Any Calgary fan worth his (or her) salt knows the streak was arrested Friday by 5-2 Flames loss to the Blackhawks. Not that that's going to stop me from complaining about it...
Yeah we won 8 in a row. And yeah that was great. Yeah it was bound to end sometime - grand fathers say "you can't win them all" for a reason. But it still sucks. The manner of the loss is perhaps the most grating aspect of the game...the Flames were granted 9 powerplays to the Blackhawks 1 (8 in the first period!) and were still outscored by 3 goals. And while their play was lacklustre overall, the Calgary defensemen in particular seemed out-of-sync and a step behind. Robyn Regehr has definately seen better nights in a Calgary uniform. Jordan Leopold appears hesistant and unsure of himself in the offensive zone - his demotion to 2nd PP unit and reduction in PP ice- time behind Phanuef may be shaking his confidence somewhat. Of course, one can't talk about poor defensive play without mentioning Andrew Ference. His was simply an abysmal performance last Friday evening. He was the primary cause of no less than two of Chicago's five tallies. Both of his gaffes were of the un-focused, brain-cramp variety. Let's not forget that Ference was also the culprit behind the Lang goal in the Detroit contest. That's 3 out of 6 goals that should/could have been avoided in 2 games. Combined with his dreadful performance at the start of the season, Ference has been easily one of the weakest links on the Calgary back-end so far. Frankly...I'm starting to automatically cringe whenever he gets the puck. I personally like Ference - he has an honest, hard-working way about him and a decent skill set - but his decision making is often comparable to that of a botched Lobotomy victim's. I'd actually be surprised if he's in the line-up against Colorado tonight...
And now some Positives and Negatives:
Positives:
- Chuck Kobasew strikes again. Was one of the best Flames.
- Dion Phaneuf. On a night where half the defense corps looked hung-over, Phaneuf was relatively solid defensively and a spark-plug in the offensive zone.
- Roman Hamrlik scores his first PP goal of the year. The more I see of him, the better I like him.
Negatives:
- 5 goals against after limiting the Detroit Red Wings to just 1. BOOOO.
- A general, team-wide inability to skate fast or work hard. Lost most puck-battles over the course of the game. Seemed either fatigued or umotivated or both.
- Calgary missed the opportunity to bury the Blackhawks early thanks to 8 PP chances in the first period. Despite the Chicago penalty parade, the score was only 2-1 Flames after the first.
- Jarome Iginla. Largely a non-factor most of the night.
- Kiprusoff. While left out on his own by his teammates, was hardly stellar in net. Kipper was pulled in favor of Sauve for the 3rd period.
- Andrew Ference. See above.
- Penalty Killing. Chicago got 1 PP all night and they scored on it. Keep in mind, the Blackhawks are hardly an offensive dynamo.
- No offense from the likes of Donovan, Nilson, Weimer, Yelle or Simon. Calgary's secondary/teritiary scoring has been nominal at best so far.
- Jordan Leopold's offensive struggles continue. Phaneuf had double Leo's ice-time on the PP during this game. I truly hope he gets it going soon.
The Flames are in Denver to take on Colorado tonight. Hopefully the team can re-group and get back to the high-tempo forecheck that was making them so succesful thus far in November...
and - WIN FLAMES. OR I WILL FLUSH YOUR QURAN DOWN THE TOILET!
