Lightning Strikes Twice

The Flames fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning in overtime tonight by a score of 2-1. A hurtful reminder of the last time Calgary lost 2-1 in the St. Pete Times Forum. For those who do not know, it was game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup Final, a loss that Flames fans will not soon forget.

Two goals by Ruslan Fedotenko was all the Lightning needed that night, as the Flames ran out of gas in their 26th postseason game. Six years have passed since that memorable spring run and you look down the line of the Flames bench and there are very few that can even recall that fateful game. Jarome Iginla, Robyn Regehr, Craig Conroy, and Miikka Kiprusoff are the only Flames left from that run. Cory Sarich, however, was in Tampa, but he was celebrating as a part of the Lightning. Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier are the only Lightning players still in Tampa since their inaugural championship. It is amazing how two teams can look so different in only six years. A definite sign of how the salary cap era has forced teams to shuffle the deck more often than not.

Back to the game.

The Flames have now managed to grab points in six of their last seven games. They have climbed back into 7th place in the Western Conference. The powerplay is 3 for its last 7 attempts. Kiprusoff has a .938 SP% over the past three games; alright, so some things have not changed. Following the trading bonanza that took place a week ago and discounting the bizarre circumstances that surrounded the Flyers game, the Flames have looked much improved. They are not out of the woods yet, but most Flames fans might agree that the team looks better, which is a good thing.

Giordano has fully embraced his expanded role, since the Dion departure, as the go-to offensive threat from the back-end recording two of the Flames three goals on the weekend. Jay Bouwmeester has also looked better playing close to 30 minutes in both Florida games and recording points in two of the last three.

The Flames actually dominated a team in the face-off dot, winning 28 of 46 draws in the Florida. They also more than doubled the Panthers in shots and despite the heroics of Tommy Vokoun the score would have been much worse.

The Flames are clearly still trying to figure everything out and with the injury to Rene Bourque, and the absence of Dawes, Moss, and a lesser extent Conroy, they will be hoping for the new additions to start finding the net a bit more.

Speaking of new additions, who knew Ales Kotalik was brought into fight? What a goon! The reason he did not have his jersey tied down was clearly because he never expects to scrap; possibly a savvy move by Lightning forward Stephane Veilleux.

The Flames fly to Ottawa for a game against the Sens, than back home for a match-up with the Stars and Ducks before the Olympic break. The Flames, who have played 2 more games than Colorado, Nashville and Vancouver, simply need points in every game this week to position themselves well for the long Olympic hiatus.

This has been,

Newman on the Flames

Source of Photo: http://espn.go.com/media/nhl/2004/0607/photo/a_miikka_il.jpg


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Vive Le Quebec Libre...of NHL Hockey.

Jean Charest, Premier of Quebec, said this week that after talking with Gary Bettman, he is confident NHL hockey will return to Quebec City. “It is going to happen,” said the Premier, citing plans to build a new arena to lure the NHL back to Quebec’s capital city.

Cela est une grande idée Jean. But here’s why it ain’t gonna happen.

1. Population of Quebec City. It has historic battlefields, a beautiful riverside setting, and the largest winter festival in the world. What it doesn’t have is people. According to the 2006 census, there are only 715, 515 people in the metropolitan area of Quebec City, which would make it by far the smallest market in the NHL. (Edmonton is currently the smallest, with 1,034,945, but is still 44% larger than Quebec City.) There simply aren’t enough people in Quebec City to sustain an NHL team. A major arena needs to be filled more than just the 41 times per year that an NHL team would be playing. There also needs to be concerts, trade shows, conventions, etc. I don’t think that Quebec City’s small population would be able to make an arena of this size feasible.

A small population also means the media numbers would be low. With just over 700,000 people, there wouldn't be a significant TV or radio audience. Add to this that any boradcast would most likely be in French only, it would further limit the team from picking up any viewers in the Northeastern US or the Maritimes. While the Flames and Oilers, which don’t have very large population bases either, can draw TV audiences from other parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and eastern British Columbia, a Quebec City team would be forced to compete with the Canadiens for any viewers out side of the city itself; a battle I don't see them winning anytime soon.

2. Corporate Money. There isn’t any. Or at least there isn’t enough. Quebec City is a government town, not a center of business and commerce. The majority of people work for the government in one capacity or another. While government jobs offer above average pay scales, government departments or agencies are unable to buy luxury boxes, club seating or even season tickets. Nobody working for the Federal Government ever says, “I have my company’s tickets tonight, wanna go?” And if that did happen, I’m sure most Canadians would be outraged that their tax dollars were going toward hockey tickets. Ottawa has a similar problem being primarily a government town. There aren't nearly as many large corporations as Toronto, Vancouver or Calgary, which means fewers corporate sales, which bring in millions of dollars each year from club seating and luxury suites. There simply are not enough companies in Quebec City that could afford to purchase a luxury suite for $200,000, or buy season tickets in a club section, and the average Joe cannot afford to pay even close to what most companies can pay for these seats.

3. The Arena. Mr Charest says that they will build an NHL calibre arena, capable of hosting not only a hockey team, but also the Winter Olympics. First off, that would be at least seven or eight years away before an arena could be built, and that’s if they started tomorrow. While he may say that his government is willing to pay 200 or 300 million dollars toward an arena, we’ll have to wait and see what the people have to say about it. The people in Quebec might not be too happy seeing so much of their money going toward another arena or stadium. They need only look at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, which ended up costing $1.6 billion, took 30 years to pay off, and is perhaps the biggest white elephant in Canada, no longer being used for anything except one or two Alouette games each year. A new arena in Quebec City would sit empty a lot of the year as well, as their small population wouldn’t be able to fill it.

4. The NHL. Gary Bettman and the National Hockey League, despite what Jean Charest feels, have no interest in moving to Quebec City. For starters, it is far too small a market, lacking both people and corporate money. Secondly, the people in Quebec City are already hockey fans and already follow the NHL. If the Lightning moved from Tampa to Quebec, what few people followed the Lightning would probably stop watching hockey all together, causing the NHL to lose fans. Meanwhile there isn’t any increase by moving to a team to Quebec, as those fans are simply changing their allegiance. On the off, off chance that Quebec ever did receive a team, I would think it would be an expansion team, not through a relocation, which leads to the final reason. After fighting so hard to keep the NHL in Phoenix, why would they suddenly let another franchise pick up stakes and move to Quebec City? The answer is they wouldn’t and they won’t.



There is a reason that the Nordiques moved in the first place. They weren’t viable 15 years ago, and there’s no reason to think they would be viable in 2010. The list of cities that will be home to an NHL franchise before Quebec City is long; Hamilton, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Houston, Seattle, Portland, Hartford and Milwaukee. All have larger populations, better arenas and more money, and if by chance a team relocated, it would be to one of these cities before Quebec City.


photo from http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/nordiques-uniform.jpg