It boasts gag-inducing country music, kissing cousins and (worst of all) the bloody Nashville Predators. Not only did they hand the Flames their most embarrassing loss of the year last season (9-4), they also tend to beat Calgary pretty much every time the two teams clash. They have aggravating little 4th liners that like to elbow and sucker-punch opposing defensemen and a goalie that attacks wingers in the corner. DAMN THEM.
Last night's defeat was hardly surprising, given the circumstances. Bad road team versus the best home team typically results in a home-side victory. It still annoys me that the Flames can't seem to solve the Predator puzzle though. It also sucks that Calgary's improbable run of good fortune had to end upon my return to the city. Bah.
As for the game itself, I thought the Flames played about 15 minutes of quality road hockey in the first period. Prior to and after that it was pretty much all Nashville. Calgary's first unit was dominant again, with Langkow and Huselius accounting for all of the Flames offense, but every other Flames forward line pretty much gotten eaten alive by their Predator counter-part. Calgary's fourth line in particular, consisting of Nilson, Lundmark and Jeff Friesen, were invariably over-matched by whoever they played against. Nilson looks like he's still trying to get up to game speed while Lundmark seems to have lost every last ounce of confidence he may have once had. Jeff Friesen reverted back to Jeff Friesen.
That said, I don't think the Calgary forwards were the problem yesterday. The Flames were done in by a poor night from their top 4 defensemen - Warrener, Regehr, Hammer and Phaneuf. Warrener was a step or two behind the play all night, no doubt owing to the fact that he's rather slow and the Predators are pretty fast. He also made two terrible reads during the game - once on the PK where he chased an opposing player into the corner and once where he pinched in at the blueline only to see the Preds break-out 3on2 - that lead directly to goals against. Not that he was alone; the Dion also seemed to struggle. He commited a couple of turn-overs in the the defensive end, replicated Warrener's error a few minutes later (resulting in the Preds 4 goal) and bobbled the puck at the Nashville blueline in the last minute of the game (thereby erasing any chance Calgary had of tying it up).
Hamrlik and Regehr weren't much better, however. Hammer was forced to take an interference penalty that lead to the Preds tying marker thanks to an inability to avoid the Nashville forecheck and efficiently head-man the puck. And Regher, well...he just continues look like half the man he's proven to be in the past. His inability to break-up plays and win the puck battles in the corner, especially on the PK, is really starting to worry me. A guy of his size, age and pedigree shouldn't be struggling to erase opposing players down low the way he currently is. I think a significant portion of the Flames PK issues can be placed at the feet of a woefully lack luster Robyn Regehr, quite frankly, and until he turns it around, Calgary will continue to suck with a man down.
On the plus side, Kristian Huselius and Damond Langkow continue to get the job done. Despite lacking an Iginla to draw away defensive heat, both guys are proving to be significant offensive threats. On a night where the rest of their teammates were consistently outdone by the opposition, the two combined for 3 goals, 9 shots and a +3 rating. It's fairly safe to say the game would have been a complete rout without these boys in the line-up...
Anyways, some bad stuff, some good stuff and a predictable outcome. All will be poems and roses once again if the Flames can dig up 2 points against the injury-depleted Stars. Should Calgary lose again, however, I may have to consider another win-streak inducing extended holiday...
