Sutter brings back and old buddy...

The Flames officially named Mike Keenan head coach today, and that's not much of a surprise.

Keenan took a year off from the NHL after he was dismissed as general manager of the Panthers before the start 2006-2007 season.

He was subsequently replaced with current Panthers head coach Jacques Martin.
Rumours swirled that Keenan did not get along well with his coach, and that trading Roberto Luongo to the Canucks, rather than re-signing him, was the last straw.

Flames GM Darryl Sutter, following the Flames' 1st round loss to the Anaheim Mighty Ducks last year, stepped down as head coach of the team and gave that duty to one of his closes assistants, Jim Playfair.

However, Playfair had a very inconsistent year behind the bench, and was constantly criticized for his lack of control over he players, and his team's inability to score at critical points of the season.

After a terrible start to his first season as head coach, which saw the Flames fall to last place in the Northwest Division with only a miraculous streak being able to save them, Playfair was under hot water with the Calgary media who were getting more and more clouded about Sutter's decision to name him.

The Flames were SOOO desperate that rumours went as far as suggesting that Sutter would return as head coach...incredibly, only 30 games into the year!

But, luckily for Playfair, the Flames got that miraculous run and were the hottest team in the NHL heading into the Christmas holidays, thus saving their season and giving the team a chance to inch closer to those teams chasing a playoff spot.

The streak eventually died down, and the Flames went back to their old ways, cooling down for the last 2 months, while watching their playoff picture quickly crumble away.
With under ten games remaining, the Flames were in a dog-fight with Colorado to claim the 8th and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

It was tight, and went down to the wire.
Calgary managed to win it out and make the playoffs with a single point seperating them from the Avs.
Good thing for Playfair as well, since those rumours of Sutter taking over with only 5 games remaining in the season became increasingly possible.

Their success of beating out Colorado was short lived, and they fell to the powerful Red Wings in 6 games. Their 2 victories came at home and, yeah you guessed it, they were the only games in which they actually made an effort to show up and play.

Their loss was ugly, after an embarrassing rout in Game 5 and an overtime knuckleball getting past Miikka Kiprussoff in the pivotal Game 6, fans wanted Playfair's head on a stick, double-grilled.

Sutter got the message, and brought back one of his old buddies in Mike Keenan.

Keenan is a known quantity to Darryl Sutter, who played for the coach in Chicago and was an associate coach to Keenan in 1990-91 and 1991-92, and the Hawks went to the Stanley Cup Final in ’92. And remember, there was quite the hue and cry around Calgary to fire Larry Playfair as coach during the stretch drive of the regular season and even during the playoffs.

"We've coached with each other, against each other and for each other, all those things," Sutter said. "I can't say that I've been associated with a coach or worked with a coach that has a more focused vision than him."

"We've worked very closely together,” Keenan said. “We've been in the trenches together and when you are there together you understand and know each other very well. When I was the manager and coach and Darryl was my associate, it worked very well. We had good chemistry and I think it will work again.

Good luck to Mike, and I hope this pans out for you Flames fans!

--BBR

Avs giving Flames plenty of problems...

The Colorado Avalanche are hot.
Period, no fancy-schmancy adjectives to be employed here, simply, red hot.

That is something the Calgary Flames have not been in the last few weeks.

They have won only 3 games in the month of March and have seen their seemingly huge lead in the Northwest Division and Western Conference diminish.
On their heels now, they have lost their last 3 games in a row.

The losses have fueled more speculation on the Flames' coaching staff part, that GM Darryl Sutter would dismiss head coach Jim Playfair and take over himself the head coaching duties.
Sutter was quick to downplay these rumours.

Despite his team's struggles, the Flames still remain in a playoff position but if their current trend continues, they can find themselves playing golf early this year, something many didn't, couldn't even imagine back in January and February, as the Flames were riding Mile-high, posting 8-3-2 and 7-4-3 records respectively, that's in total 15-7-5.

Well, maybe I did exaggerate when I said nobody couldn't "imagine" them not making it, but anyway, we were all under the impression this was the way they'd finish the season, on that kind of note.

The hockey world has seen the Flames fall mightily down the Western Conference standings...no, I meant "PLUMMET" as they have gone from "top team" to "crap team".

The Calgary Flames also got another bullet in their heart, as the Colorado Avalanche have won 8 of their last 10 games and have only lost one in regulation in that process.
Helped by Paul Stastny's 20-game point streak (now over, was pointless in Colorado's 4-3 win over the Canucks 2 days ago), Joe Sakic's "still going strong" season and Milan Hejduk's recent rejuvenation have put the Avalanche only 4 points behind the extinguished Flames.

With Peter Budaj regaining his confidence and Jose Theodore becoming the best bench-warmer in the NHL, the Avalanche could be in posession of a playoff spot by the end of the week.

The Flames are not alone in the "fallen down in the standings" category, many other teams include the Montreal Canadiens, Edmonton Oilers, Minnesota Wild and New York Islanders.

Things have gotten so bad in Calgary, that Miikka Kiprusoff has to get his girls to pump up the slumped Dion Phaneuf, who's lost that magic he showed in his rookie season.

Yet another "Playfair to be dismissed" rumour ridiculed by Sutter...

For two days, the local airwaves have been buzzing about the possibility of a Calgary Flames coaching change — and that Jim Playfair's job was in jeopardy. General manager Darryl Sutter put an end to the speculation Monday morning, saying it simply wasn't going to happen.

"Just put it to bed nationally," said Sutter, in an interview. "Somebody put it to bed. Every time we lose two games, they say it's the coach. It's not a coaching thing. It's a collective team thing. You get to this point of the season, it's a team thing. Don't somebody try to isolate it on one player or the coach. -Erik Duhatschek, Globe Sports

I've also had enough of these "Sutter to dismiss Playfair for playoffs" rumours.
Ok, the team gets in a funk for a few games then gets Flame hot again and people forget about these sayings, which have grown way out of proportion.

Playfair has done a good job, his Flames are slightly worse than last year and if they continue to play good hockey, like they have for most of the second half, they'll be a shoo-in for the playoffs.
Besides, it's not as if the Flames are "choking" with him behind the bench, he (well the team) did pull them out of their slump back in October-November when his head coaching career got off to a bad start.

Nevertheless, he's the man, and Sutter stands by his words.