My interest in the Flames is dwindling. There are so many other things I can do with my spare time that it is difficult to invest three hours in watching a ####ty product, and the Flames are a ####ty product. Then again, the whole league is garbage and not worth watching. NHL hockey is boring. It's over-coached and technology has made it frustrating to watch. The players are too big, too fast, and too well coached to the point they never take chances and are always minimizing risk. The days of back and forth scoring opportunities are long gone and we are subject to watching formula track hockey. I really regret purchasing NHL Center Ice this year as I can count the games I've enjoyed on one hand. Just a brutal product to watch and I find myself flipping channels way more than I used to.
On the Flames, all the things that made them compelling last season are missing this season. The youth that lifted you out of your seat on every shift is missing. It's either stuck playing with guys with no passion or stuck in the minors behind a collection of middling has-beens. The best thing that happened to the Flames last season was the injury bug ravaging the veterans and forcing Hartley's hand into playing the kids. That is when things turned around. That is what won Hartley the Jack Adams, not his brilliance in milking the most out of his team. The Flames last year were a bunch of young guys that fed off each other and played for each other. They were learning the game together and played for each other's success. That dynamic is sorely missing. As much as I love watching Gaudreau, Brodie, and Monahan, it turns my stomach to be subjected to Wideman, Russell, Bolig, Raymond, Jones, Hiller, Hudler, etc. stinking up the joint every game and playing with no passion. What is really frustrating is watching and nothing happening to the usual suspects. This is a boring hockey team to watch because of the players the coach continues to use on a regular basis. It is killing my interest in the Flames and in the NHL in general.
I was really hopeful for a repeat of last season and the youth movement would continue. I thought that when Kulak made the team out of camp it would mark the team continuing to bring in the young players and getting rid of the under-performing chaff. The NHL has become a young man's game, but Brad Treliving didn't get that memo. This year could have been very interesting by continuing the youth movement, but poor decisions were made. When Kulak was sent down I became skeptical. When Raymond was waived my faith was restored for a very short 24 hour period. When Granlund was sent down I became jaded. The "never given, always earned" mantra went out the window and with it my interest in this hockey team.
I use to feel bad when I missed a game, now I'm feeling relieved that I didn't subject myself to three hours of shaking my head in frustration. When I do watch I can't even be bothered to yell at the TV set as I just don't give a #### about this team. My wife and dogs appreciate that, but I hate it. My passion for the game has been drained out of me by Bob Hartley and his cadre of favorite sons. I keep hoping that Treliving will "Billy Beane" some of these guys, but he appears to be gripped by the same malaise of believing these guys had more to do with last season's result than they did. Until something major happens, and those players are sent packing, I'll invest my time a little more wisely. I just hope that by time those changes are made that my interest in hockey fades like my interest in baseball did (I went from a multiple game a night watcher of baseball during the summer in 2000 to not having watched a full game in over a decade). The Flames, and hockey in general, is on that same slope. I want to be entertained and the Flames do not provide that entertainment. As sad as it is to admit, the Oilers have been a better product to watch this season. In years gone by I would watch the Oilers games just to see them lose and remind myself that that things could be worse. Sadly, the Oilers are playing better hockey, are much more entertaining (with the volume off), and are showing much more promise than the Flames. If that doesn't tell you why a guy would lose interest in the Flames and stop watching hockey all together then nothing will! I hope for a turn around, but I don't see it coming as long as Hartley is coach and Treliving is afraid to make a deal. It's just all too depressing to think about. Sigh.
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