Confessions of a Flames fan: When will the CFL season start?

While the Calgary Flames are not mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, I have serious doubts as to whether or not they'll be able to make the cut. Sitting in 9th place, four points behind the Colorado Avalanche (and a game ahead) it is painfully obvious that the Flames will have to run the table on their last 6 games (and get a little help along the way) for them to make the playoffs. Simply put, every game is a must win; especially matches against Colorado and Minnesota - those are 4 point games.

But I have to ask myself: who am I even cheering for? I mean, the Flames are a shell of the organization which I fell in love with. Beyond Iginla, Kipprusoff, Langkow, and Regher what kind of team are we? We pillaged the "best" players from the 29th place Leafs and a couple of mild producers on the third line Rangers players in exchange for... hell, I'm not even sure!

(Ages ago, I wrote a post on this blog that if I wanted to cheer for the Hamilton Tigercats, I'd move to Southern Ontario when the Riders made a whole host of moves with the 8th place team. In the end, many of the trades were undone with key players coming back to the Green and White for their '07 Grey Cup win. In this same light, I wonder how many of the Leafs and Rangers are goning to remain with the team beyond the obvious Stajan signing.)

While I like some aspects of the Phaneuf/Stajan-White-Mayers trade, ultimately I'm left with wondering whether or not we needed to get rid of Phaneuf. Our problem was scoring and it certainly didn't improve by leaps and bounds when Stajan arrived. Jokinen needed to go, but I'm left scratching my head over the way Darryl Sutter has managed our team since he became GM. He's 4 for 4 when it comes to blockbuster moves but 0 for 4 when it comes to management of those players.

Consider Tanguay, Jokinen, Cammalleri and Bouwmeester and their successes with the team. Argue ably, Cammi was the best player to come to the organization and he was the one we should have kept. In hindsight, why didn't Sutter swap Phaneuf for White and let go of Jokinen in the 09 post-season in order to free up more money to keep Cammalleri? Given the reasons for Jokinen's departure, I have to ask whether it wasn't it obvious that Cammalleri was a better player than Jokinen all along (both on the ice and in the locker room)?

Given these moves and others, I am not entirely confident in the once mighty Sutter family. Rumours have it that Darryl could be gone if the team does not make the postseason and his players (Stajan, Mayers, White, Kotalik, Hagman) do not make their mark in the Flames' playoff performance.

The only consolation a Flames fan has is that the Oilers were left winless against the Calgary club this year and that they're relegated to the basement of the NHL. That feels pretty good. Could this be Vancouver's year? Probably not. However, the second best thing to a Flames cup-run is seeing one of our opponents come so close to winning and falling on their face. As you can imagine, I look forward to cheering against Vancouver in every stage of the 2010 NHL playoffs.

All this said, I'm feeling quite indifferent to the Flames potential postseason. If they do squeak in, they'll sit in 8th and get beat up by the Sharks in the first round. They'll lose and we'll all go back to the blogs and subsequently beat up on Darryl and Brent. Then, we can move onto other things. Like football!

No, I'm not talking about the 2010 World Cup (which will be awesome) but rather the beginning of the 2010 CFL season in which the Saskatchewan Roughriders are poised to repeat as Western Champs and Grey Cup contenders. That's right, I'll call a Grey Cup appearance right now. Why? Because the core of our team has stayed the same and we've made some incredible additions by bringing in Barrin Simpson and Prechae Rodriguez. While I will miss the innovation of offensive coordinator Paul LaPolice, I think Doug Berry will fit in nicely and hold our ground.

Darian Durant looks fabulous and we'll get to see what our backups are made of as Graham Harrell and Cole Bergquist battle for the title of second-in-command and short-yardage specialist. Furthermore, Cates is back along with some other key players from our defense and secondary.

What the Flames cannot get done on the ice I am sure the Roughriders will accomplish on the grid iron. Heck, maybe the Flames will surprise everyone and eek into the playoffs only to go on a magical 2003-esque Cup Run. I'd love nothing more than to be watching Flames hockey in the month of May but something inside me is screaming that this is not the year and it is best to come to terms with this reality sooner rather than later. That way, I can enjoy the first 20 games the Jays will play (inevitably spurring prophecies of another 92/93 season) and the start of the next phase of the Rider Dynasty.

GO FLAMES! GO RIDERS!