2013/14 General Heat Discussion Thread

[Drury18]

As per the Flames, Chad Billins has been returned to the Heat.

[Drury18]

Question for the fans in Abbotsford: Do the Heat ever do Mystery Puck nights to benefit a charity?

Noticed this is a common thing with other AHL teams (seen OKC and Portland do it with additional prizes for "golden" pucks) but never saw the Heat do one.

If they did, I'd have to find a way to beg them to let me buy some (and of course pay shipping) to bolster up the collection.

[thymebalm]

Is it Conroy or Burke handling the Heat roster right now? Its getting to be a joke with guys playing way over their heads and out of position. This is the most important stretch for the Heat, and in my opinion, it's best for the future of the Flames to go far in the AHL playoffs. The moves made so far just put our best guys from Abby on the bench in Calgary.

Ward getting frustrated, I'm already there.

[Alberta_Beef]

Originally Posted by thymebalm

Is it Conroy or Burke handling the Heat roster right now? Its getting to be a joke with guys playing way over their heads and out of position. This is the most important stretch for the Heat, and in my opinion, it's best for the future of the Flames to go far in the AHL playoffs. The moves made so far just put our best guys from Abby on the bench in Calgary.

Ward getting frustrated, I'm already there.

Honestly Ward is not doing a great job right now either IMO. Injuries between the Flames and Heat have hurt, but his line selection right now is downright brutal. His obsession with no defined 4th is killing us IMO. We have a chance to have 2-3 scoring lines and instead Ward is putting a scrub on several different lines

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by thymebalm

Is it Conroy or Burke handling the Heat roster right now? Its getting to be a joke with guys playing way over their heads and out of position. This is the most important stretch for the Heat, and in my opinion, it's best for the future of the Flames to go far in the AHL playoffs. The moves made so far just put our best guys from Abby on the bench in Calgary.

Ward getting frustrated, I'm already there.

This isn't the important stretch - the playoffs are the most important.

And ALL of the players will be back for the playoffs (as will the college kids).

[Pierre "Monster" McGuire]

Originally Posted by Drury18

Question for the fans in Abbotsford: Do the Heat ever do Mystery Puck nights to benefit a charity?

Noticed this is a common thing with other AHL teams (seen OKC and Portland do it with additional prizes for "golden" pucks) but never saw the Heat do one.

If they did, I'd have to find a way to beg them to let me buy some (and of course pay shipping) to bolster up the collection.

I've never heard of such a thing...

What's a Mystery Puck? Can you explain what it is further? Might be a nice change from Chuck-A-Puck haha.

[Pierre "Monster" McGuire]

Originally Posted by thymebalm

Is it Conroy or Burke handling the Heat roster right now? Its getting to be a joke with guys playing way over their heads and out of position. This is the most important stretch for the Heat, and in my opinion, it's best for the future of the Flames to go far in the AHL playoffs. The moves made so far just put our best guys from Abby on the bench in Calgary.

Ward getting frustrated, I'm already there.

I'm confused about this myself. My understanding is that Burke ultimately determines the roster, but Conroy and Ward put their heads together to come up with the PTO/fillers/ECHL call-ups. I'm not certain on that though.

Either way, you're not alone in your frustration. I will give this team one thing though. If this were the Walter/Kolanos/Laing days, this team would be on the outside looking in right now. They would've fallen off back in December.

It's a testament to how well these kids are doing that they're only going through a bit of a losing streak now in late February.

Originally Posted by Alberta_Beef

Honestly Ward is not doing a great job right now either IMO. Injuries between the Flames and Heat have hurt, but his line selection right now is downright brutal. His obsession with no defined 4th is killing us IMO. We have a chance to have 2-3 scoring lines and instead Ward is putting a scrub on several different lines

Agreed. Essentially the fourth line is whatever line Bancks is on. Last night I believe Kremyr was with him. That's a good fourth line. I have no problems with that. The issue is having a solid third line guy like Olson playing big minutes on top lines where he's not really able to. Jooris is another example of this. He's a rookie who's weathering a bit of a fatigue storm right now. He's playing more minutes than he ever has before. He's not a first or second line guy right now. An Olson and Jooris third line would provide good physicality and could pin the other team in their zone for a while.

If you're referencing that McKelvie-Street-Locke line from two nights ago. Yeah, wow. I agree. Not sure what Ward was thinking there.

[Drury18]

Originally Posted by Pierre "Monster" McGuire

I've never heard of such a thing...

What's a Mystery Puck? Can you explain what it is further? Might be a nice change from Chuck-A-Puck haha.

Absolutely.

The way I've seen it done is that you have a number of pucks for sale that have been signed by someone on the team (every puck, not like the Flames where it's 1 in 3 or 1 in 5, every puck is a signed one). Can be either a regular puck or one that's been done up for the charity that the proceeds are supporting (OKC was the Oklahoma Special Olympics, Portland I think did something with the Cardiac Center, the Coyotes, Devils, Kings and Canadiens have done it for their respective community programs). The pucks are then wrapped in foil (or something else that covers the signature) and put on a table.

Fans pay the price of the puck, somewhere between $5 or $10 for the AHL team ones (NHL runs $25-$50 depending on the team), pick out a puck from the table and unwrap it and find out whose signature you get.

In OKC's case, if you got a puck that was signed in a gold pen rather then a silver pen, you won a meet and greet autograph session with the team after that game. This is what their pucks looked like:



That's how Portland had theirs wrapped up, so you can't tell who you've gotten until you open it:



From what I've seen, it's a well received way to raise money for charity as everyone gets a signed puck out of the deal.

[Francis's Hairpiece]

I'm just going to throw out some more love for Max Power.

I am thrilled with this guy. Huge progress in his sophomore year; from 7 goals and 21 points last year to 17 goals and 45 points in 50 games this year so far.

I can't wait until he becomes a fixture in the big club lineup.

[Alberta_Beef]

Originally Posted by Pierre "Monster" McGuire

Agreed. Essentially the fourth line is whatever line Bancks is on. Last night I believe Kremyr was with him. That's a good fourth line. I have no problems with that. The issue is having a solid third line guy like Olson playing big minutes on top lines where he's not really able to. Jooris is another example of this. He's a rookie who's weathering a bit of a fatigue storm right now. He's playing more minutes than he ever has before. He's not a first or second line guy right now. An Olson and Jooris third line would provide good physicality and could pin the other team in their zone for a while.

If you're referencing that McKelvie-Street-Locke line from two nights ago. Yeah, wow. I agree. Not sure what Ward was thinking there.

That line with McKelvie the other day is exactly what crossed my mind when I was posting that, in fact his entire lineup that day just seemed off.

I had to look up what I posted in the GDT but the lines were:

Baertschi - Reinhart - Hanowski
Trupp - Knight - Olson
McKelvie - Locke - Street
Bancks - Jones - Jooris

In my mind there is no way Trupp and McKelvie should be above the 4th line. I see zero reason to play them with anyone but Bancks. He also split up guys that have been playing very well together and it just doesn't make sense. I don't know why he took Jones off that line to move him to the Bancks line. I am no coach but I would have gone with this:

Baertschi - Reinhart - Jones
Locke - Knight - Street
Hanowski - Olson - Jooris
Trupp - Bancks - McKelvie

[Enoch Root]

agreed - exactly what I would have gone with too

(though I am no coach either)

[Alberta_Beef]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

agreed - exactly what I would have gone with too

(though I am no coach either)

it just seems so obvious to me with the depleted lineup it was just so easy to have a an energy/checking line (4th line), a scoring/checking line (3rd line) and 2 scoring lines.

[Drury18]

I was okay with Olson going up a line. I think he earned that promotion with his play of late. I don't think it would be a permanent spot for him, but it was earned and appropriately rewarded.

Totally agree that McKevie and Trupp were 4th liners and no need to be put any higher. Especially as there were other players that could fill out the 2nd/3rd line roles in the absence of other players.

I would have had:

Baertschi-Reinhart-Jones
Locke-Knight-Olson
Hanowski-Street-Jooris
Trupp-Bancks-McKelvie

[Alberta_Beef]

Originally Posted by Drury18

I was okay with Olson going up a line. I think he earned that promotion with his play of late. I don't think it would be a permanent spot for him, but it was earned and appropriately rewarded.

Totally agree that McKevie and Trupp were 4th liners and no need to be put any higher. Especially as there were other players that could fill out the 2nd/3rd line roles in the absence of other players.

I would have had:

Baertschi-Reinhart-Jones
Locke-Knight-Olson
Hanowski-Street-Jooris
Trupp-Bancks-McKelvie

I'd have no problem with that either, at least you don't look at it and wonder what kind of hallucinogen was dropped

[Drury18]

The Chicago Wolves did get the win tonight, so Abbotsford has gone from 1st in the Western Conference to 5th in a span of a week.

[RFP]

Originally Posted by Drury18

The Chicago Wolves did get the win tonight, so Abbotsford has gone from 1st in the Western Conference to 5th in a span of a week.

Could this be the beginning of what happened with the Jets….everyone not playing up to their potential and not playing for the coach……can't fire the team so…..

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by RFP

Could this be the beginning of what happened with the Jets….everyone not playing up to their potential and not playing for the coach……can't fire the team so…..

LOL. You're funny

What's your agenda here again? Ward kill your cat or something?

[GreenLantern]

Is Ferland slotted to be back for playoffs?

Granlund will be back down, if Ferland is healthy and JG and/or Arnold sign that is a great depth booster for the Heat moving into the playoffs.

[Drury18]

The impression I get is that Ferland is done until next year's training camp. It sounds like it was a significant injury and he's not available to the team at all.

Sieloff sounds more likely to suit up for the Heat then Ferland for the playoffs.

[Alberta_Beef]

Originally Posted by RFP

Could this be the beginning of what happened with the Jets….everyone not playing up to their potential and not playing for the coach……can't fire the team so…..

Or it could be what happens when teams are decimated with injuries and the standings are tight.

Your troll game is weak, you need to step it up