I initially planned to do a voluminous "Half Way Post", but Matt's covered a lot of the bases already. Also, I've harped ceaselessly on the team's ongoing issues over the past weeks to the degree that nothing I'd say now would be new or enlightening. I will hasten to add that the 2nd quarter was a whole lot better than the first, mainly due to the ascension of Regehr and the explosive combination of Jarome Iginla and Kristian Huselius (as well as a fruitful expedition through the worst division in hockey in December). The secondary scoring (Owen Nolan has one more point than Robyn Regehr), special teams (both still worse than middling) and the play of Miikka Kiprusoff (SV% still below a mediorce .900) remain sore spots on this club and until one or all of them markedly improve, the Flames will be no better than a "good" (read: 9th-6th place finish) club.
Emerging Issues moving forward:
Is Huselius becoming indispensable? How does Sutter sign him if so?
What happens when David Moss returns from injury? Primeau and Nilson seem to have been permanently usurped by Boyd and Nystrom. Does a vet get demoted, traded?
Will Kipper EVER get his mojo back? If not, should Sutter look to move him before his big extension (and NTC) kick in?
Who should the Flames pursue to shore up the secondary scoring? The club still needs a 2nd line RWer that can produce on the PP and at least semi-regularly as ES.
If the Flames are a play-off fringe squad at the trade deadline, should they be buyers or sellers? Flames pending UFAs - Conroy, Yelle, Nolan, Langkow, Huselius, Godard, Hale. Flames potential salary dumps - Warrener, Primeau, Nilson, Tanguay, Aucoin. Flames needs - top 6 RWer, top 4 defenseman, back-up goalie (?).
Just some stuff to keep in mind as we head into the latter half of the year.
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Calgary plays the Sharks in San Jose tonight, which is actually the best place to play the Sharks these days. While they own an impressive 22-12-5 overall record, they've managed just 6 of those wins at the tank this year (in 18 games). That's an impressive and unique kind of awful, particularly since they're such an amazing road squad 16-3-2 (!). A major contributor to that disparity is likely their PK - on the road, the Sharks are the best in the league, killing over 90% of their infractions. At home, they drop all the way down to a mediocre 83.1% (16th in the league). Shades of the road Flames from last year.
Another oddity about San Jose is their relatively lackluster offense. With guys like Thornton, Michalek, Cheechoo, Marleau and Bernier, one would think that goals would come easy. As it currently stands, SJ is 22nd in the league in terms of GF (98), behind the likes of MIN, VAN, CHI and WSH. Thornton is doing well enough, scoring 13 goals and 46 points in 39 games, but the drop-off from him is a steep one: Michalek is second behind Jumbo Joe with a paltry 23 points. Patrick Marleau is having a nightmarish season as well - he's scored just 7 goals and 18 points. Adrian Aucoin, Dion Phaneuf and Craig Conroy all have more points by comparison. That's elevator shaft material. His 6.3M extension is probably looking mighty unappetizing to the guys upstairs right now. Then there's the struggles of Mr. Jonathan Cheechoo, one-time Rocket Richard trophy recipient. He currently occupies Owen Nolan territory (5 goals, 10 points in 32 games) without the excuse of debilitating age.
I had no idea the offensive problems were that big in San Jose till I looked closely at the numbers just now. That's baffling, can't-possibly-continue kind of bad. That's "the coach is in big trouble because there's no other explanation" kind of bad. The team is still winning, based on great goaltending and some pretty good defensive work (which should technically be the club's weakness, looking at that roster), but sheesh...talk about ruining a LOT of fantasy drafts.
Anyways, gross goal totals aside, I still think the Sharks look fantastic mainly because the only time I've seen them play so far was the 4-1 ass-whooping they handed the Flames way back near the start of the season. Calgary didn't have a sniff that night, although that was before the re-awakening of Regehr and the uniting of the new Flames Dynamic Duo (Karome Higgelius?). Also, it wasn't in San Jose.
Course, the main thing working in the Sharks favor is this the Flames 2nd game in 2 nights. Perhaps exhaustion will cancel out the inexplicable sucking that the home arena evokes in Sharks. Then again, hopefully not.
Go Flames
