They don't look so bad...

While watching the Flames get beaten by 'a team that they should destroy' on Saturday night, I couldn't help but notice that this year's Phoenix Coyotes squad looks a lot like last season's Chicago Blackhawks...

A lot of young, early first round draft picks surrounded by some experienced guys that you feel are still a little bit too young to be called veterans. When a team is so bad for such a long time, you know that one of these years, if they make decent draft choices, they will eventually get out of that basement and become a legitimate contender (note: not a favourite)...

It happened with the Penguins a few years ago (although they seem to be struggling a little right now), then it happened with the Blackhawks last year, and this year it seems to be happening in the desert...

Granted, you occasionally get those teams that can't seem to pick up the right guys and seem to stay on the bottom for eternity, like the Islanders, Kings, and Thrashers, but those teams also don't tend to hang onto their young guys long enough to see how they can mesh together. Either that or they tend to draft players that start their careers off overseas instead of in the North American farm system...

The Phoenix roster only has six players over 30, the oldest being Ken Klee, born in 1971. And two of them just turned 30 in the last 6 months (Derek Morris and Olli Jokinen). The other three guys, all born in 1976 (the same age as me, incidently), are Steve Reinprecht, Ed Jovanovski, and Shane Doan. Not a bad bunch of 'veterans' to have on a team at all..

And three of those 'over the hill' guys have expiring contracts (Reinprecht, Morris, and Klee)...

Not to mention that a good chunk of the key young guys (Turris, Mueller, Boedker, Hanzal, Tikhonov), all still have at least one year left in their entry contracts...

This team is going to be very good next year, and I'm actually thinking that they will be a tough team to face down the stretch, as they start to gel more and more...

No longer just another notch in the win column...

Yes, I may have a problem

So a friend of mine sent me an email on Monday afternoon, asking if I would play net for a friend of hers on Tuesday night for a pickup hockey game on some ice they'd rented. My Tuesday night hockey league doesn't start up until next week, so I said "Sure, why not!"...

At which point you are probably thinking, "yeah, that sounds rational"...

But maybe I should be more specific...

The pad of ice that they had booked was from 8:30 to 10:00... outside... down by the beach, where its nice and windy... and the windchill took it down to a nice and toasty -25C... and did I mention I'd be playing net, which meant very little moving around for extended periods... and I was travelling over an hour to go do this... and it was just pickup...

I was actually all ready to go, with my bags packed and everything, when I called to ask if my brother could come too (he's not a goaltender, so he's not quite as crazy), when my friend told me it was cancelled since there was a mixup with the permit... but some people were still going to head there regardless...

If I lived closer, I most likely still would have gone...

And now you are probably wondering why I told this story and what it has to do with the Flames...

Its quite simple really, when you think about it...

As I sit here typing the Flames-Sharks game is playing on the TV beside me. If I'm home and Calgary is playing, its on television, I don't care what time it is. This game didn't start until 10:30 EST, and yet I'm going to stay up until its over, blowout or not...

Oh yeah, I also play hockey four nights a week, sometimes five. I actually PVR'd the CHL prospects game. Last year I went to a hockey game in Aurora because a kid my brother teaches is supposedly a phenom in the vein of Tavares or Spezza (did I mention he's still only 10)...

So yes, I may have a problem...