Point form because Im lazy today:
- The Flames won 5 games in a row on the road for the first time since 1988.
- Immediately after my bemoaning their lack of production on here, the Flames scored 18 goals in just 3 contests.
- Kristian Huselius collected 11 points, including two 5 point performances, last week. Meaning, Juice garnered more points in 3 games than Owen Nolan has managed in the 33 games he's played. Nolan makes 600k more than Huselius this year.
- Calgary has already scored over 100 goals and still have a negative GD.
- Jarome Iginla is probably the best player in the NHL right now. He's scored the most ES points in the league and has the 3rd highest PPG pace. He's behind only Vincent Lecavalier in terms of total points, and Vinny L has the luxury of playing in the SE Division. He's done all of this despite frequently seeing the opposition's best players and defensemen. He leads Flames skaters in goals, assists, PP goals, GWG, shooting %, +/- (by a healthy +7 differential) and even face-off percentage (54.5%). And he's a winger. He may have singlehandedly turned around Langkow and Jucie's seasons. And, if radio reports are to be believed, he's the one who came up with the idea of playing those two with him in the first place. Hart Trophy anyone?
- Adrian Aucoin is going through a "Preissification" under Mike Keenan: he's sheltered at ES, plays very little on the PK and gets primo PP time with the first unit. One the one hand, that's hardly value for a 4M+ cap-hit. On the other hand, it's better than him being bombed at ES and becoming a liability. His 17 points are a pleasant surprise so far and he seems at least to be excelling in his limited role, which was more than he did for Chicago.
- Mike Keenan continues to (mostly) roll Craig Conroy and Owen Nolan with Alex Tanguay, despite glaring evidence that it's not an effective trio. Nolan and Conroy continue to...well, not score...while Tanguay has predictably gone stone cold in the process. At the same time, Matthew Lombardi is stuck playing with the likes of Yelle, Primeau and Nyzerman! (and also, predictably, not scoring). Im all for keeping the Iggy trio together, but sheesh...do we have to resign ourselves to being a top-heavy club so completely? Could we at least TRY to squeeze some scoring out of the rest of the skaters? Hmmm?
- Calgary is back into a play-off spot for the first time since...awhile. They are 1 point back of NW Div. leading Minnesota Wild but only 3 points up on the basement dwelling, shoe-horse bearing Oilers.
