NBC - No Broadcast Complete?

Well it looks like summer has finally arrived in Calgary, so I thought I’d switch gears a little and talk some golf, particularly about this past weekend’s United States Open Championship. Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland was able to take home the trophy, after making it around famed Pebble Beach at even par for four rounds. But I’m not here to talk about the tournament; I’m here to talk about NBC’s atrocious coverage of the tournament.

Am I talking about the commentary, including Johnny Miller’s out-dated and self-indulgent ramblings? No, although I could go on for hours on that one too, even longer than Miller can talk about his 1973 Open triumph. Am I talking about the schmaltzy attempt at tear jerking that is rampant in every golf broadcast? No, although I could talk endlessly about why Davis Love doesn’t win because of a nearby rainbow or why Tiger doesn’t win because he has a father or has lost a father; every player on tour is in the same boat. Nay, every person on earth is in the same boat. (It’s a big boat) But I digress; I am here to rant about NBC’s awful camera work on Sunday’s US Open telecast. This was without a doubt the worst sports broadcast I’ve ever seen.

Since I simply don’t have the time to go through the entire seven hour broadcast (although I’d like to), I’m only going to talk about the final few holes of play on Sunday. And to narrow it down even more, I’m only going to talk about the final three groups, playing those final holes. The problem I had as a viewer over this final stretch was all the ___ shots ___ missed while _____ ____ ___. That was the experience watching golf yesterday afternoon. Fill in the blanks, a fun game to play with the kids!

Okay, we’ll start with the Mickelson-Els pairing hitting their tee shots on 14. Actually, maybe that’s not the best place to start, as we didn’t see Mickelson’s drive on 14, nor his second shot, nor Els’ second shot, and they cut away to show something else before Mickelson’s third shot stopped rolling. In fact, it ended up rolling back forty yards before it stopped, but I had to deduce that as I never actually saw it finish.

At this point in the tournament, Mickelson, Els, Woods, Havret, and eventually winner Graeme McDowell, were the only players in contention, and hence the only players being shown. I can understand that, who wants to watch Dustin Johnson limp home to a final round 82? But if you have only five players to show, you’d think you’d be able to show all their shots! Through the final five holes, those five players took a combined 111 strokes in about 150 minutes, and NBC missed almost 25% of them. Unacceptable.

When they joined the Woods-Havret twosome on the fifteenth hole, we were left to figure out for ourselves how Tiger’s ball ended up in the rough beside the green, not having seen either his drive nor his approach shot on that hole. Fortunately, after his chip, Dottie Pepper was able to tell us that after hitting his tee shot into the rough, Woods hit his approach a little heavy, and found himself short of the green, in the rough, chipping for birdie. Well, I’m glad I didn’t have to see all that! It was much better hearing about it. Ironically, while Dottie was telling us about what we missed on 15, the viewers missed two more shots on 16, forcing Brad Faxon to tell us about Mickelson and Els’ shots there. If only there were a medium featuring only sound, and no picture; golf coverage would be almost perfect.

I could continue ad nauseam about other missed shots, but rather than waste your time, I’ll merely use one of NBC’s favourite lines from yesterday’s broadcast, “while we were gone, [insert player name here] made/missed his putt for birdie/par/bogey and tapped in for par/bogey/double bogey.”

Now let’s talk about the few shots they did show. Hmmm…there was Tiger’s putt on thirteen, which used such an odd angle, from below the putting surface, that you couldn’t see the hole, only the ball. When Tiger did putt, we watched it roll along and then wondered why all the commentators were gasping. On a reply we saw the ball burn the edge of the cup, and figured out their gasps were because of how close it was. I’m not sure why we couldn’t have seen that the first time around. Or how about Mickelson’s tee shot on 17, which we joined mid-backswing. You could hear the commentator rushing his words, “…Mickelsonon17withasixiron,” trying to squeeze it into the half second it takes for Mickelson to hit the ball. The same thing happened on Mickelson’s chip shot on 17, (an amazing shot from the deep rough near the grandstand that was merely glossed over by NBC), his bunker shot on 18, Els’ fourth shot on 14, and a Havret birdie putt.

The best instance of joining a shot at the last second however, was Mickelson’s approach on the fifteenth hole. While Mickelson addressed the ball, we were shown a head-on camera angle, but as he brought the club back they switched cameras, revealing Mickelson’s ball lying on a bed of TV cables! We see this for about half of one second before the ball goes sailing into the air. The ball finds its way into the rough near the green, but before it stops moving the cameras cut away to Johnny Miller and Dan Hicks joking about still being on the air after having their cables chopped at. Not only did they not set the shot up at all, they never offered any explanation as to why he hit it either. I don’t think I’ve ever seen somebody hit a shot off of TV cables in the US Open, in the final round, while in contention, but I guess NBC didn’t feel it was worth talking about. Imagine if that shot ended up finding the green, only a couple of feet from the pin. It would be one of the more dramatic shots in US Open history, but relegated to a mere footnote in NBC’s coverage.

Perhaps this is why hockey’s TV ratings are lagging in the United States. Is NBC doing the same thing for hockey games? “While we were gone, Ovechkin and Crosby each scored their third goal of the game and began arguing over whose hat trick was nicer. They then dropped the gloves in probably the most exciting hockey fight in the history of the game.” This of course would be told as the camera showed a young fan sleeping in his seat. Why watch it live when you can be told about it later? Of course it wasn’t all bad this weekend and the optimist in me always finds a silver lining in every storm cloud. The good news is, there isn’t another golf tournament on NBC until September 5th at the Deutsche Bank Championship. Enjoy.


-TheRev

Flames Cap Crunch Continued

After dissecting the backend and goaltending situation of the Calgary Flames I thought I would conclude by taking a further look into the quagmire of grinders and checkers that are the Flames forwards.

Currently the Flames have 10 forwards signed at $28,954,166. The rundown of players looks like this:

Jarome Iginla –Age 31, $7,000,000
Daymond Langkow-Age 32, $4,500,000
Matt Stajan – Age 25, $3,500,000
Rene Bourque- Age 27, $3,333,333
Niklas Hagman – Age 29, $3,000,000
Ales Kotalik – Age 30, $3,000,000
David Moss – Age 27, $1,300,000
Mikael Backlund – Age 20, $1,270,833
Curtis Glencross – Age 26, $1,200,000
Nigel Dawes – Age 24, $840,000

Where do you start?

Well, of those forwards, Iginla and Langkow both have ‘No Movement Clauses’ while Stajan, Bourque and Kotalik all have ‘No Trade Clauses.’ Now, this does not protect these players from being bought out by the Flames; specifically looking at Kotalik who was acquired in the Jokinen deal and put up an astounding three goals and five points in 26 games with the Flames. If you stretch that over an entire 82 game season, he would have almost put up 16 points, roughly $189,000 per point. Buying out Ales’ contract would give the Flames an extra $2,000,000 in cap space with $1,000,000 going towards the cap. Do yourself a favour Sutter and get rid of this useless player.

Side note: If this were to happen and the Flames were to not re-sign Higgins, then the Flames would have traded Jokinen for nothing, which further adds to the horror of the initial Jokinen deal that sent Lombardi, Prust and a 1st rounder to Phoenix. So, basically Sutter would just give the Coyotes those two players and a 1st rounder for a firm handshake…things that make you go hmmmmm.

Now, rumours were swirling that one the Flames core players were asked to waive their ‘No trade/movement clause.’ Much speculation has been that it was Regehr, but let’s just assume it was not and assume possibly that it is Langkow. With the addition of yet another 2nd line centerman in Matt Stajan this past season and the call up of highly touted prospect Mikael Backlund, it would look as if Langks is the odd man out. The reason being is that Stajan is not a first line center and so must play in the 2nd line spot. Backlund would not get sufficient enough ice time on the 3rd line to be developed properly, meaning he would be in line for more 1st line work alongside Iginla. This leaves Langkow with a hefty price tag and no place to play. Expect to see Langkow moved on Draft day, possibly for a couple draft picks.

This would free up another $4.5 million leaving Sutter with further wiggle room when going after some UFA’s.

Getting back to Backlund, he is ready for full time duty in the NHL. He has shown significant improvement in his game and it is time for him to show why the Flames drafted him 24th overall in the 2007 entry draft. I would love to see Sutter utilize him on the first line and on the power play. He has the playmaking ability that would open up room for Iginla and possibly give Jarome that center he has always dreamed of.

Looking at the Flames UFA forwards, Eric Nystrom stands at the top of the list. He has shown drastic improvement in his game year after year and has immerged as a leader on this team. He kills penalties, he scores timely goals, and he cares about winning. Other teams have seen the youth and energy that Nystrom can bring to a team and you can guarantee that he is on many GM’s radar come July 1. Sutter should sign this guy immediately. I would think he would compare with David Moss in terms of monetary value. He hasn’t shown the offensive flare equivalent to Moss, yet he has shown his leadership qualities and strong defensive ability which would counteract the lack of scoring. Sign him in the $1.3 million range for three years.

This all being said, the Flames still lack another top six forward. The Flames other UFA’s and RFA’s should be all non factors in this category. Higgins, Conroy, Mayers…gone, gone, gone and gone. These are all dime a dozen players in the NHL.

You first look at the top of the free agent list where you would find Patrick Marleau and Ilya Kovalchuk. Marleau is coming off of a huge year and will be demanding upwards of $6 million a year while Ilya wants even more. Both unlikely scenarios for Calgary, I believe.

So what about the rest?

There is Alexander Frolov, a talented Russian forward with loads of skill and still only 27 years old. He would add a dynamic element to the Flames power play, something they definitely need and simply provide the Flames with an added weapon. He made $4,000,000 last season with the Kings and would likely be in line for something similar. If Matt Stajan is worth $3.5, than Frolov is definitely his equal and most likely better.

Another option could be Lee Stempniak who is coming off a breakout second half with the Phoenix Coyotes and will probably want a slight raise from his $2,500,000 salary of last year.

What about buying on a low? Well look no further than Alex Tanguay. After leaving the Flames in 2008, he went on to Montreal where injuries hampered his season and was subsequently forgotten about until he signed in Tampa Bay last September. He had his worst year ever offensively, only scoring 10 goals and 37 points in 80 games with the Lightning. He made $2,500,000 last season but would likely take less in 2010-11 and is an ideal candidate for a rebound season.

Tomas Plekanac, Matthew Lombardi, Paul Kariya, Marek Svatos and Pavol Demitra are some other possible candidates. All fast, skilful players who would add some much needed talent to the Flames organization.

Directing our attention to the Flames prospect pool you have a few players that might be ready to make the full time jump to the show.

Brett Sutter would be ideal to fill the fourth line role this year. He is young, at 21 years of age, and he is sound defensively (he has Sutter genes), so he wouldn’t be a liability on the ice like former fourth liners might have been.

Greg Nemisz, Mitch Wahl, and Bryan Cameron are all candidates to challenge for a starting spot on this team. Cameron scored 53 goals this season with the OHL Runner up Barrie Colts. Wahl put up 96 points with Spokane this season, while picking up 4 points in 4 games with the Abbostford Heat at the end of the season. He also picked up 6 points in 12 playoff games with the Heat. Nemisz is coming off of back-to-back Memorial Cup Championships with the Windsor Spitfires. He was relegated to more of a checking role late in the season as he was a little overshadowed by someone else on that team…I think his name is Tom, or Tyler, or is it Taylor…I don’t really recall. Nemisz still picked up 70 points this season and has scored at least 34 goals in three straight seasons.

It is time for the Flames to buy in to the young revolution in the NHL. The Flames are the 7th oldest team in the NHL. By comparison the Chicago Blackhawks are the youngest team in the NHL; seems to have worked out alright for them.

With all the changes I have proposed, the Flames forward core could look something like this:

Jarome Iginla –Age 31, $7,000,000
Alexander Frolov – Age 27, $4,000,000*
Matt Stajan – Age 25, $3,500,000
Rene Bourque- Age 27, $3,333,333
Niklas Hagman – Age 29, $3,000,000
David Moss – Age 27, $1,300,000
Eric Nystrom – Age 26, $1,300,000*
Mikael Backlund – Age 20, $1,270,833
Curtis Glencross – Age 26, $1,200,000
Mitch Wahl – Age 20, $883,333*
Nigel Dawes – Age 24, $840,000
Brett Sutter – Age 21, $600,000*
Brian McGrattan – Age 28 , $500,000*
*projected contracts

(I left McGrattan in there because I know Sutter likes having a goon at his disposal)

With the buyout of Kotalik’s contract, which would count $1,000,000 towards the cap, the Flames would have 13 forwards at $29,737,499.

This would bring my projected total cap number, using my defence and goaltending assumptions, to a grand total of $54,262,499. It would leave Sutter with just under $4,000,000 to play with throughout the season and some flexibility when it comes to trades and free agent pick-ups.

All I am asking for is a change in mindset. The game, as I have stated time and time again, is no longer about grinding and checking. Look at the four teams in the conference finals; every single team relies on their speed and skill to win them games. Every team has various offensive weapons that could strike at any moment.

The Flames, on the other hand, were a very one-dimensional team last year and other teams exposed that. Their power play was very static and has little to no creativity, which resulted in other teams controlling the tempo and breaking up the Flames chances before they even cross the blue line.

I just hope Sutter has realized this. He has been quoted as saying the Flames will be “tweaking” a bit this summer when it comes to the roster.

Tweaking…hopefully he meant fixing.

This has been,

Newman on the Flames


All numbers for this article were taken from capgeek.com. and nhlnumbers.com

Flames Salary Cap Crunch

With the draft only days away now and July 1st fast approaching I thought it was an ideal time to take a closer look at the Flames overall situation when it pertains to the talent on the ice and what Darryl Sutter needs to do in order to assure that he keeps his job past April of 2011.

First off, Gary Bettman announced that the Salary Cap for the 2011-12 will increase slightly from the $56.8 million it was at this past season. So, for all intensive purposes let us assume that the cap will fall in or around $58 million.

The Flames, as it stands now, have roughly $53, 379, 166 committed to 17 players for the upcoming season; a breakdown of 10 forwards ($28.9 mill), 6 defence ($18.6 mill), and 1 goalie ($5.83 mill).

Pardon the alliteration, but let us delve deeper into the defence...

Jay Bouwmeester – Age 25, $6.68 million
Robyn Regehr – Age 28, $4.02 million
Cory Sarich – Age 30, $3.6 million
Steve Staios – Age 35, $2.7 million
Mark Giordano – Age 25, $0.891 million
Adam Pardy – Age 25, $0.7 million

On paper that does not look all that bad, but we all know it could use some tweaking. Regehr and Sarich have clearly lost a step and in a day an age when speed is vital, these two guys are liabilities when they do not have you within an arms reach. Giordano and Bouwmeester represent the only speed on the blue line. You compare that to the cup champs in Chicago who have Keith, Seabrook, Campbell, Hjalmarsson and Boynton who were all capable of jumping into a rush and creating offence. Looking for answers, the Flames have Ian White, who was acquired in February in the Dion deal and is a pending RFA. He would help the speed on the backend but at what cost. White is coming off a career season in which he tallied 13 goals, 25 assists and was a plus 8 when he spent most of his time on one of the leagues worst teams. He finished 28th in defence league scoring ahead of such names like Phaneuf and Bouwmeester who both make almost 6 million more dollars a year than White.

Rumours have been swirling that White is wanting upwards of $5 million a season. I do not see this happening, as he has yet to really prove himself. Looking at players comparable to him, we have Ryan Whitney and Stephane Robidas who he finished right behind in scoring who make $4 million and $3.3 million a year respectively. This was the range I thought he might be garnering; while still probably a steep price tag, the bar has been set and players like White will want to cash in when they can.

In order to accommodate such a demand, Darryl will have to make some decisions. Staios should be an obvious person to dispose of, as I am still trying to figure out why they traded for him in the first place. Regehr would most likely garner the most in return, but the problem looms with his ‘no movement clause.’ Assuming Robyn does not waive the clause, it really leaves Cory Sarich, who makes $3.6 million, the ideal candidate to be shipped elsewhere. He may still bring back something useful as there are teams in need of a stay at home defenceman with Cup experience. He could possibly be worth a 2nd round draft pick, and would free up the room needed to sign White.

So, you rid yourself of Sarich and Staios, and you re-sign White to the $3.5 million a year range. Than you bring up one or two ‘young guns’ (not to remind Flames fans of the late 90’s), and you give some kids an opportunity. Matt Pelech (currently an RFA), John Negrin, and Keith Seabrook have all had ample time in the minors and would provide the backend with some much needed youth. Not to mention the newly signed gargantuan Chris Breen and Gord Baldwin, also an RFA.

So now your defence looks like this:

Jay Bouwmeester – Age 25, $6.68 million
Robyn Regehr – Age 29, $4.02 million
Ian White- Age 25, $3.5 million*
Mark Giordano – Age 25, $0.891 million
Adam Pardy – Age 25, $0.7 million
Pelech/Negrin/Seabrook – Age-22-25, .5 -.8 million
*assumed contract

Now instead of having $18.6 million tied up in defence, you have roughly $17.4 million in 7 guys. You get faster, you get younger and you still have a core four (Bouw, Regehr, White, Gio) that can really hold their own, with the senior citizen being Rocket Robyn at 29 years old.

The goalie situation should be pretty easy for the Flames; let Kipper play his 70 games and find a guy to spell him whenever he needs a rest. It has not been so easy in recent years. Curtis McElhinney was the guy for the past while, but patience grew thin with him and he was shipped to Anaheim for disgruntled former Leaf Vesa Toskala. Toskala proved useful the last month and half of the season, as he provided much needed reliable support for Kipper down the stretch; something he has never really had in the 7 years he has been in Calgary.

The Flames also have a couple of goalies itching to get a shot in the big leagues in Leland Irving and Matt Keetley. Irving posted decent numbers with Abbotsford last year (2.76 GAA, .905 SP%), while Keetley was a touch better (2.59 GAA,. 912 SP%) in 11 less games. Keetley is an RFA and made only $600,000 last season while Irving would be a cap hit of almost $1.2 million with added in bonuses.

Knowing Sutter’s tendency to trust a veteran over a rookie, Toskala would be the more educated choice. The question that lingers is whether or not Toskala would be willing to re-sign for a much smaller number than his $4 million price tag of last season? My guess would be yes, as he has done nothing really to earn a starting look anywhere else in the league. This would result in the Flames having an all Finnish goalie club this year with Vesa and Miikka tag teaming the 4x6.

Miikka Kiprusoff – Age 32, $5.83 million
Vesa Toskala – Age 32, $ 1.4 million*
*assumed contract

Next up are the Forwards…


All numbers for this article were taken from capgeek.com.

Sutter Speaks

“Ken came out and said that, but it wasn’t important for me to have that publicly. It’s more important what happens internally.”

Darryl Sutter made these comments in response to Ken King coming out last week and publicly endorsing the Flames GM. We all are aware of Sutter’s dealings with the media and how he, how do I say this, would rather eat hot garbage than listen to questions from television, radio or print journalists.

He constantly makes fun of the media’s knowledge of the cap or irrational question lines in news conferences. Now, I understand that the ‘Cap’ has a lot of ‘ins and outs and what-have-yous’, but does Sutter possibly consider that some of these journalists may have done their homework and seen that the Flames are in serious trouble when it comes to the cap.

It seems though, that with King’s statement the team will be more media friendly and the irritable Sutter will have to suck up his distaste for the keyboard jockeys and face the music on a more regular basis.

Endear yourself to the media D-Sutts, it might win yourself a few fans back.

“We were all disappointed that we didn’t make the playoffs,” Sutter said. “We had a better record than Philadelphia or Montreal. We could just as easily be sitting here talking and be in the same situation as Philadelphia.”

Please don’t tell me he just used the ‘East vs. West’ excuse again??????

The Flames are in the WESTERN CONFERENCE!!! The Flames could not be in the same position as Philly. If that were the case than St. Louis could be there as well. I don’t see Larry Pleau coming out and making these idiotic statements. Don’t insult the fan base any further. You are already in a deep dark hole in many fans minds, so take some advice from Homer Simpson and "Dig up stupid!"

This has been,

Newman on the Flames