By Derrick Newman
Some quick hits on the recent Flames moves...
In a flurry of activity on the Flames front Niklas Hagman was placed on waiver today and if, when, he clears he will be sent to Abbotsford. This move was made because Mikael Backlund will be activated from the IR tomorrow morning after sitting out the first 14 games with a broken pinky.
Also, Paul Byron was recalled from the Heat because Brendan Morrison was placed on the IR with what is basically being deemed as a failure to recover from knee surgery properly – or in English terms, he came back too soon.
Further to all this was the activity yesterday with Anton Babchuk being placed on the IR with a broken hand and TJ Brodie being recalled.
So with all this the team just got significantly younger and quicker with the likes of Brodie on the back end, and Backlund and Byron up the middle.
Seeing Hagman sends a serious message from ownership in that the dollar figure beside a players name means little to nothing as Hagman’s $3 million cap hit will be buried in the AHL.
The team is in need of a serious energy boost after starting the season a very mediocre 6-7-1 record and having recently scored only three goals in their past three games.
The team holds almost an identical record to 2010-11 version of Flames at this point in the season.
The Flames are a league worst 2-for-34 on the powerplay at home this season, thanks large in part to Tuesday’s 0-for-7 outing, which included a five minute powerplay.
Sutter called out Alex Tanguay, saying he is too “soft” on the power play and very easy to play against because everyone knows what he is going to do. You can’t really disagree with that assessment as everyone in the Dome knows he is looking for #12 at all times.
They need to instil some much needed creativity into the man advantage unit and maybe with the addition of Backlund and possibly Brodie, you see that. Both guys will be chomping at the bit to make an early impact.
The Flames play the Blackhawks tomorrow night. The season series last year was 2-2 with the home team winning each time. The Flames had great success on the PP versus the Hawks last year going 6-for-20 over the four game span. Maybe the Hawks are just what the doctor ordered.
The Flames are 3-3 on the road this season.
JERSEY FOULS!!!!
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