"live blogging" a pre-season game seems pretty silly. But Im doing it anyway.
First Period
- Anderson in net for the Cats. Sounds like Bouwmeester and Cullimore are the "#1" pair.
- First shift: Backlund et al. with Sarich and Regehr vs. Weiss line
Nothing of note. Play ends with Panthers shot on goal.
- Lundmark hits the post with the next shift but ends up with a penalty.
- PK: Bourque and Lombardi show up about a minute into the kill and do a good job. I have a feeling we'll see them together SH a lot.
- Flames take a second penalty (Aucoin) with three seconds left on the PK. Apparently, Calgary is running around in their own end.
- Panthers are controlling the puck and generating chances by the sounds of it.
- "Even though he played last year and played well for this team..." talking about Nystrom. I agree with the first half.
- Flames finish the PK and generate a couple shots with the next shift. Iginla et al. draw a Florida penalty.
PP: Iginla, Backlund, Bertuzzi start off. They dont accomplish anything.
Boyd, Lundmark and Moss generate a couple chances in the latter half, but can't bury it.
- Lombardi and Bourque execute a 2on1, ending with Anderson making a big save. Sounds like the best chance of the period.
- Primeau, Prust and Nystrom get their first ES shift.
Back and forth. Nothing of note.
- 7 minutes left and it's the first time I've heard Glencross mentioned. I dont know if he's been limited in terms of ice or just a non-factor.
- Some back and forth the last 5 minutes, with Florida getting the bulk of the shots. They draw another penalty (Regehr) with about 5 minutes remaining.
PK: Primeau immediately draws a penalty, making it 4 on 4.
- I've heard Lundmark's name a lot this period. Sounds like he's come to camp on a mission.
- Lombardi, Boyd and Bourque line cause some havoc in the good end of the rink for a whole shift. Sounds like that might be the best trio so far.
- With a few minutes left, the panthers get their 4th PP of the period (Negrin). Blah.
PK: Weiss and Bouwmeester are fixtures on the Panthers PP unit so far.
McelHinney sounds solid in net so far.
Lombardi draws a cheer form the crowd thanks to his excellent PKing. Boyd gets in on the action and the Flames draw a Panthers penalty. Back to 4on4 for 25 seconds.
PP: Backlund et al get another chance, with Pardy and Aucoin on the blueline. They control the puck for a majority of the man advantage, but can't cash in.
- Lombardi generates another shot on net before the end of the period.
SOG 9-9. Score: 0-0.
Hard to assess the performances of various pieces due to the excessive special teams. Seems to my ear that Lombardi was maybe the best Flame forward that period, even though he didn't really get much PP time. Also heard good things about John Negrin, despite him taking a penalty.
- Mike Rogers and Rob Kerr Discussing Backlund - apparently looked comfortable and didn't panic with the puck. Also drew a penalty.
- Rogers agrees with my assessment re: Lombardi and linemates. Kerr claims that Lundmark was the best player that period for Calgary, which sounds reasonable considering how much I heard from him. Lombardi actually led all shooters with 3 shots on net.
2nd Period
- Iginla et al. start off the period again.
Teams exchange chances, with the Panthers pressing and finally scoring. David Booth puts it home.
Mike Rogers describing the play afterwards: "The goal all started with a HORRENDOUS give-away by Anders Eriksson, shooting the puck up the middle in his own end..." I wish I was kidding.
- Panthers take a penalty right after the goal and the Flames get their 4th PP.
PP: Moss gets some time with Lundmark, but nothing much happens.
Iginla's line comes on for the latter half. Backlund gets a good chance but fires it wide.
Bourque/Lombardi/Glencross get the scraps (15 seconds) on the PP. Again, no result.
Sounds like the club is fairly out of sync right now.
- Panthers generating the bulk of shots and chances so far. Three straight shifts of Florida pretty much dominating by the sounds of it. Flames dont have a SOG yet I believe.
- Backlund et al back out. Eriksson has another pass picked off in a bad spot, but nothing comes of it this time.
- Lombardi gets the Flames first shot of the period, glancing a wrist shot off of Anderson's arm.
- Sarich gives it away and Weiss almost converts. No question which club is "on" this period.
- A few minutes of back and forth with nothing of note occurring.
- "Puck back to Eriksson at the blueline...it gets away from him..." I've heard Bubba's name 3 times this period. Each time it's been associated with some kind of screw-up.
- Backlund has a rough shift mid-way through the period, having two errant passes picked off. Nothing comes of it however.
- According to Rogers, Florida has been winning most of the puck battles thus far.
- The Weiss/Booth line has sounded dangerous throughout this period. Booth is a keeper for sure. I watched him a bit last season and his underlying stats by the end of the year were stellar. He's poised to break out if he gets any kind of PP time.
- Flames score: Lundmark takes a shot and Boyd buries the rebound. Good news for both guys who are fighting for roster spots (albeit different spots no doubt).
- Flames spring to life after the goal, with some notable shifts by the Lombardi and Iginla lines.
- Iginla et al pick up where they left off before the whistle, generating a chance off the face-off.
- Panthers respond as the teams exchange chances, but the game remains tied.
- The game settles into a blase rhythm where neither team gets much done. Only about 3 minutes left in the period.
- Weiss line again spending lots of time in the offensive zone. The Panthers really need that guy to put it together this season, especially with the departure of Jokinen.
- Iginla charges into the zone and draws a holding penalty against Cullimore.
PP: Lundmark, Boyd and Moss get the start. The trio generates a couple of shots and legitimate scoring chances.
Flames Score: Iginla jumps over the boards and promptly puts a Boyd pass into the net. Boyd having a whale of a second period, which is music to my ears. Period ends.
Score: 2-1 Flames. SOG: 16-17.
The Panthers carried the play early on, but Calgary came to life after the Boyd goal and took it to Florida in the second half. Didn't hear as much from Lombardi's line that period, but Boyd and Lundmark really put together some nice shifts.
- Surprising stat after two: Pardy leads Flames skaters in ice-time with 14:16! I haven't heard much of anything from Pardy so far; considering how much ice-time he's had, that's probably a good thing.
- Rogers and Kerr talk about Negrin during the intermission. Kerr asserts that he looks like one of the best defenders for the Flames and agree that he's a sure-fire future NHLer. Compare his style to Jordan Leopold, which, if true, is great news.
Talk moves to veterans who are apparently struggling (Sarich, Aucoin and Eriksson). I can only hope his continued sucking in the pre-season has sealed Bubba's fate for good. Rogers continues the pile-on by saying that Eriksson was worst player on the ice...for both teams.
3rd Period
- Final period begins with the Flames "#1" line again versus the Weiss unit.
Both teams have shots that dont make it to the net.
- Lundmark and Boyd get their first shift and almost hook-up again. They spend the majority of the shift in the Panthers zone, but the play ends with Mcelhinney making a big save on Anthony Stewart off the rush.
- John Negrin takes his second penalty of the game. Not the best way to get your name on the score sheet.
PK: Nystrom starts a man down. Haven't heard much from him so far (sounds about right).
Panthers control the puck, but can't get the job done. Moss manages to knock the puck out of play, defusing the pressure.
- Lombardi and Bourque out on the PK again and manage to pressure the bad guys all over the ice, disallowing any kind of attack.
- Glencross finally shows up and gets a big time opportunity at the end of the PK. His initial shot and rebound are turned aside, however.
- Bertuzzi, Iginla and Backlund get something going, but the rookies shot is unfortunately blocked at the last minute.
- Panthers take another penalty with Primeau's line on the ice.
PP: Lundmarks unit gets the start again, probably owing to their strong play.
- Lundmark gets a good chance and his slap-shot literally injures Craig Anderson. What a game for this guy.
- Lombardi's line finally gets some time with the extra-man. They generate several close in shots, but dont score.
- Iginla's line comes out for the end of the PP. Backlund gets another shot and this one finally gets on net. Flames are outshooting Florida 9-1.
- After the Panthers miss a close-in chance, Todd Bertuzzi gets a break-away but shoots a back-hand wide. Shortly thereafter, Anderson robs Primeau at the side of the net. The game has certainly come alive.
- Weiss and Frolic get another good chance, but McEl stones them. Sounds like the kid is having a pretty good game.
- Just as I type that, Olesz ties it up thanks to a turn-over deep in the Flames end. I wonder if it was Eriksson (I honestly dont know, but I have my suspicions).
- Flames promptly give up another quality chance and then take a penalty. This sounds like the exact opposite of the previous period.
Guess who was on the ice for the afoermentioned big chance against? Eriksson!
Guess who's in the penalty box!...
PK: Florida controls play at the onset and generate some shots and chances. Bouwmeester gets an excellent chance, but is stopped. Rogers says the Panthers have the Flames running around, but Mcelhinney has been equal to the task.
- Iginla's line comes on after the PK with about 6 minutes left in the period. They dont do anything of note. Bertuzzi seems to be losing the puck down low in the offensive zone a bunch.
- Just saw the highlights on the ol' tube. Both Flames goals were fantastic plays by Boyd. particularly the 2nd marker, where he threaded a pass through about 4 Florida defenders. Good stuff.
- With about 4 minutes left, Bouwmeester scores what is described as an unbelievable goal. He's a great player and should be available around the trade deadline this season.
- Panthers are pressing to put this away, with Booth almost potting his second of the game.
- Iginla's line back out with just over a minute left. Both Backlund and Bertuzzi are -2 so far. Again, they dont anything done.
- Flames can't make the come-back and the Panthers win the game, 3-2.
Pretty inauspicious debut for Backlund, who was scored on a couple of times and failed to get any points. Bertuzzi also sounded unimpressive. Of course, the worst of them all was Eriksson, who had the color crew all over him for his crap play all night. Please make him go away Mr.Sutter!
On the other hand, great game for Dustin Boyd and Jamie Lundmark, especially the former who was named the first start of the game. Didn't hear much from guys like Glencross, Prust or Nystrom, which isn't what I should be saying about fringe players in the pre-season.
