Okay, maybe not. The Flames are still in first place in the North West and in strong position to make the playoffs. They haven't lost 8 in a row and JF Jr. isn't the GM. That said, last night's bowel-knifing loss to a bunch of schmo's wearing Blues uniforms still really sucks. In fact, the Moday Blues debacle clearly hilighted many of Calgary's shortcomings this season:
- Poor Road Efforts. Despite being an impressive 14 games above .500 at home, the Flames are a mediocre even keel (.500) on the road so far (that's ignoring the SO losses). I can't name the source of this relative ineptitude away from the 'dome, but it's starting to grow rather tiresome. The Jekyl and Hyde act tends to showcase the "November" manifestation of the Flames at home and the "October" manifestation on the road. At home, Calgary is typically a fast, mean, tight-checking group who grind out wins (see: November). On the road, more often than not, Calgary is an un-focused, apparently weary and bleary-eyed group who waste opportunities, fall to inferior teams or lose large to more demanding foes (see: October). The most recent roadtrip is a fine example: 7-4 blow-out to Colorado, shut-out by Chicago, loss to the depleted Blues.
Proviso: The only time this DOESN'T seem to prove true is against close rivals like Vancouver and Edmonton. At least we can be thankful for that.
- The 2 goal lead curse. Starting in December, a team built on stingy defense and solid goaltending started to surrender 2 goal leads like Ralph mails out rebate checks. It happened against Edmonton. And Los Angeles. And Nashville. And Edmonton again (though we won that one). And Vancouver. And New York, New York. And now, against the Blues. After the mid-January 4 game-winning streak, I kinda thought that this lamentable penchant for bequeathing 2 goal advantages was behind us. Apparently not. On top of (and often in concert with) point #1 above, Calgary has this ugly psychological vulnerability to "keeping a lead" to deal with. Ugh...
- Sputtering Offense. Despite boasting names like Amonte, Iginla, Langkow, Huselius, Kobasew, Simon, Phanuef and Leopold, Calgary still languishes near the bottom of the league in offensive production. In fact, the Flames currently sit 26th overall in the NHL, with 139 goals in 52 games (2.67 GPG). Consider that several sub-.500 teams like Pittsburgh, Montreal and the New York Islanders are ahead of the Flames in the GPG category. In fact, the next lowest division leader, Dallas, has an average of 3,12 GPG - good for 13th in the league; a full 13 spots ahead of Calgary.
So, after getting shut-out by the lowly Blackhawks last Thursday, the Flames responded with a 5 goal performance Sunday afternoon. Was it too much to expect another 5 against an AHL quality squad last night? Apparently so. No wonder we have trouble with 2 goal leads. And Speaking of sputtering...
- An average Jarome Iginla. First it was the "slow start" thing. Then it was because he didn't play during the lock-out. Recently it's become the lack of a #1 center. The excuses for Jarome's mediocre season in light of his $7 million contract keep piling up, but none seem satisfactory. As of today, Iginla is 67th in league scoring in terms of points and 22nd in terms of goals. He goes for long stretches without registering a point and often disappears from contests altogether - it's not just a dominant player hitting posts or missing chances: Jarome is all too often completely MIA. For example, after being a nonfactor in Calgary's 3 previous contests, on Monday Iginla was faced with a team anchored by the likes of Christian Backman and backed by a goalie named Curtis Sanford. He responded by firing all of 2 shots on net in regulation. Two Shots! The two-time Rocket Richard winner and Olympian was on the ice for 22 minutes (6 PP minutes) against an AHL quality foe - and he gets as many shots as the 3rd line checking center. Had he carried the team through the majority of the roadtrip till then, it would be understandable. If he were a league leader in points and goals, it would be excusable. But neither are true. I keep hoping for the former to occur more regularly, even if the latter is now all but out of reach. Of course, there have been brief stretches of Iginla-like play this season - Mid-Janurary, Mid-November, a couple of games in December...however, by and large those stretches are few and far between. Yes, it's been a very ordinary Jarome (by Jarome's standards) this year. I've resigned myself to hoping he re-emerges as the Iggy of old in April...
Those are my complaints. The bright-side? We're #1 in the division, we're in prime play-off position, we're league leaders in goals against and Jarome does lead the team in points. So it's not all doom and gloom. Phaneuf is kicking some ass, and Kipper is a Vezina contender. Now, let's see if Sutter and the boys can address the above *ahem* issues and ascend into the leagues elite...
Game Positives and Negatives:
Positives:
- Perfect Penalty Killing.
- The Dion hammers former Calder-winning d-man Barrett Jackman...and then beats him up for good measure.
- Iginla finally gets on the scoresheet...albeit an assist.
Negatives:
- Pretty much everything else. (Another road loss to a terrible team, 1-9 PP, squandered 2 goal lead, average Jarome and Kipper...etc.)
- News that Hamrlik is sidelined for another month due to a broken hand. Talk about unlucky.
Side-note...how odd is it that Bosoton shut-out Ottawa again?
Next-up...the streaking Blue-Jackets.
