Maybe it was the immensely grating prattle of Greg Millen or maybe it was the fact that the Flames were playing like garbage (or perhaps a combination of the two). Whatever the cause, I was compelled to turn off the Calgary/Vancouver tilt in the middle of the second period.
Up to that point, the only things the Flames had managed to do was take penalties and then suck at killing them off. Few scoring chances to speak of, zero ability to make simple plays with the added disadvtange of having played the night before. I figured I'd save myself the pain of the inevitable defeat and watch a movie instead...
Imagine my chagrin when checking the scores later that night. D'oh!
If you subscribe to a sort of chaos theory in which everything is metaphysically and inextricably related, then perhaps my simple act of turning off the game somehow lead to the improbable Calgary comeback; like a butterfly's flight causing a hurricane. And, if so, then you all owe me a debt of gratitude. The player's too. And it's something I would gladly do in the future to evoke further Flame's victories.
Course, if my abandoning half-finished games in disgust was so powerful you no doubt would have seen Calgary best the Ducks in game 7 of the play-offs last year as well...
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16 games in and Calgary's back to an even 500. While a record of 7-7-2 hardly seemed palatable at the beginning of the season, it's certainly far more preferable to what Calgary was sitting at only two weeks ago.
The current turn-around has a lot to do with improved goaltending. After somewhat of a rocky start, Kiprusoff has worked his way back into the top 10 in the league in terms of GAA and SV%. Calgary's even-strength play has continued to be it's major strength thus far as well: in the last 5 games, Calgary has outscored the opposition 13-1 when 5on5 (plus 1 short-handed goal).
Which is pretty darn encouraging. A decent 5on5 goal differential is often a true measure of team's overall ability: one can reasonably expect the special teams to fall in line if the ES play is strong. So while the Flames pretty much stink on the PK and PP right now, I can honestly say I don't think that will remain true for the majority of the season. The Flames have the roster and the ability to bring those up to at least median levels of respectability. And, should their ES play remain as dominant, the wins will soon come tumbling after.
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Tonight the lowly Blues come a-callin'. St Louis has a 5-8-3 record over 16 games, which might actually be an improvement over last year's version of the same team, but is still hardly fearsome. The Blues have scored 1 less goal than the Flames over 16 contests, but have allowed 12 more. Not that St. Louis is totally feeble, however: they already have 6 players with 10 or more points including the much-maligned Jenny Craig patron Keith Tkachuk (16 points), the surprising sophomore Lee Stempniak (13 points) and ex-Oiler-Star Bill Guerin (13 Points). For those uber-poolies or straight-up stats geeks out there, this Stempniak kid is even more impressive considering his 9 ES points were gathered in only 165 minutes of ES ice. Meaning his production is right around 3.27 ESP/60. That's a pretty elite number considering that Jarome Iginla was leading the Flames with a 3.08 ESP/60 figure back around game #13. Course, one might well imagine that Stempniak isn't facing the toughest opposition most nights (no doubt reserved for the likes of Weight, Tkachuk and Guerin), but kudos to him for making the most of it so far. Definately someone to watch for in the future.
Guys to watch for on the Flames side of the ledger include Iginla, Lombardi and Tanguay. Iginla's excellent start to the season has been well documented by the mainstream media. No need to go any further into that.
On the other hand, Matthew Lombardi's impressive early play has gone by basically unnoticed. Lombo has 12 points in 16 games so far and is a team high +10. If you missed it, it was Lombardi's end-to-end rush that set-up Huselius' winnning marker aginst the Canucks on Saturday. He frequently looks dangerous breaking across the oppostion's blueline and has become rather proficient in his own end as well (as evidenced by his excellent +/- rating). Not to mention he's also Calgary's top penalty-killing forward in terms of ice-time currently. Huzzah!
Further, Alex Tanguay certainly looks like he's turned a corner. He's got 4 points in his last two contests, including the incredibly slick feed that set-up Warrener's game tying goal on Sunday. Slowly but surely Tanguay's becoming more comfortable and thus greater offensive threat every game.
With all that in mind, it'd be nice to see Calgary score a PP goal tonight. It's becoming more and more difficult to even remember what that feels like anymore. Killing the majority of penalties they take sure would be swell too. It's all just sugar coating if they manage to win the game, but it would no doubt be an easier win if they could somehow muster one or both of the aforementioned feats...
Anyways, prediction time. 4-2 Flames - Phaneuf (PP), Lundmark, Lombardi and Huselius with the goals.
Go Flames!
