35 replies to this topic

[ps3sucks]

good thing jiri is an allstar!!! but seriosly, butler is a joke! how did he ever make it to the nhl?!

[swtrooper]

Yup he sucks! But so do alot of people on this team. Can you believe we traded Regehr for this guy .

[s4xon]

Yup he sucks! But so do alot of people on this team. Can you believe we traded Regehr for this guy .

So this is a thread for Calgary's new whipping boy? Stajan, looks like you are off the hook buddy.

[swtrooper]

So this is a thread for Calgary's new whipping boy? Stajan, looks like you are off the hook buddy.

NEW whipping boy? Butler hasnt been good since he started playing big minutes in Buffalo.

[DirtyDeeds]

Which one is Butler?

Point is you can't fairly point fingers at him without pointing it others too.

[swtrooper]

Which one is Butler?

Point is you can't fairly point fingers at him without pointing it others too.

Answer: All of them, or at least they all have the same look on their face as Butler when we re scored against.

Butler is horrible and I have no idea why he gets as much ice time as he does. It was the same in Buffalo just seemed like he was on the ice for every goal against. However he isnt the only problem, but he is a big part of it.

[Kipper14]

Butler should be playing in the AHL, he blows. Give Smith his spot permenantly!!

[burnittotheground]

I think that Sarich and Butler are liabilities when they are on the ice. They are atrocious and changes need to be made on D ASAP. Smith isn't the answer either...Need a good stay at home Dmen before it's too late. Any suggestions??

[JTech780]

Butler only played 9 mins last night and was only a -1. To blame him for the loss isn't fair. Kipper was horrible last night and he hasn't been sharp all season IMO he has been Calgary's worst player to start the season.

True he hasn't been getting a done of help from his defense, but he has been letting in a lot of weak goals as well. Calgary needs him to step up and start stealing some games.

[BillsandFlames]

Butler only played 9 mins last night and was only a -1. To blame him for the loss isn't fair. Kipper was horrible last night and he hasn't been sharp all season IMO he has been Calgary's worst player to start the season.

True he hasn't been getting a done of help from his defense, but he has been letting in a lot of weak goals as well. Calgary needs him to step up and start stealing some games.

Butler is one of the worst players in Calgary Flames history. Steve Begin gave him a run for his money back in the early 2000's, luckily we have him back (sarcasm).

[ScottMacMahon]

Butler has been playing absolutely atrociously. Some of the worst play ive seen in a long LONG time. This being said he isnt the "only" problem, as kipper has not been himself. But he is a big part of it. I wouldn't lose any sleep if he got traded or rode the pine for the rest of the season.

[conundrumed]

A bit of a different direction, not Butler's Chronicles, Flames Chronicles.

It's telling that we can always focus on a couple of players creating another loss for us.
But you win as a team and lose as a team.
Our goalie has stolen way more wins in the past than he should ever have to.
What's also telling is Stajan with Cervenka and Hudler.
It's the same Matt Stajan.
Now he looks like a solid 2C, he couldn't do that before.
With Iggy and Tanguay?? Well, I'll give you, "on occasion".
With 2 new players, he works as a 2C and I'd guess he's gonna have success.
So why couldn't this happen before?
I argue we've been overly confident with our lineup.
2 new guys, and it's suddenly, "hey look at that, we're you're two best forwards".
Hudler in particularly is telling.
"hey look everyone, that's a 2nd line winger", not Bourque and Glencross.
PK's been awful, Glencross rockin 1st line.
Our forward roster has been a mess of 3rd line guys jumping up too many spots.
All of the support scoring is negated by moving everyone up a line because talent is mega-deficient.

What I'm trying to say is Hudler and Cervenka have punched me right in the jaw so far about the quality of the rest of the lineup, or more fairly, what we've come to expect and over-value.

[kehatch]

Butler was solid a season ago playing over his head and his pay grade. I haven't liked him this season. But nobody played well in the first two games, and he wasn't the only defensive liability last game. The rest of the time he sat.

I think for what he is he is fine. Vanilla perhaps. But fine. That said, given Babchuk and Smith on the roster with Carson in Breen in reserve I would rather trade him then keep him. Maybe some GM will be fooled by his big tough minutes last season and overpay.

[burnittotheground]

A bit of a different direction, not Butler's Chronicles, Flames Chronicles.

It's telling that we can always focus on a couple of players creating another loss for us.
But you win as a team and lose as a team.
Our goalie has stolen way more wins in the past than he should ever have to.
What's also telling is Stajan with Cervenka and Hudler.
It's the same Matt Stajan.
Now he looks like a solid 2C, he couldn't do that before.
With Iggy and Tanguay?? Well, I'll give you, "on occasion".
With 2 new players, he works as a 2C and I'd guess he's gonna have success.
So why couldn't this happen before?
I argue we've been overly confident with our lineup.
2 new guys, and it's suddenly, "hey look at that, we're you're two best forwards".
Hudler in particularly is telling.
"hey look everyone, that's a 2nd line winger", not Bourque and Glencross.
PK's been awful, Glencross rockin 1st line.
Our forward roster has been a mess of 3rd line guys jumping up too many spots.
All of the support scoring is negated by moving everyone up a line because talent is mega-deficient.

What I'm trying to say is Hudler and Cervenka have punched me right in the jaw so far about the quality of the rest of the lineup, or more fairly, what we've come to expect and over-value.

THANK YOU, I've been trying to say this but couldn't find how to do it. You explained it the way I wanted too. We are too high on the guys we have been stuck with for so long we don't know what its like to have 'SKILLED' players like Hudler and Cervenka.

[GunnerCBear]

Funny how we're blaming Butler for losses now when he's playing fourth line defense and maybe 10 minutes a game. If your paying attention, j-Bo's been on the ice for most of the goals against. His +/- isn't showing it yet because they've been mostly penalty killing goals. Look at his team leading +/- last year! He's highly skilled player and knows how to skate / move puck but hasn't a clue on what to do when he doesn't have it. Gonna have to start keeping a stat on goals against because j-bo was outta position or wasn't able to knock his forward off the puck.

[cross16]

Exit Stajan
Enter Chris Butler. Meet the new whipping boy for Calgary Flames fans.....


He made one mistake, how about Sarich making a poor read on the goal out front? How about the Flames forwards letting PA walk right down the middle of the ice? How about Kipper not making the save on PA? Fact is Chris Butler has not played well this year but honestly I have hard time blaming him. I think this rotation thing Hartley is doing is not helping it's hurting and I thin it's no suprise that Smith and Butler have both played poorly this year. I'm a firm believer that a player playing scared is not what you want and I get the sense that both of them are playing scared and I feel Sarich is falling into that as well. Sarich was ok first few games but lately he has struggled and all of them just seem to be fighting themselves and I wonder if they are just playing scared because they don't want to make a mistake that is going to force them out of the lineup.

[Wreckening]

Agreed Cross. It's not just playing scared either though. What happened to meritocracy? Hartley has to stop this rotation business and stick with a top 6. It interferes with any chemistry that would be or could be developing with his defensive pairings. I am no fan of his coaching at this point, from all I've seen he's leaving our weakend D more exposed and there's not enough effort from the forwards coming back to help out.

[C_worthy]

Scotty Bowman used to run with a bunch of extra guys, rotating them in and out. It keeps them hungry and fresh.

[UKFlamer]

Funny how we're blaming Butler for losses now when he's playing fourth line

If you look at my posts from last season you will see that I said Butler was the worst NHL defender I had ever seen.
He can't pass effectively, his positioning is poor, he's slow to react and he makes bad decisions.

It's rare that you can blame one person for a loss when you have a team of 20+ players, but Butler makes a lot of errors that lead to us being on the back foot and more than a few errors that have lead to goals against us. He weakens the team overall.

Exit Stajan
Enter Chris Butler. Meet the new whipping boy for Calgary Flames fans.....


He made one mistake,

No he didnt, he made many mistakes, two of which lead to goals.

[cross16]

No he didnt, he made many mistakes, two of which lead to goals.

One big mistake which lead to a goal. Not sure what other goal your referering to becuase I would not pin it on Butler.

And to give him credit, he was excellent last night.