This is a DISASTER for the Flames...

The Calgary Flames are off to a much hotter start than anticipated this season, but one major injury update is an absolute disaster for the team's defense, but very much helps the tank. With Kevin Ball out, at least it gives others a bigger opportunity if we want to spin it in a positive light. 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 to 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. Welcome into the Flames Digest family, and there's not really any sugarcoating it. This is an absolute disaster for the Flames, who are off to a much hotter start, again, than anticipated this season, but we have an awful, awful update as of this morning. So, defenseman Kevin Ball will be placed on the injured reserve and will require season-ending surgery for a ruptured Achilles tendon. And in just an... Awful injury for Ball. It didn't even happen in a game. It didn't even happen in the warm-up. Apparently it happened before the warm-up, but that is just a brutal blow for who many people have been calling the best flame so far this season. I know you can throw Cooley in there, but Kevin Ball has been outstanding. Our best defensive defenseman, so this is a major blow, and you look at the one game we played without Ball, you give up five goals, so it really is a major, major blow, and we do obviously hope the best for Ball, hope the best in his recovery, hope surgery goes well, but that is just a brutal blow for both Ball and the Flames, and it honestly kind of is a disaster for our team defense. Don't be surprised if we start giving up quite a few more goals, and I'll get into why in just a bit, but Positively, that does mean we get to see some new faces or maybe familiar faces in this sense that Brayden Pachal has actually been recalled. So no guarantee that he obviously will go in right away, but we saw Nacho come in as the, you know. Ball replacement in the last game. We might see Pahal for a bit. And we do have some young guys in the system as well that I know a lot of people would like to see, which I will also get into in a second. But in terms of how the roster shakes out, if you want to do a making moves version of this. So obviously Kevin Ball placed on IR. He wasn't at the morning skate and they did get an update pretty much right away saying that, yeah, he is out for the year, which is too bad. So to open up a roster spot for Pahal, obviously that means Ball is onto the IR. So transaction made. It completely makes sense. That's the logistics of it. But again, this is just so bad for Ball and the Flames. I'm almost laughing through the pain because as regular viewers of the channel will know, I love... Kevin Ball. I always annoy my dad by saying that I started a Kevin Ball chant at a game. I think that's a couple seasons ago now, but I was lucky enough to sit in the lower bowl and I just started chanting Kevin Ball for no reason against Chicago. And it actually started a chant and people were going crazy. But yeah, really feel for Ball here. Horrible, horrible injury. There are minutes to be replaced because Ball plays the hard minutes. These are his minutes so far this season. So well over 20 minutes per game. The most he played in game was 25 minutes as well. And the fewest was just under 20. So there's, you know, a big hole here, a big void that will need to be filled by someone. I know in the last game, we got to see a lot more of Parekh, which again, if you try and spin it in a positive light, was a great thing. We got to see more of Parekh. His defensive game has improved. It was great. It's kind of tough because very small sample size of our record this year without Ball. With him, 7-8-1, not too bad. Without him, we're 0-1. But the main thing here is that in those first 16 games, you know, we had 3.44 goals against, which still isn't fantastic. But in the one without him, again, five goals. Now, that's just one game. I'm sure it'll balance out. But as we know, Kevin Ball is just a defensive stud. He's been with Nemitz and ensuring that Nemitz is able to develop a little more. And Ball has just been so awesome. As if we do take a look at who his partners have been so far this year, at five on five, I mean, the most minutes is by far with Nemeth. So we'll have to see what happens in terms of how, you know, Huska shakes out the defensive pairings. I mean, last game is probably a good indication of how it will be at least to start. But yeah, he's played a bit with Whitecloud. He's played a bit with Parekh as well. A lot of people like Parekh with Kuznetsov, so maybe you don't. You know, split those guys up. Maybe you put Nemeth with Whitecloud. Well, we'll see what ends up happening. But either way, Kevin Ball will absolutely be missed as if we take a look at, you know, even the deeper stats here. He's not going to wow you offensively, of course, just a one goal and one assist, but it's those defensive slash grit stats. If you go down to blocks, hits and takeaways that he obviously is very, very good at. And again, will be majorly missed. In terms of Pahal, You know, this is him last season because, you know, he's been aflame for a little while now, ever since he got plucked off of waivers. So we're familiar with him. He can throw the body around this year with the Wranglers after he was sent down. You know, he's had some huge hits. He's been in some fights. He's definitely, I would say, earned a call, a recall like he like he got today, which is absolutely fantastic. And last year, as you can tell, you know, the hits and blocks were going crazy. It's not easy. So. Again, happy that Pahal is up. I'm sure he's pleased as well, but it does leave a major question of, you know, why wasn't it Hunter Brustevich? And the main answer for that is not necessarily direct replacement. As we know, Brustevich, more of an offensive guy, ball, of course, defensive. Pahal, of course, defensive. I believe both Brustevich and Pahal shoot the opposite way of ball, who's a lefty. So I guess that isn't a direct replacement either way. But this season so far, Brustevich has played 14 games. He's got a goal and six assists. For a point every other game, he's a minus two on the year and has 14 penalty minutes. So not the worst season for him so far, but I know a lot of people will be saying, you know, why wasn't it Brustevich recalled? We'd love to see him play it. Yeah, I don't know. It's there's no right answer or wrong answer to the Brustevich question, but I don't know. It really seems like more and more. He is kind of the odd guy out here in terms of, you know, NHL minutes. If we're seeing, you know, Hanley and Pahal go in. He's definitely below guys like Kuznetsov, of course, Parek and Nemec at this point. So it will continue to be a question. I'd love to see Brusbenik at some point this season. I'm sure he'll excel if he does get that opportunity, but it will raise a major question, I think. But for now, we'll just leave it as. Unfortunately, Kevin balls out and the immediate replacement is Hanley in the lineup and Pahal is kind of that extra guy, which does bring us into tonight's game as the Flames, they're kind of weird. They haven't been playing on like Thursdays and Saturdays lately. They've been having the kind of ghetto days in terms of when they play, but the Flames are at home for the hockey fights, cancer night, one of the best nights of the year, always a very sentimental and a great way to do it. They play at 6 p.m. tonight. Tonight at the Dome, of course, against the Flyers. Always cool to welcome them in with their nice little uniforms. And they're underperforming this year. Well, they're kind of like Calgary. They were awful to start and then became decent. And so it should be a pretty exciting game no matter what. I know they have some crazy things going on with Fire Talk It. And it'll just be cool to welcome, obviously, the... Flyers into town in terms of the goaltender tonight. Surprise, surprise, it is Devin Cooley who will be starting for the Flyers. Huska's so funny, so predictable at this point where it's, I'm gonna play this goalie. If he loses, the other one goes in. And it's not even like Wolf played all that bad against Anaheim, which we went over like crazy in yesterday's video, but no surprise that Cooley does go in, especially if you look at how rested he is. Of course, he was injured. Let me make this a little bigger. He was injured, but Wolf has obviously been very busy having the last few starts here. ever since Cooley went down while Sergeyev went in for one game there against Colorado. But yeah, Cooley should be rested, should be ready to go. He healed a lot faster than a lot of people anticipated. So excited to see the NHL's best philosopher back between the pipes tonight, which should be very interesting. If we take a look at kind of his recent form here, yeah, we know he's playing quite well. The Flames have been so much better, I'd say the most recent 10 games compared to the first. Well, how many have we played now? Seven or eight. So. We're just giving up way less shots, which is not making the goalies do as much, but we're so happy to have Cooley back between the pipes. It should be an interesting one. I thought it was also interesting to bring up the Flyers all time, just because they're obviously an Eastern Conference team. But if you include Atlanta, we have played against the Flyers 133 times, which was more than I thought. We have 58 wins and 60 regulation losses with 12 ties and three OT losses, which is pretty dang close. And hopefully we can close that gap a little bit If you want the flames to lose, I totally understand as well, but either way, I really hope it is a very exciting game and I always bring this up as well, but it'll boil down to the special teams for me. The power play is still hot. Hopefully they can keep it going. I would say player to watch is Farabee against his old team. It's funny, ever since he got traded to the Flames, he hasn't been all that excellent against the Flyers. Not that he's played against them that much, but I was looking at some stats. Decided not to include them because they weren't that interesting. But you could say that about a lot of the content I throw into these videos. But yeah, the power play will mean a lot. The penalty kill as well. Both still top 10 in the league. So will be interesting. The Flyers have some firepower. I know that's a little bit rich to say right now, but they definitely have some guys who can score, especially given the right opportunity. So the power play and penalty kill will be what it boils down once again for me. And I say that before literally every single game. If you're sick of me saying that, please let me know down in the comments. And speaking of comments, let's get into the comment of the day to wrap up this video, as we love to do here on the channel. It comes from yesterday's video, of course. And there's a great one here from BS Charger saying, Zayn Parekh has been the most fun flame to watch by far. I constantly find myself saying, ew, to plays he makes at the line and to get to the net. He's been electric in the O zone. And I think it's only a matter of time before he gets some puck luck to get his rip of a shot in the back of the net. He was absolutely dynamic against Anaheim. It was unfortunate that he wasn't able to score and could have honestly had about at least six points, only got the two in the first period. But he has been so, so fun to watch. It's great seeing him blossom into the player that he wants to be and that all the fans want him to be as well. His defensive game is better. And yeah, I think as the season goes on. There will be no hesitation in people saying that he is the best player on the Calgary Flames. 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.