[Trade] Brian McGrattan to the Flames for Joe Piskula. McGrattan assigned to Heat

[CarlW]

I remember that all his shots were along the ice (can't get em up high I guess) and created rebounds.

[BruceCody]

Originally Posted by you got PHANUEFED

Added toughness this team needs but McGratton is not the right guy.

bad boy, bad boy...

Spoiler!

[djsFlames]

I Really wish we had picked up Peter Mueller from free agency.

He was sitting there for a while for the taking...

Now 6 goals and plus player with the sub-par Panthers.

Ughhhhhh... Would have been a perfect fit.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by RaitisIvanans41

For making a hockey move and not wanting his team to be pillow-soft?

Jay is the guy that moved the team in the direction of soft. I'm just not a fan of the flip flopping and this is his team now as he's got his coach and has brought in some of his players. There's beginning to be a pattern of mistakes followed by quick fix measures. Ideally you would like managment to be on top of things like team toughness, center depth, and quality backup goaltenders in the offseason but since that was not done the team has had to resort to fixing things on the fly and this lack of vision is something I would expect from the Oilers not the Flames but it seems that the two franchises are becoming more alike than we would hope to admit. If feels like the team is being managed on the fly which is disappointing.

[stignasty]

<panties in a wad> Minor league deal. </panties in a wad>

[Bingo]

if I found a way to filter over reactions to minor issues on this site today my traffic would drop 90%

between McGrattan thread, the game day thread, and the play Baertschi thread people are losing their minds!

[Poe969]

consider mine lost!
(still going to enjoy watching McGrattan play)

[Vinny01]

Flames wanted a fighter and they got one. Hartley typically roles 3 lines anyway so now there is a legit enforcer on the roster who can throw down with anyone in the game at the cost of a AHL Dman that had no future with the organization.

Obviously I am hoping for bigger changes to get me believing this team has potential but I am not going to say this was a bad move. It is so minor there is no need for any reaction really.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Bingo

if I found a way to filter over reactions to minor issues on this site today my traffic would drop 90%

between McGrattan thread, the game day thread, and the play Baertschi thread people are losing their minds!

Fanatic: A person marked or motivated by an extreme, unreasoning enthusiasm, as for a cause.

[MissTeeks]

@NHLFlames: "He's a tough customer and I'll be honest, I love him." - Bob Hartley on the acquisition of Brian McGrattan (@bigern10)

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by Hells Bells

I certainly won't mind if that "staged" fight leads to a momentum change in a Flames W.

Boo. In the season after Burke made his infamous "truculance" remark some Leafs bloggers did a study to see if team scoring rates increased in the immediate aftermath of a fight... what they found was that it had zero impact, the team scoring rate remained static.

Besides even if there was a flaw in that study one would think that the "momentum" is a two-way street... that the other team will experience the "momentum" as often as the Flames would making it a wash over the long-term.

I think it's probably a nothing trade. It neither improves or depreciates the team... I mean in theory every shift he takes probably makes the team worse since he'd instantly becomes the worst player on the team but I imagine that he'll take roughly half as many shifts as the other fourthies and for the other shifts he'll be covered by another player (a better player then the one he replaces) taking the rest making it a wash in terms of talent.

Of course if Baertschi ends up assigned to Abbotsford as a result I'd like to pre-order my pitchfork and torch in advance.

[timbit]

Excellent diversionary tactic by Jay.

[JayP]

Originally Posted by Parallex

Boo. In the season after Burke made his infamous "truculance" remark some Leafs bloggers did a study to see if team scoring rates increased in the immediate aftermath of a fight... what they found was that it had zero impact, the team scoring rate remained static.

Quoted for importance.

The idea of fighting building momentum for a team is a textbook example of confirmation bias.

[browna]

Originally Posted by RaitisIvanans41

For making a hockey move and not wanting his team to be pillow-soft?

IMO, not for this move...but evaluating the roster and extending Jackman last year (at the trade deadline) and now acquiring a player that's relatively the same impact for ice time, but adds more pure toughness then the guy Feaster signed.
Sure, you can blame it on Jackman for getting soft(er), but at some point the buck has to stop with the guy who signed him for 2 more years and has more or less now found his replacement..and is stuck with 2 of the same guys on the roster.

[FAN]

Originally Posted by Parallex

Boo. In the season after Burke made his infamous "truculance" remark some Leafs bloggers did a study to see if team scoring rates increased in the immediate aftermath of a fight... what they found was that it had zero impact, the team scoring rate remained static.

Originally Posted by JayP

The idea of fighting building momentum for a team is a textbook example of confirmation bias.

I thought fights happen more to change the momentum than build momentum? I would think that if fighting has zero impact, the winning team would continue to score while the losing team would continue to give up goals.

Either way, I'm not a fan of soft teams that don't respond to other teams running our star players or goalie.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by timbit

Excellent diversionary tactic by Jay.

Yeah, because everyone has forgotten all the other problems with the team today.

[sworkhard]

Originally Posted by getbak

Well, they just got rid of a defenceman in Abbotsford, so my guess is we'll see Babchuk on waivers in a couple of minutes. Aliu probably goes back down once everything is sorted out too.

It make sense, as I believe Piskula was considered on of the 5 or 6 veterans that can play in a AHL game, so by moving him, the Flames can send Babchuck to a situation where he can actually play.

[Senor Rinkrat]

Hoping for good entertaining hockey from this present bunch of sorry-assed untalented weak-kneed non-playoff weanie pacifists is a waste of time and money.McGratton is far better than the useless Aliu and will be a greater threat to opponents than Jackman

[joe_mullen]

Originally Posted by FAN

I thought fights happen more to change the momentum than build momentum? I would think that if fighting has zero impact, the winning team would continue to score while the losing team would continue to give up goals.

Either way, I'm not a fan of soft teams that don't respond to other teams running our star players or goalie.

i'm sure there are other ways to change momentum (like taking a timeout, a good shift, noise from the crowd) that are much more effective...that being said, it can be disputed that such a thing as "momentum" even exists.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by calgARI

How exactly does a player who sees the ice for 3 minutes a game make a team harder to play against?

Well, if he goes out there and kicks the living s***t out of anyone that runs our goalie, it would certainly make it a lot "harder" for teams to do that to us. Sounds like a pretty good start to me.