Let's get this out there right now - I have no friggen clue what's wrong with this team currently. The road woes are ludicrous and inexplicable and the defense is looking "Young Guns" porous. However, in an effort to preserve my own sanity, Im going to present a list of complaints yielded from yesterday's contest. I don't know if the team will fix them and I don't even know if they'd win if they did. But...whatever.
Principally, I have to say that Kiprusoff is playing some of his worst hockey as a Calgary Flame. He has been a contributing factor in the last 3 Flames losses (Detroit, Colorado, Colorado), and last night he wasn't just mediocre; he was dreadful. His rebound control was as bad as I've ever seen it: long range shots frequently resulted in juicy scoring chances thanks to the puck being kicked back into traffic areas. He frequently over-commited on plays; I can recall at least 3 instances where Kipper was out of the crease fruitlessly flopping around on the ice. Not to mention the fact that he allowed a harmless, fluttering back-hand to beat him near the end of the first or telegraphed his poke-check on the Savtos GWG.
The objective measures speak to Kipper's recent struggles. In Detroit, he allowed 3 goals on 14 shots before being pulled. That's a 0.786 SV%. Cumulatively, Kipper has only managed to stop 84% of the shots against him in the last 3 losses. That's nearly 10% below his 06/07 figure of .920 SV%.
While a significant argument can be made that Kiprusoff is worn out, I would venture to say it's more about confidence than stamina right now. The manner in which he was manically scrambling around the ice last night suggested "panic" rather than "fatigue" to me. He looks like a guy who is overcompensating for imagined faults and second-guessing his instincts. I would venture to guess that the road losses and the S/O issues are starting to get into his head, which is not insignificant given his usual stoic nature. For the Flames to get out of this funk, Kipper is going to have to become the implacable puck magnet we all got so used to the last few seasons.
Another loss, another Regehr miscue during a tied game in the third period. Not taking anything away from the Liles pass (which was great), but just how does Svatos get behind the Flames defense when they are sitting back on the blueline during the PK? In that situation, with that personel on the ice, it just simply shouldn't happen.
Speaking of the Flames PK - it makes me want to punch strangers in the throat and insult new parent's babies. It is a foul, repugnant, abortion of a special team for this club. I've said it before this year and I guess I'll have to say it again: I despise the "passive box" the Flames seem to favor. It is very, very obviously ineffective. It hasn't worked all year. It hasn't. It doesn't. It won't.
There isn't much about the Oilers that evokes envy in me, but their PK is one such thing. They pressure the puck carrier mercilessly all over the ice. Opposition point men are harassed and their shots are blocked. The bad guys are rarely given much room to breathe at all. The Flames, on the other hand, are content to give the other team the point, the sideboards and behind the net. Every Flame on the ice is just waiting to collapse like a teetering house of cards back to Kiprusoff. puck battles are fought to waste time, not to win possession. And can anyone explain to me why Calgary can't seem to line-up on the blueline and effectively dissuade zone penetration? I mean, this isn't prom night and the Flames aren't an ego-compromised cheerleader - for godssakes, close your legs fellas!
Does anyone else think Rhett Warrener is finished? He played a grand total of 10 soft minutes last night and still managed to get abused while he was on the ice. To be fair to him, Kipper should have stopped the Hejduk backhand. To be fair to Kiprusoff, Hejduk shouldn't have been allowed to shoot at all. Mark Giordano in Phoenix please!
It might be just me, but the Flames haven't looked very good at offering defensive zone puck support to each other the last few weeks. When the Avs were in Calgary's end of the rink last night, for instance, it almost invariably seemed to be 2 Colorado players vs. 1 Calgary player along boards and behind the net. That was also true of the 7-5 loss last week and the 7-4 shelling at the hands of the Red Wings. I don't know if it's a systemic issue or just lack of execution by the guys but it sure does suck.
Whew...Okay, I'm done. that's all the vitriol I got right now. Some guys deserved praise last night - Iginla, Juice, Langkow, Phaneuf, Hamrlik and Primeau - but I'm jut not in the mood. With Vancouver now 4 points clear of the Flames after another goddamn OT win and with Calgary reverting back to Sucktoberfest hockey of months gone by (at precisly the wrong time in the season), I'm simply not inclined to be handing out kudos at the moment...
