Ironically, the fact that the Flames dressed more vets than the Oil turned out to be more of a detriment than an advantage. Actually, each veterans performance seemed to be inversely related his expected output - the bigger the star (wearing red), the harder he fell.
Also, the loss featured a couple of bad habits from the Calgary Flames 05/06 version. Specefically:
- A terrible second period.
- The two-goal lead curse.
- Inability to score more than 3 in a game.
Hopefully, last night was an aberration and not a sign that last year's mal-adaptive tendencies are returning to haunt us once more.
Anyways, on with it...
The Best(s):
- Matt Lombardi - Best performance by a Flame forward so far this preseason. Vastly outplayed his two "star" line-mates, Iginla and Tanguay. His 5on3 shorthanded marker was a beauty. Almost ended the game in overtime with another drive to the net, but was foiled by Markkanen.
- Eric Godard - Played well in his limited role and engaged in one of the best fights I've ever seen live. Seriously.
- Dustin Boyd - Ended up -3 on the night, but was never at fault for any of the goals. Played well enough to garner some time on the top line again. Clearly one of the best rookies in camp.
- Mark Giordano - Solid again and garnered an impressive 23 minutes of ice-time. Unless his play takes a sudden nose-dive, I'd say he has the 7th spot all but wrapped up.
The Worst(s):
- Miikka Kiprusoff - Obviously very rusty, Kipper turned in his worst performance since last October. Every legitimate Oiler chance got by him (including one that luckily hit the post). Allowed 3 goals on the first 9 shots.
- Roman Hamrlik - The Flames worst defenseman last night, it was Roman's ill-fated pinch that lead to Stoll's goal in the 2nd. Later in the third, Hamrlik tripped over his own feet trying to retrieve the puck in the defensive zone. It was that kind of night.
- Tony Amonte - Another bafflingly bad outing by a vet. Amonte gave the puck away on a rush when he seemed to trip over the Oilers blueline. The give-away lead to a 3on2 and the Oilers 2nd goal. Was pretty much useless besides that.
- Jarome Iginla - Don't let his 2 points fool you, Jarome was bad last night. His goal was a crease scrambler and his assist was all Lombardi's determination. His lame stickhandling attempts could have been stopped by a pylon with a stick propped-up against it. The one time Tanguay did manage to set him up, Iginla whiffed on the chance about as badly as I would have in the same position. His game high 5 give-aways were matched only by Tanguay. Definately a mailed-in performance.
- Alex Tanguay - Talk about a nightmarish debut: not only was Tanguay the worst Flame player on the ice last night, his was the worst showing by a Flame thus far in the preseason. Tanguay gave pucks up left and right. He tried to force plays that weren't there and frequently made soft, lame passes that were bound to be interecepted. I actually groaned when he was put on the ice in overtime during the PP. Sure enough, Tanguay coughed it up not once but TWICE in a 30 second sequence that culminated in Horcoff's game-winner. Truly an embarrassing night for Alex, even in his own evaluation:
"That's pretty much as bad as I can play," said a very straightforward Tanguay. "Nothing was working.The bright side is he can only get better from here on in.
The Rest:
- Jeff Friesen - Friesen doesn't seem to do anything in particular.
- Richie Regehr - Still makes the odd rookie mistake here and there. Not up to Giordan's level.
- Andrei Taratukhin - Aside from one shift where he controlled the play in the Oiler's end and set-up Godard a couple of times, 'tuke had a forgettable night. Not quite ready for prime-time.
- Eric Nystrom - I always notice Nystrom after I've been watching guys like Boyd and Prust for half the evening. Seems to panic with the puck whenever he's away from the boards. No real accomplishments to speak of so far.
- Chuck Kobasew - As is his penchant, Kobasew followed up his impressive showing against Florida by being a complete non-entity last night. My brother didn't even notice that he was playing until I pointed him out.
- Dion Phaneuf - Played a decent game, although his one gaffe in the third on the PK lead directly to a point-blank Oiler chance that was only denied thanks to an excellent stop by Krahn.
- Brent Krahn - Solid night, outplayed Kipper. Would have been nice if the the gamewinner didn't squeek through his legs though.
- Andrew Ference - Was average. Meh.
The rematch is on Saturday in Edmonton. Hopefully, the Flames rookie squad can avenge last night's vet-induced loss.
Official write-up here, including line combos.
