I was lucky enough to attend last night’s drubbing of the somewhat emotionless Atlanta Thrashers at the hands of ALL 4 LINES of the Calgary Flames.
Here are the following interesting observations on the Atlanta T(h)rash:
Marian Hossa – Huge powerful strides and a fantastic skater. His prowess at 2-way play seems to be based on his ability to chase down rushing forwards/defensemen on the back check. His size on the ice can’t be emphasized enough, he’s a huge guy.
The Trash have developed a cute vaulting play where they dump the puck behind the opposing team’s d-man and let him skate under it. Almost worked when they were short-handed, and it gave him a break-away later in the game. Other than a few noticeable penalty kills, and 2 vaulting plays, he was invisible for the rest of the night.
Ilya Kovalchuk – Plays in his own world. His linemates and D-men don’t exist when he has the puck. Constantly putting the puck in spots where his doppleganger should have been. Problem is, he doesn’t have a doppelganger, he has crappy linemates.
He does play with a lot of emotion though, it was good to see him and Phaneuf jostling in the very boring 3rd period.
Garnet Exelby – A very surly d-man. Threw his body around a lot, and was yapping at Phaneuf from the bench all game. Logged over 20:00, and had 5 hits. All of them earned.
Now onto our bubble-gum chewing, non-slumping, home-record-wrecking ball Flames:
Wayne Primeau – Huge. Great checking line center, and very strong on the forecheck. AND dropped the gloves. A definite Sutter guy. I wouldn’t be surprised, IF he can keep playing this, that our wily GM makes an offer to keep him.
The 4th line with Friesen, Primeau and Godard (when he got a shift) actually played really well. The Trash could not handle their size, and BOTH their ‘tough’ guys had their lunch fed to them by God-Hard and Prime-Time.
Godard did not use a spoon.
Primeau did not make a cute airplane noise.
If you were going to give out the obligatory ‘New-guy’ 3rd star, it should have been Primeau.
Jeff Friesen - Another solid effort in his own back end, created a good cycle down low. Mr. Freeze made up for his linemates' lack of speed by whirling all over the ice when Primeau and Godard were crashing. I think he’s found a great niche as a checking forward and penalty killer.
Interesting note, heading into the contest Friesen had as many points as Conroy over the last 7 games (2g 3a). Selke candidate? heheeh...
Calgary's top 2 lines – Phenomenal. Absolutely dominated an average Atlanta back-end. Iginla was spinning in the corners like he was pre-injury. Huselius has been given a creative license that allows him to go in-and out of the attacking zone (making his line offside) at will. Proof that his confidence with the puck was unshakable.
There was an accidental delayed line change that left Huselius and Langkow with Iginla on the ice, they danced in Atlanta’s zone making them look like 9 year old drunk monkey-pigs. Unfortunately, it didn't stick for the rest of the night.
Lombo – I am worried that he is getting lost in the folds. He is not getting serious ice-time, and rarely plays with anyone from the top 2 lines. If only he could play right-wing.
The best comedic part of the game happened during a TV-time out after Calgary’s 4th goal. Lehtonen went to the bench and started flooding his eyes with drops from a bottle, then started talking to Hedberg.
The conversation, probably had snippets that went like this:
"Man is it dry in here, no seriously...no I am NOT crying. Shut-up JOHAN"
"Hey, put that tent away, I am still the #1 guy. Seriously, Mr. Hartley told me that in a Valentine. Any pointers?"
All-in-all, it was a valiant team effort. The D weren't on the mainstage because Calgary's offense, board-work and forechecking occupied Atlanta all game. Stuart absolutely leveled Slater (you know, the guy that would hit Primeau, but wouldn't let him kick his ass) which was a great highlight.
Other than the clown-play that resulted in Atlanta's goal, the Thrashers did NOT have a chance.
First period was amazing.
Second period was a little more tense, and a lot more feisty.
Third period couldn’t end soon enough.
Go Flames Go!
