Both Calgary and Edmonton are struggling to keep pucks out of their respective nets currently. Neither Kiprusoff nor Roloson have fared well over the past couple of weeks - not that they've had much assistance from either team's d-corps.
Calgary's injury woes can at least shoulder some of the blame, however. Warrener, Zyuzin, Hamrlik and Richie Regehr have all missed time thanks to various ailments, meaning the Flames have had to dig deep into their organizational depth on a number of occassions. In addition, guys like Phaneuf and Ference have been asked to play more minutes in tougher situations, resulting in a higher number of quality chances against. Mixed with Kipper's sudden struggles, the result has been none-too-pleasant. The good news is one can reasonably assume a return to form once everyone gets healthy and Kiprusoff emerges from this "off-phase".
The situation may be a little more dire in Oiler country, however. The lack of defensive depth is definately starting to take it's toll on Alberta's blueshirts. All you need to do is watch another MA Bergeron give-away result in a goal against to realize Edmonton desperately needs at least one more competant puck mover on their back-end. At the start of the season, Roloson's heroics were masking some of these issues I think, but the grind of games and quality opposition has started to erode his stamina.
Tough to pick a winner tonight. Calgary is good at home and the Oilers are crap on the road, so that's something. Not to mention the Greasers got pummeled by Vancouver last night, hopefully leaving them weary for the impending match. Overall, then, I think the Oilers will have trouble containing Iginla, like most of the Flames opposition this season, resulting in a Happy New Year(!) for me.
Calgary 4, Edmonton 3. Iginla (2), Lombardi and Huselius with the goals.
Go Flames!
