Big game night

Last game of the preseason tonight and the flames keep moving in the right direction while the winning record of the coilers is a lot better on paper than it is in real life.

lets take a look, shall we? 2 flukey wins over calgary, and one of them with the flames junior league-caliber backup outshining the coilers' nhl regular goalie. 1 near-loss against the coyotes farm team-calibre roster. and one goal wins against sucky teams like the panthers and the maple leafs. one thing you should note about over COILER win: they were one goal games!! ALL OF THEM. so while the team is 5-1, it just as easily could be 0-6 for teh coils.

meanwhile, calgary just keeps improving. iginla/huselius/langkow are at a whole other level, and are much more dangerous than the pensky line, who lack a nhl centre.... plus penner is totally out of shape and out of his league, but you won't find anyone in the EIG media Deadmonton Urinal posting that little tidbit. this guy is going to get 15 goals this season---at best. hope that was worth the three draft picks for your illegal RFA poaching. lol.

Big game night! Flames will once again dominate the Sharks with a 4-2 win. Goals by Huselius, Langkow, Aucoin and Conroy. Coilers will lose by 0-3 to the Vancouver Canuckleheads. Cogliano and Gagner will be responsible for bad plays leading to one goal against each.

GO FLAMES!

More proof that the coilers are desperate to attract talent

apparently, according to TSN's darren dregher, the coilers have spent lavish sums on redecorating the players lounge:

If you live in dEadmonton and you're considering a kitchen renovation, you should scratch granite counter tops off your home improvement wish list.

There has to be a shortage province-wide based on the amount that has been installed in the cOilers dressing room facilities.

An enormous table in the players dining area is covered by a slab that could refit three homes and is rumoured to have cost upwards of $30,000.

It will be put to use as local chefs will be brought in throughout the year to make sure this years cOilers are fed nothing but the best.

Regardless of how this team fares this season, they appear to be in a culinary class of their own.

The creature comforts this place now boasts are unreal.

It's spa-like.

Dregher adds the the coilers are laying down some serious coin to make players feel comforted. its no wonder, due to the stab-mad neighborhood of clareview/belvedere where rexall is located, and the fact that deadmonton is colder than Siberia 8 months of the year. the coilers can delude themselves into thinking that they'll be able to sign big UFA talent by installing a few flat panel monitors and a laz-y-boy or two, but they're in for 99 tears when all their offers are laughed out of the building next summer.

face it: no one wants to play in edmonton after the pronger debacle. the way the classless coilerville community savaged the pronger family after they requeseted a trade is enough to make any player with family values think twice about ever stepping foot in coilverville.

if kipper played tonight...

...the score would've been 1-0 FLAMES.

The fact that the COILERS couldnt get more than 2 goals against our AHL-caliber goalie is very telling and frankly very disturbing for Kevin Lowe and the rest of Coilerville.

GO FLAMES

Battle for Alberta: FLames vs. Coilers

Big game day tonight as the forces of good and evil collide tonight in alberta. first, though, lets take a look at last night's games. the flames dominated once again over the san jose sharks, which is no mean feat. huselius was SICK with 2 beauty goals and conroy and owen nolan performed jaw dropping heroics in the shoot out. awesome win.

meanwhile, the coilers had a laughable win over the coyotes, which is the only team in the world worse than edmonton (predictably, it wasn't even a real win either--just a shootout fluke). Against oilers "roster players" like Stoll, Torres, Nilsson, Gagner, Sanderson, Reasoner, Truckno, etc, the coilers were totally outclassed by a bunch of phoenix no-namers. how ridiculous and sad. garon was the only thing that kept them in it and gilbert was the only good prospect of the night, getting a good goal. but too bad for coilers fans: mact and k-blowe will likely place him on waivers because they don't have the roster space for him. LOL!

so tonights game. Flames are getting it together, while COilers are hanging on for dear life, based on the last few games trendlines. Prediction time: Flames 6, Oilers 2. Goals from Huselius (2), Iginla (2), Conroy and Phaneuf. For the Coilers, Horcoff and Souray. Gagner and Cogliano will get exposed for the shams they are and promptly sent back to the junior leagues. Penner not only will NOT get any points (once again), but he'll remain without a goal for the first 7 games of the regular season.

you heard it here first.

Head line of the day

From the deadmonton urinal sports section this morning:

Greene surges up depth chart

Souray likely partner

LOL!!! Yeah, good luck with that, Coilers.

i think that sums up all of the myriad of problems that the coil will have. this mystical souray-greene line will be -45 by the time roli's new nickname is the swiss special!!


seriously, i cant believe that the EIG Media deadmonton journal would publish this tripe. Matt Green as anything other than a defencive liability???? lol yeah right

Coilers Choke

at the risk of becoming all coilers, all the time, let's get a few factoids out of teh way:

1. souray flat out sucks. sure, the guy can hammer it, but what use is a guy who can score when the same guy costs you 1.5 goals/night due to stupid ass mistakes. at 5.5mil/year, this guy is one of the biggest overpays in the league and will doom the coil to missing the playoffs for the remainder of his contract. Prediction time: souray finishes the season at -32, assuming he doesn't miss more than 15 games due to injury (very unlikely)
   
2. sam gagner is 18 years old. he is nowhere near nhl ready. give up the dream, kiddies
3. garon isnt as good as i thought hed be. nasty game. looks like he 'll get less than 15 starts this season.
4. the coilers will lose big time to the flames on saturday. Prediction time: Flames 5, Coilers 2. Iginla, Phaneuf, Aucoin, Huselius, Tanguay with the goals. Hemsky and Stoll for the COIL. Souray -3.
   

more deadmonton delusions

In the comment sections, some trolls from coilerville have decided to take some potshots from the peanut gallery against the flames. In particular, check out what the Coilinator has to say about the pre-season so far:

Oilers prospects..2-0...Falmes prospects..0-3.

What a sham. coilers fans should be ashamed of ourselves. NOWHERE do they refute my point-by-point memo detailing what a disaster they are, and instead resort to lies like the one above.

1. HOW can you claim that coilers prospects won 2 games when pretty clearly game 2 was won by sean horcoff and garon??
2. HOW can you claim that coilers prospect won game 1 when the heroics of Marty reasoner and ethan moreau were responsible for so many goals??? and gagner's goal was entirely due to a solid play by penner and hemsky (a rare feat, ill give u that)
3. HOW can you claim that the 0-3 record is indicative of anything when kipper didnt start all three games? if he was in net for all three games, that record wouldve been 2-1 for sure, no matter how many crap prospects were in front of him on D
   

A Chronology of Coilers Catastrophes

Sorry for the dry spell! ive been crazy busy this past week and have barely had any time to endulge in my flames fix!

anyway, i've been thinking a lot about the COILERS lately, and how lucky i am to cheer for a team with good management and good coaching that plays out of a world-class city. the COILERS lack any of these qualities, and therefore its no surprise that their flukey Cup run in '06 was just that: a FLUKE.

Let's take a walk down memory lane and give a chronology of boneheaded moves, screw-ups, and utter disastors that hit the deadmonton coilers in the past 18 months. I put a lot of work into this so i hope it becomes something of a bible of coilers fuckups. LOL

1. Fresh out of an admittably remarkable Cup run, the Coilers begin to lose key backbone members: Mike Peca, Jaroslav Spacek, Sammy Samsonov, Radek Dvorak, Rem Murray and Todd Harvey. It is no surprise that so many world-class players wanted to escape the hell-hole that is Edmonton--a dirty, stab-mad city.
   
2. in what is perhaps the biggest fuck up of all time, COILERS GM Kevin Blowe trades Chris Pronger to a conference rival, no less, for a crap player (Joff Lupul) who just happened to be the grandson of an EIG investor, a raw rookie who's career potential is a second-string pairing at best (Smid), and a couple of draft picks. Lowe was so desperate to make a move that he drove this "hard bargain" with Anaheim GM brian burke without even getting any NHL-calibre players in return (hello? francois beauchimon? ryan getzlaf??)
3. K-Blowe resigns middling players like Fernando Pisani, Dwayne Rolosn and Steve Staois at ridiculously inflated prices
4. COilers resign Marty Reasoner, who stunk up rexall place badly in '06-'07.
5. Coilers sign FA PETR NEDVED!!! LOL
6. Coilers trade offensive defensive powerhouse Marc-Andre Bergeron AND a 3rd rnd pick to the Islanders for a questionable prospect, Dennis Grebeshkov. Reports say that Grebeshkov's upside is that he may turn out to be another Bergeron. LOL. so let's get this straight: the COILERS traded their leading D scorer AND a draft pick to get some flakey Russian prospect that the Islanders hated who may, AT BEST, turn into another Bergeron in 5 years. LOL. that's like paying someone to pick your pocket on the train!!
7. Coilers fail to resign superstar Ryan Smyth at a reduced rate and trade him to the Islanders for a few suspect picks: Rob Nilsson (more nepotism), Ryan Omarra, and a 1st rnder. Omarra is lacklustre, and Nilsson is a 3rd liner AT BEST, in two years.
8. COILERS lose the last 18 of 20 games because their heart and soul (r. smyth) went off the roster. if there was any doubt that smyth carried this team, that stat alone erases it.
9. Coilers trade star D and captain Jason Smith and prospect Joffrey Lupul to Philly for Jono Pitkanen and Petr Nedved's doppelganger, Geoff Sanderson! LOL. so the oilers, lacking in leadership already, fire their captain off to Philly! AND, they lose their sole legit defender and pick up another guy who cant protect his own end, and an aging buzzard who'll be lucky to play 50 games and get 15 points this year.
10. Coilers lose their other legit D, Jan Hejda, to free agency. more devastating than most realize.
11. Coilers lose leading scorer Peter Sykora to the Penguins, where he will pop 35-45 goals as Crosby's winger.
    
12. Coilers embarass themselves by throwing a temper tantrum when Michael Nylander demurs from signing a contract with the Oilers. i guess his wife had no desire to be stabbed on a dirty bus in edmonton. to make matters worse, Coilers claim that Nylander's indecisiveness lost many potential FAs for the Coil. Yeah, right. Like any of them would sign on with a sinking team.
13. Coilers embarrass themselves and the league once again by offering $50 mil/7 yrs to RFA Tommy Vanek of the Sabres. sheer desperation at this point, folks. The sabres, with much to lose after losing Briere, sign him, but vow revenge in the next offseason.
14. Coilers BLOW $27m/5 yrs on Montreal Dman Sheldon Souray. Souray, an NHL vet of about 15 years, has only had ONE good season offensively, and now the Coil want him to pot 25 goals for them? LOL. to make matters worse, Souray is one of the worst defensive Ds in the league, and has very little skills in his own end. a grossly inflated contract.
15. Coilers only sign Pitkanen for ONE YEAR. LOL. He'll be up and off to the east coast within 5 minutes of Canada Day.
16. Coilers lose 3 draft picks in the next draft, which will be one of the deepest drafts in NHL history, to sign RFA dustin penner of anaheim. They sign him at disgustingly inflated sum of $21.25m/5 yrs. And the guy has only had one decent season as a rookie with HIGHLY SKILLED LINEMATS.
17. Coilers sign good ol' boy Rob Daum as assistant coach after Craig Simpson decides its time to abandon the sinking ship
18. Draft day, and the COIL get one legit pick (Sam Gagner), and waste their next two on Dman Alex Plante and mediocre giraffe-like forward Riley Nash. for anyone keeping track, that means they passed on Esposito AND Cherapanov, future superstars, in order to "draft for need". Oh, and it gets better: the Coilers traded two draft picks to get Nash! WTF was Lowe thinking here?
19. Coilers, in a move of utter desperation, invite Anson Carter to the training camp! its just surreal here folks
20. Coilers realize they have signed too many AHL depth players in the offseason and cant sign anymore players. ooops. sorry sam gagner and vitaly karushnakov.
21. Coilers training camp comes up to be a total bust for highly-touted prospects Cogliano, Truckno, Shremp, JF Jaques and Mark Pouliot. None are expected to make the big club

There. I think thats it! of course, this list will double in 6 months time.

GO FLAMES!!

1st they laugh at you

So it didnt take long, but predictably, the COILERVILLE community is up in arms over fever4flames. Just check out the utter seething contempt by chris!!!!1! over at covered in oil:

Clearly a joke. What sort of self-respecting Flames fan would put the flaming horse in his blog banner?

As mohatma gandi once said:

1. first they notice u
2. then they laugh at u
3. then u fight them
4. then u win

that should be the creed of the calgary flames season 2007-08.

GO FLAMES!

Prediction time

flames GM sutter has long made me a true believer out of the flames organization. and this year is no different. the flames are now loaded offensively and defensively, and have the right coach to light a fire under the bench and inspire some real passion on the ice. its never been a more exciting time to be a calgary flames fan and alive.

SO. time for predictions for the 2007 season.

CALGARY FLAMES
50W, 22L, 11OTL/SOL

DEADMONTON COILERS
31W, 40L, 12OTL/SOL

Flames make it all the way to the conference finals. after that, its anyones guess (dont want 2 kill the drama!!)

GO FLAMES!!!!!!!!

COILERS rookies fail miserably against Golden Bears

i have the misfortune of living in edmonton and therefore forced to live and breath coilerville 8 months of the year. but that doesnt stop me from enjoying hockey and displaying my pride in the hometeam (that's the calgary flames, fyi).

a friend talked me into going to the oilers rookies v bears game at the university. i said ok, but on one condition: that I got to wear my FLAMES jersey! yep, that's right, i was at the claire drake arena on monday night proudly dispalying my pride in the FLAMES and reminding them of their worst nightmare this season: the FLAMES. i got a few grins from fellow calgarians and some good natured ribbing from my buddy and other coilerheads int he audience.

anyway, the MINI-COILERS lost by a 2-1 margin--an absolutely disastrous showing given that highly touted prospects trukno, cogliano, o'marra, and sleeper vitaly karushnakov all failed to pot goals. i think i saw kevin lowe tear out some of his remaining hair. LOL

anyway, i gave the full run down over at Battle For Alberta and Covered in Oil, but I'll repost it all here:

so i was at this game tonight, proudly wearing my FLAMES jersey, and found my self laughing at the ineptidude of the MINI-COILERS.

Cogliano made a lot of mistakes and was impotent defensively

DUBYNK let in a sham goal and was otherwise mediocre

Trukno and the much-hyped vitaly karushmakov were invisible and never pulled the trigger.

OMARA was awful. so many stupid penalties that led to bears goals and deflated team spirit. this guy is DOA.

needless to say, i thoroughly enjoyed myself

And more here:

sorry i missed you, andy. i was there, proudly reppin the flames.

prediction time: not a single player from this game makes the coilers line-up this season.

what an uninspiring and junior varsity-level lot. cogliano, o'mara, trukno, and vitaly karushnakov were positively non-factors at best. cogliano got sloppier and sloppier as the game wore on and his shot was not impressive.

o'mara took a whackload of stupid penalties that probably cost the team the game.

no way any of these guys are nhl-ready.

And here:

So i was at this game (proudly wearing a flames jersy of course). here's the run down:

MINI-COILERS only got one goal--from colin macdonald, no less.

O'MARA got around a half-dozen penalties that were all stupid. serious momentum killer. was NOT impressed.

Trukno and vitaly karushnakov were totally invisible and didnt show up with there game faces.

cogliano was a total bust and made some sloppy mistakes. he got manhandled by the golden bears, too. the groans of COILERS fans around me whenever he fumbled the puck made me giggle softly.

dubnyk was mediocre as expected, but glenn fisher was actually pretty decent.

And yes, even the mini-coilers' d was hapless.

oh yeah, and SAMWISE GAGNER showed up to accept some kind of photograph honor and a handjob from cal nichols, but didn't dress up.

WTF. i could hear some audibly frustrated edmonton fans question why he wasnt in the lineup.

It sure warms a flames fans heart to know that the COILERS prospects are nowhere near contributing to the NHL for another 5 years at least.

GO FLAMES!

Welcome to my web blog

Hello all. welcome to my new blog, the aptly-titled fever4falmes. i am to make this the central hub for calgary flames related discussion, analysis, talk and commentary. it may not look like much right now but trust me once i learn blogger this site is gonna be a beauty. stick around and say hi in the comments!

GO FLAMES!