Welcome to Calgary Old Friend

The day Todd left Vancouver was the day that I became his biggest fan. My dream was that one day I would see him in a Flaming Red 'C' and as of earlier this week my dreams came true. Everyone looks at the negatives of Todd...ie. Todd is this, Todd is that...but no one ever stops to think about the good stuff he does, the reason why, at one point, he was one of the leagues premiere power forwards.

So lets get a few negatives out of the way. Todd likes taking stupid penalties. I'm not denying it, I'm not going to beat around the bush, or doll it up so it sounds nice; Todd can be a moron at times. However, I think now that he is on a team with solid leadership with the likes of Jarome and Robyn, a crazy coach that will lock him in a cage (like he did with Kristian Huselius), and a business only GM he will settle down and figure out how to play smart hockey.

The other issue with Todd is his reputation. No one likes him. He was, at one point, the number one bad guy when it came to Flames fans and now he is one of us. I doubt that the Flames fans will boo him in our own house but I know that as soon as they take the show on the road the boo birds will come out every time he touches the puck. And you know what the best way is to shut them up? Put some points on the board. If Todd scores a goal on opening night then all the naysayers in Cowtown will think he is the second coming of Lanny McDonald. And if he just sticks to his game people will get tired of booing him. Plus, who could boo a guy that could potentially be playing on the same line as the greatest hockey player in the league (yes, that would be my boy, Iggy).

Now the good stuff. Todd has a hot wife....No, I'm kidding (though he does). Todd is a big boy. However, from what I understand he has shed a few pounds (around 25 lbs). This makes him much more mobile than he was before. With the way things are going in the NHL you can't have heavy guys out there because the younger, faster players will skate circles around you. Loosing these few pounds should help him keep up with Iggy or Lombo (depending on whether he's playing line one or two) but he's still pretty big so he's still the go to guy when room needs to be cleared for the guys with softer hands.

Another interesting point is the fact that Todd WANTS to play in Canada again. Sure, he could have gone to some backwater team like Nashville, Atlanta, Columbus, or Vancouver but he didn't. He came to a market where hockey is number one and from the moment he steps onto the ice people are going to criticize and he seems fine with that. He claims it will make him play better and I do hope it really elevates his game.

I'm sure when it came time to sign Todd it wasn't all willy-nilly. Darryl is a smart man and knows what he's doing. He most likely wouldn't pick up Todd if he didn't feel he could have something to offer. Darryl has got us this far so it's no time to be second guessing him now.

I am really looking forward to the start of the new season. The Flames have really improved their team with a bit more scoring and a lot more size. Lets wait till opening night at see how it goes.

And in the immortal words of the newest Calgary Flame "It is what it is...."

Flames' New Headache

Todd Bertuzzi signing with the Calgary Flames is not a good fit. It isn’t a good fit for the player. It isn’t a good fit for the team

Bertuzzi’s game was on the decline even before he bashed in Steve Moore’s brains. Before the Moore incident, Bertuzzi was on pace that season for only around 70 points, nearly 30 short of the 97 he had recorded the season before. It has been all downhill since. Last year he managed only 40 points, and that is playing on a line with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf for much of the season. Despite the fact that Bertuzzi will likely see ice time with Iginla in Calgary, the Flames lack a legitimate number one centre. Daymond Langkow certainly does not measure up to Getzlaf.

One thing Flames Fans will have to get used to is a lot more penalties, often at the most inopportune times. Even at his peak, Todd took many stupid penalties. When Todd was at his best, about half his penalties were because he was an aggressive, dominating power forward and the other half were because he would be lazy and not use his brain. Recently, half of his penalties are still because he can be lazy and dumb and the other half are simply because of his reputation for being a thug. Shall we go back to the 2006 Olympics? Guess who was in the penalty box in the third period of the gold medal game when Russia scored what would end up being the winning goal?

After spending last season with Anaheim, where hockey takes a back seat to several other sports, Bertuzzi will be returning to the country where hockey is king.

"I played my best hockey in Canada when I was under the microscope, and that may
be a little kick-start to get it going again," said Bertuzzi.

While it is certainly true that he had his most productive years in Vancouver, he was far from someone who thrived in the spotlight. Todd played his best hockey in Vancouver when expectations for both him and the team were low. He burst on to the scene from relative obscurity when the team was in the shitter to become one of the games premiere power forwards and then slowly fizzled out as the spotlight intensified. After establishing himself as a first-liner, Todd only managed to lead the team to one playoff round victory in five years. He was rarely the one to bring his A-game when the team needed him most. And let’s not forget his last season in Vancouver in which the Canucks lost 6 of the last 8 games to miss out on a playoff spot. Todd hated the media with a passion and it has always been obvious that he is not one who craves to be the center of attention, especially when things are not going his way.

Media scrutiny aside, it is mind boggling that Bertuzzi would want to return to play in the Northwest division. Fans on the road are going to be all over him like flies on shit. Is he some kind of glutton for punishment that he really wants to play Minnesota, Vancouver and Colorado six times each season? Minnesota was the original city to start booing Todd back when the Wild knocked the Canucks out of the playoffs in 2003 and they have certainly not warmed to him since. It doesn’t need to be explained why he will forever be hated in Colorado. And now that he is playing for one of Vancouver’s biggest rivals, Canuck fans will no longer have any sympathy for him. It is going to be a rough ride all season long.

An ideal situation would have been a place like Atlanta where he could have finished out his career in relative obscurity and still made enough money to pay off his legal fees. Or how about Tampa Bay? They seem to be handing out contracts like candy and he would be completely lost in the shuffle there with the 19 other new forwards joining the team.

I am not even going to get into Bertuzzi’s numerous injuries over the last few seasons or his ongoing legal troubles, which are still years from conclusion. Needless to say, signing Todd was a gamble and it is not one that I see working out for Darryl Sutter and the Flames.