The surprising 11-3-0 Dallas Stars are the opposition tonight. Riding on the back of stellar penalty-killing, other-worldly goaltending and relatively soft opposition, the Stars have leaped out to their best start in franchise victory.
As good as their record looks, I personally think the great start by the Stars is somewhat illusory: of their 11 wins, 6 have come at the expense of the LA Kings (3), the Coyotes, Blackhawks and the Blues and one came at the official-caused victimization of the Oilers. The Stars 3 losses came against the Sharks, the Red Wings and Vancouver last night. Hmmm...
Also, as mentioned, Dallas has benefitted from some ridiculously good goaltending from both puckstoppers so far. "Ridiculously" as in "unsustainably" good. In 11 games so far, Marty Turco has a 0.931 SP and a 1.99 GAA. His freshman back-up, Mike Smith, has managed even better firgures in 3 contests: 0.951 SP and 1.31 GAA. Impressive. So impressive one can't resonably expect it to continue in that vein indefinately. Not that Turco isn't a fine goalie and all - his career numbers are pretty impressive and he's a perrenial league leader in terms of goalie stats. But even Kipper, who won the Vezina and Jennings trophies last year, only managed a 2.07 GAA and 0.923 SP over the course of last season.
So expect Turco's (and Smith's) number to take a bit of a dive, eventually. Especially when Dallas starts playing some stiffer competition on a more consistent basis.
As for the Flames, they're looking to win two in a row for the first time this season. Calgary probably would be on a bit of streak had they received NHL caliber goaltending in Columbus, but...that's the way it goes when you're struggling. Thankfully, the last two contests have featured some positives for the first time in a few weeks. I didn't get to see the game against the Blues, but the team finally looked something akin to what I expected from them this season against the BJs...
Course, Calgary is still really bad on the PK. Columbus scored all 4 goals with the man advantage and both of St. Louis' markers came on the PP as well (basically). The Flames are currently 26th in the league in terms of penalty-killing with the likes of Washington, St. Louis, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia ahead of them. What this means to me is Calgary cannot possibly continue to be this bad one man down. A defense-first philosophy with a strong blueline and the best goalie in the league should eventually equate to a strong PK. It'll help once Stephane Yelle returns as well.
Overall, if Calgary can continue to improve, most notably by addressing their special teams issues, it should be a pretty competitive contest tonight. However, if Turco continues to play godlike and if the Star's dominate the PK and PP, expect another mark in the loss column come tomorrow morning.
Go Flames!
