Tonight's loss to the Pens is a "bad news, worse news" kinda thing.
Bad news: The Flames once again lost thanks to a SH goal against and an inability to bear down on their chances.
Worse news: It was reported after the game that Robyn Regehr suffered a broken ankle while blocking a shot and will likely be out for 4 weeks.
As the horrifying realization of what that means for this team's play-off aspirations steals over you, I'll end with the Flames resultant defensive depth chart and some appropriate verses from the master of the melancholy and macabre, Edgar Allan Poe...
Phaneuf - Aucoin
Sarich - Eriksson
Hale - Pardy
Ramholt
Hear the tolling of the bells-
Iron Bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
In the silence of the night,
How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy menace of their tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.
And the people–ah, the people-
They that dwell up in the steeple,
All Alone
And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,
In that muffled monotone,
Feel a glory in so rolling
On the human heart a stone-
They are neither man nor woman-
They are neither brute nor human-
They are Ghouls:
And their king it is who tolls;
And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls
A paean from the bells!
And his merry bosom swells
With the paean of the bells!
And he dances, and he yells;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the paean of the bells-
Of the bells:
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the throbbing of the bells-
Of the bells, bells, bells-
To the sobbing of the bells;
Keeping time, time, time,
As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To the rolling of the bells-
Of the bells, bells, bells:
To the tolling of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells-
Bells, bells, bells-
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.
(I'm compelled to append a post-script in the sentiment of the above...
Cheering for this team this year has been like being kicked in the balls. In the balls. In the balls, balls, balls-
in the balls, balls, balls, balls, balls, Balls, BALLS! Oh! The kicking and the stomping of my balls.)
