Real short Sunday post for those of you who couldn't watch the game yesterday...
The Flames played their best contest of the year. They looked like a qualitatively different team: sharper passing, more aggressive forecheck, faster skating everywhere on the ice. The outcome of the game was never in doubt.
Players notes:
Dustin Boyd and Eric Nystrom have added jump, speed and exuberance to the Flames bottom six. Finally the end of the roster doesn't look like a useless bag of suck whenever they hit the ice. I honestly hope Boyd sticks in the long-term.
Iginla was a dominant presence all night.
Huselius and Langkow took a few steps back into the light. Langkow scored a beauty give-and-go with Iginla and Huselius set-up Aucoin's goal with a laser-accurate seeing eye pass.
Lombardi was excellent all night. Another 2 points for the speedster, despite playing primarily on the 3rd line again.
I've picked on Conroy and Eriksson - a lot - but both had better than average games against the Avs. Cnoroy's deal clinching goal in the 3rd was an eye-popper: mainly because one doesn't expect Craig to pull the ol' toe-drag/top corner goals anymore. I still don't think he should be playing with Iginla, but he shut me up for a night at least.
The Avs bearded Goon Parker got into it with Phaneuf during the pre-game warm-up. Later in the game, when the outcome was all but decided, Parker cross-checked Phaneuf in the throat and then went to punch him while he was down. Dion wasn't injured on the play, but it was obviously dirty and dangerous. It'll be interesting to see if Parker gets anything more than his game misconduct.
Anyways, long story short - the Flames looked NOTHING like the lack luster team we've come to expect this year. The PK was good, the team defense was tight and every forward line managed to look dangerous at one time or the other during the evening. Obviously the guys need to start more skirmishes during the warm-up...
This afternoon, the Flames are in St.Louis. One would think that Curtis McElhinney will get the start, but you just never know with Keenan. As for the skaters, let's hope whatever light switch that was flipped on yesterday stays on for more than that single game.
