Bell: Calgary Flames — talk is cheap, fans don't need another con job |
The season is over and the Calgary Flames are in a familiar place, a very familiar place.
Bell: Calgary Flames — talk is cheap, fans don't need another con job Back to video
The Flames are going nowhere except home.
Chalk up another one for the not-so-pretty history books.
There is much optimism. Looking to a future with youthful players. Talking about a rebuild. Looking forward to the team’s draft picks.
But I still can’t help thinking of three years ago at this same time of year.
Your weekday lunchtime roundup of curated links, news highlights, analysis and features.
There was an error, please provide a valid email address.
By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.
The next issue of Noon News Roundup will soon be in your inbox.
We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again
Interested in more newsletters? Browse here.
After all, the Flames have missed the playoffs each of the three years since the spring of 2023.
That’s when I wrote about Flames coach Darryl Sutter being pushed out by snowflake hockey players.
Back then the column wasn’t about whether the coach should or should not be canned.
It was about why he was canned and what part was played by those snowflake hockey players and their mouthpieces in giving Sutter the heave-ho.
So let’s go back. Let’s take a little skate down memory lane.
Why is is important to look back?
Because in sports, as in the rest of life, there has to be some accountability.
Sadly, except it appears, in Calgary where we are served up a steady diet of Flames management talking points and expected to swallow them whole.
Remember what we were promised three years ago. You can smell the manure all the way back to Sutter’s farm.
A new day was dawning.
All that needed to happen was to give Sutter the boot and the team was on the road back.
We were told players didn’t want Sutter. The Flames brass told us they talked to players.
The Flames deep thinkers said players wanted a voice and have a voice and they had to listen to the voice.
Here’s a voice. Jonathan Huberdeau, a hugely-paid player who hasn’t come close to earning his keep, said he really didn’t click with Sutter.
The highly-paid agent of this hugely-paid player said negativity sucks the joy out of the player.
Yes, agents also had a voice.
We were promised better days, the joy would return, a new attitude would prevail now that the fragile egos of professional hockey players would no longer be bruised by a coach out of step with this more sensitive world.
At the time, the self-appointed hockey experts were outraged at my column and some may have even clutched their favourite Flames jersey and maybe even tossed their hockey card collection across the room, saying this outsider, this pain-in-the-butt scribbler was full of it.
Knew nothing. Got it all wrong.
Was it on Reddit where I was called boomer trash? Or was what I wrote boomer trash?
I was written off as a dimwit malcontent. I had dared hurt the feelings of some players.
The legendary voice of the Flames Peter Maher spoke above the noise.
Peter is a good man and said what reasonable people believed. The players should have played better even if they didn’t like the coach.
What final frontier? Actor William Shatner, 95, embraces late-career surge Local Arts
What final frontier? Actor William Shatner, 95, embraces late-career surge
Corb Lund: Facts dispute industry claims on coal mining Columnists
Corb Lund: Facts dispute industry claims on coal mining
Advertisement 1Story continues belowThis advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.document.addEventListener(`DOMContentLoaded`,function(){let template=document.getElementById(`oop-ad-template`);if(template&&!template.dataset.adInjected){let clone=template.content.cloneNode(!0);template.replaceWith(clone),template.parentElement&&(template.parentElement.dataset.adInjected=`true`)}});
Family of missing Calgary senior pleads for tips as RCMP say search has gone cold Local News
Family of missing Calgary senior pleads for tips as RCMP say search has gone cold
Family seeks compensation following 40-hour delay on WestJet return flight to Calgary Local News
Family seeks compensation following 40-hour delay on WestJet return flight to Calgary
Braid: UCP gives itself suspicious power on riding boundaries, but may avoid the worst result Columnists
Braid: UCP gives itself suspicious power on riding boundaries, but may avoid the worst result
Did a new day dawn? No.
Unless your definition of a new day is missing the playoffs for three seasons after the commitment to change for the better was made.
By the way, where are the players from that team that would show their stuff if they got their way?
Most of them aren’t around.
Now there are new players, young players and there is going to be a rebuild and a new arena and maybe a long-delayed culture and entertainment district.
Exciting. Best of luck. Hope it works out. Go Flames Go! The fans deserve a winner.
But a memo to Flames brass and to those who accept every word coming out of the Saddledome as if it is some message coming from on high.
Just give the folks the straight goods and never again treat hockey players with kid gloves. They are paid a fortune, they should play like it.
I must applaud the fans of the Flames
In most cities the fans would be angrier.
I came to Alberta right after the Stanley Cup win and heard all about it from Wally and Dr. Zoom at the famous and now-bulldozed Honey’s bar in the Beltline.
I remember the horrible Doug Gilmour trade.
I remember the Flames out of the playoffs for seven seasons starting in the ’90s.
I remember the one big playoff run in 2004, almost winning the Cup.
I remember a few days ago, 22 long years after that playoff run, when the Flames were eliminated from the playoffs for the fourth straight season.
Pardon me if I suggest in the future no one counts the chickens before they hatch.