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Markstrom all but blanked the Habs in a 2-1 Flames win. When he's on, he's on. Big soft target where pucks go to die.

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Thank goodness the Canucks came to town! Might have been just what ailed the Flames. The played like they cared and Huberdeau got going. The season isn't over in 16 games and there are some good signs here in the past few games. Get that record back to .500 and we might have a heater going.

I'll wait patiently..

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Kinda hate to burst your bubble but the season kinda is over for Calgary. Of the 16 teams in playoffs spots at the 16 game mark last year, 15 made it into the playoffs at the end of the season.

Pittsburgh with their +11 goal differential seems like the only team likely to move up, Calgary at -11 is headed for the lottery, only question is how good a pick.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

You are not bursting my overwhelming positivity bubble (if that exists ). But there is always a possibility of a heater. And they have looked pretty good the past few games.

Vancouver is a good story because all the dudes on there have sucked for the past few years! Now they have Hughes to go with Petersen.....got rid of Horbag and kept that turd JT Miller......lucked out on Hronek and suddenly Old Besser is back to relevance along with Demko and some kids. Ricky has em going! That's a good lesson for Craig on not panicking and giving it time.

Do I think the Canucks are legit contenders? Hell no. But they are also on a heater and sometimes that's good enough. Happy for the long suffering Nuckers fans finally

Goodness....all this sympathy for Nucks and Habs fans lately (I've never given 2 shits about the Oilers because I don't live there), I must be getting soft in my old age. A complete pardon for Ulf Samulesson is never coming though.

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Definitely the best thing out of Calgary on the ice this season.....however the repeated lyric I would want myself is interesting.....someone is drinking a lot of their own kool-aid. I am sure I will be hearing this in Mexico on a non-stop rotation shortly.

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Aside from Zamboni driving Tate Mcrae and her extremely grand sense of hot self.......The Flames look to claw back to .500 tonight against the Stars. Huberdeau has now decided he wants to be the minus leader and give Kadri a break for a while. Zary and Pospisil are great finds and offset the thud Coronato made when he hit the minors again.

Sharangovich has looked like he's interested in playing finally while Coleman, Mange Punani, and the always reliable Lindholm carry the mail.

The D finally looks like they are understanding what jumping in and out of the play acceptably looks like.

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exactly, caught her on SNL and quickly fast forwarded through it. She put me right off and I never gave her music a chance. The woman is trying far too hard to exploit her ass...ets and it put me off. I'm all for a wee bit of female obectification but never too the point where the the message is soley about objectification and forget that there may actually be an interesting human (or song) being behind the curves.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

Zadorov hits the road to Vancouver for a 5th and 3rd round pick. I think his game evolved into a serviceable 5/6 under Sutter. With the Flames playing poorly and then him becoming disgruntled this was pretty easy. I am sorry but I can't have Zadorov on a team pinching and demanding the puck anyway. Now he's going to terrorize the Flames like he did in the playoffs with Colorado. Vancouver must know something that we all do not. Move em out Craig!

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I don't think Zadorov is at all the Nucks need. But you know, somehow Foote and Gonchar are working some kind of mojo on Meyers and he's become solid for 15 game or so now. Maybe they can do the same with Zadorov? I sure hope the brain trust knows what its doing cause this sure feels wrong to me.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

I honestly don't think this is a bad move for the Nucks. He's an improved bruiser and he probably will fit very well as a 5/6 for you guys. Nucks have the cap space and don't need to sign him. We'll see on Saturday!

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Nucks are loaded at 5/6. He'll be the 3/4.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

So now that they've cleared Zadorov's $3.75 million in cap space, what do you think they will do with it? Save it to deadline and help facilitate some contenders trade for draft picks?

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

I see that Kylington has finally taken to the ice, I will most definitely be rooting for him to make a full return and regain the form he had prior to his extended leave.

This team is not very good. Huberdeau is not good at all (-14)...at least on this team. I don't understand his play......poor passes, poor pass selection, poor decision making in general. To me that means he is just trying way too hard and the pressure is eating him alive. Watching him flub the shootout last night with the game on the line really just said it all about his mental state. I really don't feel bad at 10.5 Million dollars though.

Sharangovich has showed up recently.......at the moment he gets a bozo button. He must have not liked that very sorry comparison between him and Toffoli making the rounds on the twerker a few weeks back. Whatever it takes I guess.

Kadri showed up for the Avs game and he's actually been showing up on a fairly consistent basis of late. I liked the pairing with Mange Punani the other night and I'd like to see more of that.

Coleman is bringing it....please don't anyone tell him this team sucks.......he's trying his damndest and saying all the right things.

Conor Zary the bright spot of the year (wasn't it supposed to be Coronato?).There was a Dube sighting the other day.

However, no one is showing up for the 1st Period and rarely for the shootout.

Why are Wolf and Vladar splitting time? Who knows? Perfect opportunity to let Markstrom enjoy a really LONG spell on IR and see what Wolf has. Typical Calgary mucking up prospects.

Still waiting for dudes to hit the road here. I certainly hope this team stops doing business with the likes of Western Conference teams. Send these guys to the Eastern Conference or Phoenix!

As long as there are people out there who still covet Chris Tanev, I guess there is still hope.

https://www.hockey-reference.com/player ... l_adv_poss

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Dustin Wolf sent down again. Hard to get a decent sample as his numbers haven't been terribly good. I like the way he plays compared to Markstrom or Vladar and I would much rather see him get lit up than those two. But he's in a bad spot on this roster now. Hopefully management is telling him to stay the course and he will be rewarded. Somehow I doubt it...but you never know.

Meanwhile, a new core seems to be emerging this season...Kadri, Coleman, Lindholm and Sherangovich with Weegar on D. Hanafin is also having what I feel is his best season so far in Calgary.

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Calgary quietly climbs back to relevance and even sniffing a playoff spot at .500 1 game before the Christmas break/halfway mark.

As stated previously, there seems to be a new set of players emerging which may make it easier for Craig and company to move forward in the 2nd half.

MVP of the first half.....Blake Coleman......with a close second to Lindholm.....both players don't complain and charge forward steadily letting their play do the talking.

Surprise of the first half.....Conor Zary....poised, smart decisions, positive contributions. I didn't think it would be him (Coronato) but not looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Turn around Players.....I was ready to leave Kadri in Dallas at one point but he's turned it around and focused on hockey. Sherangovich had a tough start but finally got going after twitter set him on fire. Markstrom....its only been 2 games but I will take whatever good goaltending this dude has to offer.

Disappointment....I don't think I need to address this or who I need to point out. I watched this individual drive the net with no one between him and the goalie last night only to make a backhanded diagonal pass to a covered teammate. It tells you all you need to know about where he is at right now. Perhaps the Flames need to bring in a sports psychologist.

I do think this team took a bit to settle into their style per an earlier post. That was a good article. Getting rid of Zadorov and his need to constantly channel his inner Makar also seems to have been beneficial.

After the garbage start the Flames are lucky to be where they are at now. There are other underperforming teams right around them that are looking to improve so it isn't like the job is over. At least they have a chance in the 2nd half. Balls still remain in the air.

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Huberdeau pointless in December. Worst contract in the NHL at the moment and it's just getting started.

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Question is why? How do you go from 115 points to 55 points then on pace for less than 40 points this year. Injury explain any of this? I know the 115 is kind of an aberration, his best previous season was 92 points and nothing else above 80 points so he's been pretty inconsistent but still falling below 60 points is a huge drop off for his career history.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

Barkov. A word of warning to anyone who plans on giving Sam Reinhart 8M this offseason....

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Just Barkov you think? That's a pretty huge, nearly Gretzky like difference.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"