New Year’s Resolutions for the Calgary Flames

2017 is upon us. For a lot of people, that means it is time to start working on their New Year’s resolutions. Everybody has something they can work on to better themselves and their lives, whether it is insignificant or substantial. This can be applied to the Calgary Flames, so I made some resolutions that could benefit each player on the team.

2017 Resolutions

Johnny Gaudreau: End the season a point-a-game and somehow avoid being slashed so much.

Alex Chiasson: Lift your spell off of Gulutzan so that he stops continually placing you on one of the top lines.

Sam Bennett: Put all the great aspects of your game together on a consistent basis. There have been flashes, but not enough sustained periods of everything working.

Matthew Tkachuk: Take less dumb penalties and keep doing everything else the same.

Mikael Backlund: Keep doing exactly what you are doing, it is working.

Michael Frolik: Same as Backlund.

Kris Versteeg: Play the rest of the season healthy, because a healthy Versteeg is such a boost to the line up.

Sean Monahan: Shoot the puck more. Monahan’s shot is his greatest gift and he could stand to shoot more often, currently tied for 5th on the team in shots on goal. If you want to get really wild, work on rounding out your defensive play.

Micheal Ferland: Bring your A-game more regularly. There are games where Ferland is a force no matter how much or how little he plays, but there are other games where he just blends in. More nights on an A-game would be huge for the Flames.

Troy Brouwer: Be less of a possession drag. Brouwer makes every teammate he plays with have worse shot-attempt differentials and the only regular who has a worse CF% than him is Garnet Hathaway. That is very concerning for how much money and term there is on his contract.

Lance Bouma: Play every game like the one you just had against the Arizona Coyotes on New Year’s Eve. It was the best game Bouma played in forever and his $2.2 million salary would be less of a burden if he brought a presence like that regularly.

Matt Stajan: You are having a terrific season in your role Matty, nothing else needs to be asked of you, just keep it up.

Garnet Hathaway: Keep agitating opponents and try to improve on pushing play to the other end of the ice.

Freddie Hamilton: Continue being a nice brother to Douglas and hopefully you will get into the line up again one day.

Mark Giordano: Never age.

Dougie Hamilton: Continue to grow toward being the number one defenseman on the team and an elite NHL player.

T.J. Brodie: Ream out Coach Gulutzan until he you allows you to play your off-side again, while not having to play with a defender that drags down your productivity.

Dennis Wideman: Show enough that some team wants to trade for you at the deadline. Avoid running officials.

Deryk Engelland: Keep being that guy in the room that has grit/leadership/intangibles but play a bit better as well.

Jyrki Jokipakka: Trick Las Vegas into thinking that you are the player they want to take from the Flames in the expansion draft.

Tyler Wotherspoon and Brett Kulak: Have a breakthrough and convince management that you are NHL regulars because the team sorely needs improvement in their bottom 3 defenders.

Chad Johnson: Get back on that run you were on in November and early December and help lead the Flames to the playoffs.

Brian Elliott: Be that goalie the Flames were trading for at the draft, it looks like you are trending that way.

Glen Gulutzan: Get the non-Backlund, non-Stajan lines going at even-strength.

Brad Treliving: Acquire a top-6 RW for Johnny to play with.

Brian Burke: Resist meddling with Brad’s work.

The Benefit of these Resolutions

New Years Resolutions are tough, there is a reason people take them on as a challenge for themselves. Sometimes they are met with resounding success, sometimes they falter within a couple of weeks. If even half of the Flames could meet these resolutions, think how successful the team could be in 2017.

by samwell9