Ed Beers Autographed Card

The Calgary Flames aren't doing so well under head coach Glen Gulutzan, certainly not any better than under Bob Hartley the last couple of years.

How bad is it? Well, last night, they suffered their 26th consecutive loss in Anaheim, dating back to when the Anaheim Ducks were known as the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim...

What do they need?

Better goaltending from Brian Elliott and Chad Johnson, sure. Better defensive play as a whole. More effort. More grind. More classic Flames hockey, where even the star players show some grit, following in the footsteps of Willi Plett, Theo Fleury, Joel Otto and Jarome Iginla.

They might even need to build a time machine and bring back the 1983-85 version of Ed Beers, pre-back injury, the guy who put up 36- and 28-goal seasons for the Flames and posted 210 career points in 250 games.

Beers was like a more fragile Cam Neely, who would hang around in the slot getting cross-checked in the back, accumulating goals and retaliatory penalties in roughly the same amount, except Beers did it for three seasons to Neely's near-decade.

Here he is on card #24 from Topps' 1984-85 Topps set, showing him wearing the Flames' classic red (then-away) uniform, which he signed in blue sharpie:

This card checks off #27 in my Flames Numbers Project.