- Mr. Mcgeough. Giant head still planted firmly up his own ass.
Stuart Mackenzie: Look at the size of that boy's heed.
Tony Giardino: Shhh!
Stuart Mackenzie: I'm not kidding, it's like an orange on a toothpick.
Tony Giardino: Shhh, you're going to give the boy a complex.
Stuart Mackenzie: Well, that's a huge noggin. That's a virtual planetoid.
Tony Giardino: Shh!
Stuart Mackenzie: Has it's own weather system.
Tony Giardino: Sh, sh, shh.
Stuart Mackenzie: HEAD! MOVE!
Stuart Mackenzie: I'm not kidding, that boy's head is like Sputnik; spherical but quite pointy at parts! Now that was offsides, wasn't it? He'll be crying himself to sleep tonight on his huuuuge pillow.
About the Friday game against the Avs: Im only going to say that I thought it was, in many ways, the best performance of the year by the Flames and the outcome was by no means indicative of the play. An unlikely combination of horseshoes, referee incompetence, a relatively flaccid Flames PP and Joe Sakic conspired to hand the victory to the Avs. I take consolation in the fact that Colorado has probably used up a years worth of breaks in 2 games against Calgary already, with the assumption that the pendulum has to swing back in our favor sooner rather than later.
Anyways, speaking of giant heads, Im starting to get the impression that the Flames are grossly top heavy again this year. The money players are scoring a lot - again - which is great. Unfortunately, after them, the roster is rife with barely adequate (or worse) fillers and plugs. Godard and Smith are 5 minute/night guys - detriments at ES that have to be coddled and sheltered with great care. I get butterflies in my stomach whenever a Godard trio ices the puck; knowing full well the opposition coach is chuckling as he sends his big guns out to run roughshod over the goon and his plugger linemates.
Not that the damage is limited to the 4th line. The Owen Nolan experiment, which got off to a decent start, has really started to take on shades of Tony Amonte over the last few nights. In 11 games (playing primarily with the likes of Langkow, Huselius, Conroy and Tanguay) Nolan has managed just 2 assists. His ES production rate is a miniscule 0.86 ESP/60 and he has yet to record a single PP point. While he's been coasting around the perimeter and beating up marginal enforcers, Nolan's typical linemates (Juice, Langkow) have racked up 25 points, including 16 at ES. Which means he's either really unlucky and his contributions aren't showing up on the scoresheet, or he's another aging anchor being dragged along for the ride. To my eyes, it's been the latter, particularly in the last 5 games or so. I've started to only notice Nolan when he's doing something that annoys me, ie something detrimental. He's become a rather reserved, perimeter type player as a Flame - one that seems to give the puck away in the offensive zone at inopportune times. It's early, this is a new team and he could be going through a rough patch (etc etc), but if he can't put up points amongst the Flames top 6 (especially when they're rolling along so nicely) I question whether he'll be able to do so at all.
Speaking of which, Craig Conroy is still starting games between Tanguay and Iginla for some reason. He has one more point than Nolan thus far, despite playing with arguably superior players more often. In Conroy's defense, he hasn't had much PP time (for good reason), but let's face it, he's only managed to be in on 3 of his linemates 20 ES points so far. I submit that ANYONE not putting up points with Iginla at ES right now is probably a leaden weight.
Naturally, the question becomes: what does Keenan do with all of these guys? Smith, Godard, Yelle (and Primeau, when he returns) aren't ever going to outscore the opposition and it's a prayer for them to hold the bad guys to even. Nolan and Conroy can't get results with the big guns and dropping them into the bottom 6 will likely only further limit their already anemic production. Add in the snakebitten David Moss (who has to battle for every single goal he gets anyways), and Keenan has two solid lines of single digit scorers to worry about. That's a challenging row to hoe, even with a potent top 6 attack. I suppose it could be argued that Nolan/Conroy don't seem to be hurting the production of Iginla et al., so there's no real impetus to kick them down the depth chart. Yet. But really...is that the measuring stick we should be applying to $4.546M worth of capspace? "At least they're not hurting us!" is the relieved sigh typically reserved for bubble guys and kids. As far as Im concerned, anyways.
On a happier note, I'd like to say that I've been thrilled with the play of Matthew Lombardi so far. Not only has he been doing it on his own, offensively speaking, between Moss and Nilson (1 goal, 4 points between them), but he seems to be playing a more complete, two-way game under Keenan. On Friday, Lombardi broke up several quality Colorado scoring chances through intelligent back-checking. He was a probably the Flames best penalty killer that night as well, not only deterring scoring chances against, but creating a few by forcing neutral zone turn-overs. His goal was a something out of nothing play, singlehandedly conjured through speed and perseverance. Overall, it was the type of performance you see out of Selke-caliber centers, and it was one that no doubt endeared him to the coaching staff. Very encouraging stuff from him in the early part of the season. Here's hoping it continues.
