It was nice to plunge head first back into hockey last night, even if the Flames team that took to the ice was a mere shadow of the one we'll see in October. Not that that stopped them from winning, though.
'Course, it's pre-season so the outcome is largely meaningless. The real value of the upcoming two weeks of foreplay is to evaluate the hopefuls and develop game legs in the vets. To that end, here are my impressions from the contest yesterday:
Bubble Guys I noticed:
1.) Brent Krahn - Was steady and solid in the nets. Handily out-dueled the senior citizen at the other end (who gave up 3 goals on 11 shots BTW) and certainly staked a claim to the back-up position. Not that it's going to do him any good this year...
2.) Dustin Boyd - Was a bit jittery at first. However, his game seemed to turn around after he got hammered into the end boards by Ric Jackman. Playing on a line with Juice and Kobasew, Boyd was one of Calgary's better centers for the remainder of the game. Was rewarded with a goal in the second.
3.) Brandon Prust - Prust also seemed to get better as the night wore on. He played a high tempo game, especially when forechecking. He also won the tilt against Panther hopeful Anthony Stewart hands down...was named the "Hardest Working Flame" by the talking heads on the radio after the match.
4.) Mark Giordano - Paired with Warrener, Giordano played the most of any rookie d-man. He jumped into the play a couple of times and never made any glaring mistakes.
Bubble Guys I didn't notice:
David Moss and David Van Der Gulik were pretty much shrug-worthy. And, like the rookie intrasquad game, I had to specifically look for Chucko to make sure he was actually playing. When I did finally watch him for a couple of shifts he did little aside from lumber around uncertainly. I gotta say, I've had a couple of looks at Chucko now and Im really starting to wonder what the Flames scouting staff saw in him - if he doesn't make some pretty significant strides in Omaha this year he's going to be a big time first round bust.
Like Rico Fata before him, Chucko is rapidly becoming an object of my derision.
Notable Vets:
1.) Kristian Huselius - Was the most dangerous player on the ice most of the time and he was only going at about half speed. Easily Calgary's best forward.
2.) Charles Kobasew - I hope we see more of this Kobasew during the year. Sniped a PP goal and drove into the zone with authortiy most of the evening.
3.) Jamie Lundmark - Made a couple of "WHO WAS THAT?" worthy moves in the offensive zone. Picked up an assist on Germyn's goal, but probably would have had more points with better line-mates.
4.) Rhett Warrener - Steady vet was solid as expected, but he also set-up Boyd's tally with a dandy pass through a couple of defenders.
Guys I noticed for the wrong reasons:
1.) Brad Ference - Not very fast or physical. Made a couple of errors and some wayward passes. He also took a shot from the point on the PP that would have been knocked down by a stiff breeze. Basically, after Krahn, Giordano, Ri.Regehr, Warrener, A.Ference and Hamrlik, B.Ference was the Flame's best defensemen. Maybe. Also, got pummeled by Nathan Horton (of all people) late in the third. Useless.
2.) Matt Lombardi - Lombo set up what should have been a tap-in in the third period (the rook in position blew the chance) with a seeing eye pass from the corner. Aside from that, Lombardi managed to get a couple of hooking penalties and that was it. May have done more with better line-mates, however.
That's about it from me. Go here for the offical Flames-site recap and line combinations.
Next up - Vancouver!
