There's NO WAY this is happening...

The Calgary Flames are on a crash course to be the worst team the NHL has ever seen and with the season already going badly enough we now have some added drama. Two NHL caliber players have been placed on waivers and the Faith is leaving the locker room. 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 to welcome you to the Flames Digest family I'm sure you've heard it by now. Now the big news is that Connor Zeri has been placed on waivers but first we have to get into how we are just so so bad I gotta be honest I prepped a whole video before the news dropped and just wanted to focus on how the Flames are genuinely off to a historically bad start to this season. We're 0-3 now and we just got smoked once again 6-1 by the Seattle Kraken and I don't even want to know what's going to happen when the Flames play against contenders because if we're getting smoked by Seattle and Vancouver this early in the season I don't want to know what's coming later this year. I'll pull up the full box score for the Flames here I actually like it better in this window this window looks like the best one to me feel free to pause zoom in take a look at the full stats but the Flames the one thing going for us is at least the power play has been okay so far this year which is where you'd think you'd get goals maybe if we just draw like 20 penalties a game we'll actually end up winning one of them but if we do get into the guys who did get onto the score sheet and the goaltending I can no longer even defend Dustin Wolf I did it all of last season saying look at the team in front of him this year again I'm not going to blame the losses on him because these are complete team losses but six goals against on 27 shots for the 778 save percentage that's really really bad to be quite honest I hope this doesn't stunt his development because we know he's a really good goalie get a better team in front of him I'm sure he'll do well but he's playing bad right now too it's the let's just face it you know what's funny is the premise of what the video was going to be that I was originally going to record was that we are playing really bad hockey we're so so bad but it's it's unsustainably bad hockey you know it's if you can't even do this bad this long if we do get into the history that we're making here so the Flames right now are off to the third worst season technically in three games so the worst goal differential through the first three games of a season in NHL history are the 1981-82 Rangers at a negative 15 the 75-76 Kings at negative 14 and then the Flames tied with five others at negative 13 we have three goals in three games and we have given up 16 goals in those three games as well it genuinely again it is off to a historically bad start to the year and again I don't know I don't want to know what's coming against the good teams I believe our next games against Colorado they're supposed to be a contender that's going to be a tough one knowing the Flames they'll turn it on when you expect it the least but like I was saying there are some stats that go along with this and they are they show how just unsustainable it kind of is but I'm gonna get into the first one here and it goes to the goaltending so this comes from data driven hockey on Instagram but also on all socials a page I used to follow religiously but they have some really good stats on there now the best and worst goalies in the NHL last week second worst goalie was Wolf that's based off of expected goals against and how he was way below that I mean it's too small for even to see for me to see right now in this window can I pull it up and make it a little bigger I don't know I think that says negative five or something it's so tiny on my little recording screen but either way only Lankenham was worse and that's only because he played in that game where the Oilers you know scored nine goals Wolf in two games was just bad could not stop the puck which is not what we want to see in terms of the Flames as a team now it's kind of funny this is where it starts to get a little bit unsustainable is the luckiest and unluckiest teams in the NHL last week the Flames much like Wolf were the second unluckiest which is unsustainably bad results so our luck was so you know below what it was supposed to be or or at least towards the league average you look at teams like the Islanders even the Kraken I mean the Kraken were just unsustainably good because they're not gonna be playing Calgary every week that's why they were so lucky the Flames are unlucky because they had scoring chances and couldn't score and gave up a lot of goals while not giving up as many scoring chances as you would think for goals against which was just really really tough look but again I guess what we wanted to focus on in this video you saw the thumbnail you saw the title no one is or sorry there's no way this is happening it has to go with how a certain player is almost certainly gone at this point and I know you've seen the news by now unless you live under a rock but the Flames have placed Connor Zeri and Braden Pahal on waivers on Monday this is kind of a bit of a blow here for I would say the Flames as an organization it is a bad look for Calgary because placing a first rounder on waivers that's bad enough already I think there's a lot more going on behind the scenes that doesn't get reported every day because I've already been hearing stuff about Zeri about how he's late to certain things or he doesn't show up for certain things it's funny because when you look at like social media and stuff or the Flames YouTube channel he looks like such a fun loving funny happy guy but that's clearly not the case a lot of people are thinking that effort isn't there I just part of me really thinks I mean I think for sure he is going to get claimed there's no part of me that doesn't think that he will get claimed I can picture Zeri in almost any other uniform in the NHL quite honest I don't know why but teams like Pittsburgh or Boston Detroit those kind of stick out to me maybe it's just because those are some classic uniforms but I could see him genuinely being picked up by anyone if he doesn't I'll be shocked and then he just gets assigned to the Wranglers which I don't see happening Pahal I could see him getting past the waivers I could also see him getting picked up easily as well only time will tell but part of me also thinks maybe this has to be a condition on a trade but that's also what I'm hoping for but maybe a condition on trade is I would get assigned to the AHL on that team which just makes no sense that's just wishful thinking for me I wish we could have traded away and got something back but it sounds like we're losing Zeri for nothing now which is quite frustrating I don't think it's you know Conroy's fault it's probably just at this point where he just has to because no one's interested no one's throwing anything around but yeah we could start the whole debate with Ryan Huska and Connor Zeri what's this fight been going on about apparently last year Zeri was supposed to work it out and just never played all that well it's just it's it's a bad situation I wish it wasn't happening for a season that's already been bad enough to watch as Flames fans but a few people were obviously talking about it so Eric Francis points out Connor Zeri on waivers marks a disappointing moment in the relationship between the team and the first rounder fascinating to see if he is taken on by another team or is sent to the minors tough start to what he hoped would be a narrative flipping season that's something we spoke about a lot in the offseason that was with a better role maybe he could play a little more and we say better role he was benched literally in the second game which isn't exactly a great role so many people online too are saying like well you know we're losing Zeri but thank goodness we still have Siplikov and Klavka and stuff which is just it really is quite crazy to me adding on NHL room report says the Flames tried to move Zeri in the summer the player wanted a fresh start to after not working well in the flame system which sounds like it's probably going to be happening now now Zeri doesn't get to decide which team obviously claims him but it certainly sounds like he is going to be getting a fresh start I wouldn't be surprised if he just has a personal a personal vendetta against this organization after this because we probably have mistreated him in a way he probably hasn't been the best guy for the organization either definitely goes both ways from our point of view it's yeah he never got the right opportunity Huska sucks but we don't know what's going on behind the scenes it really is a little bit difficult in terms of money this is a big if but Ryan Pike points out 1.225 million dollars of Zeri's 3.775 million dollar cap hit would be buried if he's assigned to the NHL and I think that's a big if again I would be shocked if we learn tomorrow that Zeri is not claimed by another team it's not all that often that a recent first rounder I say recent it's obviously been quite a few years now but a recent first rounder gets put on waivers especially guy that really isn't all too bad he's just made of glass more than anything else but maybe there are attitude problems we we aren't too sure Ryan Pike also pointed out that before Zeri's knee injuries in 2024-25 man Connor Zeri was excellent and was able to use his speed smarts and elusiveness really well post injuries those qualities just haven't combined the way he or the Flames likely had hoped hopefully he can get his swagger back and that's only hopefully if he's still in our organization I don't want him to go on to be another Sam Bennett and absolutely be unreal for another team because I could see that happening now obviously injuries play a big part here maybe confidence is something Zeri doesn't seem as fast as he used to be for sure it doesn't seem to you know lay everything on the line he had some really unlucky injuries last year you think of the one against Anaheim for sure and it's just you feel for the guy because no one wants to deal with those injuries and it's just horrible for him but now that this is what this situation has turned into is just it to me it's almost just the worst scenario that could have happened that's why it's like there's no way this is happening seriously we couldn't get rid of him with a trade you know we couldn't have gotten something back surely he has some value there's no way we're going to lose this guy to waivers that is just not a good look for us at all the last thing I'll point out is some statistics here so with Connor Zeri on waivers he's been a decent two-way contributor but lack of foot speed and size mixed with a lack of progress as a producer has clearly soured the flames on him good motor though willing to play through contact and has nice hands that just kind of sounds like Jay Fresh advertising you know Zeri to other teams right there some good marketing another quick little thing I want to point out from Zenislavski here saying this is giving me the final weeks of Jeff Warb vibes why isn't this roster playing hard for Huska anymore this isn't even hate but three straight blowouts is crazy that goes more with the result than the Zeri situation but it kind of seems like right now the fan base is looking for a scapegoat and the common denominator is clearly Ryan Huska right now you always look at the coach is he the right guy for the rebuild is he creating this drama with Zeri what's going on here is Zeri the problem is Huska the problem both is there more to it it just yeah I didn't want there to be drama for this organization we haven't really had any since you know the Jacob Markstrom stuff and the trade talks that he wasn't happy about after we'd been a very problematic organization for quite a while before that as well it just seemed like we'd finally turned a page we have this fresh group of players that wanted to be here a manager who clearly cared to do a rebuild and hopefully bring us to a cup but bringing this on hey maybe it'll just be water on the bridge once Zeri's gone but it is just almost surreal at this point that this is happening to this current version of the flames 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 it's almost a little bit of a two-piece because I got the comment and a reply because I like both but Matthew says two down 82 L's to go after he said one down 83 to go only two goals in two games still is twice as many as Dallas in their first two games which is funny because we're obviously three down 81 to go but I just wanted to point that one out I love the Wheel of Time's response here though saying these losses are more depressing than last year somehow I'm actually cheering twice as much as last year for a win because it just seems so much tougher last year we at least losing close it's not like we lost all that many games last year but this started the season it really is depressing but hey we're well on our way to an own 84 season at oh and three now I'm getting absolutely blown out in each one 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