Huselius Heralded

The Calgary Hearld printed a little feature on the guy who's currently justifying my taking him in the 10th round of my hockey pool...

In the article, Huselius doesn't confirm or deny the assertion that being benched turned his game around. Little does he know it was actually a Toronto-localized critic that got his mojo going...

S-M-R-T - Updated

I should be celebrating the Flames return to form.

I should be reveling in Oiler fan misery.

But instead, Im laughing at tsn stupidity.

The Philadelphia Flyers rewarded forward Mike Knuble with a two-year, US$5.6-million contract extension on Wednesday. Financial terms were not disclosed.

If they happen to edit this page later on in the day, rest assured this was the article's actual sub-heading.

Update - Not sure when it happened, but some savvy tsn'er has fixed the problem. At least someone over there has a measure of reading comprehension.

Flames at the Quarter Pole

Just over the 25% mark and the Flames have as many questions as they have answers. Inconsistency, terrible special teams and non-existant secondary/teritiay scoring is the bad news. The good news is the big guns are actually getting points, Kipper is a league leader again and the Dome is still a tough place to visit.


And now the bullets.

• Like last year, Calgary started out poorly, only to right the ship in November. Unforunately, the Flames have fallen back to .500 recently thanks to their inability to play anything resembling decent hockey on the road. With the latest 1-3-0 skid, Calgary is once again in the basement looking up at their divisional rivals. In order to climb back into contention, the Flames will have to figure out how to ratchet up their special teams play to at least middling levels on the road. In their 3 most recent defeats, Calgary has allowed 5 goals against on 14 penalty kills. In contrast, the Flames only scored 1 PP goal during those 3 games in 15 opportunities. The resultant PK and PP rates, 64% and 7% respectively, go a long way to explaining the Flames road issues. Consider that in their last 3 wins (all at home), Calgary scored 5 PPG on 16 chances (31%) and allowed only 1 PPG against on 13 opposition opportunities (92%). It's like mensa at home and Earnest on the road. If the Flames can strike a balance between the two, while continuing their strong ES play, they'll be a very good hockey club. For now, they are a very mediocre one.
  
  
• Like the shoddy away play, a consipicuous lack of scoring from the supporting cast is another malingering issue from last season. Combined, the 6 players that make up the 3rd and 4th units (Byron Ritchie, Jamie Lundmark, Darren McCarty, Marcus Nilson, Jeff Friesen and Tony Amonte) only have 8 goals - 5 of which are from Amonte. That's less than Kristian Huselius. The total of their summed points (21) is less than Jarome Iginla's point total. And he's not even in the top 20 in league scoring. Granted, a number of these guys don't get much of a chance to play - McCarty has averaged 5:35 in his 19 GP - but one has to expect the bottom liners to contribute at least occassionally. If they can't score at least sometimes (or worse, can't even play enough to make any kind of difference), it's time to waive, trade or bring up a rookie.
  
  
• On the sunnier side of the picture, Jarome Iginla and Miika Kiprusoff have been the team's undisputed stars. Kipper is currently 4th in the league in terms of GAA, 2nd in SV%. For his part, Iginla is on pace for a 41 goal, 89 point season. A significant improvement over his 60 odd point campaign last year. At least part of the reason for Iginla's resurgance is the presence of Alex Tanguay, who has only recently started to find his groove in Calgary colors. Over the last 8 games he has 1 goal and 10 assists.
  
  
• Not that it's just the first liners scoring. Matthew Lombardi is this season's most pleasant surprise. He currently has 7 goals and 16 points and is a team best +13. Also, Kristian Huselius is probably the hottest Calgary forward currently - over the last 7 contests, he's managed 6 goals and 8 points.

To wrap-up, I'll include the Flames current ESP/60 stats.


They basically show what I've been saying: the top end players are carrying the weight offense-wise while the bottom enders (and the defensemen) are basically useless at producing at ES. Notice in particular Jeff Friesen's appalling figure. One point six million tears should be shed for his contract.

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Tonight Calgary takes on divisional rival Colorado. Thanks to a pre-november bet, yours truly will win $50 if the Flames lose (I bet on a 6-4-3, 15 point record for the month). Therefore, expect an absurd blow-out in the Flames favor. Their strength at home and my inability to catch a break in these sorts of circumstances virtually guarantees a Calgary victory...

Flames 7, Avs 2. Iginla, Tanguay (2), Lombardi, Huselius, Regehr and *snicker* Friesen with the goals. Brunette and Wolski for the Avs.

Go Flames!

Road Woes

After last nights loss to what is destined to be a non-play-off club, it's become quite clear that the Flames are just a bad, bad team away from the 'Dome.

"On the Road Again" is not a song you'll hear in this teams dressing room.

Calgary was a game below .500 on the road last year if I remember correctly. And they still won their division. I wrote literally thousands of words last season bemoaning the Flame's Jekyll and Hyde tendencies. And now here we go again this season. World beaters at home. Apathetic push-overs on the road. Calgary's special teams are losing them games - when they're the visitng team. I haven't crunched the numbers, but you can bet the Flames would have at least median PP & PK numbers if their away performances were anything like their home ones...

which is naturally the most frustrating part. The Flames obviously have the ability to get the job done - but simply can't seem to put the pieces together when staying in hotels.

Not that any of this is a mystery to the players. Only 21 games into his Calgary career, Alex Tanguay has already noticed the marked difference between Home Flames and Away Flames:

"It seems like we play a different game on the road, so we need to sharpen up and play the same way we play at home. We know if you don't work hard, you're not going to play in their zone very often. And in the third period, we didn't work as hard as we needed to."

Course, knowing about a problem and doing something about it are two different things.

And the task doesn't get any easier tonight. Calgary is facing the WC leading Anaheim Ducks, who are a mighty 11-1-4 at the Pond (or whatever it's called these days) so far. Not the best place to visit when your road record is 3-6-2. The only good news for Flames fans is that Calgary tends to play better in the 2nd game of back-to-backs for some reason. They beat St. Louis on the road after losing to Columbus in overtime the night before and recently beat up on Chicago after suffering a loss to Edmonton 24 hours earlier. Tonight I guess we'll see which pattern will win out: 2nd night winners or Domesick losers.

Visit Sleek for a view from the other side.

East and West Disparities

I looked over the scoring stats and was somewhat surprised to see that despite having the best start of his career, Jarome Iginla is only 25th in league scoring. Then I took a closer look and noticed that 20 of the top 25 point getters are from the Eastern conference. Twenty! The first WC representative to appear in the list is Patrick Marleau at spot #11 with 27 points. Below him is Teemu Selanne at #12, Joe Thornton at #16, Chris Proner at #22 and then Iggy at #25. The rest are EC players.

On the flip side, team GA stats are primarily dominated by WC teams. The top GA/G clubs are Dallas, Detroit, Calgary, Anaheim and San Jose in that order. New Jersey and Montreal are the only two EC teams to crack the top ten in terms of GA/G. A number of strong EC conference teams share the latter half of the GA/G list (BUF, TOR, ATL, NYR, CAR) with WC bottom-feeders (CHI, CBJ, LAK, STL and PHX).

The goaltending stats are similarly skewed. Only 3 EC goalies crack the top ten in terms of GAA average and two of them (Huet and Emery) have played less than 14 games. WC represntatives include Hasek, Kipper, Giguere, Turco and Roloson...and they've all played the bulk of the minutes for their teams thus far.

So it seems one side of the league has opted for an all-out attack strategy while the other has decided to stick with a stout defensive one. There has always been a slight difference between conferences in the past, but I don't remember it ever being this marked before. I mean, Iginla is among the top 5 WC scorers but doesn't even crack the leagues top 20. It makes one wonder just how many points he would accrue on a team like Buffalo or Carolina...

Im at loss to describe precisely why the two conferences differ so much. Is the WC's asshole tightening in response to the Flames success over the two seasons? It certainly seems like clubs such as Detroit, Dallas and Vancouver have moved closer to a Calgary brand of hockey this season. All three are apparently sold on the "win through strong goaltending and team defense" mindset. Build from the back-end out. Even the Oilers are exceling at the "d" part of the game over the "o" thus far.

So is there simply an imbalance in the league? More scorers in the east, better goalies in the west? Or is it coaching and strategy that is causing this polarization? Hard to say. I think I'll leave it to more astute observers like Tyler Dellow and Tom Benjamin to sort it out though.

Uhhhh...

If you're bored and into male homoerotic fiction starring known hockey players go here. Make sure to check out the "comments" section.

Shudder.

The Skirmish of Alberta Summary

What a listless affair. "Battle of Alberta" is a misnomer when it comes to last night's effort. "minor dust-up" of Alberta, perhaps. "Polite disagreement", but certainly not "battle". Both teams seemed to be playing to lose. Edmonton spent most of the contest trying to give the game to Calgary while the Flames spent it civilly declining the offer. Zero fights, or even pushing-matches after whistles, a few frantic puck-battles and lots of mistakes at either end. Blech. You're bound to see a couple of stinkers during an 82 game season, but I never thought an Edmonton/Calgary clash would be one of them. Disappointing.

Speaking of disappointing, could there have been a more ignoble end to the Flames 5+ game ES shut-out streak? Kipper flubs a shot resulting in a big rebound and his teammates stand dumbly around (or skate away...which I'll get to later) while a rival scores the GWG. Pathetic. It's one thing to be outdone by a highight reel end-to-ender or a slick tic-tac-toe passing play. But witnessing the streak end in such a fashion was like discovering your most favorit-ist and most respected celebrity dead on the toilet with his pants around his ankles and a porn mag open on his knees...

Which leads in to my nominee for "scapegoat of the game": Tony Amonte. His was the penalty that lead to the 5on3 goal. And it was his baffling decision to skate away from the Hemsky rebound in the third and allow Sykora to score the game winner. If, like me, you were yelling at the screen "What the FUCKING HELL are you doing?" you probably woke up today still puzzling over what could have possibly been going through Tony's aged brain during that sequence. Following is my official "reasons for Amonte's bonehead gaffe" list:

• Some effects of advancing age include senility and incontinence. Take your pick.
• Since removing the mullet, he's been looking for new ways to anger and disgust people.
• He took "over" on the over/under for the game.
• Petr Sykora resembles a high-school crush that had rejected Tony in the past. The hurt and embarrassment came rushing back when he saw Sykora bearing down on the rebound and was forced to turn away.
• He got tired of people complimenting his play.

The only thing worse than Amonte last night was the Flames stinking powerplay. What a disaster. The Oiler PKers did a decent job of making life difficult for the Calgary PP units...but come on. Bobbled passes, lame shots, lost draws and fanning everywhere. Any defender not named "Phaneuf" was quite simply unable to get a shot through to the net. Any forward not named "Iginla" found actually handling the puck in the offensive zone a near impossible task.

Tanguay and Langkow both reverted to play that had annoyed me earlier this season: Langkow was worse than useless in the face-off dot and frequently buggered simple passes all night. Tanguay was frequently trying to force passes through multiple defenders resulting in give-aways. Not to mention part of me was secretly glad Zyuzin got injured half way through the game. He looked lost whenever he was on the ice.

Bright-spots? Lombardi was pretty strong for most of the contest, despite not getting on the scoresheet. So was Lundmark, who pushed the issue whenever he was on the ice. Huselius scored in his 4th straight game, although the goal was a gift. Chuck played a decent first period, but was definately lacking most of the SHAZAM! he displayed against Detroit.

Not much else to say. Calgary played well enough to lose. In fact, just after they had thrown away their 5th straight PP I turned to the girlfriend and said, "Calgary's going to lose. I bet you Edmonton scores some garbage goal with about 5 minutes left." Then I began humming "Coming in the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins. Just one of those games.

Luckily the Flames have a chance to redeem themselves almost immediately against the Blackhawks this evening. I honestly thought that Chicago would be the team to snap the November winning streak (as they did last year), but now that that's done with, Im hoping the Flames can get back to the excellent defense and at least semi-competent offense that characterized the 6 games previous to Tuesday night's crapfest.

Battle of Alberta v.5 (I think)

"Let's fight!"
"Them's fighten' words!"
(fight ensues)

Yet another chapter will be written tonight in the never ending struggle for Alberta supremacy. The Oil have somehow managed to win 3 straight, with the mulleted man-o-the-crease Ryan Smyth leading the way (he's currently on pace to score 57 goals). Roloson has been better than solid for Edmonton thus far this year; he's currently 4th in league in terms of SV% with .923. Only Toskala, Kipper and Emery are ahead of him.

The Flames are riding a 6 game high, largely on the backs of Tanguay (8 points in 4 games), Iginla (10 points in 7 games), Huselius (4 goals, 5 points in 5 games) and, naturally, Miikka (1.00 GAA over 6 games).

Stats and such:

The two teams have pretty similar GPG figures: Edmonton is currently scoring at a rate of 2.90 (16th) goals per game while Calgary is averaging around 2.78 goals per contest (18th). The Greasers have managed eight more goals at ES (38-30) than the Flames, but have played 2 more games. As far as GA are concerned, Edmonton has surrendered as much as they've scored at ES (39), while the Flames are a league low 15. The Oil have the superior PP (15.2% vs 14.3%) and PK (90.1% vs 80.4%).

Which means:

• The Flames will try to play as much as possible at 5on5. While Calgary's special teams numbers are slightly skewed by their terrible start to the year, their overriding strength is still their ES play. Considering the Oilers are currently a -1 at ES compared to the Flames +15, a special teams-less match will almost certainly result in (another) Calgary victory.
• Shutting down Smyth and Sykora will also be a priority tonight. Smyth is the reigning King of tips and screens in the NHL. Warrener, Regehr and Phaneuf will be intrumental in keeping his ass out of Kippers face most of the night. Staying out of the box will go a long way in accomplishing this goal.
• Sykora is Edmonton's 2nd leading scorer and more of a high-slot sniper. shot-blocking and beating up on his setup man, Ales Hemsky, will make containing Sykora a lot easier.

Misc:

Visit Mudcrutch, Covered In Oil and Irreverent Oil Fans for a view from the other side. Expect cracks about how Calgary only wins because of Kipper mixed with mentions of 5 stanley cups and probably a few cheapshots regarding "boring Flames style hockey". You may also see complaining about the Oilers powerplay amongst other signs of insecurity. Grabia has another pregame post up over at Battle of Alberta. Stay away if you dislike mangled Shakespearian rhymes.

Prediction:

Flames 4, Stinktown Greaseballs 2. Iginla(2), Huselius(1) and Amonte(1) round out the scoring for Calgary. Winchester and Broken Stick for the Oil.

That's just...wow.

Im on (blog-filling) fire today...

anyways, check out this post over at VCOP for an example of the out-right blind stupidity that lurks within the NHL office(s). There should be some kind of "Darwin Awards - Business and Marketing section" for stuff like this.

Hockey-Recap Gold

I mentioned Hockey-Recap (link over in sideboard) awhile ago around the time of it's onset. Recently some of the site's excellent features, such as the incredibly in-depth game-reports, were brought to my attention by Off-Wing Opinion.

This site is a veritable gold mine for poolies, stats-geeks and the morbidly attentive hockey fan. The game reports, for example, include a plethora of basic stats, as well as forward and defensive unit shift-charts. The latter is particularly useful for pool players - wanna know if that winger that's available plays on the fist line? How about his total ice, and how many "events" (goals scored for or against) occured while he was on? It's all there.

Another interesting hockey-recap contribution is the "impact" stat, which is basically a figure that establishes the effect each individual player had on a game. Goals, assists, face-off wins, blocked shots, hits and ice-time are among the factors that go into calculating the impact score. Good stuff! Make sure to check it out if you get the chance.

SHAZAM!

"When Billy Batson speaks the name of an ancient wizard,
he is magically transformed from boy to man
-- the world's mightiest mortal!"

If you're old enough or nerdy enough you probably remember the ill-conceived comic book "SHAZAM!". If you're unfamiliar, "SHAZAM!" was the "magical proclamation" Billy Baston (one of the umpteen Superman rip-offs created over the years) used to become "Captain Marvel" - which was basically Clark Kent with a lightning bolt on his chest (or bulging swimsuit as it were).

I was reminded of this campy old comic character by Chuck Kobasew on Friday night. To me, Charles seemed to have magically transformed from boy to man - from punching bag to pugnacious thug. I mean, he almost singlehandedly beat the Red Wings into submission. Besides his 2 assists, Kobasew co-lead the team in hits with 4 and was a constant offensive presence on the ice. I think it's safe to say Charles had the game of his life (including his hat-trick last year). I don't know whether it was a magic phrase, a twist of psychology or some steroid induced psychotic-rage that created the Charles of Friday night, but I liked it. A lot. Here's hoping Kobasew doesn't revert back to a his pre-Detroit self anytime soon.

Not that Kobasew had the only noteworthy performance of the evening. Both of Calgary's top two lines were constant threats to score. Huselius got his 4th goal in 5 games. The PP actually scored 3 times, capped by Phaneuf's sniper-like, top-corner shot in the 3rd period. Kipper was 40 seconds away from being unbeatable again and Regehr was plastering guys left and right. Overall, the triumph over the Red Wings was the most complete 60 minutes of hockey put in by the Flames to date...

Other accomplishments worth noting include Calgary's continued ES shut-out streak. I think the last team to score on the Flames at 5on5 was St. Louis way back when - and that was just as Regehr had stepped back onto the ice after serving 2 minutes. Which makes it more than 5 games and counting since any opposition has managed to score on Kipper at even-up. Five games! Consider that Anaheim, Dallas and Detroit were among the visitors to the Dome during that stretch. Talk about a reversal of fortunes since I wrote this Chicken Little post (Which was, ironically, the review of the last Flames/Red Wings game). After Detroit's loss to Edmonton, Calgary now sits first overall in terms of GA at ES and 4th overall in terms of total GA/G.

Whew. Imagine if the PK was up to snuff!

Personally, I can't wait for the next installment of the Battle of Alberta. Both teams seemed to have found their winning ways, so tomorrow's should be a titanic struggle. Considering Calgary's most recent performances, I like our chances. Especially if Kobasew can SHAZAM! his way back onto the scoresheet.

A Post For Hockeygirl

Enjoy...

(kudos to the anonymous creator...)

Caltroit Versus Deflames

Has anyone else noticed that the streaking Detroit Red Wings bear a striking resemblence to the streaking Calgary Flames?

In fact in many ways the two clubs are mirror images of each other:

• Detroit has allowed the fewest goals in the league at even-strength with 12. The Flames are second at 15.
• The Flames are averaging 2.71 GPG thus far this season (20th). The Red Wings are at 2.76 (18th).
• Calgary's PP sucks pretty badly (11.8%, 27th). The Red Wing's is the worst in the league (9.1%, 30th).
• Neither team excels with a man-down either. Calgary has managed to kill of about 80% of their penalties so far (25th), while Detroit is only slightly better than that (81.2%, 21st).

The similarities don't end there. Dominic Hasek is tied with Kiprusoff for the league lead in shut-outs (3). Both teams beat Vancouver 3-2 recently. Err...both wear red in their uniforms...

Course, there are some differences as well. Detroit excels at limiting shots against. The Flames have been less effective in that regard so far. This particular contrast is rooted in the dissimliar manner in which each team plays the game: Detroit is a puck possession hockey club. They spend a large portion of the game making the other team chase the puck around like tykes. If you watch the match tonight, you'll notice that there will be instances where Detroit doesn't even seem to be skating all that hard - and yet the Flames won't be able to get the puck away from them anyways. Smart, pin-point passing reigns in Detroit.

On the other hand, Calgary employs a high-tempo puck pursuit strategy. Low risk plays like dumping the puck in on the rush and rimming the puck along the boards on the break-out is how the Flames roll. In a pinch, Calgary players will neglect the middle of the ice because it's safer to play along the boards. Physical play, hard work and timely scoring built on a foundation of stout goaltending and defense are the keys to any Calgary victory.

So two winning streaks collide this evening. Two teams with polar opposite gameplans that have thus far rendered highly equitable results. Hard to predict who's going to win, though it's safe to say it'll be a low scoring affair. I guess whoever manages to get a PP goal will be the victor...

Go Flames!

The Canucks Suck

You know, I was all prepared to like the Vancouver Canucks this year. Well, as much as anyone can like a hated divisional rival.

I guess what I mean is I was prepared to despise them less. Largely due to the fact that Nonis ejected the 3 scumbags that drew the majority of my contempt: Jovo, Bertuzzi and Ruutu.


Jovo because, well...I think he's an asshole. He cheated as much as possible during the 03/04 series between the Flames and Canucks and then managed to whine childishly after their game 7 defeat. Something to the effect of:

"They won it on a horseshit call."

This after the refs missed blowing the play dead when a sweater was thrown onto the ice in the final minute of the game AND after Morrison slashed the stick out of Iginla's hands during the ensuing backcheck. Which of course resulted in Matt Cooke's tying goal. Not to mention the fact that Jovo purposely pushed Kiprusoff over during a Canuck powerplay in an earleir game, paving the way for a Naslund goal (and a Canuck victory). This guy had the gall to point a finger at the officials. As if complaining about the reffing after a loss wasn't poor enough.

Then there's that cheap punk Ruutu. Hammers tiny guys like Ritchie during preseason games, trips and goads everyone else and yet runs and turtles at every opportunity.

The inclusion of Bertuzzi is self-explanatory.

So with the expulsion of the above corruption I supposed I could go back to merely disliking Vancouver in the typical obligatory fashion...Until recently.

You see, Vancouver is mired in a losing streak. And with the losing has come the foot-stomping and the sniveling: not by a fringe player or green rookie either. By their supposed captain:

''After Iginla's goal, we had a lot of chances to get that third one but they ended up tying it up on, in my mind, a really flukey goal.''

says Naslund after the recent loss to the Flames. That's right. Calgary's tic-tac-toe passing play that culminated in Warrener's tying goal was flukey. Somehow. I guess maybe he was confusing it with Salo's double-deflection-off-two-players PP marker.

Not that it ended there. Here's what Naslund had to say after the 3-2 stinger against Red Wings last night:

"I thought (Bulis' penalty) was a borderline call and that could have turned the game around [...]we don't get the breaks right now."

Boo-hoo-hoo. I guess scoring goals without tripping the opposing goalie is probably where you should start focusing your energy there Nazzy.

This is what passes for a Captain on the West Coast? No wonder these guys missed the play-offs last year. And probably will this year. As intangible and amorphous as qualities like "leadership" and "character" may be, one can soundly say Marcus Naslund possesses only negligible amounts of either of them. What a loser.

Sorry Vancouver. You're back on "the list".

Yay! We're Not Last!

Okay so we're winnning. Five in a row, after a terrible 4-7-2 start. Sorta Like last year. "Sorta" meaning "exactly".

Here's a thought - let's ride this seemingly inexorable wave of deja vu till the end of the season and then get off right after we win the division but before we lose out in the first round...deal? Deal.

If you can assume the existance of such an escape clause then there's lots to like in "Flames Country" right now. No one can score on Calgary at even strength. The goaltending is fantastic. And the fatter end of the payroll is starting to work together to produce picturesque scoring plays.

True, the special teams still languish in the league's cellar. But they'll come around eventually.

So good stuff all around. The worst part about last night - besides the infuriatingly frequent "Panago" ad that features some sweaty troglodyte standing stupidly in a field, wearing a gold hardhat, babbling at a Buffalo - was the play of Rhett Warrener. His typical "can't catch a slug in a glue-spill" skating ability was less than impressive. Plus he took three penalties in a row - lucky for him his third lead to Juice's fantastic SH roofer (The Flames 4th SH goal of the year so far).

At this point I'd say Warrener isn't much more valuable than Giordano (on the ice, at least), therefore making his $2.5 million/year salary (which stretches until 08/09) into a big, fat, leaden anchor of a contract. Expect him to be dealt for a prospect next summer at the latest.

It's a shame Lombardi didn't get on the scoresheet last night. He created no less than 2 shorthanded break-aways, one of which he still managed to get a shot away (despite being hooked on the play), and was generally effective everywhere on the ice. He drew penalties, killed penalties and played more at ES than the currently anointed #1 center, Langkow (who also played pretty well...I guess).

Oh! The Flames won more face-offs than they lost. Anyone got a "hell frozen over" graphic?

And one last bit of gloating...how about that SH-top-corner-shot by Huselius, hey HG? He's got 3 goals in his last 4 games as well...Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!


Next up - the Red (Hot) Wings

Onward

Maybe it was the immensely grating prattle of Greg Millen or maybe it was the fact that the Flames were playing like garbage (or perhaps a combination of the two). Whatever the cause, I was compelled to turn off the Calgary/Vancouver tilt in the middle of the second period.

Up to that point, the only things the Flames had managed to do was take penalties and then suck at killing them off. Few scoring chances to speak of, zero ability to make simple plays with the added disadvtange of having played the night before. I figured I'd save myself the pain of the inevitable defeat and watch a movie instead...

Imagine my chagrin when checking the scores later that night. D'oh!

If you subscribe to a sort of chaos theory in which everything is metaphysically and inextricably related, then perhaps my simple act of turning off the game somehow lead to the improbable Calgary comeback; like a butterfly's flight causing a hurricane. And, if so, then you all owe me a debt of gratitude. The player's too. And it's something I would gladly do in the future to evoke further Flame's victories.

Course, if my abandoning half-finished games in disgust was so powerful you no doubt would have seen Calgary best the Ducks in game 7 of the play-offs last year as well...

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16 games in and Calgary's back to an even 500. While a record of 7-7-2 hardly seemed palatable at the beginning of the season, it's certainly far more preferable to what Calgary was sitting at only two weeks ago.

The current turn-around has a lot to do with improved goaltending. After somewhat of a rocky start, Kiprusoff has worked his way back into the top 10 in the league in terms of GAA and SV%. Calgary's even-strength play has continued to be it's major strength thus far as well: in the last 5 games, Calgary has outscored the opposition 13-1 when 5on5 (plus 1 short-handed goal).

Which is pretty darn encouraging. A decent 5on5 goal differential is often a true measure of team's overall ability: one can reasonably expect the special teams to fall in line if the ES play is strong. So while the Flames pretty much stink on the PK and PP right now, I can honestly say I don't think that will remain true for the majority of the season. The Flames have the roster and the ability to bring those up to at least median levels of respectability. And, should their ES play remain as dominant, the wins will soon come tumbling after.

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Tonight the lowly Blues come a-callin'. St Louis has a 5-8-3 record over 16 games, which might actually be an improvement over last year's version of the same team, but is still hardly fearsome. The Blues have scored 1 less goal than the Flames over 16 contests, but have allowed 12 more. Not that St. Louis is totally feeble, however: they already have 6 players with 10 or more points including the much-maligned Jenny Craig patron Keith Tkachuk (16 points), the surprising sophomore Lee Stempniak (13 points) and ex-Oiler-Star Bill Guerin (13 Points). For those uber-poolies or straight-up stats geeks out there, this Stempniak kid is even more impressive considering his 9 ES points were gathered in only 165 minutes of ES ice. Meaning his production is right around 3.27 ESP/60. That's a pretty elite number considering that Jarome Iginla was leading the Flames with a 3.08 ESP/60 figure back around game #13. Course, one might well imagine that Stempniak isn't facing the toughest opposition most nights (no doubt reserved for the likes of Weight, Tkachuk and Guerin), but kudos to him for making the most of it so far. Definately someone to watch for in the future.

Guys to watch for on the Flames side of the ledger include Iginla, Lombardi and Tanguay. Iginla's excellent start to the season has been well documented by the mainstream media. No need to go any further into that.

On the other hand, Matthew Lombardi's impressive early play has gone by basically unnoticed. Lombo has 12 points in 16 games so far and is a team high +10. If you missed it, it was Lombardi's end-to-end rush that set-up Huselius' winnning marker aginst the Canucks on Saturday. He frequently looks dangerous breaking across the oppostion's blueline and has become rather proficient in his own end as well (as evidenced by his excellent +/- rating). Not to mention he's also Calgary's top penalty-killing forward in terms of ice-time currently. Huzzah!

Further, Alex Tanguay certainly looks like he's turned a corner. He's got 4 points in his last two contests, including the incredibly slick feed that set-up Warrener's game tying goal on Sunday. Slowly but surely Tanguay's becoming more comfortable and thus greater offensive threat every game.

With all that in mind, it'd be nice to see Calgary score a PP goal tonight. It's becoming more and more difficult to even remember what that feels like anymore. Killing the majority of penalties they take sure would be swell too. It's all just sugar coating if they manage to win the game, but it would no doubt be an easier win if they could somehow muster one or both of the aforementioned feats...

Anyways, prediction time. 4-2 Flames - Phaneuf (PP), Lundmark, Lombardi and Huselius with the goals.

Go Flames!

Flight of the Mallards

That odd and unfamiliar you noise you might hear coming from up North tonight may be the sound of Oiler fans actually cheering for the Flames.

Spite will be their driving motivator, you understand. Spite and Schadenfreude.

Course, Oil fans haven't been given much to savour in terms of the latter sentiment so far this year: the Pronger lead Ducks broke an NHL record last night by beating the Canucks and gathering a point in their 16th straight game. Further, Pronger himself is enjoying a career season with 15 points in 16 games and a rating of +12. Oh what a bitter pill!

The Traitor's not the only thing the Flames have to worry about tonight, though. The Ducks have been successful so far because they're good at just about everything. They have the 2nd best win percentage in the league (.875), 3rd best Goals for average (3.56), 3rd best GA average (2.00) and the fourth best powerplay AND penalty kill. They are +15 at even-strength (37 goals for, 22 against) and a staggering +25 overall (57 goals for, 32 against).

What this means for Calgary tonight is they will have to play a complete game at both ends in order to compete. If the PP fails again or if the PK falls on hard times once more, the Ducks will undoubtedly be adding to their record setting start to the season. Im not too worried about the Flames at ES - that's been the clubs strength thus far - but the other areas have been inconsistent at best and downright crappy at worst. The good news is, Calgary has been steadily improving over the last week or so. Not to mention the Quackers will be playing for the second time in two nights; let's hope they used up all their mojo on the West Coast last night. Plus...well...Anaheim has to lose at some point. Right Edmonton fans?

Tanguay Injury News

According to TSN, Tanguay is suffering from a pinched nerve in his neck. Lucikly it doesn't sound too severe meaning it's possible he's going to play against Anaheim on Friday (yay!).

Back on Track. Kinda.

The Flames took advantage of a tired Dallas team to get the victory last night.

To a degree, anyways.

Calgary further improved on a bunch of stuff in yesterday's game: they won the majority of face-offs for a change and their PK was a second away from being flawless. They lead in the hits department and Kipper was the best goalie on the ice.

On the other hand, some of the weaknesses that have been apparent since day one were still quite obviously in attendence: a terrible, terrible powerplay and an easily stuffed break-out. The result of the two was the inabilty to generate more shots than the opposition, another affliction suffered by this club more often than not thus far this season.

I won't rain on the parade any further, however. This win was quite obviously a step in the right direction. The Flames are slowly but surely shoring up their deficiencies while maintaining their strengths. Im not sure that the Calgary break-out will ever improve much (it's been the same the last few years - rim the puck along the boards. Ugh), but one more goal a night out of the PP would do wonders for the Flame's record, no doubt. Consider that Calgary has allowed the 2nd least amount of goals in the league at even strength. If the PK is indeed back on track, Calgary would easily get back into the black in terms of total goal differential if they had any sort of PP worth talking about. And a positive goal differential always = wins.

Positives:

- Tony Amonte. Probably his best game as a Flame. Tireless penalty killer and actually looked dangerous in the offensive zone. All this after I've been ripping into him around here for the last few weeks.

- Roman Hamrlik. He's enjoyed a renaissance since being re-teamed with Phaneuf. Is currently the Flames #1 defenseman.

- Jarome Iginla. Takes draws, kills penalties, sets up teammates on the PP. There's nothing that Jarome currently isn't doing well.

- Andrew Ference. Big fight and a relatively error free evening. Lord I hope he keeps it up.

- Miika Kiprusoff. Although the team played well, Kipper is probably the reason they won the game.

Negatives:

- The PP. 0 for 7 and only 2 shots on goal. Laughable.

- The break-out. I've concluded that the Flames break-out is one of the worst in the league. It's the primary reason the Flames get hemmed in their own end for long sequences. More direct tape to tape passes and something besides rimming the puck to a winger standing still on the half-boards is required.

- Only 17 shots on goal. The Flames actually generated a decent amount of scoring chances, but ended up either making one too many passes or hitting the post most of the time.

- Injury woes. Here we go. With Zyuzin, Friesen and Yelle already on the shelf, messiah-turned-scapegoat Alex Tanguay hurts his shoulder delivering a hit. No word on the extent of the injury yet.

Next up - the mighty (in nature if not by name) Ducks.

Dallas Game Preview

The surprising 11-3-0 Dallas Stars are the opposition tonight. Riding on the back of stellar penalty-killing, other-worldly goaltending and relatively soft opposition, the Stars have leaped out to their best start in franchise victory.

As good as their record looks, I personally think the great start by the Stars is somewhat illusory: of their 11 wins, 6 have come at the expense of the LA Kings (3), the Coyotes, Blackhawks and the Blues and one came at the official-caused victimization of the Oilers. The Stars 3 losses came against the Sharks, the Red Wings and Vancouver last night. Hmmm...

Also, as mentioned, Dallas has benefitted from some ridiculously good goaltending from both puckstoppers so far. "Ridiculously" as in "unsustainably" good. In 11 games so far, Marty Turco has a 0.931 SP and a 1.99 GAA. His freshman back-up, Mike Smith, has managed even better firgures in 3 contests: 0.951 SP and 1.31 GAA. Impressive. So impressive one can't resonably expect it to continue in that vein indefinately. Not that Turco isn't a fine goalie and all - his career numbers are pretty impressive and he's a perrenial league leader in terms of goalie stats. But even Kipper, who won the Vezina and Jennings trophies last year, only managed a 2.07 GAA and 0.923 SP over the course of last season.

So expect Turco's (and Smith's) number to take a bit of a dive, eventually. Especially when Dallas starts playing some stiffer competition on a more consistent basis.

As for the Flames, they're looking to win two in a row for the first time this season. Calgary probably would be on a bit of streak had they received NHL caliber goaltending in Columbus, but...that's the way it goes when you're struggling. Thankfully, the last two contests have featured some positives for the first time in a few weeks. I didn't get to see the game against the Blues, but the team finally looked something akin to what I expected from them this season against the BJs...

Course, Calgary is still really bad on the PK. Columbus scored all 4 goals with the man advantage and both of St. Louis' markers came on the PP as well (basically). The Flames are currently 26th in the league in terms of penalty-killing with the likes of Washington, St. Louis, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia ahead of them. What this means to me is Calgary cannot possibly continue to be this bad one man down. A defense-first philosophy with a strong blueline and the best goalie in the league should eventually equate to a strong PK. It'll help once Stephane Yelle returns as well.

Overall, if Calgary can continue to improve, most notably by addressing their special teams issues, it should be a pretty competitive contest tonight. However, if Turco continues to play godlike and if the Star's dominate the PK and PP, expect another mark in the loss column come tomorrow morning.

Go Flames!

Preliminary Stats Analysis

So the Flames have stumbled out to a very familiar looking 4-7-2 record to open the season.

With 13 games in the bag I figured it was time to start breaking out a few "basic plus" stats for the club. While 13 games is a spit in the bucket in terms of sample size, the number will give us a bit of an indication about who's been doing what so far:


Above is the raw data - goals, assists, games played and ice-time.


The resultant ESP/60 numbers are actually pretty encouraging. Last year, the only Flames who were able to break the 2.00 threshold were Lundmark and Leclerc - largely because they spent the bulk of the season with another team. Lombardi and Iginla were the best of the regular Flames players with 1.91 and 1.80 marks respectively.

As you can see, Lombo and Iginla have started out with even stronger figures this year. In addition, Langow has a decent ESP/60 number while Alex Tanguay has thus far struggled. If (or, rather, when) Alex shakes off his slump, one can safely assume he will get closer to his team leading number of 3.15 from last year. Further, a resurgent Tanguay will no doubt assist Koabsew in improving his rather lackluster ES point production as well (assuming that line remains intact).

The bad news is only the primary guys for Calgary are contributing at all at even strength. Nilson, Huselius, Friesen and Amonte have thus far been pretty much useless at producing 5on5. Hell, even Rhett Warrener has been more efficient at ES production than Friesen and Amonte! Ouch. There's $3.4 million well spent.


The PPP/60 numbers are rather skewed and therefore diffcult to interpret. No one on the Flames has anything near an elite-level number besides Lundmark, Lombardi and Kobasew and that's thanks more to a miniscule sample size than anything else (Lundmark has 2 assists in 15 minutes of PP ice-time, for example). Not that I wouldn't like to see a bit more of Lundmark on the PP mind you...

Dion Phaneuf is right on par with his 4.54 number from last year. No complaints there. However, Damond Langkow (05/06 - 4.94), Jarome Iginla (05/06 - 4.21) and Kristian Huselius are all behind the previous season's figures.

Huselius in particular has been a disappointment. He lead the Flames last year in terms of PP efficiency with 5.54 points per 60 minutes of ice-time. This season so far he's at the bottom of the barrel among PP regulars with 2.26. Ugh.

Not that Jarome's been much better. Calgary's PP struggles are pretty clearly reflected by the fact that the team leaders in terms of points and ice-time are putting up 3rd-liner type production averages on the PP. I wonder how many more wins the Flames could have squeezed out of their first 13 games if guys like Iginla and Huselius were generating points at some sort of decent rate with the man-advantage...

Anyways, as mentioned, it's still very early. A slump here or point streak there for just about any player mentioned would probably alter the included indexes significantly. However, one of the few potentially encouraging trends that can be taken from the above is the fact that the Flames are indeed scoring at ES - which was their major weakness last season. And that's despite the struggles of Alex Tanguay. The challenge facing the Flames now is to get their specialty teams in order. If they can continue to generate points at ES while improving their PK goal prevention and/or their PP production (to even middling levels), they should certainly start winning a few more contests.

Opportunity or Anchor?

Amidst swirling trade rumors regarding Roman Hamrlik and the Philadelphia Flyers, it looks like the Flames are going to try swtiching up their d-pairings for tonight's match against the BJ's.

Phaneuf will be re-united with Hammer while Warrener will move up with Regehr, leaving Zyuzin and Ference as the third pairing.

My guess is Warrener and Regehr will be the "shut-down" duo this evening, although with Warrener struggling so badly Im not sure how well that will work out. It will also be interesting to see if Zyuzin will be able to effectively clean up Ference's miscues. Oh well. Anything's worth a shot at this point.

The forward line are litte bit more up in the air. Prust and Boyd remain with the team, despite being primarily non-factors last game. I personally hope Lundmark is re-inserted into the line-up, though Im not holding my breath. I would also like to see one of Prust or Ritchie playing instead of the affable Darren McCarty. Likable he is. Effective he ain't.

As far as the top two lines are concerned, Im praying for Juice/Langow/Iginla and Tanguay/Lombardi/Kobasew combinations. Only because it's remotely possible that Playfair may come up with these lines. If I was the coach (and, let's face it, I should be), Tanguay/Lombardi/Iginla would be my top unit with Juice/Langkow/Kobasew coming in second. This set-up rewards Lombo for his stellar play so far this season and increases his ice time. Which is a good thing considering Lombardi has as many ES points as Langkow does (5) despite playing nearly 30 minutes less than him at 5on5 through the first 11 games (even though Langkow more frequently plays with superior quality linemates). That adds up to Lombo being the better player in my books. And that's not even taking into account the fact that Langkow's face-off win percentage and +/- rating are significantly worse than Matthew's...

For those interested, Matt has other thoughts about the Lombardi topic over at BofA.

Anyhoo, coach critiquing aside, this evenings match represents a golden opportunity for the Flames to pick themselves up. Columbus is struggling as much the Flames: in fact, they're one of the few teams that actually scores less than Calgary does, and offense is supposed to be their organizational strength. Nash, Federov, Carter and Zherdev are all mired in minor scoring slumps and the Blue Jackets back-end is hardly anything to fear once you get past Foote and Klesla.

So, as mentioned, Columbus is an opponent ripe for the picking. Course, that's probably what they're saying about the Flames. One way or the other, though, a losing streak is going to end tonight. And I really, REALLY hope it's ours.

This Ship's Sinking

Things are looking grim.

It's not just that the Flames are losing. It's that they are playing so pitifully in the process. Amidst a soul-sucking losing streak and coming off an embarrassing loss to a basement dweller at home, the best Calgary could muster against the Red Wings was 15 shots.

Fifteen! To put that in perspective, Marian Hossa had 16 shots in Atlanta's game last night. A single player had more shots than our entire team.

There isn't a positive left to dwell upon. There doesn't seem to be a shred of life or dignity in the Flames dressing room right now. On the ice the team looks defeated and lost. On the bench, the coaching staff is grossly mismanaging the players, if only because they're desperate to find a solution.

Grossly mismanaging. There, I said it.

It started before the game. Playfair removed Jamie Lundmark from the line-up - one of the few centers that was actually winning draws and creating anything out there - and left a totally useless Darren McCarty in. The result? The Flames once again struggled in the face-off circle and McCarty did little more than take penalties.

During the contest, Matthew Lombardi, the second leading scorer on the team and top +/- player, played a mere 4 minutes at even strength over the first two periods. Four minutes! Meanwhile, Dustin Boyd was drawing shifts with Tanguay and Iginla. W! T! F! That's just plain goddamn DUMB. Unless you missed it, Jim, Friesen was the one who committed the turn-over that lead to the Wings first goal. Also, Lombardi's been one of your best players all year.

And, like Sutter before him, Playfair spent the entire evening fruitlessly juggling line combinations to no avail. Literally every shift there was a new trio of players. Ridiculous. Like a 40 second shift is enough to determine whether a given troika is going to mesh or not. Fuck.

Everywhere you look with the Flames there is ineptitude. The forecheck is flacid. The systems are bland and stagnant. The players almost never win puck battles. Stupid penalties abound each game (the Flames took 3 penalties in the last 10 minutes of the game last night while trailing- tripping, hooking, hooking). Even Kipper looks frustrated with this team. And he's a pretty stoic individual.

Im at a loss to explain it at this point. It could be the players have finally tuned out the defense-first philosophy of the current management regime. And, if that's true, there isn't a player demotion, promotion or trade that's going to right this ship.

Google Video Hosting Entire Games

Thanks to this Mirtle post at the new "globe on hockey", I've discovered this interesting google video service that allows you to watch whole Flames games on your computer (apparently it'll be free for a short period of time...). This will be especially beneficial for you out-of-towners that maybe don't have access to sportsnet west and the like.

Now everyone can see what Im complaining about (or, at least, will have the ammo to argue with me).

The Airing of Grievances...

As some other more timely and astute bloggers have already pointed out, the Flames recently recalled Omaha stand-outs Dustin Boyd and Brandon Prust for tonight's match against the Red Wings.

Boyd will no doubt be placed among the top 6 forwards tonight. Whether due to someone like Kobasew sitting out or Langkow/Lombardi moving down the depth chart is yet to be determined. Boyd was tested with Iginla and Tanguay during the preseason and his 4 goals and 13 points in the AHL thus far are further proof of his offensive prowess.

On the other hand, Prust will be asked to assume a 4th liner/energy-player type role. Im guessing the perpetually injured and slow-of-foot Darren McCarty will be getting the boot in favor of Prust.

Course, not that there isn't a vast list of underachievers management could choose to replace. Here's my nominations for the "not-good-enough" player so far this year:

1.) Alex Tanguay. Yeah I started off with the no brainer. Tanguay has looked...mostly confused so far. His bad passes far outweigh his good ones and he's only collected 5 points in 10 games. There have been a precious few flashes of his offensive skill - his goal against Boston for instance - but, more often than not, Tanguay has been a non-factor.

2.) Damond Langkow. Points-wise, Langkow is off to a decent start. That's where the "decent" part ends, however. Langkow has been worse than average in his own end and his face-off performance has been outright embarrassing. That guy being out-muscled by Chris Clarke in front of the Flames empty-net on Monday? That was Langkow. How about his attrocious give-away against Montreal that lead to Radek Bonk's second goal? And nothing sums up the Flames season (thus far) better than Langkow being robbed of a tap-in by Vesa Toskala and then smashing his $200 composite stick to bits on the cross-bar. At this point, I consider both Lombardi and Iginla better options for the #1 center position.

3.) Tony Amonte. He skates fast and he works hard but he just doesn't get anything accomplished. I nearly punched the TV on Monday night when Amonte flubbed yet another prime scoring chance by fanning on the puck. If Tony doesn't turn things around soon and become at least a minor offensive threat I think it would be prudent to replace him with a younger, cheaper 3rd line checking type player.

4.) Andrew Ference. Still makes some of the dumbest mistakes on the ice. Nothing new here.

5.) Chuck Kobasew. Charles has thus far done little to persuade the coaching staff he's deserving of top line minutes. Kobasew is still a "hot-or-not" commodity: he'll look great for a game or two and then totally disappear for 3 more after that. Also, he still tends to get run over by the opposing defensemen a lot. I would hazard a guess that this is Chuck's last kick at the cat here in Calgary. If he doesn't prove to be a genuine top 6 forward by the trade deadline, expect him to be dealt to Carolina for a roster player and a draft pick.

6.) Rhett Warrener. Maybe he's just getting over his knee injury or maybe he's just too damn slow. Whatever it is, Warrener has looked very much like a 6th (or 8th) defenseman this year. His much ballyhooed leadership abilities have been worth about as much as a wooden nickel in a brothel: the Flames struggle in 1 goal games, frequently give up goals in the last minutes of periods and are almost always flat at the onset of each contest. Right now, I'd consider Mark Giordano a better option for Warrener's position: younger, faster and more of an offensive threat.

7.) Jeff Friesen. Lots of folks like what Friesen has done so far. And what he's done is get 1 assist in 10 games. He doesn't even look as fast as Donovan out there and his penalty killing is adequate but hadly stellar. $1.6 million that could have been better spent elsewhere (consider that Amonte and Friesen's combined 3 points and -3 rating are worth $3.4 million in cap space. Hmmm).

8.) Darren McCarty. Ol' Grinder just doesn't have the will or the wheels to provide that spark anymore. He's been reduced to 5 minute/game heavy-weight punching-bag fodder. Im guessing he will be permanently replaced in the starting line-up once Nystrom's shoulder heals. I hope he likes the view from the press-box.

This is, as I see it, the worst of the worst. Those left off the list have mostly been merely "average" with the possible exception of Jarome Iginla, Matthew Lombardi and pre-flu Dion Phaneuf. Probably two of the above will sub-out tonight for Boyd or Prust, but the long-term health of this club will be predicated upon those listed vastly improving their play. The farm-hand motivational ploy may work for now, but the Flames will eventually need their established veterans to contribute appropriately in order to succeed this season.