Well, this is an interesting development. Went to sleep feeling ambivalent about the Flames and wake up to this. All of a sudden there is a little more fire and a lot more GAF about the Flames. Feels good.
Surprised by this, but not surprised by this. Ward needed to go, so extremely happy to see that happen. I suspect that this decision was not made by Treliving and was forced upon him by ownership. Will be interesting to see the moves made the rest of the season and which puppeteer is pulling the strings. I'll be honest and say I think Sutter is the wrong guy for this team, but he's an improvement over Geoff "Mental" Ward. Take the improvement and move on being happy.
What does this mean moving forward? Likely means we're in for some changes in Dodge. Means Sam Bennett gets another life and another opportunity to prove he can play. This could be a very good thing for Bennett as I think Sutter will view him as his Dustin Brown. I think he's as smart as Brown (smart like potato) but no where near as skilled, so we'll see how this plays out. Means guys like Dube and Mangiapane may find themselves on shorter leashes while guys like Leivo and Ritchie are going to be staples in the lineup. What this does mean for certain, change is coming to the Calgary Flames. Look for a bigger and meaner team.
This may sound strange, but looking at the lines deployed last night, with the exception of Bennett, those lines looked very Sutteresque. I wonder if he's been providing some "guidance" the past few days while they wait for him to clear quarantine to make the announcement? Meh, maybe reading too much into it, but those lines from last night were not very Ward-like.
The rest of the season just got that much more interesting and have dragged me back in. It will be very interesting the strategy used by Sutter Saturday against Edmonton and McHobo. I suspect he's going to get hit a lot, and he's not going to like it. Looking forward to a Flames game for the first time in a month or so. I like it.
|