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Sunday Scramble: Flames finally confronted, the shaky Senators, and a Carter Hart thought
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Photo credit: © Sergei Belski-Imagn Images
Michael Menzies
Oct 19, 2025, 12:00 EDTUpdated: Oct 19, 2025, 11:23 EDT
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A real Canadian flavour to the Sunday Scramble this week (Go Blue Jays), and after giving my thoughts about our Edmonton Oilers in my column on Saturday, let’s capitalize on the neighbourly doom permeating provincial borders…
This will be a big test for Calgary Flames general manager Craig Conroy. 
Will he make the panic move to try and improve the team? Or will he accept what our eyeballs tell us, which is that this Flames team isn’t going anywhere? 
The Calgary Flames are horrendous. They got dogwalked by the Vegas Golden Knights 6-1 on Saturday night. If not for an Edmonton gift, they’d be winless. 
They simply can’t score. Just 11 goals through six games. 
A friend of mine who is a big Flames fan texted me after the game: “Are we finally bad bad? Trade the vets, play the young bucks, and tank for McKenna? Ya know, an actual forward-thinking plan. We shall see.” 
I’m sure Flames fans are daring to dream after this type of start. If the effort is that suspect from your veterans in Game 6 of the regular season, you’re in big trouble. 
But in Gary Bettman’s NHL, it doesn’t matter how bad you are. It’s a lottery system. 
In a league that encourages you to rebuild but makes it all about luck, it’s tough to see where they find relief (not that I care much, considering I dislike the Flames intensely). 
Head coach Ryan Huska was just re-signed, but the rebuild still has much work to do. 
From an Edmonton perspective, this is not good. 
For a long time, the Flames have seemingly made it their mission to be in perpetual bubble purgatory. They have been the too-good-to-be-bad, too-bad-to-be-good franchise for much of the post 04-05 lockout. Last season, they received praise for finding a way to miss the playoffs by two points. 
That is perfect if you’re an Oilers fan. 
Now? They are being confronted with the fact that their young goaltender, Dustin Wolf, is no longer masking their clear and obvious deficiencies.  
He was a major reason they finished as well as they did. He’s going through his problems, which happens when you’re a young player, particularly when the skaters in front of you are playing brutally. 
There are statement wins and there are statement losses. Hockey Night in Canada games don’t resonate like they did in decades past, but with that said, when you are thoroughly outclassed and look lifeless and disinterested like they did on Saturday, that’s when the alarm bells ring. 
My hope, of course, is that they make some moves. Improve the club, Conroy! Don’t be tempted by such a player of McKenna’s calibre… 

A failed Oil Change

I have a somewhat related story. 
The date was Saturday, October 23, 2010. The Edmonton Oilers were hosting the San Jose Sharks on the late game of Hockey Night in Canada. 
It was the rookie seasons of Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle, and after the glorious first game against the Flames with the famous Eberle goal of the year, the next games were not so strong. 
They actually won the next game vs the Panthers, but then lost three in a row heading into the matchup against the Sharks. 
I remember this game because general manager Steve Tambellini, president of hockey operations Kevin Lowe, and, I believe, director of amateur scouting Stu MacGregor were all featured in an intermission interview explaining the “rebuild.” The memory is foggy, forgive me. (Also, don’t ask me why I remember this stuff.) 
This was still early in the Oil Change era, and I was 12 years old and was desperate to see some meaningful hockey. 
They told us fans that this was Year 1 of the Rebuild, the start of their five-year “plan” and that if they did it right, they’d be making the playoffs in two years, and contending for the Stanley Cup two years after that. 
Yeah, right. 
Edmonton was soundly thumped by San Jose that night, losing 6-1. I remember walking away from the TV after the 2nd period and wondering why I became an Oilers fan after hearing it was going to take years for them to be relevant. 
Why, why, why did I choose this life?
Little did I know it was going to be a whole lot worse than they even quoted. 
The point? Sometimes, certain losses, particularly on Hockey Night in Canada, stick in your mind. When you’re staring down the barrel of a difficult path, like the Flames are, it looks really bleak. 

Senators shaky and leaky

The Ottawa Senators have been handed the biggest blow of the regular season (excluding the pre-season injury of course of Sasha Barkov) with the frankly dirty hit Roman Josi laid on captain Brady Tkachuk.
The thumb injury that required surgery could keep him out until Christmas. Tkachuk is the heartbeat of this team, and this stretch will be quite the litmus test for a team whose season is all about proving that last year’s playoff-calibre campaign was no fluke. 
After blowing a chance at a point on Saturday against the New York Islanders – Anders Lee resurrected for an afternoon, scoring with 63 seconds left in regulation – the Sens sit at the moment at the bottom of the Atlantic Division with a 2-4 record. 
However, with or without Brady Tkachuk, Ottawa can’t keep the puck out of their net, allowing a ghastly 30 goals against in six contests. 
Shane Pinto be damned – he’s amongst scoring leaders right now with eight points. 
A Buffalo team that seemingly couldn’t score had their get-right game and abused the Sens for eight against. 
They are horrendous on the penalty kill right now at 55 per cent, and head coach Travis Green, who is in his second year at the helm, called their diamond setup a “work in progress.” 
Yikes. 
(By the way, that’s not even the worst the PK in the league. The Columbus Blue Jackets take that prize at 53 per cent.
Understanding that we’re just a week and a half into the season, the Atlantic Division feels wide open. The Florida Panthers have lost four in a row. Tampa Bay has won just once in six tries. Are we buying into Boston? I don’t know, but this was high time to try and take advantage, but it seems there is a lot of work still to do. 
For the past several seasons, I had quoted to friends that Detroit-Ottawa-Buffalo is the Bermuda Triangle of Bad in that Atlantic. Each season, an expert would pick one of these teams to finally take a step and make the playoffs, and up until this most recent year, it was always wrong. 
Meanwhile, the Montreal Canadiens are showing that they completely leapfrogged the Bermuda Triangle (they weren’t included because they weren’t in their rebuild for quite as long) as they are off to a hot start this season and building off of what began last year. 
Is Ottawa about to have a season from hell? 
They’ll have time to dwell on matters, as they don’t play again until the Oilers come to town on Tuesday. 

Press release BS

A thought on Carter Hart. 
I had to chuckle that the Vegas Golden Knights released a statement after signing Hart this week, which included the phrase, “We remain committed to the core values that have defined our organization from its inception…” 
You mean, the core values that are anything to win? 
If any franchise in pro sports in the past ten years has been singularly focused on winning, despite loyalties and allegiances to certain players, it’s been Vegas. 
We all know why you signed him. You think Hart will help you win hockey games. There’s no other reason. 
I’m debated whether Hart should be eligible to play – with the verdict handed out, I don’t think the NHL has a case to withhold him from competition any longer – nor am I saying the Edmonton Oilers operate on some sort of moral high ground (they very much do not), I’m just noting a phrase that communications people write in press releases that are so full of BS that we come to expect them. 
If Carter Hart wins hockey games, they won’t care about the rest. That’s the bottom line – rightly or wrongly. Spare us the core values talk, please. 

Rapidfire

Jaromir Jagr is still playing professional hockey because, well, why the hell not? 
The ageless wonder at 53 years old, who started playing pro hockey in 1988, laced them up with Kladno this week. 
This is his 38th season of professional hockey. It’s simply sickening. 
Imagine if Jagr didn’t leave for the KHL or the lockouts. At 1921 points already, he could’ve had 2100 or 2200 points. Unfathomable.
The Washington Capitals’ new alternate jerseys with the screaming eagle logo is an assault on the eyeballs. 
Who decided this mish-mash of colours was aesthetic? In theory, perhaps it works. 
But the white tops then with blue pants is such an awkward combination. It’s a shame. The logo is terrific. The dark jerseys with that crest look sharp. 
This ain’t it. 
The Minnesota Wild are 43.5 per cent on the power play but have won just two of six games. The pressure continues to mount… 
The Carolina Hurricanes are the only undefeated team left standing at 5-0. One would think the record books will be left unscathed, though. They play Vegas, Colorado, Dallas, and Vegas in their next four games… 

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