The heady glow emanating from the most recent road win may be partially blotting out the ugly fact that the Flames were flat-as-roadkill during their two previous away games and are still one of the worst road teams in the league.
Just how prophetic was that little comment?
Heading into a weekend of away games I felt it prudent to point out that the Flames still needed to take a few significant steps forward when it came to their collective road performance.
Mission most certainly NOT accomplished.
Calgary was hopelessly outclassed by both Minnesota and Chicago. They were outshot by a cumulative sum of 81-46 over the course of the two contests and only escaped with OT loser points thanks to the heroics of Miikka Kiprusoff.
I was unable to watch the Wild game, but extrapolating from the utterly lackluster crap I saw yesterday (and most of the year for that matter), Im fairly certain I can guess with a high degree of accuracy what it looked like: flacid forecheck, a marked inability to clear the puck from the defensize zone, tentative special teams and a penchant for watching the play rather than initiating it.
Consider this: The Chicago Blackhawks entered yesterday's match on a 10 game losing streak. They were 16 points behind the Flames in the WC standings, had allowed nearly 30 more goals and scored nearly 30 less and owned the leagues worst powerplay. This is the team that outshot Calgary 17-5 in the third period and 40-22 overall. Despite giving up a last minute goal and a PP goal in overtime, the Flames were downright lucky to even be in the game at all at that point.
Such is the nature of the Flames on the road. It would be convenient to point to the Iginla and Regehr absenses as the cause of this past weekends set-backs, but, let's face it - Calgary has been terrible on the road all year regardless of who was or wasn't in the line-up.
A significant amount of blame from yesterday's suckfest should be placed squarely on the shoulders of the Flames supporting cast, however. Frontliners Huselius, Langkow, Tanguay, Hamrlik and Phaneuf managed to be effective enough to drag the rest of the squad, kicking and screaming, into OT. Everyone else, from Lombardi down to Nilson, Yelle, Lundmark, Warrener and Zyuzin were mediocre or worse. Yelle in particular struggled in my eyes. He won only 45% of his face-offs and was extremely passive and ineffective on the PK. At even-strength, I dont honestly remember him even entering the offensive zone. The latter sentiment goes for most of the 3rd and 4th liners yesterday - Playfair couldn't seem to squeeze any quality minutes from the grinders and energy players. The best they could offer was hanging on just long enough to give the first line guys some rest. By "hanging on" I mean "by the skin of their teeth".
For his part, Savard did a good job of getting Martin Havlat (and whoever his linemates are) out against Calgary's lesser lights, especially Ference-Warrener, Zyuzin-Giordano. This sort of mismatch is less of an issue when guys like Nilson and Yelle are playing effective hockey...which, of course, they weren't yesterday. Resulting in multiple shots and scoring chances against and extended periods of time in the defensive zone...
I guess I could go on beating this dead horse, but really, it's all too appallingly familiar at this point. As such, I figured I'd end the post with a couple of positives:
- Kipper is playing great.
- Kristian Huselius is on a 9 game point streak.
- Tanguay was Calgary's best offensive player yesterday.
- Phaneuf and Hamrlik have looked very good the last 3 games. "Best defensemen on the ice" good.
- The Flames are 6-2-2 in their last 10 despite lacking siginificant players from their line-up.
- And finally, Calgary is 6 points ahead of Edmonton with a game in hand.
Next up! LA tomorrow night (in Calgary, thank God).
