Neal. But still shocked at the Titov remarks...I always liked his game.
Yeah, he was great. He seemed to come out of nowhere and brought some skill and energy at a time things were looking pretty dark with the team starting to wane and losing players. I think he stayed in the Calgary community after retiring, at least for a while.
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Last edited by FlamesAddiction; 05-15-2024 at 01:54 PM.
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No love/hate for Petr Buzek? I was at a game against Dallas and Mike Modano picks up the puck at his blueline with Buzek a zone ahead of him. Modano starts skating through center ice and Buzek looked like a deer in headlights. I said to my wife, "Modano's going to go right around him". A moment later Modano turns on the jets and walks around Buzek so easily he couldn't even reach him with his stick. Now, Modano was a hell of a player and a great skater but he made Buzek look like he was standing still. Every time he was on the ice, which was too much, he was a liability.
I have a distinct memory of Buzek ending a long goal-less drought for the Flames and getting a huge roar from the Dome.
Clunk Wilm comes to mind too. I give the guy a lot of credit for carving out a career but he was devoid of any actual ability.
I know he’s not a player but just the way he’s been gobbling so much cOiler knob lately (never mind his own deserved transgressions) , my vote is for Craig Button.
I mean, you can argue he cost the Flames the Cup by buying out Martin St. Louis.
Just based on the hype I'm voting for Sergei Pryakin. The first Russian player to be given permission to play in the NHL. I remember there was a lot of hype around him coming over, a possible Russian superman with a granite jaw and all world skills, big reputation.
When he showed up you could almost here the Soviet National Anthem whenever he walked into the room. He was a 6 foot 3 210 pound monster on skates who would hammer an opponent to the ice and then declare "If he dies he dies".
Then he got on the ice, and nothing, completely invisible, he played about 40 games, scored 3 goals, bought some blue jeans and went home.
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Fun fact: I got to go down to the Flames dressing room as a kid when Smith was captain. When he came out of the dressing room, he lied and told my brother and I that he was the team doctor, not a player. We knew exactly who he was, but lied to 10 and 5-year-old kids to skip signing autographs. Class act through and through!
Fun fact: I got to go down to the Flames dressing room as a kid when Smith was captain. When he came out of the dressing room, he lied and told my brother and I that he was the team doctor, not a player. We knew exactly who he was, but lied to 10 and 5-year-old kids to skip signing autographs. Class act through and through!
That sucks. As an adult, I get why it would be kind of annoying, but it's not that hard to be nice to kids. When I was a kid, my friend and I walked up to Doug Gilmour and before we could even say anything, he told us to get lost. In the mind of a kid, it's a pretty crappy feeling.
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James Neal sucked. Never have I seen someone just not give any ####s at all. All these other guys at least tried, they just sucked. Neal sucked ass, didn't care 1 bit, and collected millions to do it. Just awful.
Honerable mentions to Nicklas Grossman, Mark Smith, and Anders Eriksson but none of those guys were expected to be more than fringe roster players....but every one of them was absolutely awful.
Also I remember Paul Kruse being pretty terrible but I was pretty young when he was on the Flames so that might not be as true as i remember it.
If he was a player today he couldn't even be an equipment manager.
True enough, but he was a fan favourite, and in 1986 his presence neutralized the Oilers’ goons, and this played a big part in the Flames being able to outplay the Oilers over the course of that series - the Flames would probably have won in game 6 if Johnson had gone with Vernon instead of Lemelin
I remember going to Sylvan Lake Hockey School for a few summers when I was 10-12ish and I remember Rocky Thompson was one of the "NHL" coaches on the ice (many Sutters made appearances) and thinking that I was almost NHL ready because I wasnt that far off of his level. Troy Loney blew his doors off like he played on a whole higher level.
