leverage or advantage when it comes to 2014 and the Winter Games. It is not as if they can turn around and say to the NHL we don’t your players we have the KHL’ers, and the Russian sporting public now knows it too. The NHL and Russians are playing a big dumb game of chicken when it comes to a transfer agreement. The Russians want way more money for players to come over and play in North America; they want to be a more attractive destination for North American free agents, and more then that they want respect from the hockey world.

Last nights loss to Canada isn’t the end of the World for Russian hockey or the KHL, but it sure as hell doesn’t help.

One observation from me on Team Canada’s play last night, they won that game 20 feet in front of and 20 feet behind their own blue line. Canada’s gap control and back checking was amazing they constantly turned the puck over from the Russians.

Canada will beat the Slovaks, that is my humble opinion, but it won’t be easy! Slovakia leads the tournament in both power play and penalty kill, while they have put up 30 plus shots in their first 4 games, they had only 14 shots last night in their win over the Swedes. By the way the Slovaks scored all 4 goals in their last 7 shots on goal.

Watch for Slovakia to have a tempered fore check, and to collapse 5 in front of Halak they will likely try to rope a dope Canada.

The Swedes, the defending champions, are out as a loss to Slovakia eliminated them last night and having watched 3 of their games in this tournament I was not surprised. They were much more skilled then any team they played but lacked inspired play.

If Canada does not win the Gold medal in Men’s Hockey it will mean that in 4 Olympics with NHL players there will have been 4 different Gold Medal winners.

Well the reality has certainly set in for me once again, I am indeed getting older, it used to be I could work all day all night and then again on weekends, not because I had to but because I could, well it turns out I can’t anymore. I had the last week off, spent some time in Vegas with my wife, I come back and I am working a light schedule this week because of the Olympics, but I feel like a million bucks and am looking forward to the last 6 weeks of the NHL schedule. Yet I feel a little bit mortal now knowing that I can’t just go and go like I could 5 or 6 years ago.

I hope you are getting what you want out of the Olympic experience, for me I have enjoyed the hockey, but for me it is watching my friends and peers that have taken up most of my time. Peter Maher has been a treat to listen too, it sounds strange but when you work as closely as I do with Pete you take him for granted, but now that I am at arms lengths I am just amazed at how in control and precise Pete is during his broadcasts.

For me Kevin Quinn and Cassie Campbell have done an unbelievable job calling the one sided games in the women’s hockey tournament. It is the worst thing in broadcasting when you have to work a blow out, you have to make sure you sound upbeat and not bored, but when most of the games are all blow outs for the most part it is tough, both have been real good.

I thought Peter Loubardias had one of the great game calls last night in the Latvia Czech game. He is my friend and I AM BIASED, with that said he built the game up to frenetic pace in overtime, as a guy who is angling to do what he does, I thought Peter crafted a brilliant game last night.

Just a couple of my opinions as we head into tonight’s game and my timing is bad because I am sure it could come across as trying to excuse away a loss before it happens but it isn’t the case I assure you. First and foremost I don’t favor tournament formats over a play off series format. Case in point I have long held the belief that Memorial Cup while a great tournament isn’t the proper way to crown a Junior Champ, you ask these teams to win best of seven series to claim their league championships and then play a one game showdown it just seems wrong to me. But I accept it and don’t lose any sleep over it. All of that was a long winded way of saying what I would really love to see is these two teams play a 7 game series, will never happen but if it did wow!!!!

I don’t personally need a gold medal to prove to me that we are the greatest hockey nation, we are plain and simple. Hockey permeates our culture like no where else and there is a hunger and passion for it in our population which is the envy of the rest of the hockey world. Does a gold medal prove anything? Yes it does, who is best at that given moment, but even after the Olympic disaster in 2006 I never felt that we were any less of a nation when it came to hockey. Don’t believe the hype believe your heart on this topic, when it comes to hockey we are the leader, can we be better yes, but that is what makes us great is we always try to move forward sometimes in little steps and some times in giant ones.

Last night with a 4-0 lead Mike Babcock created quite a buzz when he took advantage of a IIHF rule allowing him to choose another shooter on a penalty shot rather then the player fouled. Nash was hauled down but Crosby took the shot and there appear to be two schools of thought either it was a bad move because it offended the player and his teammates or it was a great move because the coach was sending a message that 4-0 wasn’t enough and he sent his go to guy out there to try and score (he didn’t). I have talked too many today whose opinion I respect and they all seemed split right down the middle. I understand exactly what Babcock was trying to accomplish, showing his team that they were there to win no matter the opponent or the score.

Babcock will be ripped to shreds if Canada looses, the wolves are already at the door over his decision last night, his constant line juggling, and the way he handled his goaltending change. I credited Shaun Peyton (sp?) with the way he coached the Saints to a Super Bowl because he didn’t play the percentages or do the safe thing. Mike Babcock is trying to make sure that he breaks these players out their comfort zone trying to push buttons, I applaud him for it. But as I was told by more then one person in the NHL today, the players these days are less inclined then ever to be bullied by a coach, good bad or indifferent that is just the way it is.

Finally my bold prediction for tonight Canada 6 Russia 4, my heart tells me so.

Flames back on the ice today and according to Coach Brent Sutter all hands on deck minus the 3 players at the Olympics.

Texted with Jim Playfair Head Coach of the Abbotsford Heat asking him about Backlund’s play since being returned during the Oly break, the coach says he has been good. I think the kid is coming back before the game next Wednesday against Minnesota.

A couple of things to start off a Saturday morning:

First an apology for something I got wrong during the pay per view game on Thursday (other then calling Perry Charlie for most of the first period) on the disputed goal at the end of the game I mistakenly said that the referee called the goal on the ice and that the review from Toronto had to come up with evidence to over turn that call. Brent Sutter explained to me yesterday that the ref in fact did not rule it a goal on the ice he was merely pointing to the puck. The difference is in the arm movement, apparently if the referee just points he is indicating the location of the puck, if he moves his arm up and down in a chopping motion he is indicating a goal. As a result the review was actually to find evidence that it was indeed a goal and not the other way around. Sorry for the confusion, but on a positive side that’s why we keep coming back to the rink everyday there is always something to learn.

There is no doubt a dark cloud hanging over this team right now (newsflash winning is fun) but the events of yesterday in Vancouver do for me put a little of this in perspective. A young man died participating in a sport, in a game, he was doing nothing more then pushing himself to his personal limit and hopefully entertaining at least or inspiring at most viewers of the games. I am as guilty as the next guy of drinking the bathwater; it is at the end of the day just a game and meant to be a diversion (albeit there is nothing wrong with it being a positive diversion).

Optional practice for the Flames today, but Dawes and Moss are in, Bourque is out.

TSN reporting that Jamie Lundmark was claimed by Maple Leafs, Flames say it is up to the team claiming a player to put out a release.

It is a possibility that the Flames will place Bourque on IR for a week to open up one more roster spot. It would be merely a paper work exercise, but it is just a theory that I have.

I write this with the full knowledge that within seconds it could be rendered useless by the events of the day.

Ok now what? If you’re Darryl Sutter what is the next move here? This is not asked sarcastically, it is not asked with a holier then though inflection, it is asked from someone who is watching the Flames season unravel and waiting to see what is next.

The GM of this team is uncharted waters, moments away from a roster freeze, just one game before the trade deadline, a two week break with a one week training camp built in, just under 2 weeks removed from a blockbuster trade of a core player, 7 new faces in the line up, no current picks in the first or second round of the June entry draft, and the same on ice performance for his club as he has seen for 2 months.

I know, I know there are no shortage of unsolicited solutions for the current state of the team, but the reality is right now the GM, the President, and Ownership are huddled together charting the future. Do you blow it up or do you try and salvage it?

In the past 7 years this is as close as I have been to advocating just tearing it down and starting all over again, at the end of the day it seems to be the most realistic option at this point. That said that is likely the last thing the GM is going to do, like it or not Darryl Sutter does what he feels is best for his team, not what you, I, or anyone else thinks he should do. My guess is he will make more moves to try and salvage this season, some might say he will go down swinging, he certainly doesn’t see it that way.

I will add one thing, when things are at their darkest sometimes it’s hard to see the light. It is too easy to get wrapped up in the negative and base decisions and opinions on what is perceived to be reality in the down times. Many an active, and many an inactive GM or coach has lost there jobs with the decisions in such times.

I don’t have the answer, I kind of wish I had the ability to jump ahead a year or two to see how things turn out, but we don’t so we watch and wait to see day light.

Notes:

No Brian McGratten at practice today

Rene Bourque continues to wear a yellow jersey keeping him out of physical play

Lines

Hagman Stajan Iginla
Kotalik Langkow Higgins
Glencross Mayers Nystrom
Lundmark Boyd Bourque
Dawes Backlund Moss

Olympic Roster freeze at 1pm Calgary time today

NHL Trade Deadline Wednesday March 3rd

Flames and Dallas Stars tonight, the fourth and final meeting of the season, Dallas leads the series 2 games to 1.

Flames have 3 extra forwards at the morning skate in Dawes, Moss, and Bourque, but none of these guys skated on regular lines.

Lines

Hagman Stajan Iginla
Kotalik Langkow Higgins
Mayers Boyd Nystrom
Glencross Backlund Lundmark

Change up on Pay Per View tonight as Charlie Simmer is unavailable because of a death in the family, my ol’pal and hockey legend Perry Berezan will be handling color duties. Really looking forward to working with Perry on this game he is a former teammate of Mike Madano in Minnesota so some good stories should come up.

Watch Kotalik and Higgins tonight they have 14 and 12 shots each so far as Flames, so they are getting pucks on net, and really seemed to have “chemistry” against Ottawa.

Super pest Steve Ott is out of the line up for the Stars he had to have an emergency appendectomy over the weekend.

Stars acquired goalie Khari Lehtonen on Tuesday but he won’t be here tonight and isn’t expected to dress before the Olympic break.

Start on a personal note today, Happy for my friend Jim Barker who is off to the big smoke to coach the Argos, tough to see him go though. Jimmy was a guy who really seemed to get “it” he knew our job and he knew his job better then anybody I have ever been around in this business. He was always listening and when he heard something that he didn’t agree with he always found a way of giving you a nice friendly nudge in the right direction. I will miss seeing him down at Stamps practices and games because he was always a smiling face who treated you more as a friend then as some one in the media. Good Luck Jim.

The Flames continue you a slow pace forward, as the King of second, third, and fourth chances I am curious to see what Brent Sutter and his coaching staff can cajole out of his team in their 7 or 8 days of practice during the Olympic break. I realize that they have two games left before the 2 week hiatus from games, and they need to get points out of the Dallas and Anaheim home games. I keep expecting a big run from this team to kind of correct December and January, but I am not sure a Washington or Dallas like run is realistic, a more modest clip of .600 to .650 will likely assure them of a play off opportunity, but then that will likely force them into a match up against San Jose or Ottawa. Back to the practices during the break, if they new players and the old players can utilize the opportunity of working on system play and getting more comfortable with one another then maybe they can get on a good role coming out of the Olympics. If the comments of the head coach, after the 3-2 loss in Ottawa, are any indication there is no shortage of things that he feels that his team still needs to master.

One area that the Flames have got to do a better job in is creating power plays, the last time the Flames had more chances in a game then their opposition is all the way back to January 9th, so over a month and even in that game it was 3 chances to 2. While it seems like some what of a motherhood statement to say “go out there and get more PP chances, you can do it by going to the dirty areas from where you score the blue paint and the zone between the two face off dots in the offensive zones. You create man advantage opportunities by initiating physical play not retaliating to it; you get chances my moving your feet. All of these things have been there at times for the Flames but not there consistently.

With that being said, I believe that most opinions on the current version of the Calgary Flames hockey team need to be tempered because I do believe there is another shoe to drop with the roster. I have no names I have no idea when or where, and if it doesn’t happen, it won’t be because of a lack of trying on management’s part.

Today there are way more questions then there are answers about this Calgary Flames team.

By the way on behalf of the Media we are Sorry for costing the Calgary Flames 2 points Monday night. Ollie Jokinen telling the New York media that both he and the Calgary Flames GM agreed after the 3-0 loss to the Flyers that it was the media cost the team the points because the team was unfocused.

You are hard pressed to find many who understand or endorse the moves made by the Flames GM over the last couple of days. The one overriding feeling, and I subscribe to it, is that there is another shoe to drop.

The Calgary Flames are at a crossroads right here and right now, either the massive change this late season works or this team is destined to fall apart at the seams.

The Local Hockey Heroes have a little bit of a PR disaster on their hands, a lot of fans are mad and they don’t really have an advocate in the media trumpeting their recent moves. At the end of the day only one thing will cure this WINNING!

Lost in all of the trade chatter has been the discussion about how listless the Flames looked in the 2nd half of their game versus Philadelphia. This team has been too inconsistent with its sense of urgency at home in recent weeks. You wonder why the Flames are getting booed off the ice, how about being shut out 3 times in your last 5 home games.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, all is not lost the secret to the Flames resurgence in the latter stages of this season will have to come from some one other then the coaches and the GM, and likely won’t come from a savior brought in from some where else, it is up to Jarome Iginla as goes the captain as goes the Flames. Not only the Captain but all of the leaders of this team are on the hook right now.

Optional practice today at the dome for the Flames so no lines to report.

Yesterday I reported the Darryl Sutter had praise for young Mr. Backlund and it sounded to me like he was staying around for the rest of the year. I was informed afterwards that just die to the sheer number of forwards Calgary may have no choice but to send down #60 and Jamie Lundmark, so we wait and see.

What a day yesterday, and the drama continues even into today with the TSN reported trade of Jokinen and Prust apparently on hold as of the game day skate.

I do know that the New York Rangers have had scouts following the Flames over the last couple of weeks.

New Flames will wear the following:

#3 – Ian White
#11 – Nik Hagman
#18 – Matt Stajan
#19 – Jamal Mayers

Prust is on the ice for practice today along with Jokinen.

Darryl Sutter is not afraid to make a move that is for sure, and by the looks of it he is likely not done, even if he does pull of the deal with the New York Rangers it wouldn’t surprise me at all that there is another shoe to drop.

As far as trading of Dion yesterday I am shocked that it happened, I am fearful that this one comes back to haunt you down the road. Would I have traded him? no, but with any deal time will tell. I don’t believe he is going to blossom under Ron Wilson, but then again Wilson likely won’t be the only coach Phaneuf has in Toronto.

Darryl has stuck his neck out with this deal making this much of a change this late in the season is some what unprecedented, and the fact that he made this deal and may or may not be making more shows you that the pressure on him is to win now, right now.

Never a dull moment around the Calgary Flames, that is for sure.

Lines

Glencross Langkow Bourque
Boyd Stajan Iginla
Hagman Jokinen Lundmark
Mayers Nystrom Prust

Regehr White
Giordano Pardy
Bouwmeester Sarich/Johnson

Kiprusoff