The Calgary Flames' re-acquisition of Olli Jokinen was shocking, to say the least. Shocking, because Jokinen had proved to be such a poor compliment to Jarome Iginla, and shocking because the move by Darryl Sutter was so redundant, so painstakingly unoriginal. Jokinen's last tenure as a Flame was marred by severe underachievement, to the point where it became almost funny to see how badly everyone wanted to move on from the mess that was his time in Calgary. Many thought he was gone for good. Alas, Sutter was busy concocting other ideas, and you can bet that if the Jokinen deal does not pan out, the longtime GM will be waving goodbye to the Flames organization.
Right now, nothing is more wildly entertaining than reading the reactions of Flames fans. They are in turns angry, hysterical, disappointed, perplexed, suicidal, and sometimes close to tears.
Ryan Lambert, contributor of Puck Daddy and longtime Flames fan, had a mini meltdown on Twitter. I'm pretty sure he went through all the traditional stages of grief. First, denial:
Then, multiple tweets of anger:
After that, fits of depression:
And finally, a degree of acceptance:
And that's about as good as it's going to get. The hard part will be the antagonizing wait all summer, where fans will have plenty of time on their hands to moan and groan about what else Sutter could have spent money on. That is, if Sutter doesn't make another move or two, which will likely happen as the Flames still need a couple players to fill the gaps up front. In the meantime, the Flames faithful will be forced to stare at Jokinen's handlebar mustache for 164 more games, barring injury. And barring he doesn't shave. And barring some fans don't attack him in an alley one night, tie him up and throw him out to sea in a barrel. Judging by early reactions, it could happen. Just sayin'.
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