Things are becoming VERY interesting in Calgary... | Calgary Flames News

Things are becoming very interesting for the Calgary Flames that they've already had to deal with a little bit of off-ice drama and now are dealing with some injury issues but you know who always keeps things positively interesting? Our dazzling prospects. We're going to get to all that more in this video but first I want to welcome you to Flames Digest. I'm Mark Griffith. If you're new around here and you love the Flames make sure you subscribe so you can stay up to date on all the latest news, updates, reports, and rumors revolving around your Calgary Flames. We would love to welcome you to the Flames Digest family. We have a lot to cover in this one we're gonna start with an injury update that all kind of has us saying oh sam you gotta feel for the guy here but in case you missed it it was more so announced yesterday officially but flames say Sam Honzik is week to week with a lower body injury which has max sticks and sorry match sticks and gasoline points out here it's just absolutely brutal injury luck for Sam Honzik yet again it's a shame because he's really looking like an everyday a NHLer but the best ability is availability gotta gotta hit us with that uh classical saying there but you gotta feel for the guy that it's yet another injury I'm already seeing people you know make some comparisons to Zeri here it's a former first rounder who looked so good as a rookie and as a you know early years player but just couldn't beat the injuries and looking like a bust but I don't know it is just absolutely brutal injury luck for Honzik if you really do gotta feel for the guy um and as Ryan Pike points out here so per the club flames forward Sam Honzik is out week to week with a lower body injury he says as of right now Honzik is not on IR and they haven't called anybody up the team's carrying an extra d and extra ford so might not be needed depending on how long he's out i think it'll also depend on what happens once the team does get back to Calgary maybe they'll make a transaction or maybe they'll just you know go with the flow as things are currently going here but once again Hanzik injured again early in the year again which really really does suck you do gotta feel for the guy and as I said some people are you know taking maybe a more pessimistic approach here but Gripalsing is one of them he says called it an overreaction but Hanzik is approaching bust territory soon dude just can't stay healthy more than happy to be proven wrong but he just can't catch a break and like I already said there were people all over social media specifically twitter you know comparing him to zary and just saying yeah this dude honestly is a bust what a what a waste of a pick what a waste of a roster spot if he's just always going to get injured and again that's not my sentiment at all you guys know the kind of fan i am i try not to be super negative and pessimistic but you can't understand why people would be like that personally i think man he just can't catch a break it's not like he's going out there and purposely getting injured I mean it would be nice if he wasn't and a lot of people look at you know hey maybe if he just you know could put on some muscle or something play a bit more of an aggressive game you know protect themselves then this wouldn't happen and yeah there's so many different elements that come into play here and so many different things you can say about it either way he's injured week to week doesn't look too bad definitely recoverable unlike last year so hopefully he just can recover and get back into very good game shape the next thing that I wanted to take a look at was again probably my favorite thing to talk about here on the channel and it's our perfect prospects because I just love these guys and the first one I'm going to highlight is actually Jack Hextall which according to Flames Prospects just going to make this a little bit bigger for us Flames Prospects here says Jack Hextall is starting his NCAA career hot gave him the prospect of the week of course playing at Michigan State he had in two games he had two goals two assists for four points looked great I believe Colin Potter also got onto the score sheet over the weekend which was great to see but honestly very happy with how Hextall is doing obviously used a very high pick on the guy so happy to know that he is developing quite well and we already I know the season's so young but already we have so many guys in the conversation to have the most points in the NCAA like we did last year with Wittenbach speaking of Wittenbach he just picked up right where he left off last year so he had a four point weekend as well which gives him the High Peaks ECAC forward of the week award and Flames Prospects once again points out that this is routine for Ethan Wittenbach but once again you know a lot of people were expecting a sophomore slump and it still could happen of course but it certainly hasn't so far through the first couple weeks here of this season. He has, again, picked up right where he left off. He just produces, produces, produces. If anyone, you know, was skeptical after last season, all they had to do was watch that World Junior Summer Showcase, and he was by far the best player at the tournament, picking up where he left off. I think that's the third or fourth time I've said that phrase in this video already, but he just looks absolutely excellent once again a person who a lot of Flames fans are getting very excited about other than for whatever reason the guy sitting behind me at the game that I went to on Saturday he just hated Wittenbach for some reason no idea why, don't know if that guy's a real Flames fan continuing with the prospects here, Joe Gimla, a guy who I haven't spoken about too much but he scored a pair of beautiful goals on Friday night against Seattle the family hands and shot certainly on display, he's got three goals, five points in seven games of the season and that was just by Seattle I think they might have played again since that game but awesome to know that he is scoring great goals getting points and playing really well, do I expect him to be you know a star for our franchise I don't expect it I would absolutely love if it happened but hopefully he just continues to develop at a steady pace that's all we can expect out of Joey so far but really liking what we're seeing in this young season for him with all this good play that we've been seeing all over the place, Torin Smith has already done his way too early Hobie Baker award watch list, very first person on this graphic, maybe look better in this window, look better in this one, anyone where my big mug ain't in the way but Wittenbach, very first person on that list and there's actually another flame on there, Landon DuPont if you just go to below Wittenbach, he's also on there, but surprised to not see you know a Rashny in there because of how good he has started this year I mean I could have focused on him quite a bit too in this video, he was putting up points this weekend as well, there's no Carl's of course not that Carl's is probably going to win the Hobie Baker, I'm just shouting out all of our prospects at this point in the NCAA but pumped that Wittenbach already getting that recognition I mean he should have won the award last year, let's just be honest but happy to know that there are a lot of great Flames prospects in the NCAA another guy who is not in the NCAA or the CHL but it's Alan Sheiklis-Lamov so he scored his ninth goal of the year he has 17 points in 12 games right now Koplar was demolished 10-2 by AKM Junior but uh you know what he is putting up an insane amount of points and looks like right now kind of the steel of the most recent draft my goodness is he putting up great points in a men's league it's just fantastic to see this could be a name that I mean I'm sure we'll just be calling them shaky or something um but in you know maybe a couple years time we're seeing him play in the nhl which would be absolutely awesome to see but who doesn't love just how good all not all but most of our prospects are doing right now just stay on track they're looking so so good what isn't looking too good is you know the actual team so let's get into tonight's game will we ever win whichever win got an extra r in there and became one word but uh the flames they have a game today as does every other team in the NHL which is pretty cool to note um so they're playing against the team we just played the Anaheim Ducks this time in Anaheim a place where it used to be impossible for us to pick up a win now it's just impossible for us to pick up a win period but we're going for our first point of the season tonight who knows might get a uh Daryl Sutter point there in the end I think Daryl Sutter came out with a book today I'd love to cop that one uh the lines it's funny no one really released the lines today I could give you the whole Anaheim Ducks lineup but the lines look the exact same not the exact same but they look very similar to how they did in the most recent game against the Ducks just switching around which line is where but a top line of Sharon Govich, Backlund and Farabee got to be the worst first line in the league. Sunyev still with Frost and Coronado that was our best line against Anaheim. Gritten unfortunately with Pospisil and Strome I mean I get it that he's not playing all that well is the way to unlock Gritten by putting him with Pospisil and Strome I'm not too sure. Siplikov, Castagna And Klapka, once again, is the fourth line. I feel a bit for Othman. I feel like he deserves a shot. The D pairing is the same. Ball, Nemec, Kuznetsov, Whitecloud, Middleton, Perek. And I'm starting to get a little bit irritated here. Why is Perek not being put with Whitecloud? I understand that that means you gotta put someone else on their offside, probably Kuznetsov. But I mean, Perek's struggling so far this year. Why not put him where he was thriving last year with Whitecloud? I think that's gonna become a major talking point if Perek's woes continue. Well, I mean, the whole Flames woes continue. and then Wolfe is the starter tonight speaking of Wolfe I want to do a quick little janky super janky graphic here because for some reason it makes no sense I don't know why the digest media auto generator whenever you put in Dustin Wolfe just brings up whoever that is for the Utah Mammoth in the photo but at least the stats are accurate so Wolfe versus Dostal Dostal you know not having the greatest season just an 884 save percentage which isn't fantastic 295 goals against average not fantastic definitely one above 900 and then you know closer to two and a half i'd say um for the goals against average whereas Wolf having an awful season 8 16 and 5 42 so once again just like Saturday we could expect some goals not thinking it's going to be a goaltending duel uh another thing that it's definitely not going to be i love this graphic my favorite one here goes the race for the Pacific Division the Flames dip into last and where are we as of today the date continues as we're going through October. Get to October 12th, it says, even though today's the 13th. And yeah, we're still at the bottom. I mean, we're only a win away from the LA Kings, which is funny, but that's what's kind of shaken out with the Pacific Race. That was just another excuse to use that graphic. I absolutely love that one. One last little lineup note is actually for the Ducks, not for us. But Joel Quenneville says, Cutter Gauthier out day-to-day with an upper body injury. I believe he was the player who got rocked by ball in the last game. Said he tried practicing yesterday, but didn't feel right. and then also Payling who got hurt in the game against the flames is out six to eight weeks so neither of those guys in but Roger McQueen is set to make his NHL debut tonight against the Flames so if there was nothing interesting on our side at least there's something somewhat interesting on the Ducks side now let's get into the comment of the day to wrap up this video as we love to do here on the channel comes from yesterday's video of course where there were so many comments you guys had great support but love this one here from Perry Perry said happy thanksgiving i'd rather they didn't trade him unless it's for a center which has been a big issue for the Flames talking about Whitecloud uh second it opens up a spot for Bruce Rustevich without him though it's gonna hurt the blue line go flames go and there's loads of options of what to do with Whitecloud at this point trading him away yeah it frees up a spot for Bruce Rustevich but is Whitecloud too valuable can you get more value later there's you know so many different permutations combinations what can go on here uh for Craig Conroy and just this geek or in general but especially with the trades surrounding Whitecloud so we'll see what happens doubt he actually does get traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs thank you so much for watching this video please subscribe if you like what you saw here today and have a wonderful rest of your day