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The Flames have signed Rene Bourque to an extension.

On the verge of becoming an unrestricted free agent, the rambunctious left-winger is playing out a contract that pays him a salary of $1.4 million US.

Starting next year, Bourque, 28, will pull down $3.3 million US. The term is six seasons.

 

A new report from Harvard University says that contrary to what the CRTC states, Canada has some of the slowest and most expensive internet access in the developed world.

He might live a Hollywood lifestyle but Dion Phaneuf says he's happy in Calgary.

And at Friday's morning skate, he dismissed any rumours floating around that he'd demanded a trade.

"I've never asked for a trade and I'm very happy here," said the 24-year-old defenceman after several reports surfaced online. "That hasn't even crossed my mind. For you to be asking these questions today, it's a huge surprise but I understand you have to report on it."

Phaneuf, who is dating Calgary-born actress Elisha Cuthbert, has been linked with a trade since he was reportedly overheard having a heated discussion with head coach Brent Sutter last month.

But Flames general manager Darryl Sutter on Thursday shot down the rumours surrounding his young defenceman.

"Whoever makes up that stuff is not doing anything," Sutter told the Herald. "We've worked really hard at building a top young defence in the league and our intention is to keep them, so that's (rumours) just from somebody who didn't have anything to do on that day.

"There are no rumours, believe me," reiterated the GM. "I don't know where that comes from."

On Friday, Phaneuf claimed he hadn't heard the rumours about a trade or him submitting a trade request.

"To be honest with you, I haven't heard anything about it until today when you brought it up to me," said Phaneuf. "Those are people sitting behind a computer and writing what they'd like to see happen with our team.

"Each and everyone has their opinion and I respect that but with regards to any talk of that, that's the first I've heard of it and I'm not going to say much about that."

Early this morning, the Flames called up Jamie Lundmark from Abbotsford to fill in for injured Craig Conroy, whom the team could re-activate on Monday according to Brent Sutter. Lundmark replaced Jason Jaffray, who was sent back to the Heat on Thursday.

Lundmark, if you recall, had joined the squad for six dates in November to take injured Rene Bourque's place. Making tonight's game, oh, about the umpteenth time he's been back.

"I don't know how many times it's been up and down but I'm definitely used to it," said Lundmark, a veteran of over 250 NHL games, 84 of which have been with Calgary. "The biggest thing is not to get away from my game, play simple. Come up here, play hard, use my skill when I can, and try and put some points on the board when I can."

Not that he's been having difficulty with point production. The Edmonton native is second in scoring with the Abbotsford Heat with nine goals, 12 assists in 32 games.

During his last stint, Lundmark was put on the top line with Jarome Iginla and Olli Jokinen. In a short time, he made a good impression and picked up three points (including a game winner at Detroit and a shoot-out winner at Columbus) in six games.

Looks like he'll take Curtis Glencross' spot on left-wing with Iginla and Daymond Langkow tonight. And with that, here are the rest of the Flames lines:

Lundmark-Langkow-Iginla

Glencross-Jokinen-Bourque

Dawes-Nystrom-Moss

Sjostrom-Boyd-Prust

And the defence:

Regehr-Phaneuf

Giorodano-Bouwmeester

Pardy-Sarich

Also, Curtis McElhinney will get the start tonight, likely to give Miikka Kiprusoff a night off to prepare for Saturday's game in Vancouver against their Northwest Division rivals, the Canucks.

– Morning skate report by Kristen Odland, Calgary Herald

Defenceman Marco Scandella and his teammates made sure that Canada advanced to its ninth consecutive world junior tournament final with a 6-1 victory against a determined Switzerland team at Saskatoon’s Credit Union Centre on Sunday, setting up a date with the United States in the gold medal game.

First things first.

Dion Phaneuf and Craig Conroy didn’t participate in the skills competition. Both are banged-up (but both were on the premises). Cory Sarich, for what it’s worth, did take part Sunday afternoon.

No official word on any of the injured chaps.

Now, here’s how the skills contest went.

==

FASTEST SKATER

* Freddie Sjostrom — 13.589

* Mark Giordano — 13.958

* Nigel Dawes — 14.043

Note: Curtis Glencross, a two-time winner in this event (last year with the Flames, the season before with the Oilers), took a pass, citing a slight injury.

==

SHOOTING ACCURACY

* Staffan Kronwall — five pucks (to hit four targets)

* Jarome Iginla — six pucks

* Nigel Dawes — six pucks

===

HARDEST SHOT

* Jarome Iginla — 102.3 mph

* Curtis Glencross — 100.1 mph

* Robyn Regehr — 98.1 mph

===

BREAKAWAY RELAY (on Curtis McElhinney)

* Robyn Regehr — 2 for 2

* Nigel Dawes — 2 for 2

* Jay Bouwmeester — 2 for 2

===

The Flames, quite possibly with reinforcements, leave Monday morning for Nashville.

 

Alberta lost more people to other parts of Canada than it gained in the third quarter of 2009, a first in 15 years for the once booming province.

Sad news, space cowboys: According to NASA insiders, Ares 1 will be no more. Good news, space cowboys! According to the same sources, Señor Presidente Obama has decided that it’s worth to invest in space. The man got a plan:

Reporting on a White House and NASA meeting last Wednesday, sources say that the President has decided to give NASA an additional $1 billion in 2011. The extra funding will serve to create a new, simpler heavy lift rocket, as well as to increase the fleet of satellites controlling Earth’s land, oceans, and atmosphere.

The objective is to have the heavy rocket ready for a 2018 launch, while Europe, Japan, and Canada would develop a lunar lander and moon base modules with their own billions. While this may make some NASA fans sad—after the US single-handely arrived to the Moon—I'm convinced that the collaboration with other countries is the only way to move forward in manned space exploration.

I mean, the Klingons will be here any minute, people! Let’s get on with the program. And where the fuck is Kirk? [Science Magazine]

The Hockey Night in Canada All Access Cam will make its debut during Friday’s telecast of the Montreal Canadiens’ centennial anniversary game against the Boston Bruins.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday that Wal-Mart Canada Corp. was within its rights when it shut down a store in Jonquière, Que., that had been unionized seven months earlier.

Remembrance ceremonies attracted crowds in Canada and around the world to honour those who died while serving their countries.

Plus-three with three points.

It appears that Flames captain Jarome Iginla is in the process of snapping out of his early-season doldrums.

His boss certainly thinks so.

"He’s an effective player when he’s skating and when he’s shooting," said coach Brent Sutter. "He’s getting into those areas and tonight he got into those areas to get quality shots."

Iginla’s goal — his 412th, if you’re keeping track — was vintage.

Buzzing down the right wing, scorching a shot past a helpless netminder.

"That goal, it’s a two-on-one, he goes hard down the wing and makes a great shot," said Sutter. "He did a lot of little things tonight that were very effective. You guys get caught up in goals, goals, goals, but to me, it’s playing a well-rounded game and it’s scoring chances. Tonight was probably the most scoring chances Jarome’s had in a game. He shot the puck and he got into those areas to want the puck and he was involved in the game.

"I look at shots and quality scoring chances he had, and it was definitely his best game."

While he was at it, Sutter chucked around a little more praise.

* To Craig Conroy, for helping kill off the five-on-three (late in the second, early in the third).

"Big draw right off the bat and then there was a battle just inside the zone," said Sutter. "Connie did a great job of getting pucks out of the zone. It was a big kill. A one-goal game at the time, 4-3. I certainly wasn’t happy with the penalties. But the P.K. did a good job at that point in time."

* To Dion Phaneuf, for scoring (and for helping wake up a team in danger of nodding off after 21-plus minutes of shotlessness).

"He got his feet moving," said Sutter. "At the time, when he was coming out of the zone, I thought he was going to head-man the puck because he had a couple guys ahead of him, but he kept going with a full head of speed. It backed their defencemen off. He was able to get a really good scoring opportunity, quality scoring chance between the top of the circle and the blue line. And when Dion has a full head of steam like that with his shot, it gives you an opportunity to score on something like that."

Hold onto your phasers: a new rocket, designed jointly by NASA, Ad Astra, and Canadian firm Nautel, could potentially slash trip times to Mars to as little as 39 days. And yep, it uses ion propulsion–just like Star Trek taught us.Ion propulsion, via t…

Canada has some of the poorest high-speed internet service in the developed world and is an example of what not to do from a policy perspective, according to a study by Harvard University.

Winnipeg is back in the NHL rumour mill after a Hockey Night in Canada commentator speculated on the weekend that a group of investors in Toronto is interested in moving the Atlanta Thrashers.

Mike Keenan — despite many, many, many off-season requests from Calgary media — held his tongue this summer.

Refusing to talk, of course, is his right. In Keenan's case, however, it had been an uncharacteristic stretch of silence.

Tuesday, though, Iron Mike finally cleared his throat, choosing a Toronto radio station for his coming-out.

The FAN 960 replayed clips of his excuses, I mean, explanations.

For what it's worth, here's a couple of them:

* Did Keenan think he'd be fired after two seasons in Calgary? "No, I didn't, particularly when you look at the context of the season. We had more wins than Vancouver, two points short. In the last 10 games, we played shorthanded. As everyone knows, we ran into cap problems and a plethora of injuries, particularly on defence with Regehr, Giordano, Sarich, and Phaneuf in the playoffs. Bourque was a big injury for us in the playoffs as well. To answer your question, though, I didn't think it would go to that extent because of those extenuating circumstances. Particularly (when we were) vying for that first place in our division with a shorthanded roster. A little impatient. They gave Bowman four years to get a Cup in Detroit . . . but we only had two years and I didn't know it."

* About being fired? "The business part of it is unexplainable at times. That's what you do — you take your medicine, you move on, you try to dust yourself off, and away you go."

* About Dion Phaneuf's performance in 2009-08? "Phaneuf adds a lot to that hockey club. Even though it's perceived that he had a bad year, if I had to identify problems or people that didn't have great years, Phaneuf wouldn't be the first guy I'd point out."

So there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Theoren Fleury's fairytale comeback with the Calgary Flames is over.

The National Hockey League team confirmed Friday that the 41-year-old has been released from his try-out.

“I believe Theoren did a great job and should be proud, especially considering all the factors including age, time away from the game and lifestyle change,” said Flames general manager Darryl Sutter. “This is not a hockey story; it’s a life story. Our agreement with Theoren was that he had to be one of our top six wingers and there were never any intentions of assigning him to the American Hockey League.”

For the second day running, Fleury was not on the ice during Flames practice Friday. On Thursday, the team said he missed out due to "maintenance" after playing three games in four nights.

“I am very thankful to Darryl and the Flames organization for following through on the commitment to provide me with this opportunity,” Fleury said in a statement. “I said in the beginning that no matter what the outcome, this would be a success story. I intend to take the next few days to review this experience and make decisions with my family regarding next steps in my life.”

When contacted by the Herald Friday morning, Fleury said he didn't want to comment further and needed time to digest the news before facing the media.

Fleury's comeback bid got underway Sept. 10 when he received the all-clear from commissioner Gary Bettman and thirty-six hours later, he accepted a tryout offer from his hometown Flames.

In four pre-season games, the five-foot-six winger picked up four points and was plus-four. He scored the winning shootout goal in his first game back, against the New York Islanders.

On Thursday, Flames coach Brent Sutter hinted that the Fleury fairytale may be coming to an end.

"He's certainly done a good job and, yet, there's a lot of good players here," said the Flames' new bench boss. "The pace of the game is going to pick up 10-fold here starting next week. So let's just see what happens." 

It's unclear whether Fleury has any offers from other National Hockey League teams.

The Flames play their final pre-season game Saturday against the Canucks and still need to trim their roster before next Thursday's season-opener, also against the Canucks.

After three games in three different provinces on three consecutive nights, the Calgary Flames are taking the day off.

They charter to Edmonton from Vancouver this afternoon and then rest in anticipation of a pre-season clash Wednesday with Mike Comrie and the Oilers.

Darryl Sutter is still busy, though. The GM has assigned RW Riley Armstrong, C Garth Murray, LW Kyle Greentree, LW David Van der Gulik, RW Carsen Germyn, and LW Cam Cunning to the Abbotsford Heat.

That leaves the Flames with 32 players in training camp: three goaltenders, nine defencemen and 20 forwards.

One of those forwards, of course, is 41-year-old Theoren Fleury.

A streak of hot weather in Saskatchewan broke temperature records across the province Saturday, Environment Canada said.

Judging by Wednesday's second practice group, which featured a game-ready number of players (20), Theo Fleury will make his re-debut Thursday night against the visiting New York Islanders.

In fact, the Flames lineup looks to include tonnes of veterans — Bouwmeester, Conroy, Iginla, Jokinen, Langkow, Phaneuf, Regehr, Sarich, Kiprusoff. A start contrast to Tuesday's youthful collection of Flames.

Also set to play against the Isles — Mikael Backlund.

 

 

Miikka Kiprusoff is already a fan of Brent Sutter.

On Day 1 of training camp, the Calgary Flames goaltender
peered through his mask and watched his new boss direct traffic in the
defensive zone.

A stickler for detail, Sutter stopped the play at the smallest mistake. Everyone, and
he means everyone, must be on the same page.

“I think it’s good to start doing that kind of stuff right
from the start,” said Kiprusoff, who is wearing new pads this year. “Training
camp is not that long, anyway. We have to be ready right when the season
starts.”

This is a new season with a new coach, and Sutter set the
tone in the first very first session by blowing the whistle and correcting
captain Jarome Iginla, of all people.

Superstar or rookie, multi-millionaire or career minor
leaguer — status or reputation means nothing to the new head coach of the
Calgary Flames.

“Before practice, he talked to a group of us and let us know
what to expect,” Iginla said. “We are going over things and if he does stop
(practice) don’t take it personal. We’re all trying to get better here.

“It’s not to embarrass any of us.”

Iginla played on a line with Olli Jokinen and prospect
Mikael Backlund.

Notes: Forwards Rene Bourque (ankle) and Brian McGrattan
(shoulder) wore yellow jerseys to denote no physical contact as they continue
to recover from their respective surgeries. John Armstrong sat out entirely due to what Brent Sutter dubbed as "soreness."  The rookie centre underwent shoulder surgery at the end of last season with the Quad City Flames