I missed the kids victory over the Vancower newts last night. So, instead of first-hand accounts I'll just fill this space with a bunch of Flames-related links instead.
- Scott Cruickshank puts together a game story over at the Calgary Herald:
Calgary 6 - Vancouver 3
Three Stars
1. Calgary D John Negrin -- His handiwork on the night's opening goal, just 30 seconds in, is a picture of blue-liner poise.
2. Vancouver RW Michael Grabner -- Two goals. One near goal. Nearly turns game around with second- period outburst.
3. Calgary LW Lance Bouma -- For the second straight night, he turns in a bulldog-like performance. Rewarded with a goal.
- Speaking of Negrin, the young third-rounder has turned some heads the past few days. Both Steve McFarlane and the aforementioned Cruickshank put down feature columns on him recently:
Maturity -- on and off the ice -- is the first word that comes to mind when talking to, or about, the Kootenay Ice defenceman.
"John's got a lot of poise in his game. I think his demeanour, when you get to know him and talk to him a little bit, you can see where his game reflects his personality -- he's very calm, he's pretty confident," associate coach Jim Playfair...
...
Take a peek at the Flames' first goal Monday.
All Negrin.
On the opening shift against the Vancouver Canucks in the Oil Country Rookie Tournament, J.D. Watt, mucker extraordinaire, worked diligently along the left boards and pried loose the puck, which he fed back to Negrin.
The lad then showed why he's such a tantalizing prospect.
Operating at the blue-line, he didn't panic. Rather, the 19-year-old calmly picked his way through the Canucks' defenders, then whipped a swell pass, against the grain, to a net-bound John Armstrong.
All Armstrong had left was a tap-in past startled netminder Morgan Clark.
Another star from last night, Lance Bouma, answers five questions for the Herald:
What was your off-season highlight?
"I mostly just trained and didn't do much exciting. I guess coming to Calgary (for the prospects camp in July) was the most exciting part . . . just to get to know the other guys and make it less nerve-wracking here at this camp."
It's a big time fluff piece for sure. Unless you think Bouma's favorite summer movie can give you insight on the kind of player he'll turn out to be.
- Finally, the incredibly busy Cruickshank penned this article on Adam Cracknell:
Sutter -- near the end of Cracknell's lengthy post-season run with the Las Vegas Wranglers last spring -- had not bothered to mince words when discussing the prospect's professional-hockey future.
"Hey, he's got NHL offensive skills
. . . but it's a matter of his whole game being rounded," Sutter said in late May. "Without your whole game being rounded, you have trouble playing. So till he figures that out, that's his spot."
I would say Sutter is being kind to Cracknell here. The guy was a PPG player last year, sure...but in the ECHL. Still, it'll be interesting to see what he does in QC this season (which is where I imagine he'll land).
