So as luck would have it I got to go to the game tonight.  This is what I saw during the game that impressed me about our new look Flames and some things that could use some work.  Feel free to disagree or agree or just rage on me for thinking these things.

Also on a funny note I wore my Phaneuf jersey with white stick tape over Phaneuf saying "WHITE" and white stick tape below the number saying "I GO TO TORONTO" Dion Phaneuf.

Higgins is strong on the boards at one point I remember him sheltering the puck (third period) from 3 canes on the half boards.  The finish is just not quite there for him but it could come.  Nothing overly special on the PK just good and solid.

Kotalik has a rocket even from a snapshot, stupid decision making with puck on the point for PP I remember him driving the puck into the shins of a Cane in the first period.  That being said he kept the puck lowish on his shots.  Strong guy but a little timid deep in the O zone, actually not totally inept playing defense as his one penalty was on the breakout.

Stajan had two great scoring chances one of which he scored on (a beauty of a move that had skill writen all over it) the other was on a Iginla rebound and Ward made a great save.  Not too noticeable other than that, also from afar has some chemistry with Iginla.

Hagman had a meh game I didn't notice too much of him but if that line stays together my guess is that we will only notice two or the three in any game.

White had a great shot block after taking a penalty I noticed he doesn't take the body but plays positioning mostly.  Nothing special from him the corsi number for him that came up in the game thread was surprising I would like to know who played in front of him.  My personal thought is he is not re-signed this summer and D. Sutter would gladly let him sign with a other team as a RFA and take the picks.  BTW if he signs for what he wants elsewhere the Flames get a 1st and 3rd (3.5 million) which makes the Phaneuf trade better in my opinion.

Mayers has wheels had a good fight but he plays a competent game.

I thought J-bouw and Regehr had a good to great game on the 5 on 3 late in the first they where out for the the last 1:30 of the period.  Also at the end of the game I noticed they played together at a increasing rate, perhaps a sign of things to come or just making sure we shut Stall down?

Gio had a great hit.  Sarich took what like 8 minutes worth of penalties.  On the penalty subject that was borderline BS how many we got.  It is downright amazing we outshot them with the lopsided penalties.

I loved the 3Bs line!!! great offense capable D as I only noticed once where they really got caught in their own zone for an extended period of time.


Let me know what you thought.  Oh and sorry for the long windedness of the post.

According to tsn.ca (the Canadian version of ESPN) the Colts have singed John Chick DE for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Just a little FYI on this supposed signing.  Chick is a very good DE in the CFL the stats might not be that awe inspiring but he has a great motor and seems to leave everything on the field.  Don't forget that the CFL gives a yard at the line of scrimmage so the advantage is to the offence, plus unlimited motion and an extra player etc...  I would compare him to a Josh Thomas type with better pass rush skills and technique with about the same run D even though he is a little smaller (the effort comes in there). 

As a bonus the name is kinda cool.  Also now my girlfriend who just so happens to cheer for the Roughriders has lost a very good player and my team in the CFL the Calgary Stampeders have lost none to date.

Enjoy.


http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=305320

Ok I am going to make this very simple.  Tony Ugoh is as good a player as Bill Polian says he is regardless of what we think or say.  Before you start bringing up his occasional poor play or lack of focus, think about what we gave up to draft him and the recent comments made by Mr. Polian.  More after the jump.

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I think we can all agree that after the Rolen trade most of us are looking at next year.  In doing so we need to get some of these AAA and AA prospects a taste of the bigs, I am talking about Snider and Dopirak and to a lesser extent Cooper. 

Last nights game(s) proved it, with Millar in the bigs doing exactly what I thought.  In fact earlier on the trade deadline thread I made mention that I should be traded for Millar because I can't field the first base position and I strikeout but I am great in the clubhouse.  He proved me right last night, and wow did it suck!!!  The second game is the one played in AAA, two days after Dopirak's monster 2 Hr and 7 RBI game Moonraker decides he doesn't want to be shown up and blasts 4 count em 4 Doubles and 5 RBI.  If we are waiting for him to find his swing I think he just found it, over the last 10 games he is hitting .390/.456/.733 for a ridiculous 1.189 OPS.  TIME TO BRING HIM UP!!!

And dump Millar (not Inglett as he provides greater flexibility in the positions that he can play) for Snider, when the September call ups start I had better see Dopirak and Cooper on the list.  If not I fear that johnnyg's jeopardy game will become all to real and not stay make belief. 

Dopirak last 10 .310/.333/.500

Cooper last 5 .263/.263/.736  (his previous 4 games he went 0 for 15) plus it's only his second full season in the minors.

I was going thru some of the other SB nation sites when I came across this at Brew Crew Ball (Brewers Blog).

http://www.brewcrewball.com/2009/7/21/956525/if-traded-can-halladay-request

Not to get into too many specifics but it looks like if Halladay wants a trade and the scenario doesn't work out and he requests another trade that he would then only be eligible for free agency after 2012.  If this is true then why would teams not use this to their advantage when trading for soon to be free agency eligible players, if not then sorry for wasting your time.  Hugo maybe you can have a quick peek and provide some lawyer insist or at the very least convert it into lay-mans terms.

So we have all seen that alignment the Colts D has been running, with 3 down lineman and usually Raheem Brock playing a stand up DT kinda thing.  He either rushes or drops into coverage.  I thought when they ran it last night they had some decent pressure on the QB but poor tackling resulted in conversions for the Jags.  Brock had his sack out of this formation which changed the course of the game significantly.  So why don't they run this more with either Mathis or D. Free playing that position?  Somebody had made the comment that if either of them played in a 3-4 as an OLB (ala James Harrison, Demarcus Ware, Joey Porter) that they could have sick sack numbers.  This is because of the angles they would get on the Tackles.  

I think this may be a formation (with 93 & 98) that comes out in the playoffs, sort of like a rabbit out of the hat.  I could be wrong thought.

This was off of the Indy star site, doesn't say who is going to be cut but my guess is a linebacker maybe Senn or Davis.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080920/SPORTS03/80920009

Is this a good move or not?  I think it depends on if the player who is cut signs with another team.  I guess we now know that Giordano is not playing, somehow I thought that maybe Jackson would be the emergency safety with one of the nickel or dime backs going to corner.