Lots and lots of problems facing the Flames going into tonight. They've played a lot of shitty games in February (again!) culminating in the 6-3 hammering they suffered at the hands of the Kings - the worst team in the league - Friday night. They're stuck on the meniscus of the play-off bubble and the trade deadline is fast approaching. Does Sutter load up in a vain attempt to push his team into the first round (and beyond)? Or does he deal his attractive pieces (Langkow and Huselius) in an attempt to acquire some cheap/young assets for next year? In their current manifestation, the Flames don't look like they can move any of their difference makers without suffering some performance repercussions (potentially meaning no play-offs and/or loss in the first round) while next seasons roster is looking really expensive and really lacking in viable NHL quality forwards.
Decisions, decisions...
As for tonight, the Ducks will be looking to solve their persistent scoring problems against a team that has allowed 11 goals in 2 games against Edmonton and LA recently. As evidenced by the first period in Hollywood, the Flames are still struggling with issues in their own end. The big guns aren't overwhelming the opposition like they were earlier in the year and guys like Smith, Godard, Eriksson and occassionally, Dion Phaneuf continue to be detrimental to varying degrees in the defensive zone. Then there's Miikka Kiprusoff, who despite a slowing climbing SV%, continues to be less than stellar on a consistent basis. The Shut-outless count has reached over 50 games this year. And counting.
Some good stuff:
Lombardi et al were excellent on Friday against the Kings. They generated pressure and chances almost every time they hopped over the boards and didn't get scored on, despite the Flames yielding 6 goals against. Lomabrdi has slowly looked like the guy I like and remember since being deployed with actual NHL players the last few weeks. If one of his wingers actually had a goal scoring bone in his body, his point total over the last few weeks would be less pedestrian no doubt.
Dustin Boyd got scored on 3 times versus the Kings...but he still looked pretty damn good, particularly on his 5th goal of the year. He's detrimental mainly because of his POS wingers (Godard and Smith) and is another guy that would benefit greatly from playing with NHL caliber vets (Nilson perhaps?).
Anyways, prediction time. Flames have been pretty random in Feb, so let's go with that. Flames __ (set to generate 1 integer between 0 and 10), Ducks __ (same deal).
Let me know what your random predictions turn out to be*.
*(repeat if tie is yielded)
Go Flames.
