[DazzlinDino]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

People are talking about the Lindholm trade, but there's actually been a remarkable amount of turnover in a very short time. In less than two weeks:

• Ruzicka out on waivers. Skilled, but terribly inconsistent, and not much good for anything when not scoring. Not good enough for the top six, not responsible enough for the bottom six.

• DeSimone out on waivers. I liked him, but he was a minor-league player and a bit in over his head.

• Dube out, suspended. The team tried him all over the place this season, but he just didn't perform anywhere.

• Lindholm out, traded. A good player having an awful season. Didn't want to re-sign here, didn't have chemistry with any of the remaining roster players, seemed mentally checked out.

In short, four square pegs on a team with nothing but round holes.

• Kuzmenko in, via trade. Clicked instantly with Huberdeau, and gave the team a desperately needed scoring threat.

• Pachal in, from waivers. A tough, no-nonsense defenceman who couldn't stick as a regular on last year's champions, but looks pretty good here so far.

• Pelletier and Rooney in, from IR/AHL. A good prospect and a journeyman, both recovering from identical serious injuries and both eager to get their careers back on track.

For the situation the Flames are in, I'd say all four changes are positive. Kuzmenko > Lindholm, Pachal > DeSimone, Pelletier > Ruzicka, Rooney > Dube. All of the new guys are highly motivated, and all the guys who seemed to be moping are gone.

The next few weeks will be very interesting.

The past few years the Flames have struggled with "passengers", even some of our top players have played like passengers when things were not going right with them. Johnny, Matt even had seasons like that. I think that this has been a long-time Flames issue. Inconsistency can hold the team back from winning games, costly penalties, broken plays, and poor efforts. There have been times when it just seemed like the players dictated the efforts during the season and playoffs. Hopefully, we start to see better team efforts and individual play.