Thankfully the holidays and the Flames roadtrip are over. For me, neither were rather particularly enjoyable experiences (yeah...Im a humbugger).
Anyways, Calgary's back in the welcoming bosom of the Saddledome on the heels of their most recent road loss against the Sharks. The defeat was marked by rather average goaltending from Miikka Kiprusoff, who continues to play at a less than Godly level when out of town, and some odd officiating (The Flames were granted 0 powerplays. Zero.). I personally thought the team played a pretty decent road game up until the 3rd San Jose goal. With some better goaltending and a different referee, Calgary may have pulled out the victory. Which is something, at least.
Tonight, the Canucks roll into town. Which is good news for the Flames, because, like them, Vancouver tends to struggle away from home. In their last meeting in the Dome, Calgary scored 5 goals and chased Bingo Bango from the net.
Further, for the first time in awhile, the Flames will be skating with nearly a full compliment of NHL regulars tonight, with the sole exception being Mark Giordano who will be taking the place of the injured Andrei Zyuzin. Not that that upsets me in the least - Giordano's been the superior player from day one. Jeff Friesen is also rumored to be drawing back into the line-up, which is a shame: Calgary has a perfect record when he's sitting in the press-box. Hmm...
Let's go with a Flames 4-1 win. Iginla, Huselius, Kobasew and Hamrlik get the goals. As an added bonus, Friesen breaks his leg in the 2nd and is out for the remainder of the season...
Go Flames!
