If you're the type of person that gets excited when the odometer rolls over to zero, you should note that, 56 games into the season, the Calgary Flames have 28 wins and 28 losses (including OT and SOL) with 161 GF and 161 GA. They've attained Mediocrity Equilibrium as it were.
Calgary's goal through the final 26 games should be obvious: don't finish 8th in the conference. Any chance at seeing daylight beyond the first round lies with avoiding the Detroit Red Wings in mid-April. Some match-ups are more favorable than others, granted, but Im fairly certain the Wings would roll right over our middling squad in 6 games or less for the second straight year.
The first step on the final stretch run begins with a difficult 5 game road-trip through the Pacific division, the first stop being San Jose tonight. The Flames hammered the Sharks last game, thanks mainly to a season best effort by Owen Nolan. I wouldn't bet on a repeat performance tonight, however.
On the positive end of the spectrum, Huselius seemed to awaken as if from a bad dream on Saturday night against the Oil (perhaps stirred from his slumber by a swift kick in the throat by Sutter himself), and he played probably his best hockey in the last 3 weeks. As did a majority of his teammates, although Iginla was still having problems burying quality scoring chances. Unfortunately, it's difficult as a Flames fan to take solace in the HNIC effort: since January 1, predicting this clubs performance from game to game has been a fools errand. In addition, the Oilers, as plucky and determined as they might be, just aren't the San Jose Sharks.
Other stuff:
- I was dismayed to see Godard return to the line-up in light of the results earned by the Nilson-Boyd-Smith line previously. Im pretty much at the point where I have no use for Eric and can't fathom why he remains on the roster.
- Cory Sarich has been abysmal lately. He was one of the worst players on the ice during the Coyotes and Oilers defeats and the last time he scored a single point in a game was December 9th. Admittedly, scoring isn't what he's paid to do, but...yeesh. In his last 5 games, Cory is EV +/- +1, -5. Qualitatively speaking, his read on the first Mueller goal against the 'Yotes was Zyuzin bad, and he followed that up by guarding no one in the slot while Mueller took a shot and then banged in the rebound for his 2nd marker of the night. That's the kind of streak Sarich is going through, which is bad for someone who adds little to nothing at the other end of the ice.
As an added level of suck, Sarich is 2nd on the team in minor penalties this year with 32 (behind only Dion), and has the worst ES penalties drawn/taken differential on the team (-19). And, although he's paired with Regehr pretty consistently, he is EV +/- 0 for the season while Reggie is up at +12.
It's no secret the Flames need another defenseman to play with Phaneuf (and get Eriksson out of the top 4), but Sarich is definitely going to have to pull up his socks if the 8th seed is to be avoided.
Anyways, prediction time. I think the up and down continues and the Flames lose this one. SJ 3, Calgary 1. Cheechoo, Michalek and Rivet for the Sharks. Conroy for the Flames.
