"Captain" Mark Giordano

[flylock shox]

It's a shame the GM didn't wait until this point to ink Gio's deal. I thought with that type of injury, and the Hamilton signing providing some leverage, a brief wait and see would have made sense.

Hopefully this is just a slump like so many players are suffering it seems. But we really need our D to start earning their pay, either on defence or offence. Both would be great. But having them contributing to neither is killing the team.

[Dion]

When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things - Joe Namath

Clearly Gio has none of the above right now.

[kehatch]

It's not just Giordano.

Last season Sutter said Monahan was the caliber of Toews. Gaudreau has been compared to Datsyuk in terms of style. Backlund was one of the better defensive players in the NHL. Giordano and Brodie were one of the top defensive pairs in the NHL. Frolik was considered a top defensive specialist. Hamilton had great 5 on 5 numbers in Boston. Wideman and Russell might have been over rated but they carried the load after Giordano went down. Hiller and Ramo weren't great, buy they stopped enough pucks to win.

The point is, we shouldn't be this bad defensively. In fact we should be one of the better defensive teams in the league.

[Chingas]

Originally Posted by Gaudfather

Gio in his post game comments was using the word "we" all the time - "we had bad looks" "we got to do better" - no taking ownership saying I'm not good enough right now, I'm not leading this team. A strong leader needs to make it personal.

I actually prefer this. For too long he has been saying I. I hope that he starts calling a spade a spade in the room. If its on him then own it, if it is someone else who needs a wake up give it to them straight.

[Tinordi]

Hopefully he turns it around. That contract extension is looking scarier and scarier.

[nightfx]

Wade Redden 2.0

Just kidding... I think

[Vinny01]

I think it is all mental with Gio right now. This season is the most pressure he has likely ever faced. This is the first year in his captaincy that expectations for himself and the team from the outside are sky high. He is coming off a bad injury and the big contract all are contributing to his lack of confidence right now.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

I take great offense to the quotation marks around captain in the OP. Somehow we are suggesting that he's not doing enough as the captain now?

Seriously everyone, take a deep breath here. I really don't want CP to go down the same road we did with Iginla, where everything was his fault when things didn't go well. He didn't deserve it then and Giordano certainly doesn't deserve all the blame now.

Something is wrong with him this year, yes, no doubt, and it is a little troubling. Seeing some of the comments suggesting he isn't trying because he got paid make my stomach turn. Giordano has never been a guy who has been about the money, and his effort has never been in question. His decision making is not good and that's about the only thing that's wrong. Confidence is shot as a result. You could say the exact same thing about the entire team. Just fragile.

It's frustrating, and I understand people who are looking for answers, but the mental part of the game is sometimes the hardest thing to correct, and often it takes a long time to get back on track once confidence is shot. In fact, it might mean this season isn't going to get much better than this, so make peace with that.

Just stop the asinine comments about a player and person who has been nothing but dedicated to the success of this franchise. Maybe we can be just a little forgiving of a player we all appreciated as the guy who turned around the culture of a broken team?

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

Oh for Petes sake.

In fairness Jiri, at least these people are behaving in a way consistent with their equally embarrassing and over the top criticisms of Iginla.

It may not be an intelligent opinion, but at least it is a consistent one.

[Finger Cookin]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

I really don't want CP to go down the same road we did with Iginla, where everything was his fault when things didn't go well. He didn't deserve it then and Giordano certainly doesn't deserve all the blame now.

Seeing some of the comments suggesting he isn't trying because he got paid make my stomach turn. Giordano has never been a guy who has been about the money, and his effort has never been in question. His decision making is not good and that's about the only thing that's wrong. Confidence is shot as a result. You could say the exact same thing about the entire team. Just fragile.

It's frustrating, and I understand people who are looking for answers, but the mental part of the game is sometimes the hardest thing to correct, and often it takes a long time to get back on track once confidence is shot. In fact, it might mean this season isn't going to get much better than this, so make peace with that.

Just stop the asinine comments about a player and person who has been nothing but dedicated to the success of this franchise. Maybe we can be just a little forgiving of a player we all appreciated as the guy who turned around the culture of a broken team?

Unfortunately, the tide started to turn against Giordano the moment his contract "demands" were leaked. Too many Flames fans love tearing guys down even more than they enjoy cheering them on and building them up. It's been like that for a long, long time.

The backup or third stringer is almost always more popular and deserving than the starter. Any player 22 or younger is automatically better than any player 28 or older. A player can be a great player if they make less than $2M, but a terrible embarrassment if you make over $3M even if nothing about the player has changed. Other than the sin of getting older.

[Erick Estrada]

IMO Gio and the other defenseman simply need to get back to basics and worry about defending their own end first and letting the offense come on turnovers. Gio has made a lot of turnovers on the rush and at the opponents blue line. I simply feel Hartley's system is so high risk that defensemen simply have too little margin for error. When they struggle as they have this season it just snowballs. I feel Gio in a better system wouldn't look nearly this bad. That said I still don't like the contract as I feel like the organization was foolish to sign him after a career season when they could have let this one unfold and have a bit more leverage to sign him to a friendlier deal or trade him at the deadline.

[Funkhouser]

I have to admit, the quote about him smoking crack in the off season made me laugh.

But seriously, blaming the injury last year is not an excuse. Many players have come back from major injuries without missing a beat. He had lots of time to train and claims to be at 100%.

Something isn't clicking mentally and it might be worth sitting him to get the message through.

[Resolute 14]

^ Very true. Blaming Gio's struggles on his injury *is* a cop out. Like nearly everyone else on this team at this point, his poor play is mental.

[BigFlameDog]

Not every thought has to become a friggin thread.....or post for that matter. Big waste of bytes in here.

[Dajazz]

With a C on his chest and an upcoming elite salary he needs to pick up his play. Its not that he's just in a slump, that'd be fine, but he's pretty much one of our least reliable defensemen right now. He should be glad we have Wideman and Engelland in our top 6, or else he'd look a lot worse.

I really hope he picks it up, if he doesn't, that contract will be in Wade Redden territory. Fingers crossed he returns to form, because right now he is hurting the team on the ice.

Some people likes to belive its not "fair" to point fingers, but he is the man who is supposed to lead the team with his quality in play. The letter on his chest and his contract attest to that and he should be held accountable as everybody else, perhaps even more so.

Snap out of it Gio, the Flames need you!

[Cflames_12.5]

Agreed his play has been garbage of late. But I believe he will snap out of this funk. He is an elite player and he will show it again. If we give up on him trade him we will regret it definitely. There is still lots of hockey to be play.

[btimbit]

Looks like a guy coming off a major injury. I fully expect him to have a beast of a second half of the season. Hope it's not too late by then though

[polak]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

Seriously everyone, take a deep breath here. I really don't want CP to go down the same road we did with Iginla, where everything was his fault when things didn't go well.

Giordano is playing far worse than Iginla ever was.

[stone hands]

Originally Posted by Hells Bells

Yeah, who cares how bad Gio plays this year because he was awesome last year.

Funny nobody defends Wideman, when he was also a beast last year.

Except wideman was awful all last year, he was just given beauty chances by Johnny on a silver platter all year and scored his problems away. This year he has no goals and is still a slow guy with coverage issues. Not comparable to gio at all really

[Huntingwhale]

Why is the word captain in quotations marks in the title??

As for Gio's play, everything that needs to be said has been said already. I give Gio a longer leash for a couple reasons. He's not playing with his new contract...yet. So we can't really be saying his contract is an anchor when it hasn't even kicked it. Having said that, he isn't even playing like a 4mil player so that's kind of concerning.

Also the universal consensus on CP and the media was that we should him signed to an extension ASAP. The move was praised by everyone except for one guy I remember saying he was cautiously optimistic because of what happened with the Bouwmeester signing, and he got crapped on for saying that. Now suddenly, people are popping up as experts who ''predicted'' this would come to fruition .

When Gio's new contract actually kicks in next season, I'll start proclaiming it a bad move IF he continues down this path. But he's got time on his side, so bringing up his new contract is kind of pointless. Especially when almost all of us approved of it.

All one has to do is look at players throughout NHL history who have had down seasons. Everyone has them. Patrick Marleau had a poor season in 2008. I remember threads on CP asking if his career was over. He's bounced back nicely. Crosby is having a down year. But he will bounce back. In fact pull up any veteran player on NHL.com and look at their stats. Outside of the very few elite, every single star player has down seasons. Many of them multiple.

I have no doubt Gio will bounce back. Maybe not until later this season. But he will eventually.

But hey, people are ready to trade him for Hamonic. A guy they didn't even know until his name popped up in trade rumours last week.