Well, well, well. I suppose there had to be some kind of karmic price to be paid for my "Captain Canuck and the Impotents" remark.
That was a downright awful performance in just so many ways. defense - bad. Offense - stymied. And the goaltending...oh! The goaltending...
Alright, the the Flames were lacking a lot of difference makers. And the flu is apparently making it's way through the dressing room. AND many of the guys were on their second game in two nights.
Still, none of that applies to Kipper, who allowed 6 goals on 23 shots. Half of them were pucks most back-ups wouldn't let past. Like last preseason and the preseason before it, Kiprusoff looks worse than average. The reason why this is concerning is that he always seems to drag the suck into the regular season with him. With just one more tune-up match before the real stuff starts, mark me down as "concerned".
Other observations:
- Cory Sarich. Awful. Dominates Edmonton one night, looks lost the next. Was one of the primary causes of two of the Canucks "legit" goals, due to over-committing to the wrong player both times.
- Dion Phaneuf. Awful. Abused by Mason Raymond all night long. Seemed either very tired/sick or apathetic.
- Mikeal Backlund. Quite awful. Kid isn't getting better, he's getting worse. Multiple rookie blunders born of panic and insecurity last night. He's obviously in over his head. Only played 4 minutes - and for good reason.
- Adrian Aucoin. Awful. Guy has been underwhelming pretty much the entire pre-season. His immobility is very apparent when compared to Mark Giordano. Ended the night -3 and looked like he was bringing Pardy down.
- Rene Bourque. Meh. Now that I've seen Bourque a couple of times, Im more confident in placing him on a "checking unit" in my hypothetical depth charts. He's big, quick and...has hands of stone.
- David Moss. Good. The Boyd/Moss/Glencross connection was reunited eventually and they looked solid again. Moss led the team with 4 shots on net and forced Luongo to make a couple of huge saves to keep him off the score sheet.
- Mark Giordano. Good. Steadier than his partner, Gio also made one of the best plays of the game when he fed a beauty cross-ice pass to Moss on the powerplay. Also, sat some Schmo Canuck down off the rush near the end of the third.
- Dustin Boyd. Good. Not as noticeable as he was previously, Boyd was *still* one of the better forwards on the ice. Guess which Flames forwards played more than Boyd's 22:30?
- Curtis Glencross. Good. Im liking this addition more and more. I dont expect 40 points out of the guy, but there's no glaring weaknesses in his game.
- Jamie Lundmark. Invisible. This is the Lundmark I remember. No appreciable effect on the game either way.
- Brett Sutter. Huh? I honestly forgot he was still in camp. Hard working and all, he was still very obviously a rookie.
- Craig Conroy. Gettin' old. Eleven minutes of ice, zero shots on net, -2. Conroy actually centred Iginla for a couple of shifts last night and it immediately triggered my gag reflex. Stop it. Just stop it.
- Eric Nystrom. Meh. Not the worst player on his line I guess. Looks good on the PK.
- Adam Pardy. Meh. Not his best game, although he was frequently victimized by his various partners poor decisions last night. Still, I think Pardy looks fairly comfortable and could probably make the leap.
Giving the Devil his due - the Canucks team speed and tenacity surprised me last night. I think they really have something with that Raymond kid, who is one of the fastest players I've ever seen. I'd be surprised if he wasn't a fixture in their top 6 by years end. Luongo was very obviously the superior goalie last night as well.
Anyways, time to take a stiff drink and forget all about that nonsense. Quick quizz...how many of you that watched the game or saw the results said "at least it's only pre-season"?
