BoA postgame - men versus boys

Well that was a satisfying beat down (or a humiliating one, depending on what side of the line you're on).

Although I know it's preseason and not necessarily indicative of anything, it was - encouraging, I guess? - to watch a Flames team lacking Lombardi, Bourque, Kiprusoff and Regehr positively manhandle an Oilers team featuring it's top 2 lines and top 4 defenders. It even looked to me like Iginla et al kinda mailed in their performance, (given all their harlem globetrotter crap in the offensive zone) and it still wasn't even close.

Cheers:

- Dustin Boyd: what more can be said about Boyd this preseason. He has probably been the Flames best player. He's not just getting results, he's driving them. Boyd looks like he took a big, giant leap over the summer somehow: he's more assertive, stronger on the puck and a step or two ahead in terms of decision making. His set-up on Moss' first goal was a thing of beauty. He created a couple other scoring chances over the course of the evening, killed penalties and ended the game by stapling Sam Gagner to the boards.

- David Moss: Not too far behind in the pleasant surprise category, Moss now has as many goals in the preseason as he did all last year. He looks much faster than he did previously and he still does all the little things right.

- Curtis Mcelhinney: Not overly tested with 9 shots through two periods, Mcelhinney closed the door on the few good scoring chances that manged to squeak through, including a Hemsky break-away.

- Dion Phaneuf: Looked much more settled than he did against Phoenix. I thought him and Giordano looked good together.

- Cory Sarich: has caught some flack for sub-standard play thus far, but was totally dominating last night. His pinch that kept the puck and led to the Moss tally made Sam Gagner look like a minor leaguer.

- Primeau/Nystrom: I'll give my punching bags their due - they didn't look totally clueless out there last night. There was still some panic time in the third in their own end, but at least they made some contributions in the offensive zone to make up for it.

Jeers:

- Daymond Langkow: I thought Langkow was fairly awful last night. Lots of unforced give-aways, lots of losing checks in the Flames end, nothing much to recommend him.

- Adrian Aucoin: One of those games where Aucoin looked a step or two behind the play half the time. Made some questionable decisions and didn't mesh well with Pardy.

- Mikael Backlund: Back into the oven with him, he's just not ready yet. The raw skill is evident when the puck is on his stick, but otherwise he looks really tentative and nervous. It's fairly evident he's not really sure what he should be doing a lot of the time. Back to Sweden with ye!

- Andre Roy: He doesn't look to be a terrible hockey player, which is good. However, I have little confidence in him as a fighter, having now seen him in two scraps in which he's sort of just hung on (and neither were against significant heavyweights like Boogaard or Laraque). If the guy can't stand toe-to-toe with the other goons, then I don't really see a use for him (well...I don't see that as useful anyways. But if the guy can't even fulfill his ostensible purpose, then...).

Mixed signals:

- Todd Bertuzzi: Saw both sides of Bert last night - the hard-to-handle, puck carrying, slick passing power-forward as well as the floating, periphery-playing guy who makes 3 too many behind the back passes and disappears in this own zone. Him and Iginla seemed to be trying too hard to work together.

- Mark Giordano: Still love his skating and offensive zone presence. Still, his blunder resulting in Horcoff's break-away can't pass unheeded (at least he managed to recover and deny a quality scoring chance I guess).

- Jamie Lundmark: Didn't really notice him much.

- Curtis Glencross: Worked well with Boyd and Moss, although he seemed to be the least valuable member of the trio.

- Mike Cammalleri: simply didn't play enough. His tip through Rolosons legs (and 2nd waived off goal of the preseason) was nice and he seems to have some decent moves with the puck.

- Adam Pardy: Nothing bad, nothing good. Doesn't stick out like a sore thumb, which is a good thing for a rookie "defensive defenseman" I suppose.

And one more thing - does anyone see Prust making this team after last nights game? I can't see room for him anywhere.