Calgary Flames

Meh Rushmore: Pacific Division

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Everyone and their mother can do a Mount Rushmore of greatest players. Pick a generation and go and the stats tell their tale. So why not do a Rushmore of guys who just existed on their teams?? It’s not as if their tenure was the worst, but it wasn’t all that big or memorable. Which is why we’re here right now. Here’s my look at the four guys in each franchise that had a less than memorable tenure with those clubs. We’ll start off with the Pacific Division, but there are some guidelines I’m going by: 

GUIDELINES

200 Skater/75 Goalie minimum GP with team*
*Expansion Teams 2017-Present 100 Skater/30 Goalie GP Minimum 
At least one goalie on the list
No individual performance awards
Transplanted teams CAN use previous location for players
*Calgary can pull from Atlanta
Not necessarily known for designated role on team (Enforcer, Shot Blocker, Face-offs)
No current NHL players*
*Expansion Teams 2017-Present Exempt
“Meh” Status based on time with team they’re represented on

ANAHEIM DUCKS: Garry Valk (246 GP, 40g, 52a); Dan Bylsma (209 GP, 10g, 22a); Pavel Trnka (322 GP, 11g, 47a); Mikhail Shtalenkov (122 GP, 34-53-11, 3.14 GAA, .897 Sv%)

Valk was a Waiver Draft claim in 1993 and showed offensive promise in his first year in Anaheim. However, Valk couldn’t recapture that same touch in his remaining tenure with the Mighty Ducks before getting dealt to Pittsburgh in 1997. Bylsma headed to Anaheim late in his career and played a bottom six utility role, but injuries hampered his last two seasons before his shift to the coaching side of the game. Trnka’s defensive game was his calling card, but a minus-13 in his career looked more to the Mighty Ducks still trying to find an identity on both sides of the puck. Shtalenkov’s time was not great in those early expansion seasons and his numbers showed backing up Guy Hebert. After he left Anaheim, Shtalenkov got better as a back-up in the NHL. 

CALGARY FLAMES: Lance Bouma (304 GP, 27g, 40a); Ed Ward (215 GP, 16g, 24a), Chuck Kobasew (210 GP, 34g, 37a); Rick Tabaracci (97 GP, 36-42-10, 2.81 GAA, .896 Sv%)

Bouma was a heavy body in the WHL, but couldn’t get into the groove in Calgary. One big season in his sophomore year, Bouma was hampered with injury in his last two years in Cowtown. Ward had decent AHL numbers, but jumped into the Flames line-up in a dreadful period for Calgary and didn’t have much to contribute to the squad on the offensive side. Ward’s physical side in 1996-97 found him a semi-regular spot during the season. Kobasew was a folk-hero in Calgary during his time, but never really reached the hype put on him. He had a 20-goal season in the first year post-2004 lockout, but that was the tops for him in Calgary. Tabaracci was always a serviceable goalie and had decent numbers in his stints with Calgary. However, Tabaracci also was on those bad-luck Flames teams in the mid-90s, not getting much support for himself. 

EDMONTON OILERS: Marty Reasoner (351 GP, 45g, 76a); Fernando Pisani (402 GP, 80g, 73a); Anton Lander (215 GP, 10g, 25a); Nikolai Khabibulin (117 GP, 33-67-14, 3.00 GAA, .903 Sv%)

Reasoner brought a solid game to the middle six of Edmonton in the time frame, but could never break the 10-goal mark in his 4.5 seasons with the Oilers. Pisani, much like Reasoner, was a solid middle six player, but his playoff lore with the Oilers in 2006 will forever be remembered. That said, Pisani couldn’t find the same magic that he did in those playoffs. Lander was a high 2nd round pick who didn’t pan out in the NHL. Lander has solid AHL numbers, but once he got to the Oilers; that all vanished. Khabibulin’s numbers are surprising, as it was the first time since he was in Winnipeg where he had over a 3.00 GAA in a season. While he got better, Khabibulin’s time in Edmonton was one to be forgotten. 

LOS ANGELES KINGS: Brad Chartrand (215 GP, 25g, 25a); Jim Peters (255 GP, 31g, 29a); Pat Conacher (241 GP, 36g, 32a); Bob Janecyk (102 GP, 42-44-12, 4.16 GAA, .866 Sv%)

Chartrand had consistency in the AHL, but couldn’t find that rhythm when getting called up to the Kings. Any momentum Chartrand had wasn’t stabilized during his times in LA. Peters was decent as an expansion team player in the late-60s for LA, but moved through the old WHL pro league and AHL before coming back to LA– but never got his mojo back. Conacher was coming onto the Kings later in his career to add to the veteran presence in the Kings locker room at that time. Conacher’s solid AHL career didn’t transfer heavily in LA, but he played his role properly to keep him up in the NHL for four seasons in LA. Janecyk started his LA career hot, but Rollie Melanson got traded into LA and took over the crease. Janecyk’s numbers dipped and he would find himself ending his career in the minors. 

SAN JOSE SHARKS: Mark Smith (323 GP, 22g, 44a); Todd Harvey (301 GP, 34g, 49a); Torrey Mitchell (280 GP, 30g, 43a); Jeff Hackett (78 GP, 13-57-2, 4.51 GAA, .875 Sv%)

Smith had a stellar final junior season and decent AHL career, but when he went to the Sharks, he couldn’t find the offensive niche that he had previously. In Smith’s first four seasons, he had 12 less points than his last two seasons in San Jose. Harvey was a former first round pick who found his way to San Jose, but in a grinder role rather than an offensive one. Harvey got the folk-hero role, but his never reaching 25 points in a season during his time made things rather forgettable. Mitchell’s solid collegiate career looked to follow through, but never had more than 25 points in a season in his four plus seasons with San Jose. It would be Mitchell’s most successful destination over his career, as he was plagued with injuries throughout. Hackett played decently for being on a first-year team, but with only two wins in 36 games for his second season, it tainted Hackett’s tenure with San Jose. 

SEATTLE KRAKEN: Tye Kartye (140 GP, 17g, 16a), Morgan Geekie (142 GP, 16g, 34a), Alex Wennberg (222 GP, 33g, 67a); Philipp Grubauer (156 GP, 57-78-12, 3.07 GAA, .890 Sv%)

Kartye had a stellar first pro season in the AHL, but when called up by Seattle– his numbers haven’t been able to match thus far, including a stint in the AHL for the 2024-25 season. If nothing else, Geekie used the playing time in Seattle to gain him a decent position in Boston; but didn’t fit into the Kraken’s plans. Wennberg started to get his offensive stride back in Seattle before he got moved, but when you’re time is more known for a TikTok controversy than the play style wasn’t all that memorable. Grubauer brought high hopes with his signing in Seattle after a 30-win season. Yet, Grubauer couldn’t find his footing behind a subpar defense and had his starter role usurped. 

VANCOUVER CANUCKS: Taylor Pyatt (224 GP, 49g, 44a); Brandon Sutter (275 GP, 54g, 50a); Jere Gillis (309 GP, 63g, 75a); Garth Snow (109 GP, 33-52-11, 2.90 GAA, .901 Sv%)

Pyatt benefitted from being on a line with the Sedins in his first season with the Canucks. However, a big injury saw Pyatt drop down the line chart and his production followed suit. Sutter was marred by injuries in his time with Vancouver, but when he was healthy– he was a solid middle-six choice. Sutter’s durability wasn’t the greatest in his years with the Canucks. Gillis had two residencies in Vancouver and in both tenures Gillis was on teams that didn’t have a high scoring prowess. Gillis held his own and made a decent way of it. Snow was in net for the Messier years, which were very unspectacular times in Canucks’ land. While he had 20 wins in his second season, it still put Snow 11 games under .500.  

VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS: Ryan Carpenter (104 GP, 14g, 18a); Paul Cotter (138 GP, 22g, 23a); Michael Amadio (193 GP, 41g, 31a); Laurent Brossoit (35 GP, 17-9-6, 2.66 GAA, .906 Sv%)

Carpenter existed on the Vegas line-up and played a role in the bottom six during the Golden Knights’ Cup run in 2018. Cotter had some hot spells in Vegas, but couldn’t find a spot in their money game and moved onto other pastures. Amadio was a solid part of the Cup team for Vegas, but he wasn’t as effective during the season outside of other spots. Brossoit was the worst of the goalie bunch for Vegas, but even his numbers weren’t shabby. Hard to find flaws in what Vegas has been able to build in their short time in the league.

Things That Need To Happen: Mascot Royal Rumble

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It’s NHL All-Star Weekend in St. Louis, which means that as a part of it– the NHL Mascot Showdown is going on at the FanFest. It’s an annual thing and something for the kids and mascot connoisseurs alike. But it’s also WWE Royal Rumble weekend…and the two seem to intersect all the time.

So…why not combine the two??

My partner-in-crime Jen Conway (aka NHL History Girl) is all for this kind of thing because…well, what’s better than doofy mascots duking it out in an over-the-top winner-takes-all kind of format?? Not much, I can say that. Plus, it’s something that’s a little bit far from the norm when it comes to these kinds of things…which is why the NHL won’t go for it.

Granted, there’s been times where the mascots have taken pratfalls and it came off as cute and endearing. Then, there’s times teams have try to pull this off and then got a little bit of heat from it due to the “violence” factor. Sadly, that last part in this world of knee-jerk reactions will be the reason we can’t have the mascots duel in a over-the-top rope show.

Yet, think about it– who would be the one who could come out on top?? Right off the hop, you have to think in wrestling terms– the bigger they are, the harder they are to get out. Right there– Carlton the Bear, IceBurgh, Stormy, Stinger, Victor E. Green, and Gritty would be the top picks due to their bulk. That said, leaner mascots could have an endurance factor like Howler, Stanley C. Panther, Blades, Bailey, and Tommy Hawk. Then there’s the intimidation factor of Hunter and Gnash just to be tenacious.

The downside would be the mascots will the gimmicks and things to hold onto since it’s no-holds barred. Sparky, Moose, and Slapshot have wings, antlers, and feathers respectively, so they’d have a lot more area to be latched onto and thrown over– though the Moose could use those to ram people with. Then there’s Al, who would be great due to the low center of gravity, but Al doesn’t actually exist in mascot form. And let’s not forget Harvey the Hound’s tongue, which Craig MacTavish defeated many years ago.

Objectively, Youppi! would probably be my pick. Youppi! has the size, is somewhat agile, and has been able to overcome the most dire of situations like the Loria family moving Youppi!’s actual team to DC– leaving the orange furball abandoned until the Canadiens picked him and the rest of the Expos legacy up off the ground.

There’s probably a thousand reasons I’m wrong, but we’ll never know until it actually happens. We’d be able to see who the jobber is, who’s getting a big push from the league, and we’d all question, “Who’s booking this shit??” when it all goes sideways at the end.

TEPID TAKE: Idiot Coaches

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Let’s start off by saying Mike Babcock and Bill Peters are scum as people. When you’re a head coach at any level, you’re job is to teach and nurture players to get better. While a little “tough love” may be needed, the psychological damage and utter disregard for players as humans is something that shouldn’t be tolerated under any guise.

As always, though, you’ll have people either try to defend them or say they didn’t see or hear anything like that when they were around them. I won’t call them enablers because there’s an off chance that they weren’t focused on anything aside from their goal.

That all said, though– let’s look deeper into the whole situation because there’s a lot of former players coming out and saying that players would go to the GM regularly to have said coach fired or their concerns were brought up to no change being made. This is where things get the murkiest for the higher ups for not doing their leg work on this. Carlo Colaiacovo said that some players from the Red Wings went to Ken Holland with concerns of Babcock only to be shuttered out. No word of if the Edmonton media has pressured Holland about this claim. Not only that, but then Carolina GM Ron Francis was made aware of the physical altercations between Peters and players. The result was a contract extension. Francis hasn’t made public comment yet, as he is currently at the helm of the Seattle franchise.

This is not to say that players should be in charge of who they want to coach, but if they’re coming to management with solid evidence of what’s going wrong and management doesn’t bat an eye to the situation– that’s just shitty management and shitty people in those management roles.

Both Babcock and Peters held significant roles with Hockey Canada, as well– Babcock coaching multiple Olympic teams, World Juniors, and World Championships, while Peters was a U18 Championships coach, a World Championship coach, and assistant for the World Cup of Hockey. Whether or not Hockey Canada will look into their dealing deeper, who knows if the short time those teams were together if anything happened or if because it’s a such a tight ship with people looking over the shoulder all the time, these guys actually had to act professional in that time span.

The era of recycling coaches will hopefully come in an end because of this, regardless of what “brilliance” may be provided. The recycling should have never happened either. There’s plenty of good coaches out there, but teams are too lazy to actually scout them or give them the chance in the “win now” mentality that is brought to them by ownership; so they go with the easy fix or a known commodity– due diligence be damned. With all of this coming to the surface– you can bet that the process of selecting a coach will be thorough as hell now, as it should have been already.

As far as these two are concerned, I could see Peters being without a job indefinitely…but it’s a harder sell for me on Babcock. Regardless of the mental trauma he put on players, Mike Keenan still got work well past his due date. That’s something that will always tell me to never say never when it comes to coaches being disgraced out of the business. Honestly, Babcock could land a job sooner rather than later because hockey is stupid and lazy like that.

Heritage Classic: Battle of Atlanta THIS WEEKEND

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Infograph via 16Wins.com

If you were under a rock, you may not have known that the Heritage Classic is taking place in Regina, Saskatchewan this Saturday. Well…maybe not under a rock. The hype for the Heritage Classic by the NHL hasn’t been that wide-spread. Sure, they’re keeping a player diary of the event, but outside of that– there’s nothing on their front page about the game that’s supposed to be part of their bigger series of outdoor games throughout the year.

Honestly, maybe there’s more of a spark when it comes to the event I’m not seeing being in the upper Midwest of the US. However– even on Sportsnet, their front page has nothing special about the game going on as of October 23th at 10:20 PM CT (time of this writing). When your national media partner doesn’t seem to have an interest in promoting it ahead of time; that may be a bit of a red flag for some people.

Yet, this game is a big outlier– as it’s a neutral site game in a predominantly junior hockey area, hoping there’s enough interest in the game from that region that they don’t have to rely on people from Calgary or Winnipeg to venture out and see this event. It doesn’t look like the case, as according to StubHub (again, as of 10:20 PM CT on 10/23), there’s around 2,100 tickets left for the game that’s happening in a couple days. That either shows that the NHL, the teams, and the location aren’t marketing it well or the idea of this game is slowly dying into another thing taken for granted. Or the location of this game isn’t in a great area.

The fact that the main page of the league isn’t promoting an alleged special game is pretty criminal. You’d think for something like this, they’d actually want to try to make their money back for renting out this venue for the event and everything surrounding it. Maybe they were taking Canadian fans for granted when it comes to these games, maybe it was a bad place to have it, maybe it’s just a dying genre. Regardless of the excuse, the fact remains that when an event like this has this little promotion and this many tickets left when it’s a couple days away…not a great look.

It Should Have Been the Battle of Atlanta

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Though I know it was a long-shot because it would have been funny, the NHL Media website pretty much shuts down the official idea of having the Battle of Atlanta, as they revealed the logos for the Heritage Classic in an email for accreditation. The logos of the Jets looks like one they had for the Heritage Classic in 2016, while the Flames look like a take of their original uniforms as the moved from Atlanta. Of course, we got a hint of what the Jets were doing when Connor Hellebuyck donned a retro mask for pre-training camp in Winnipeg.

What could have been with the Atlanta Thrashers and Atlanta Flames coming back to life again in, of all places, Regina, Saskatchewan.

While we won’t know the actual Jets uniforms until September 13th when they’ll officially unveil their duds for the event, you look at the Jets jersey history– even with the original team; the pickings are very slim. When you look at the Flames, who have yet to set a date for their jersey reveal, the pickings are as slim– though plenty gaudy. Hell, the Flames needed to make up a jersey for their outdoor game in 2011 from a Calgary team few knew about.

Thus is the issue with teams that are in these games and want to do something special for their jerseys– but have a limited palette to choose from when it comes time. The Blackhawks ran out of idea, the Canadiens only have limited options, as do many of the “Original” Six teams. Then you have teams that don’t have a lot of old jerseys– like the Jets, Flames, and Capitals– and have to model some kind of faux-retro to go along with the idea of the game. Which is what’s going to make the Winter Classic jerseys interesting with Dallas and Nashville not being known for their jersey history.

Part of that is the reason why I suggested it becoming the Battle of Atlanta. I mean, sure– it helps that both teams defected from Georgia to move to Canada, but at the same time– it’d be a different jersey take than we may have expected. Plus, it would annoy Canadians who believe they are gatekeepers to hockey and all that it means to people. Plus, it’s about fun, right?? What’s more fun than to bring back two old teams and their jerseys for a night?? People want all kinds of old jerseys back– so here’s a perfect chance to do it.

But the NHL botched it. The teams botched. Now, we have to be subjected to recycled jersey concepts and act like we are happy about seeing something we’ve seen before– like the Blackhawks in an outdoor game.

Better Know An Affiliate: Calgary Flames

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AHL: Stockton Heat (31-31-4-2, 6th in Pacific, Did Not Qualify for playoffs)
TEAM LINEAGE: One of the five teams that moved to California, previous to this– the Flames have had quite the history of affiliates in the previous 15 years. Stockton was moved from Adirondack, though that was only a one-year stop for the Flames and the Adirondack Flames. Before that, the only Western team in the AHL was the Abbotsford Heat from 2009 until 2014 and previous to that– Quad City, Omaha, and Lowell after the 10 seasons they spent in Saint John, New Brunswick.
FREQUENT FLYER CANDIDATES: His prolific scoring in the AHL has Dillon Dube on the radar for the Flames, but with the depth they have in front of him; his better than point-per-game average may not be enough for him to crack the opening night roster, but it’ll be hard to ignore if he can keep that pace. With the injury to Juuso Valimaki, defense got a little more wide open. Should he adjust to the North American game, Alexander Yelesin could see some shuttle time by mid-season to help out with more depth in the show.

ECHL: Kansas City Mavericks (36-30-4-2, 4th in Mountain, lost in first round)
TEAM LINEAGE: The Mavericks and Flames marriage happened after the Flames moved on from the Adirondack Thunder– the replacement for the Stockton Thunder. After a long-term secondary affiliation with the Johnstown Chiefs, Las Vegas Wranglers, and Utah Grizzlies; Calgary bounced around the ECHL with Alaska Aces, Colorado Eagles, and Adirondack before hunkering down in Kansas City.
NOTABLE GRADUATES: The only two graduates to the NHL the ECHL Mavericks have turned out have been Tanner Fritz and Maxime Lagace. Fritz has been shuttled from Bridgeport to Long Island the past two seasons, but his first half-season with the Mavericks got him the permanent call-up to Bridgeport. Lagace got his start in Kansas City, as well, and has gone on to be the third goalie for the Vegas Golden Knights; including helping out when all the goalies went down during their inaugural season.

The Curious Case of Calgary’s Off-season

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After a season that saw them win the Western Conference in the regular season (then subsequently get bounced in five games of the first round), you could maybe see the Calgary Flames starting the building block of a sound reboot of their team. Then the off-season came…and things got really….odd.

Mike Smith goes away, which is fine because he isn’t young anymore, wasn’t as dynamic as he was years ago, and his save percentage– which was always pretty solid despite his inflated GAA– was the worst of his career at .898 for the season. David Rittich was a welcome surprise, but even though he’s the presumed starter; the depth behind him isn’t as promising as some made it out to be. Jon Gillies hasn’t progressed as well as many thought he would, while Tyler Parsons is a surprise in net, but still is a few years away from being considered. Add this to Rittich going to arbitration after his 27-win season last year– there could be some instability there for the Flames.

And what better to help that instability than…..Cam Talbot?! Talbot, or as I’ll call him– younger Mike Smith, was signed to a Missouri (show-me) contract for a year…which may mean that the 32-year-old could be looking at being the starter only because his experience trumps Rittich and Bill Peters seems to hate success. Talbot had two good seasons as a starter after his first shaky season in Edmonton, but soon crashed to Earth when the Oilers became the Oilers again and were terrible. While might be a good back-up or even platoon option– beyond that; it could be just a younger Mike Smith. Yet, a hunger to be better might be a good thing if Talbot can actually follow through.

Then comes the coup-de-gras, which happens to also involve a former Oiler (like Talbot), but one that’s much more of a liability than Talbot could be.

The Calgary Flames traded FOR….FOR Milan Lucic, sending James Neal to Edmonton and inexplicably making it the worst deal in recent history– even more than the Erat/Forsberg deal years back.

To be honest– Neal didn’t light up the world for the Flames last year with seven goals and 19 points in 2018-19 after a 25-goal campaign in Vegas a season prior. Could have been the first year jitters, could have been– as Neal subtly eluded to– the fact people couldn’t get him the puck. With four more years left at $5.75M, the Flames thought it was time to move on from him after one season because who cares about waiting it out– one season means he’ll be like that the next four years.

Enter the Oilers who had an issue with one of their high-priced players who wasn’t performing in the first couple years of his deal and has a no-move clause– so the Flames bail them out and take on that contract (four years) and the declining stat line of Milan Lucic….and somehow thought this was a good idea. Lucic has gotten steadily worse since 2015 with a combined 16 goals in the last two seasons for a guy who is capable of 20-goals in a season because he has five of those previously. Yet, the speed, the skill, the overall landscape of the game has changed and it seemed that Lucic couldn’t keep up in Edmonton– so how does anyone think it’ll get better down the QE2 in Calgary?? Especially since he’ll be in the bottom-six making $5.25M in the remaining years.

It’s a good thing that people are leaking details of the new arena project that’s going to happen to replace the archaic Saddledome, mostly because people in Calgary need something to talk them off the edge. There’s promise with this team– so long as Johnny Gaudreau can come out of his playoff hiding, Sean Monahan can continue to improve his game, while Sam Bennett hopes to build off of being the only Flames forward to really show up to the series against Colorado.

And who knows– maybe Lucic can find some kind of scoring touch without the pressure of being the winger-du-jour for Connor McDavid and Talbot could find his magic that helped him get fourth-place in Vezina voting a few years back…but with the Flames luck in recent years; it might take a lot of doing and hunger for that to become a reality.

NHL Playoffs 2019: Round One

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Since no one asked– here’s my picks and a reason.

TAMPA BAY vs. COLUMBUS
Prediction: Tampa in 5
Reason: As much as I may no believe in the Lightning down the stretch, the Blue Jackets were too hot going into the playoffs to have much left in the tank. Also, Nikita Kucherov will most likely continue to step-up his game in the second season.

BOSTON vs. TORONTO
Prediction: Boston in 6
Reason: We’ve seen this song before and Toronto isn’t that great against Boston in the playoffs. Goaltending is a disaster for the Leafs, while their defense isn’t much better.

WASHINGTON vs. CAROLINA
Prediction: Washington in 6
Reason: Give the Jerks credit, they clawed back to get in this spot. However, the Caps seem to enjoy feasting on the Canes in life. Plus, the Caps want to get back to the Promised Land to hoist the Cup again, so they’ll do whatever it takes to win it again

NY ISLANDERS vs. PITTSBURGH
Prediction: Penguins in 6
Reason: As much as I want to believe in Robin Lehner and Thomas Greiss; Sidney Crosby, Phil Kessel, and a somewhat healthy Evgeni Malkin trump that. Only hope is Matt Murray stinking up the joint

CALGARY vs. COLORADO
Prediction: Calgary in 6
Reason: Goaltending aside, the Flames won the Western Conference for a reason. Especially with Mikko Rantanen just coming back from injury– who knows how effective he will be. Though, some pressure may be on Johnny Gaudreau and friends to make an unexpected run.

SAN JOSE vs. VEGAS
Prediction: Vegas in 5
Reason: Playoffs is about defense and as much as the Sharks have Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson to add some punch offensively, Martin Jones hasn’t been great. The Knights enjoyed a nice taste last year and probably want to make people know it wasn’t a fluke.

WINNIPEG vs. ST. LOUIS
Prediction: St. Louis in 7
Reason: I don’t know why, but the Blues could be a sleeper team to make some noise. They weren’t even supposed to be here, but Jordan Binnington decided that he’d show Jake Allen how to play in net. They’ll be a tough out with JB in net.

NASHVILLE vs. DALLAS
Prediction: Nashville in 6
Reason: With the window for the Preds and all their talent, it could be the perfect time for them to run wild in the West. They probably still feel the sting of the lost to Winnipeg and want to make a statement run at the Cup this year.

My Wishes for the Battle of Atlanta in Regina

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We all know this won’t happen. The NHL won’t let this happen. The Winnipeg Jets won’t let this happen. But I want the #BattleOfAtlanta to go down in a big, big was in October for the Heritage Classic game in Regina between the Flames and Jets.

Both teams are formerly of Atlanta. The real issue stems with one team actually caring about their heritage, whereas the other wants to think this is a Cleveland Browns situations– in that they keep the records of the team that relocated.

Word to the wise– the Winnipeg Jets are the Atlanta Thrashers and hold all the Atlanta Thrashers records. The franchise leader in points for the Winnipeg Jets is Ilya Kovalchuk with 615 points. Dany Heatley holds the record for goals and points by a rookie. These are Winnipeg Jets legends by proxy. Dale Hawerchuk, Bob Essensa, Teemu Selanne– all those records belong to the Arizona Coyotes. Even dumb, idiot, blowhard bloggers from six years ago say the Jets are the Thrashers.

Okay– with that all out of the way: the only way to play this is to have the Flames wear the classic Atlanta Flames jerseys. They already have the template with their third jerseys and with this game being about Heritage…it only makes sense. Like I said before, the Flames incorporated their Atlanta roots many times, including putting the old logo as an alternate captain letter.

Powder blue is something that the Jets should wear as the Thrashers– it would help that color clash people enjoy. Plus, they already incorporate that in their alternate jerseys now– which is a nice step for them bringing back the Thrashers garb for one night only.

(Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)

Musical act is Lil’ Jon– point blank period. Not because he’s an Atlanta guy, but it’s because he’s someone who has held the torch for Atlanta hockey since the Flames played at the Omni. He was a great ambassador for the Thrashers and really help bring more pop culture into the game when it was looking for it. So much impact that Kari Lehtonen put him on the back of his mask.

So it’s set– this is what it should be, especially if we’re talking about a HERITAGE CLASSIC. Before you get where you’re going, you’ve gotta know where you’ve been. That’s what it’s all about– knowing both teams came from Atlanta to Canada in different generations. Time to mesh them.

And honestly– to the people who might be butt-hurt over this (probably Jets fans who are defensive of their identity and want to believe 1996-2011 didn’t happen); if you liked the Hurricanes becoming the Whalers for one night– why can’t you enjoy the Jets becoming the Thrashers for one night?? It’s all in the name of fun, right?? All the nostalgia is great right??

You might not like it, but I’m sure there’s a lot more people who would. It’s the history of the team and regardless of what you try– it’s not going away. Preserve history rather than put it under the rug and then you can enjoy things rather than being overly uptight.

#BattleOfAtlanta

Battle of Atlanta Kicks Off Specialty Games for 2019-20

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In light of another Chicago Blackhawks outdoor game, the NHL revealed locations for some of their specialty games coming up for the 2019-20 season.

First, the Heritage Classic will come back and take place in Regina, Saskatchewan on October 26. In what I’ll be calling “The Battle of Atlanta” the former Atlanta Flames will take on the former Atlanta Thrashers– with the Calgary Flames taking on the Winnipeg Jets. It’ll be the fifth Heritage Classic and first since 2016 in Winnipeg. With both teams on the rise in their divisions, it should prove to be an interesting match-up, especially early in the season.

Second, the NHL put forth next year’s Winter Classic, but this time in Dallas’s Cotton Bowl, as the Dallas Stars will host and unnamed opponent– which, if it’s not the Minnesota Wild, it’ll be a huge narrative disrupting event. Surprising that it’s not being held in JerryWorld at AT&T Stadium, as it would go with the NHL wanting a big venue for these events.

St. Louis will be the 2020 All-Star Game host for the third time (1970 and 1988 being the prior ones) through the weekend of January 24th until the 26th. We’ll be waiting with bated-breathe to see if Nelly and the St. Lunatics show up with Fred Brathwaite like they did in the “Welcome to Atlanta” remix.

Finally, the NHL also announced another Stadium Series game at a military academy, with the Colorado Avalanche hosting a game at the Air Force Academy’s Falcon Stadium. Another game with no opponent, but hopefully the NHL will keep getting closer and closer to their goal of holding a game at West Point after going through two other military academies already.

Is there one better than the other?? Do you even care about the amount of outdoor games anymore?? Leave a comment or something to let me know….or don’t, I get paid the same either way.