You can therefore be assured the Flames will put forth a terrible effort - Calgary's record with me in attendance over the last 2 seasons is fairly poor - 2-3-1. I guess we could hope for a few fights at the very least.
Owing to their residing in the alien world that is the Eastern Conference, I know very little about Carolina heading into tonight's match. I know they got off to a bad start, are having goaltending consistency issues and score a lot. And most of that is secondary, sports-page knowledge.
The rest is stat-sheet perusal:
- Carolina has 33 points and is 5th in the Eastern Conference. They are 1 game over .500 on the road (7-6-2) and are 6-4-0 in their last 10. Calgary is still stuck at 9th in the WC, but have a 9-3-0 record at home and are 7-3-0 in the last 10.
- The Hurricanes have a butt-load of scorers on their roster. They already have two guys with 30 or more points (Rod the Bod and Ray Whitney) and 4 more with 20+ points (Williams, Cole, Staal and Walker in that order). All six players have 10 or more goals on the season, with Staal leading the way at 16. In contrast, no one the Flames has breached the 30 point mark and only 3 players (Iginla, Tanguay and Langkow) have greater than 20 points.
- Carolina isn't as adept at keeping the puck out of their own net, however. They are currently 22nd in league in terms of goals against (86), while Calgary trails only Detroit in that department (56). In fact, the Canes have allowed as many ES goals (56) as the Flames have given up total.
- Of course, comparisons between the two conferences are rather difficult. As I've noted before, the East attacks and the West defends. As such, the differences between the Flames and the Canes are rather exaggerated.
- Scott Cruickshank pointed out in the Herald today that Jarome Iginla is 6th in league in terms of ES points (20). Good to see Calgary's 7 million dollar man putting up elite ESP production.
- Jim Playfair talks about Calgary's second line (Lombo, Juice, Kobasew) in the same Herald piece saying:
"Sometimes on the road, they play really, really well, then at home they don't play so well. Sometimes at home, they play well . . . It's a line that hasn't found enough consistency at a high end."
With all due respect Jim - what the hell are you talking about? Personally I think the #2 scoring line has been one of the best out there of late. To back-up my hunch, I looked up the Flame's last 7 gamesheets and low and behold! The 2nd unit has been instrumental in all but 1 of them (LA loss). Combined, Juice, Lombo and Kobasew have 9 goals and 20 points over that time period. That's some solid production, especially considering SHAZAM! has been having trouble putting a puck in the ocean AND Lombo had a goal called back recently. I suppose this might be some sort of coaching/motivational tactic - but I don't really see what more Playfair would want out of the second line (besides some Kobasew scoring, perhaps). Hell, Lombardi is a +14 and 4th on the team in points. Juice is second on the team in goals (9). If Kobasew can actually start finishing, they'll be matching the Iginla / Langkow / Tanguay trio for production. With less ice-time to boot. Geez, Jim, if you want someone to pick on, take a gander at Friesen's pathetic point totals...
Go Flames!
