I've been tagged by PB over at One Fan's Perspective (and HG from Double Dion it seems), so I guess I should respond. The current meme doing the rounds is entitled "If I Were a Hockey Player". Here goes!
If I Were a Hockey Player:
Team: Calgary Flames
Uniform #: 18
Position: Center
Nickname: Smartass/Marty McFly
Dream Linemates: Theo Fleury, Martin St. Louis
PP line: Andrei Nazarov, Rene Corbet. I figure a 5 forward PP with these guys would be deadly enough to assuage any SH goals against.
Job: Alternatively launch myself, projectile-like, at opposition defenders. Not to hurt, merely to distract.
Signature Move: An incisive observation humorously phrased and delivered with impeccable timing.
Strengths: An unwavering commitment to point out the faults of the other players on the ice.
Weaknesses: Is Arrogance a weakness?
Injury Problems: Dental issues owing to many, many punches to the mouth.
Equipment: A full facial shield thanks to the above.
Nemesis: Keith Tkachuk. He's eaten bigger things than me in one sitting no doubt.
Scandal Involvement: Seedy pictures of myself in a supermodel sandwich would be leaked to a morbidly curious, but scandalized public. Later it would be discovered that the photos were fabricated. By me.
Who I'd Face in the Cup Finals: The Leafs. Sweep the leafs!
What I'd do With the Cup After the Victory: Doesn't matter. I wouldn't remember any of it the next day.
Would the Media Love Me or Hate Me?: Hate me, no doubt. Because I would probably hate them. Especially Al Strachan.
Tag--> Matt from Battle of Alberta (if he hasn't been tagged already), Chris! From Covered in Oil (assuming he stumbles upon this blog at some point) Kyle from the Real Deal and, if she feels like it, walkinvisible.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Okay...Im the New Guy
Cantaloupe, did you make this? It popped up at Calgarypuck.com under this link.
If so, then kudos to you. If not, then I don't understand how it's part of your private site there. And also kudos to the anonymous creator.
If so, then kudos to you. If not, then I don't understand how it's part of your private site there. And also kudos to the anonymous creator.
A Most Excellent Homecoming. Sort of.
The Flames served up a mixed bag full of good and awful yesterday in their victory over the LA Kings.
The Good:
The emotional return of Craig Conroy could only have been better if Iginla was on the ice with him. Conroy played close to 20 minutes, scored 2 goals and was a +2 on the evening. While I don't think his relative "explosion" of offense should set expectations for the rest of the season, it's nice to see that Conroy is still capable of contributing.
Miikka Kiprusoff was amazing (again) and probably the primary reason the Flames won. In the last 4 games, he's only allowed 6 goals.
Alex Tanguay and Kristian Huselius. Both of these guys continue to step forward in the absence of Iginla. Calgary almost always looked like a threat to score when one of Tanguay or Juice was on the ice last night. Tangs now has 5 points in his last 2 games while Huselius extended his point scoring streak to 10 games.
David Moss, the no-name mid-season call-up, is filling in adequately in a top 6 role while Kobasew and Iginla are sidelined. And "adequate" for a fresh faced AHL'er is "admirable". Another 2 points for the rookie, including the game winning tip-in.
Dion Phaneuf and Roman Hamrlik. What can I say? Both guys are looking pretty damn solid back there. In addition, Dion keeps racking up points. He's currently on pace for a 57 point sophomore season.
First team to 20 home wins this season. The victory also tied the Flames with the scummy Vancouver Canucks for 1st place in the NW Division.
The Awful:
Despite the win, the Flames looked decidedly lackluster for at least half of the game. After dominating the Kings for the first 30 minutes, Calgary sat back and watched their opponents scratch and claw their way back into the contest. Had the Flames had anyone besides Kipper in net (or Brodeur or Luongo) the game may not have ended in Calgary's favor.
Still some supporting cast issues. Granted, Calgary is kinda thin up front with the injuries to Kobasew, Iginla and now Langkow, but it's starting to look nigh impossible to get consistent quality minutes from guys like Nilson. And while it's nice to have him around for certain situations, it's plain as the nose on Ricci's face that Godard can't do much besides fight.
On a related issue, Matthew Lombardi is going through his toughest stretch of the season. He took turns being either ineffectual or just downright bad last night. While Lombo is most certainly struggling, it bothered me that he garnered absolutely no PK time against the Kings, despite being the most dangerous Flame while down a man thus far this season. Conroy's back, he played well and that's great. But Lombardi has proven that he can be a productive top 6 player to this team and is an essential component to the future of the Calgary Flames. I earnestly hope Playfair gives him the chance to play through his problems.
As mentioned, Langkow left in the second period with an as of yet undetermined "upper body" injury. Sucks to have another guy in the midst of a career season go down with injury. I guess the silver lining is the Conroy acquisition coudln't have been more perfectly timed.
Overall, great to get the win and see Conroy return with a bang. Crappy that the Flames can't seem to put in a full 60 minute effort right now though. And when's the last time we outshot anyone? Hopefully, as the team gets healthier, the efforts will become more consistent from start to finish...
Next up - Columbus (Iggy's Return??)
The Good:
The emotional return of Craig Conroy could only have been better if Iginla was on the ice with him. Conroy played close to 20 minutes, scored 2 goals and was a +2 on the evening. While I don't think his relative "explosion" of offense should set expectations for the rest of the season, it's nice to see that Conroy is still capable of contributing.
Miikka Kiprusoff was amazing (again) and probably the primary reason the Flames won. In the last 4 games, he's only allowed 6 goals.
Alex Tanguay and Kristian Huselius. Both of these guys continue to step forward in the absence of Iginla. Calgary almost always looked like a threat to score when one of Tanguay or Juice was on the ice last night. Tangs now has 5 points in his last 2 games while Huselius extended his point scoring streak to 10 games.
David Moss, the no-name mid-season call-up, is filling in adequately in a top 6 role while Kobasew and Iginla are sidelined. And "adequate" for a fresh faced AHL'er is "admirable". Another 2 points for the rookie, including the game winning tip-in.
Dion Phaneuf and Roman Hamrlik. What can I say? Both guys are looking pretty damn solid back there. In addition, Dion keeps racking up points. He's currently on pace for a 57 point sophomore season.
First team to 20 home wins this season. The victory also tied the Flames with the scummy Vancouver Canucks for 1st place in the NW Division.
The Awful:
Despite the win, the Flames looked decidedly lackluster for at least half of the game. After dominating the Kings for the first 30 minutes, Calgary sat back and watched their opponents scratch and claw their way back into the contest. Had the Flames had anyone besides Kipper in net (or Brodeur or Luongo) the game may not have ended in Calgary's favor.
Still some supporting cast issues. Granted, Calgary is kinda thin up front with the injuries to Kobasew, Iginla and now Langkow, but it's starting to look nigh impossible to get consistent quality minutes from guys like Nilson. And while it's nice to have him around for certain situations, it's plain as the nose on Ricci's face that Godard can't do much besides fight.
On a related issue, Matthew Lombardi is going through his toughest stretch of the season. He took turns being either ineffectual or just downright bad last night. While Lombo is most certainly struggling, it bothered me that he garnered absolutely no PK time against the Kings, despite being the most dangerous Flame while down a man thus far this season. Conroy's back, he played well and that's great. But Lombardi has proven that he can be a productive top 6 player to this team and is an essential component to the future of the Calgary Flames. I earnestly hope Playfair gives him the chance to play through his problems.
As mentioned, Langkow left in the second period with an as of yet undetermined "upper body" injury. Sucks to have another guy in the midst of a career season go down with injury. I guess the silver lining is the Conroy acquisition coudln't have been more perfectly timed.
Overall, great to get the win and see Conroy return with a bang. Crappy that the Flames can't seem to put in a full 60 minute effort right now though. And when's the last time we outshot anyone? Hopefully, as the team gets healthier, the efforts will become more consistent from start to finish...
Next up - Columbus (Iggy's Return??)
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Conroy and a Kings Preview
The Prodigal Son returns:
The Conroy re-acquisition is a fairly complex one. It's difficult to simply look at his stats line and determine his potential value to his new/old team. One can't rightly assume Conroy will step back into the Flames top 6, where he presided during his previous tour of duty, and make an offensive impact. Not only does Calgary have a fairly adept existing top 6 group of forwards (Iginla, Langkow, Hueslius, Tanguay, Lombardi, Kobasew), Conroy the player is now 35 and probably on the downslope of his career. Truth be told, many people would argue Conroy was unfairly pressed into the #1 center role previously thanks to Calgary's lack of depth at the position. Now, with Langkow and Lombardi having career seasons, he can most likely be settled into the 3rd line, two-way centerman role he is better suited for.
Further complicating the matter is the fact that, since leaving the Flames, Conroy has been both excellent and dreadful in LA. Last season, he spent most of his time skating between Pavol Demitra and Alexander Frolov atop the King's #1 forward unit. He was 2nd on the team in points with 66 and scored 22 goals. He also ranked 4th on the club in terms of +/- with a +13 ranking. This year however, Conroy seems to be lost in the shuffle as LA rebuilds. He's generated only 16 points in 52 games and wasn't even getting as much icetime as Dustin Brown or Sean Avery. His +/- has been inverted to an ugly -13. It's possible, I suppose, that Crawford holds a grudge over the 03/04 upset of his precious Vancouver Canucks and has been misusing Conroy. It's also possible, however, that Conroy just isn't that good anymore.
There are peripheral implications to the Conroy trade that must be considered as well. While there's no doubt that the Flames are now a better club with Conroy skating in Lundmark's stead, the resultant stiffening of the Flames cap position, for an aging 3rd line center, may be harder to swallow come Summer time. So while the remainder of his salary for this season equates to a mere .883 cap hit, his relatively bloated $2.394 million for the 07/08 season salary may make re-signing or replacing the likes of Marcus Nilson and Roman Hamrlik a little more challenging in the off-season.
So what was Sutter thinking? Pragmatically I would argue Sutter, like me, has been dissatisfied by the play of the Flames supporting cast this year. Calgary is scoring, thanks to the increased efficacy of the top sixers, but has failed to excel at other areas of the game such as penalty killing and face-offs. Further, the Flames tend to get eaten alive on the road, partially thanks to the fact that opposition coaches are able to get their big guns out against Calgary's 3rd and 4th lines. My guess is Sutter thinks Conroy's veteran presence, as well as his face-off acumen and tendeceny towards defensive responsibility, will solidify the bottom 6 group and make them less of a "sheep to wolf" collective while Calgary's away from the dome. While it's true Lundmark was an accomplished face-off man, he was smallish and basically useless everywhere else on the ice. In Conroy, the Flames now have a third-line center that can win draws AND puck battles in the corner.
Supplementary to the on-ice improvement is Conroy's lockerroom presence. It's been reported in the wake of the trade that Sutter met with Iginla after his team's whimpering exit from the play-offs last season in order to identify and potentially address what went wrong. Jarome apparently responded that the Flames lacked a Conroy-like presence in the dressing room. Popular, vivacious and outspoken, Conroy no doubt adds both veteran savy AND an element of fun and exuberance to the Flame's social dynamic. It certainly doesn't hurt that Conroy knows - and excelled under - the Flames system playing with the club's franchise player.
Finally, Sutter is no doubt well equated with the difficulty of motivating a hockey team during the doldrums of mid-season. With the novelty of the year's start worn-off and the play-offs far off in the distance, even NHL pros sometimes find it difficult to remain interested and engaged amidst the constant grind around this time of the year. Watching the Flames sleepwalk through the most recent roadtrip tends to add some credibility to this claim (year long road struggles aside). Conroy not only adds a presence that is both grateful and excited to be playing in Calgary, perhaps stirring some emotion from some of the other players, but also a center that can incite some friendly competition for ice-time. Lombardi, for instance, is a player who's icetime totals may be bequeathed to Connie should he struggle for a game or two.
Overall and in conclusion, I like the trade. It makes the team better right now and brings back a player I liked a lot. If Conroy can doff his season long slump and at least partially re-discover the form that made him so effective here previously, none of us may be overly concerned about the salary cap implications next year.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As an added twist to the story, Calgary plays LA tonight at the Dome. The Kings were the worst team in the WC before the trade, and now they have Jamie Lundmark instead of Craig Conroy. They are 2-7-1 in their last 10 games and have an even bigger eyesore of a road record than Calgary: 6-17-0. Not to mention the Flames now have the nearly automatic emotional boost of a trade to put pep into their strides as well as some points on the board (it's a rule of thumb that a new player almost always gets a point or two in his first game with a new team). In addition, word is Robyn Regehr will be back in the line-up today, hopefully pushing the deadful Andrea Susan back into the press-box...
Yup. All signs point to "win", methinks. Let's go with a 5-2 Flames victory. Conroy, Tanguay (2), Phaneuf, Lombardi with the Flames goals. Kopitar and Visnovski for the Kings.
GO FLAMES!
The Conroy re-acquisition is a fairly complex one. It's difficult to simply look at his stats line and determine his potential value to his new/old team. One can't rightly assume Conroy will step back into the Flames top 6, where he presided during his previous tour of duty, and make an offensive impact. Not only does Calgary have a fairly adept existing top 6 group of forwards (Iginla, Langkow, Hueslius, Tanguay, Lombardi, Kobasew), Conroy the player is now 35 and probably on the downslope of his career. Truth be told, many people would argue Conroy was unfairly pressed into the #1 center role previously thanks to Calgary's lack of depth at the position. Now, with Langkow and Lombardi having career seasons, he can most likely be settled into the 3rd line, two-way centerman role he is better suited for.
Further complicating the matter is the fact that, since leaving the Flames, Conroy has been both excellent and dreadful in LA. Last season, he spent most of his time skating between Pavol Demitra and Alexander Frolov atop the King's #1 forward unit. He was 2nd on the team in points with 66 and scored 22 goals. He also ranked 4th on the club in terms of +/- with a +13 ranking. This year however, Conroy seems to be lost in the shuffle as LA rebuilds. He's generated only 16 points in 52 games and wasn't even getting as much icetime as Dustin Brown or Sean Avery. His +/- has been inverted to an ugly -13. It's possible, I suppose, that Crawford holds a grudge over the 03/04 upset of his precious Vancouver Canucks and has been misusing Conroy. It's also possible, however, that Conroy just isn't that good anymore.
There are peripheral implications to the Conroy trade that must be considered as well. While there's no doubt that the Flames are now a better club with Conroy skating in Lundmark's stead, the resultant stiffening of the Flames cap position, for an aging 3rd line center, may be harder to swallow come Summer time. So while the remainder of his salary for this season equates to a mere .883 cap hit, his relatively bloated $2.394 million for the 07/08 season salary may make re-signing or replacing the likes of Marcus Nilson and Roman Hamrlik a little more challenging in the off-season.
So what was Sutter thinking? Pragmatically I would argue Sutter, like me, has been dissatisfied by the play of the Flames supporting cast this year. Calgary is scoring, thanks to the increased efficacy of the top sixers, but has failed to excel at other areas of the game such as penalty killing and face-offs. Further, the Flames tend to get eaten alive on the road, partially thanks to the fact that opposition coaches are able to get their big guns out against Calgary's 3rd and 4th lines. My guess is Sutter thinks Conroy's veteran presence, as well as his face-off acumen and tendeceny towards defensive responsibility, will solidify the bottom 6 group and make them less of a "sheep to wolf" collective while Calgary's away from the dome. While it's true Lundmark was an accomplished face-off man, he was smallish and basically useless everywhere else on the ice. In Conroy, the Flames now have a third-line center that can win draws AND puck battles in the corner.
Supplementary to the on-ice improvement is Conroy's lockerroom presence. It's been reported in the wake of the trade that Sutter met with Iginla after his team's whimpering exit from the play-offs last season in order to identify and potentially address what went wrong. Jarome apparently responded that the Flames lacked a Conroy-like presence in the dressing room. Popular, vivacious and outspoken, Conroy no doubt adds both veteran savy AND an element of fun and exuberance to the Flame's social dynamic. It certainly doesn't hurt that Conroy knows - and excelled under - the Flames system playing with the club's franchise player.
Finally, Sutter is no doubt well equated with the difficulty of motivating a hockey team during the doldrums of mid-season. With the novelty of the year's start worn-off and the play-offs far off in the distance, even NHL pros sometimes find it difficult to remain interested and engaged amidst the constant grind around this time of the year. Watching the Flames sleepwalk through the most recent roadtrip tends to add some credibility to this claim (year long road struggles aside). Conroy not only adds a presence that is both grateful and excited to be playing in Calgary, perhaps stirring some emotion from some of the other players, but also a center that can incite some friendly competition for ice-time. Lombardi, for instance, is a player who's icetime totals may be bequeathed to Connie should he struggle for a game or two.
Overall and in conclusion, I like the trade. It makes the team better right now and brings back a player I liked a lot. If Conroy can doff his season long slump and at least partially re-discover the form that made him so effective here previously, none of us may be overly concerned about the salary cap implications next year.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As an added twist to the story, Calgary plays LA tonight at the Dome. The Kings were the worst team in the WC before the trade, and now they have Jamie Lundmark instead of Craig Conroy. They are 2-7-1 in their last 10 games and have an even bigger eyesore of a road record than Calgary: 6-17-0. Not to mention the Flames now have the nearly automatic emotional boost of a trade to put pep into their strides as well as some points on the board (it's a rule of thumb that a new player almost always gets a point or two in his first game with a new team). In addition, word is Robyn Regehr will be back in the line-up today, hopefully pushing the deadful Andrea Susan back into the press-box...
Yup. All signs point to "win", methinks. Let's go with a 5-2 Flames victory. Conroy, Tanguay (2), Phaneuf, Lombardi with the Flames goals. Kopitar and Visnovski for the Kings.
GO FLAMES!
Monday, January 29, 2007
HHHHUUUHHHHHHHH?? Or "The Return of Conroy"
Okay. Hands up everyone who saw this coming. Anyone?
No comments from me now. Im just to fragging stunned.
EDIT - maybe one comment. Good riddance, Jamie Lundmark.
EDIT THE SECOND - The reactions:
- Hockeygirl
- Mirtle
- Calgarypuck messageboard
- Matt from the BofA (updated depth chart and cap implications included).
- Covered in Oil
No comments from me now. Im just to fragging stunned.
EDIT - maybe one comment. Good riddance, Jamie Lundmark.
EDIT THE SECOND - The reactions:
- Hockeygirl
- Mirtle
- Calgarypuck messageboard
- Matt from the BofA (updated depth chart and cap implications included).
- Covered in Oil
We've Hit the Big Time...
I was perusing the blog's "came from" sitemeter stats when I noticed a link from SI.com. Curious, I decided to follow it up and, sure enough, there's "Five Hole Fanatics" - listed at the bottom of the page under "More Local Flames News" alongside more "official", "commercial" and "professional" stuff like calgaryflames.com and the Flames messageboard.
Flattering I guess. And kinda weird. But still flattering.
Oh this crazy interweb thing!
Flattering I guess. And kinda weird. But still flattering.
Oh this crazy interweb thing!
I've Seen This Film Before
The heady glow emanating from the most recent road win may be partially blotting out the ugly fact that the Flames were flat-as-roadkill during their two previous away games and are still one of the worst road teams in the league.
Just how prophetic was that little comment?
Heading into a weekend of away games I felt it prudent to point out that the Flames still needed to take a few significant steps forward when it came to their collective road performance.
Mission most certainly NOT accomplished.
Calgary was hopelessly outclassed by both Minnesota and Chicago. They were outshot by a cumulative sum of 81-46 over the course of the two contests and only escaped with OT loser points thanks to the heroics of Miikka Kiprusoff.
I was unable to watch the Wild game, but extrapolating from the utterly lackluster crap I saw yesterday (and most of the year for that matter), Im fairly certain I can guess with a high degree of accuracy what it looked like: flacid forecheck, a marked inability to clear the puck from the defensize zone, tentative special teams and a penchant for watching the play rather than initiating it.
Consider this: The Chicago Blackhawks entered yesterday's match on a 10 game losing streak. They were 16 points behind the Flames in the WC standings, had allowed nearly 30 more goals and scored nearly 30 less and owned the leagues worst powerplay. This is the team that outshot Calgary 17-5 in the third period and 40-22 overall. Despite giving up a last minute goal and a PP goal in overtime, the Flames were downright lucky to even be in the game at all at that point.
Such is the nature of the Flames on the road. It would be convenient to point to the Iginla and Regehr absenses as the cause of this past weekends set-backs, but, let's face it - Calgary has been terrible on the road all year regardless of who was or wasn't in the line-up.
A significant amount of blame from yesterday's suckfest should be placed squarely on the shoulders of the Flames supporting cast, however. Frontliners Huselius, Langkow, Tanguay, Hamrlik and Phaneuf managed to be effective enough to drag the rest of the squad, kicking and screaming, into OT. Everyone else, from Lombardi down to Nilson, Yelle, Lundmark, Warrener and Zyuzin were mediocre or worse. Yelle in particular struggled in my eyes. He won only 45% of his face-offs and was extremely passive and ineffective on the PK. At even-strength, I dont honestly remember him even entering the offensive zone. The latter sentiment goes for most of the 3rd and 4th liners yesterday - Playfair couldn't seem to squeeze any quality minutes from the grinders and energy players. The best they could offer was hanging on just long enough to give the first line guys some rest. By "hanging on" I mean "by the skin of their teeth".
For his part, Savard did a good job of getting Martin Havlat (and whoever his linemates are) out against Calgary's lesser lights, especially Ference-Warrener, Zyuzin-Giordano. This sort of mismatch is less of an issue when guys like Nilson and Yelle are playing effective hockey...which, of course, they weren't yesterday. Resulting in multiple shots and scoring chances against and extended periods of time in the defensive zone...
I guess I could go on beating this dead horse, but really, it's all too appallingly familiar at this point. As such, I figured I'd end the post with a couple of positives:
- Kipper is playing great.
- Kristian Huselius is on a 9 game point streak.
- Tanguay was Calgary's best offensive player yesterday.
- Phaneuf and Hamrlik have looked very good the last 3 games. "Best defensemen on the ice" good.
- The Flames are 6-2-2 in their last 10 despite lacking siginificant players from their line-up.
- And finally, Calgary is 6 points ahead of Edmonton with a game in hand.
Next up! LA tomorrow night (in Calgary, thank God).
Friday, January 26, 2007
A Return to Action: Calgary @ Minnesota Preview
The break is over and the Flames are back in action tonight, no doubt hoping to carry over some of the magic they found against the Greasers in Rexall last Saturday.
The heady glow emanating from the most recent road win may be partially blotting out the ugly fact that the Flames were flat-as-roadkill during their two previous away games and are still one of the worst road teams in the league.
Which are not insignificant issues heading into Minnesota tonight. While the Wild have dropped four in a row in their barn recently, they still have one of the more impressive home records in the league (17-5-3). Additionally, Marian Gaborik has finally returned from injury and is scoring like a healthy Marian Gaborik usually does. Calgary, meanwhile, is still without Jarome Iginla, although it's expected that Chuck Kobasew will be returning to the fold tonight (woop-di-doo!).
David Moss and Eric Godard will also be wearing Flames against the Wild. Moss has been impressive since his call-up several weeks ago and is probably a few more good games away from cementing a roster spot on the big club for good. Godard, meantime, will be around to police the acitivities of Derek Boogaard. Im sure Playfair doesn't want the Sakatchewan Sasquatach leveling Huselius or Lombardi like he did to Ales Hemsky a couple of games ago...
As far as the Wild go, they'll be without Manny Fernandez tonight thanks to an injury he suffered in their last contest. Nicklas Backstrom has been solid in his 14 outings so far this season, so don't expect a big advantage there. Not that the Flames are in the habit of taking advantage of crappy back-ups anyways. In addition, Minnesota will be without the services of Todd White and Kurtis Foster, while the likes of Kim Johnsson and Keith Carney will be returning to action this evening.
Let's go with a Kipper special tonight. He's relatively well-rested and he's been great for most of January. 3-1 Flames. Tanguay (2) and Giordano for Calgary. Gaborik for Minnesota.
Go Flames!
The heady glow emanating from the most recent road win may be partially blotting out the ugly fact that the Flames were flat-as-roadkill during their two previous away games and are still one of the worst road teams in the league.
Which are not insignificant issues heading into Minnesota tonight. While the Wild have dropped four in a row in their barn recently, they still have one of the more impressive home records in the league (17-5-3). Additionally, Marian Gaborik has finally returned from injury and is scoring like a healthy Marian Gaborik usually does. Calgary, meanwhile, is still without Jarome Iginla, although it's expected that Chuck Kobasew will be returning to the fold tonight (woop-di-doo!).
David Moss and Eric Godard will also be wearing Flames against the Wild. Moss has been impressive since his call-up several weeks ago and is probably a few more good games away from cementing a roster spot on the big club for good. Godard, meantime, will be around to police the acitivities of Derek Boogaard. Im sure Playfair doesn't want the Sakatchewan Sasquatach leveling Huselius or Lombardi like he did to Ales Hemsky a couple of games ago...
As far as the Wild go, they'll be without Manny Fernandez tonight thanks to an injury he suffered in their last contest. Nicklas Backstrom has been solid in his 14 outings so far this season, so don't expect a big advantage there. Not that the Flames are in the habit of taking advantage of crappy back-ups anyways. In addition, Minnesota will be without the services of Todd White and Kurtis Foster, while the likes of Kim Johnsson and Keith Carney will be returning to action this evening.
Let's go with a Kipper special tonight. He's relatively well-rested and he's been great for most of January. 3-1 Flames. Tanguay (2) and Giordano for Calgary. Gaborik for Minnesota.
Go Flames!
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Raycroft Revisited
I think the all-star game is a great experience for players and nice way to introduce a break into the NHL schedule. I also think it's pretty boring and largely irrelevant, so I'm therefore ignoring it on the blog.
To fill space, I figured I would take some time to pat myself on the back. You see, way back in July I made some snide, off-hand comment about JFJ acquiring Raycroft that set off a bit of a firestorm in the comments section:
"keep in mind that JFJ decided to trade for Andrew Raycroft: a deal that won him probably the worst tender in the NHL last season AND cost him a top-notch propsect in Rask."
Was the sentence that proved too offensive for some of my friends and readers to let pass by without comment.
The ensuing battle, readable at the end of the post, was waged over whether the Raycroft deal was a sensible one. For my part, I felt trading a top-notch prospect for a tender who had enjoyed one good year and suffered through one terrible year (the latter being the most recent) was a probably a bad move. There were lots of goalies available in the summer, and JFJ decided to trade for the one with the worst stats in the league from the prior season. My friends argued that Raycroft proved his pedigree during his rookie campaign in Boston, was ill-treated and hobbled by injury during the 05/06 season and therefore had a good chance of finding his form again in Toronto...
As it Stands now:
over half way through the season and how is old Andrew doing? Let's take a look...
40 games played, 20 wins, and an ugly 3.10 GAA to go with his 0.892 Sv%.
On one side, the above stats are better than his previous seasons #'s (3.71 GAA, 0.879 Sv%). on the other side, he is currently 31st in the league in terms of GAA and 36th in terms of Sv%. The Maple Leafs are currently tied with the Pittsbugh Penguins for the final play-off spot in the East, but have played 3 more games than the flightless birds. All this despite the fact that JFJ has a $20 million blueline.
Hmmm...not looking too good now is it? Of course, it's difficult to seperate a goalie's peformance from the team around him. Perhaps any goalie would be suffering behind the likes of Belak, Gill and McCabe?
Comparing Raycroft to 'tenders in similar situations can be helpful, though. Consider MA Fleury has managed a 2.87 GAA and .905 Sv% behind the similarly ranked Penguins. And he has arguably a worse blueline corps operating in front of him. Ed Belfour, he who so resembles a dried up mummy husk, has played 29 games for a team that has 4 less wins than the Buds and has managed superior numbers (2.62 GAA, .902 SV%). Manny Legace, who was the original topic in the aforementioned post, has been a significant part of the Blues current winning streak. That said, St. Louis is still 2 games below .500 and hovering south of the play-off mark in the West - his stats? 2.69 GAA and .907 Sv% (I'd also like to point out that Legace was had for nothing via free agency AND makes six hundred thousand less than Raycroft).
Overall, Andrew is ahead of only 5 other goalies that have played 30 or more games thus far in the GAA category. Of those 5, three have a superior Sv% to Raycroft's (Kolzig - .910, Thomas - .901, Nittymaki - .893). Take a look at that last name - Antero Nittymaki, who has all of 6 wins ALL YEAR, has a slightly better Sv%. Ouch.
There's potentially some good excuses one could use to defend Raycroft: JFJ clearly spent wildly but not wisely on the blueline corps in the offseason. So while Raycroft has a lot of millionaires protecting him, few of them are actually that good at it. Further, the Maple Leafs have been frequently struck by injury this season, undermining the strength of the team and contributing to his ill-fortunes...
Spare me. Nittymaki plays for a much worse team, hobbled by many more injuries and yet has managed to stop the puck at a slightly greater rate than Raycroft. Quick, can you name 3 defensemen for the Washington Capitals? Who are the bottom four blueliners in Pittsburgh? St. Louis? Anyone...?
The fact is, Raycroft has struggled and it shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone. Take a gander at his career stats. His best season of pro hockey came in 03/04 with the Bruins. Before that time, Raycroft never put up startling numbers, even at the AHL level (or the OHL level, for that matter). During his best season in Providence, he managed a GAA of 2.50 and a Sv% of .917. To put that in perspective, 6 of the top 10 goaltenders in the AHL this year have superior Sv%, while all 10 have better GAA's.
Haha!
I suppose I should cage my guffaws and self-congratulations until the end of the year, when the big, red "failure!" stamp can be officially applied to the Raycroft acquisition. However I'm fairly certain, as I was in July, that this is an inevitability anyways. So why delay the gratification?
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
The All-Star Break Data Dump
With the regular season action arrested for the all-star festivities, I figured it would be a good time to update some basic+ stats for the Flames.
First, the raw stuff:
(click to enlarge)
Pulled directly from nhl.com, put in a spreadsheet with the TOI figures rounded off to the nearest minute.
The resultant even-strength points per 60 minutes played look like this:
Predictably, Jarome is the big fish when it comes to ES production efficiency. I haven't crunched league-wide numbers, but Im guessing he's among elite company when it comes to this figure. In fact, despite playing only 39 games, Iginla is still in the top 10 in the NHL in terms of gross ES points.
Damond Langkow and Alex Tanguay also have pretty nice looking numbers that have no doubt been somewhat augmented by playing with Jarome for most of the season. Still, both players (particularly Langkow) have continuted to be productive despite Iginla's absence from the line-up over the last 3 weeks or so. Meaning they haven't been completely riding on Iggy's coattails.
The index at left also reveals that Lombardi is something of a "special teams" guy. His ESP/60 figure is pretty unimpressive, even though he's enjoying a career season. However, 14 of his 32 points have come while either up or down a man (5 SHP, 9 PPP) which, I think, speaks partially to the kind of player he is: smaller, fast and agile, he tends to flourish when there's more room to skate (as an aside, Lombo's 5 SHP tie him with Staal and Lecavalier for 2nd in the league).
Not a lot of surprises here, otherwise. Giordano being the top ESP/60 d-man on the team is a little strange, though his higher figure is no doubt owing to his relatively miniscule amount of ice-time (384 vs. 1,193 for Phaneuf for example). Further, David Moss' 2.71 number is a decent rate for a mid-season 3rd liner call-up, although it no doubt suffers from the same confounder (small TOI sample) as Giordano's figure. Still, encouraging.
Finally, Huselius' ESP/60 stats looks a tad wee considering he's been one of the hottest Flames for the last 2 months. However, he has increased his pace from the end of November by about .50 points/60 at ES and could be among the other big boys by the 3/4 pole if he continues to augment his rate of production at this kind of clip. No guarantees, of course, but he could very well find himself back on a line with Iggy and Langkow once the Captain makes his return in February...
As for the the Powerplay points/60 minutes, they curently look like this:
Calgary's struggles with the man-advantage are clearly reflected by the fact that the likes of Iginla and Langkow have PPP/60 stats that are barely above their ESP/60 stuff. Typically, one should expect a full 1 or 2 point jump in efficiency when on the PP, relative to a player's ESP production. For example, last season Joe Sakic scored at a rate of 2.90/60 at 5on5 and 4.66/60 at 5on4. Alex Tanguay, who led the Avs with a 3.15/60 at ES jumped to 4.92/60 on the PP. Other Colorado players more than doubled their ESP/60 numbers with the man-advantage: Brunette jumped from 2.29 to 5.42 and Svatos went from 2.81 to 5.62.
The Flames have Juice and Lombo in this category: both have significantly larger PPP/60 figures (and, of course, "Delmore" Phaneuf). However, those players that should be the primarily driving the PP results - namely Jarome, Damond and Alex - are putting up some rather mediocre numbers considering their proficiency at ES. Hell, Tanguay's 2.73 PPP/60 stat is a almost a full
0.70 below his ES number! how the hell does someone manage that?
It also doesn't help that the Flames don't have another d-man aside from the Dion that can produce at any sort of rate on the PP. Ference's number is only so-so even though he's only had 98 PP minutes all year. Hamrlik has been a stalwart on the back-end for the Flames thus far, but his production on the PP has to be considered at least a little disappointing. He's another guy who's ESP and PPP efficiency rates are basically the same.
Perhaps the biggest surprise for anyone glancing at the PPP/60 index is Chuck Kobasew's place a' top of the pile. Nearly half of his points this season have come on the powerplay (7 of 17) and he's only played about 92 minutes at 5on4. Still, small PPTOI aside, at least Charles seems to have some utility despite his struggles this season.
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Beyond individual stats, the Flames team metrics are at once fantastic and abysmal: They lead the league in home wins (19), cumulative +/- (+43), ES goals against (55), and short-handed goals (11). The Flames are also a +33 in terms of ES goal differential and +28 in terms of total GD. TO put that in perspective, Buffalo, Anaheim, Nashville, Ottawa, New Jersey and Edmonton have goal differentials of +37, +41, +45, +32, +15 and -6 respectively.
The thing seperating Calgary from the truly elite teams like BUF, NSH and ANA in the GD category (and overall standings for that matter) is, of course, their bafflingly bad special teams (and road play, which is somewhat related). The Flames PP and PK are both currently ranked 26th in the NHL. Despite boasting the stingiest defense and 13th best offence at ES, the Flames can't seem to get their special teams up to even middling levels of competency. As mentioned, part of that has to do with their continued ineptitude on the road (glorious Saturday night victories at Rexall place aside). Right now, Calgary is a division worst 7-12-4 away from home. While almost all aspects of the Flame's game seems to suffer on the road, the special teams seem particularly bad: at the Dome, Calgary has managed 23 PPG in 132 PP chances (17.4%). On the road, they have scored at a significantly lesser rate: 14 PPG in 111 PP chances (12.6%). The disparity between the home and away PK success rates are even more substantial: At home, the Flames have killed off 83.6% of their penalties. On the road, only 75.2%. That means the Flames have the 16th best PK in the Dome that somehow transforms into the 27th best PK when they're staying in hotels! ARGGHH!
The answer to the road/special teams issues are beyond me, frankly. I've spilled a lot of ink (figuratively) around here both bemoaning these problems as well suggesting potential solutions. At this point, it really looks like a "mental thing" and all a fan can really do is hope the players can figure it out and start to execute with greater efficacy...
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So, overall, I think the picture is a fairly rosey one. Calgary is getting elite production from their first liners at ES and are among the league's best in multiple categories. If the boys can sort out their main areas of concern to some degree of satisfaction there's no reason to the think they can't once again be the NW division champs come April.
First, the raw stuff:
(click to enlarge)Pulled directly from nhl.com, put in a spreadsheet with the TOI figures rounded off to the nearest minute.
The resultant even-strength points per 60 minutes played look like this:
Predictably, Jarome is the big fish when it comes to ES production efficiency. I haven't crunched league-wide numbers, but Im guessing he's among elite company when it comes to this figure. In fact, despite playing only 39 games, Iginla is still in the top 10 in the NHL in terms of gross ES points.Damond Langkow and Alex Tanguay also have pretty nice looking numbers that have no doubt been somewhat augmented by playing with Jarome for most of the season. Still, both players (particularly Langkow) have continuted to be productive despite Iginla's absence from the line-up over the last 3 weeks or so. Meaning they haven't been completely riding on Iggy's coattails.
The index at left also reveals that Lombardi is something of a "special teams" guy. His ESP/60 figure is pretty unimpressive, even though he's enjoying a career season. However, 14 of his 32 points have come while either up or down a man (5 SHP, 9 PPP) which, I think, speaks partially to the kind of player he is: smaller, fast and agile, he tends to flourish when there's more room to skate (as an aside, Lombo's 5 SHP tie him with Staal and Lecavalier for 2nd in the league).
Not a lot of surprises here, otherwise. Giordano being the top ESP/60 d-man on the team is a little strange, though his higher figure is no doubt owing to his relatively miniscule amount of ice-time (384 vs. 1,193 for Phaneuf for example). Further, David Moss' 2.71 number is a decent rate for a mid-season 3rd liner call-up, although it no doubt suffers from the same confounder (small TOI sample) as Giordano's figure. Still, encouraging.
Finally, Huselius' ESP/60 stats looks a tad wee considering he's been one of the hottest Flames for the last 2 months. However, he has increased his pace from the end of November by about .50 points/60 at ES and could be among the other big boys by the 3/4 pole if he continues to augment his rate of production at this kind of clip. No guarantees, of course, but he could very well find himself back on a line with Iggy and Langkow once the Captain makes his return in February...
As for the the Powerplay points/60 minutes, they curently look like this:
Calgary's struggles with the man-advantage are clearly reflected by the fact that the likes of Iginla and Langkow have PPP/60 stats that are barely above their ESP/60 stuff. Typically, one should expect a full 1 or 2 point jump in efficiency when on the PP, relative to a player's ESP production. For example, last season Joe Sakic scored at a rate of 2.90/60 at 5on5 and 4.66/60 at 5on4. Alex Tanguay, who led the Avs with a 3.15/60 at ES jumped to 4.92/60 on the PP. Other Colorado players more than doubled their ESP/60 numbers with the man-advantage: Brunette jumped from 2.29 to 5.42 and Svatos went from 2.81 to 5.62.The Flames have Juice and Lombo in this category: both have significantly larger PPP/60 figures (and, of course, "Delmore" Phaneuf). However, those players that should be the primarily driving the PP results - namely Jarome, Damond and Alex - are putting up some rather mediocre numbers considering their proficiency at ES. Hell, Tanguay's 2.73 PPP/60 stat is a almost a full
0.70 below his ES number! how the hell does someone manage that?
It also doesn't help that the Flames don't have another d-man aside from the Dion that can produce at any sort of rate on the PP. Ference's number is only so-so even though he's only had 98 PP minutes all year. Hamrlik has been a stalwart on the back-end for the Flames thus far, but his production on the PP has to be considered at least a little disappointing. He's another guy who's ESP and PPP efficiency rates are basically the same.
Perhaps the biggest surprise for anyone glancing at the PPP/60 index is Chuck Kobasew's place a' top of the pile. Nearly half of his points this season have come on the powerplay (7 of 17) and he's only played about 92 minutes at 5on4. Still, small PPTOI aside, at least Charles seems to have some utility despite his struggles this season.
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Beyond individual stats, the Flames team metrics are at once fantastic and abysmal: They lead the league in home wins (19), cumulative +/- (+43), ES goals against (55), and short-handed goals (11). The Flames are also a +33 in terms of ES goal differential and +28 in terms of total GD. TO put that in perspective, Buffalo, Anaheim, Nashville, Ottawa, New Jersey and Edmonton have goal differentials of +37, +41, +45, +32, +15 and -6 respectively.
The thing seperating Calgary from the truly elite teams like BUF, NSH and ANA in the GD category (and overall standings for that matter) is, of course, their bafflingly bad special teams (and road play, which is somewhat related). The Flames PP and PK are both currently ranked 26th in the NHL. Despite boasting the stingiest defense and 13th best offence at ES, the Flames can't seem to get their special teams up to even middling levels of competency. As mentioned, part of that has to do with their continued ineptitude on the road (glorious Saturday night victories at Rexall place aside). Right now, Calgary is a division worst 7-12-4 away from home. While almost all aspects of the Flame's game seems to suffer on the road, the special teams seem particularly bad: at the Dome, Calgary has managed 23 PPG in 132 PP chances (17.4%). On the road, they have scored at a significantly lesser rate: 14 PPG in 111 PP chances (12.6%). The disparity between the home and away PK success rates are even more substantial: At home, the Flames have killed off 83.6% of their penalties. On the road, only 75.2%. That means the Flames have the 16th best PK in the Dome that somehow transforms into the 27th best PK when they're staying in hotels! ARGGHH!
The answer to the road/special teams issues are beyond me, frankly. I've spilled a lot of ink (figuratively) around here both bemoaning these problems as well suggesting potential solutions. At this point, it really looks like a "mental thing" and all a fan can really do is hope the players can figure it out and start to execute with greater efficacy...
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So, overall, I think the picture is a fairly rosey one. Calgary is getting elite production from their first liners at ES and are among the league's best in multiple categories. If the boys can sort out their main areas of concern to some degree of satisfaction there's no reason to the think they can't once again be the NW division champs come April.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Images and Stats From Saturday Night's Greatness - A Gloat Post
The Towering Sundae
The Cherr(ies) on Top.
(click to enlarge)
I don't think I could have scripted a better way for the Flames to enter the all-star break. Two consecutive wins on back-to-back nights, the second a shut-out pasting of the Stinktown Greasers.
First place in thew NW.
Winning despite lacking their best player.
Kipper tying a franchise record for career shut-outs.
A threesome with supermodels might be one of the rare events that equals the above for pure pleasure. If all that's not enough for you though, observe the frenzied Oiler fan tooth-gnashing here for further amusement.
Perhaps the best part of Saturday night's glorious victory was the fact that I fully expected the Flames to lose. The Battle of Alberta has been a homer's series till now this season, and Calgary is typically a terrible road team besides. Add in the injuries to Jarome and Charles and, well...let's just say I would have been happy with an OT loss. But, on the back of some decent team defense and a fantastic outing from Kiprusoff, the Flames managed to prevail. Of course, it helps that Juice is playing probably the best hockey of his life (did you see that feed to Tanguay for goal #3?!) and the Oilers have a terrible blueline...
All in all, a great night. Thanks for making my weekend and enjoy the all-star breaks boys! You deserve it.
Friday, January 19, 2007
Yeah I've used this image before. So sue me*.
(*this is a figure of speech. If you are the owner/creator of the above image, please do NOT sue me).
With Anaheim hobbling into town, the Lame Duck graphic was simply too appropriate to be left idle. Particularly since both marquee Anaheim defensemen now have foot related injuries.
Not that that has stopped Carlyle from leaning on Special Nieds extra hard while Pronger's been laid up. As Sleek recently pointed out, the better of the two Anaheim brothers has been averaging well over 30 minutes a night since the felling of the gap-toothed giant. And that's even after it was discovered that Scott the Greater has a stress fracture in his foot. Yeesh.
It's somewhat of an intelligible strategy given that Kent Huskins (gah?) and Ric Jackman (eww) are the current 5th and 6th d-men for the Quackers. Especially in light of the fact that Ilya (Flame Killer) what's-his-face has been ordinary in relief of the also injured (Former Flame) JS Giguere.
Not that riding Scotty N into the ground has been a particularly successful strategy thus far. After using and degrading the competition for the first half of the season, the Mallards have crashed back down to Earth. Winners of only 2 of their last 10 games, Anaheim's sudden penchant for losing even has ardent fan Earl Sleek refering to them derisively as the Anaheim "Sucks". BWAHAHAH! How the Mighty have fallen (get it?)!
Not that the Flames can afford to take tonight's foes lightly. After spitting in the face of fate (with contempt) by winning 5 straight games (sans Iginla) Calgary has looked decidedly crappy in their last 2 matches and, as result, are still stuck in the middle of the sordid NW dog-fight.
Keys to tonights game:
1.) Attack Anaheim's crappy defense. No Pronger. No Beauchemin. Exhausted, injured Niedermayer. Shitty stand-ins. High tempo forecheck = good.
2.) No Andrei Zyuzin. Word is the useless former #2 draft pick is headed back to scratchville with Jamie Lundmark. Eric Godard is getting a trip to the bigs and will dress in his stead. Expect Godard to smack the porn 'stache right off Parros' face tonight.
3.) Play some...you know...defense. Anaheim still has a dangerous attack boasting the NHL's leading scorer Teemu Selanne. The Flame's last 2 losses have featured some ugly performances from most of their top 4 d-men, so a turn-around will need to occur in order to ensure a victory.
4.) Quality minutes from the *other* guys. Huselius and Langkow have been great in Jarome's absence. Tonight Calgary will need some decent performances from the bottom-enders to compete: Ritchie, Friesen, Yelle, Nilson and Amonte Im looking at you. In addition, the Flame's 2nd line will need to better as well. Lombardi, in particular, will have to be more of a factor than he has been recently.
5.) Line matching. Carlyle has a hell of shut-down group in Pahlsson, Moen and Marchant. Hopefully Playfair can get Juice and Langkow out against some of Anaheim's weaker lights by employing the last change tonight.
6.) Special teams. Calgary's suck. It would help if they didn't suck quite as much.
Finally, it's home game this evening and we all know what that means...
Let's go with a 3-1 Calgary victory. Amonte, Tanguay and Juice for the Flames, Brian Burke for the Ducks.
Go Flames!
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Great Post Alert
Golbez over at Hockey Rants takes a shot at the newest form of Messier fellation: The Mark Messier Jersey Raising Festival that's going to take place next month in ol' Stinktown.
The whole thing is gold, but this particular quote regarding the potential congregation of Messier loyalists takes the cake:
The whole thing is gold, but this particular quote regarding the potential congregation of Messier loyalists takes the cake:
"Fans jamming a downtown square? Where's a firebomb when you need one?"Heh. Well done sir. Well done.
Stinking, Rotten, Maggotty, Vile
''It was a terrible first two periods. This was a team missing a majority of their top players. There were a lot of minor league guys out there,'' Calgary defenceman Robyn Regehr said. ''We didn't take advantage of that at all." - TSN.ca
While this quote from Regehr regarding the Flames efforts last night against Dallas is apropos, a much more succinct "same old story" would have been as equally as appropriate.
Like the previous loss to Nashville - and most of their road defeats this season - the Flames played about 10 minutes of quality hockey and about 50 minutes of baffling "who the fuck ARE these guys" garbage-shinny-find-a-way-to-lose dreck. This most recent set-back, coming against basically an AHL team plus Lehtinen and Turco, moved the Flames to 6 games below .500 on the road. Six games in the red for a team that is 13 games over .500 at home!? Line-matching and last change alone cannot account for this kind of differential.
I don't think I've ever encountered anything like this previously. The Flames weren't that great on the road last year too, sure, but they managed to get up around the .500 mark by years end at least. This season that goal looks practically unattainable. I don't think Calgary has beaten a team higher than them in standings all year away from the Dome; even when said team is severely handicapped by injuries like Dallas was last night.
Ugh. I feel the Flames are a psychological vulnerability away from being an elite club. If they could find some method to at least occassionally replicate their home performances on the road once and a while they could probably run away and hide with the NW division crown. As it stands, this penchant for bed-shitting in other area codes is damning the Flames to remain in the tooth-and-nail dogfight that is positions 5-10 in the Conference...
A couple of notes from the game itself:
- Huselius was, by a wide margin, the best Calgary player on the ice. Even Langkow, who has been better than solid recently, was MIA last night. Juice scored his 20th goal of the season, extending his point-streak to 5 games, and was PKing like a mad man. During one particular sequence, he fought off 2 opponents at the Flames blueline while a man-down and managed to muscle the puck out of the zone with his skate. If the rest of the team had played with that degree of fight and determination for the whole of the contest the outcome would have been rather different.
- Alex Tanguay has been totally invisible the last 2 games to my eyes. In fact, he looks downright disinterested most of the time he's on the ice. I hope he can be re-awakened by Iggy's return.
- Andrei Zyuzin is a horrible defenseman. He made a laugh-out-loud mistake last night that lead the Star's go ahead goal. I assume he'll see the press-box next game and will remain there until injuries press him into duty once more. I doubt he will be a Flame come July.
- Matthew Lombardi had his first bad game in awhile. He was pretty much totally neutralized by Dallas' stifling trap. In addition, he was saddled with Moss and Boyd as linemates for some reason for most of the night. I like Moss and Boyd, but I bet Dave Tippett licked his chops whenever he saw that trio skate onto the ice for a face-off.
- I think Playfair recognized how much Warrener and Regehr were struggling together in Nashville, which is why he dressed 7 defensemen against Dallas. Throughout the evening Playfair was juggling the duos to see if he could identify some chemistry. Giordano, in particular, was frequently swapped around. I didn't see anything of note (besides Zyuzin sucking), but maybe Playfair found a new combination or two for the future.
- Was Nilson playing last night?
Sigh and double sigh. The good news is the Flames return home for a date with the Prongerless and struggling Anaheim Ducks. Here's hoping they can bust this 2 game skid and go into Edmonton on a winning note.
While this quote from Regehr regarding the Flames efforts last night against Dallas is apropos, a much more succinct "same old story" would have been as equally as appropriate.
Like the previous loss to Nashville - and most of their road defeats this season - the Flames played about 10 minutes of quality hockey and about 50 minutes of baffling "who the fuck ARE these guys" garbage-shinny-find-a-way-to-lose dreck. This most recent set-back, coming against basically an AHL team plus Lehtinen and Turco, moved the Flames to 6 games below .500 on the road. Six games in the red for a team that is 13 games over .500 at home!? Line-matching and last change alone cannot account for this kind of differential.
I don't think I've ever encountered anything like this previously. The Flames weren't that great on the road last year too, sure, but they managed to get up around the .500 mark by years end at least. This season that goal looks practically unattainable. I don't think Calgary has beaten a team higher than them in standings all year away from the Dome; even when said team is severely handicapped by injuries like Dallas was last night.
Ugh. I feel the Flames are a psychological vulnerability away from being an elite club. If they could find some method to at least occassionally replicate their home performances on the road once and a while they could probably run away and hide with the NW division crown. As it stands, this penchant for bed-shitting in other area codes is damning the Flames to remain in the tooth-and-nail dogfight that is positions 5-10 in the Conference...
A couple of notes from the game itself:
- Huselius was, by a wide margin, the best Calgary player on the ice. Even Langkow, who has been better than solid recently, was MIA last night. Juice scored his 20th goal of the season, extending his point-streak to 5 games, and was PKing like a mad man. During one particular sequence, he fought off 2 opponents at the Flames blueline while a man-down and managed to muscle the puck out of the zone with his skate. If the rest of the team had played with that degree of fight and determination for the whole of the contest the outcome would have been rather different.
- Alex Tanguay has been totally invisible the last 2 games to my eyes. In fact, he looks downright disinterested most of the time he's on the ice. I hope he can be re-awakened by Iggy's return.
- Andrei Zyuzin is a horrible defenseman. He made a laugh-out-loud mistake last night that lead the Star's go ahead goal. I assume he'll see the press-box next game and will remain there until injuries press him into duty once more. I doubt he will be a Flame come July.
- Matthew Lombardi had his first bad game in awhile. He was pretty much totally neutralized by Dallas' stifling trap. In addition, he was saddled with Moss and Boyd as linemates for some reason for most of the night. I like Moss and Boyd, but I bet Dave Tippett licked his chops whenever he saw that trio skate onto the ice for a face-off.
- I think Playfair recognized how much Warrener and Regehr were struggling together in Nashville, which is why he dressed 7 defensemen against Dallas. Throughout the evening Playfair was juggling the duos to see if he could identify some chemistry. Giordano, in particular, was frequently swapped around. I didn't see anything of note (besides Zyuzin sucking), but maybe Playfair found a new combination or two for the future.
- Was Nilson playing last night?
Sigh and double sigh. The good news is the Flames return home for a date with the Prongerless and struggling Anaheim Ducks. Here's hoping they can bust this 2 game skid and go into Edmonton on a winning note.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Calgary @ Dallas Preview
The last time the Flames beat the Stars in Dallas, Roman Turek was the starting goalie. Yup, it's been THAT long. With that in mind, tonight probably represents Calgary's best opportunity to put that ugly losing streak to bed...
Mainly due to the fact the Stars are the walking wounded. Dallas is currently plugging along without the services of Mike Modano (10 goals, 20 points), Brendan Morrow (10 goals, 20 points), Steve Ott (4 points), Matthew Barnaby (127 PIM), Sergei Zubov (7 goals, 30 points) and Philippe Boucher (13 goals, 33 points). That's a captain, an assistant captain, two top-2 defenseman, 2 world class aggitators and 4 of their top 10 point producers in sick-bay. Ouch. In addition, defensive specialist Jeff Halpern is out with the proverbial "lower body injury", leaving the Dallas roster looking something like swiss-cheese.
To compound the problem, Dallas is hardly an offensive dynamo, injuries aside. Both Morrow and Modano had only managed 20 points in 28 and 27 games respectively before being hobbled. The Stars don't have a single player with more than 13 goals so far this year and their highest scoring forward is Jere Lehtinen with 12. They are currently ranked 24th in the league in terms of GF and have the 2nd lowest goal total at ES (64) in the league. While they are 3rd best in the NHL in terms of GA at ES (61), the resultant ES goal differential is hardly elite (3). The Flames, in comparison, have an ES goal differential of 32.
Can you say "ripe for the picking"? Dallas is missing a ton of quality minutes on the back-end, most of their leadership and nearly half of their top goal getters. They can't score at the best of times and have won only 1 of their last 4 games. And that victory came against the woeful LA Kings.
If Calgary can keep themselves out of the penalty box tonight, they should win handily. Course, should the night turn into a special teams battle, Calgary will most likely be left lamenting yet another road loss.
As it stands, I can't see the Flames throwing away what I consider to be the most winnable contest on this roadtrip. Calgary 4, Dallas 2. Langkow, Lombardi, Hamrlik and Huselius with the goals. Brett Hull scores two from just inside the crease for Dallas.
Go Flames!
Mainly due to the fact the Stars are the walking wounded. Dallas is currently plugging along without the services of Mike Modano (10 goals, 20 points), Brendan Morrow (10 goals, 20 points), Steve Ott (4 points), Matthew Barnaby (127 PIM), Sergei Zubov (7 goals, 30 points) and Philippe Boucher (13 goals, 33 points). That's a captain, an assistant captain, two top-2 defenseman, 2 world class aggitators and 4 of their top 10 point producers in sick-bay. Ouch. In addition, defensive specialist Jeff Halpern is out with the proverbial "lower body injury", leaving the Dallas roster looking something like swiss-cheese.
To compound the problem, Dallas is hardly an offensive dynamo, injuries aside. Both Morrow and Modano had only managed 20 points in 28 and 27 games respectively before being hobbled. The Stars don't have a single player with more than 13 goals so far this year and their highest scoring forward is Jere Lehtinen with 12. They are currently ranked 24th in the league in terms of GF and have the 2nd lowest goal total at ES (64) in the league. While they are 3rd best in the NHL in terms of GA at ES (61), the resultant ES goal differential is hardly elite (3). The Flames, in comparison, have an ES goal differential of 32.
Can you say "ripe for the picking"? Dallas is missing a ton of quality minutes on the back-end, most of their leadership and nearly half of their top goal getters. They can't score at the best of times and have won only 1 of their last 4 games. And that victory came against the woeful LA Kings.
If Calgary can keep themselves out of the penalty box tonight, they should win handily. Course, should the night turn into a special teams battle, Calgary will most likely be left lamenting yet another road loss.
As it stands, I can't see the Flames throwing away what I consider to be the most winnable contest on this roadtrip. Calgary 4, Dallas 2. Langkow, Lombardi, Hamrlik and Huselius with the goals. Brett Hull scores two from just inside the crease for Dallas.
Go Flames!
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
I Hate Nashville
It boasts gag-inducing country music, kissing cousins and (worst of all) the bloody Nashville Predators. Not only did they hand the Flames their most embarrassing loss of the year last season (9-4), they also tend to beat Calgary pretty much every time the two teams clash. They have aggravating little 4th liners that like to elbow and sucker-punch opposing defensemen and a goalie that attacks wingers in the corner. DAMN THEM.
Last night's defeat was hardly surprising, given the circumstances. Bad road team versus the best home team typically results in a home-side victory. It still annoys me that the Flames can't seem to solve the Predator puzzle though. It also sucks that Calgary's improbable run of good fortune had to end upon my return to the city. Bah.
As for the game itself, I thought the Flames played about 15 minutes of quality road hockey in the first period. Prior to and after that it was pretty much all Nashville. Calgary's first unit was dominant again, with Langkow and Huselius accounting for all of the Flames offense, but every other Flames forward line pretty much gotten eaten alive by their Predator counter-part. Calgary's fourth line in particular, consisting of Nilson, Lundmark and Jeff Friesen, were invariably over-matched by whoever they played against. Nilson looks like he's still trying to get up to game speed while Lundmark seems to have lost every last ounce of confidence he may have once had. Jeff Friesen reverted back to Jeff Friesen.
That said, I don't think the Calgary forwards were the problem yesterday. The Flames were done in by a poor night from their top 4 defensemen - Warrener, Regehr, Hammer and Phaneuf. Warrener was a step or two behind the play all night, no doubt owing to the fact that he's rather slow and the Predators are pretty fast. He also made two terrible reads during the game - once on the PK where he chased an opposing player into the corner and once where he pinched in at the blueline only to see the Preds break-out 3on2 - that lead directly to goals against. Not that he was alone; the Dion also seemed to struggle. He commited a couple of turn-overs in the the defensive end, replicated Warrener's error a few minutes later (resulting in the Preds 4 goal) and bobbled the puck at the Nashville blueline in the last minute of the game (thereby erasing any chance Calgary had of tying it up).
Hamrlik and Regehr weren't much better, however. Hammer was forced to take an interference penalty that lead to the Preds tying marker thanks to an inability to avoid the Nashville forecheck and efficiently head-man the puck. And Regher, well...he just continues look like half the man he's proven to be in the past. His inability to break-up plays and win the puck battles in the corner, especially on the PK, is really starting to worry me. A guy of his size, age and pedigree shouldn't be struggling to erase opposing players down low the way he currently is. I think a significant portion of the Flames PK issues can be placed at the feet of a woefully lack luster Robyn Regehr, quite frankly, and until he turns it around, Calgary will continue to suck with a man down.
On the plus side, Kristian Huselius and Damond Langkow continue to get the job done. Despite lacking an Iginla to draw away defensive heat, both guys are proving to be significant offensive threats. On a night where the rest of their teammates were consistently outdone by the opposition, the two combined for 3 goals, 9 shots and a +3 rating. It's fairly safe to say the game would have been a complete rout without these boys in the line-up...
Anyways, some bad stuff, some good stuff and a predictable outcome. All will be poems and roses once again if the Flames can dig up 2 points against the injury-depleted Stars. Should Calgary lose again, however, I may have to consider another win-streak inducing extended holiday...
Last night's defeat was hardly surprising, given the circumstances. Bad road team versus the best home team typically results in a home-side victory. It still annoys me that the Flames can't seem to solve the Predator puzzle though. It also sucks that Calgary's improbable run of good fortune had to end upon my return to the city. Bah.
As for the game itself, I thought the Flames played about 15 minutes of quality road hockey in the first period. Prior to and after that it was pretty much all Nashville. Calgary's first unit was dominant again, with Langkow and Huselius accounting for all of the Flames offense, but every other Flames forward line pretty much gotten eaten alive by their Predator counter-part. Calgary's fourth line in particular, consisting of Nilson, Lundmark and Jeff Friesen, were invariably over-matched by whoever they played against. Nilson looks like he's still trying to get up to game speed while Lundmark seems to have lost every last ounce of confidence he may have once had. Jeff Friesen reverted back to Jeff Friesen.
That said, I don't think the Calgary forwards were the problem yesterday. The Flames were done in by a poor night from their top 4 defensemen - Warrener, Regehr, Hammer and Phaneuf. Warrener was a step or two behind the play all night, no doubt owing to the fact that he's rather slow and the Predators are pretty fast. He also made two terrible reads during the game - once on the PK where he chased an opposing player into the corner and once where he pinched in at the blueline only to see the Preds break-out 3on2 - that lead directly to goals against. Not that he was alone; the Dion also seemed to struggle. He commited a couple of turn-overs in the the defensive end, replicated Warrener's error a few minutes later (resulting in the Preds 4 goal) and bobbled the puck at the Nashville blueline in the last minute of the game (thereby erasing any chance Calgary had of tying it up).
Hamrlik and Regehr weren't much better, however. Hammer was forced to take an interference penalty that lead to the Preds tying marker thanks to an inability to avoid the Nashville forecheck and efficiently head-man the puck. And Regher, well...he just continues look like half the man he's proven to be in the past. His inability to break-up plays and win the puck battles in the corner, especially on the PK, is really starting to worry me. A guy of his size, age and pedigree shouldn't be struggling to erase opposing players down low the way he currently is. I think a significant portion of the Flames PK issues can be placed at the feet of a woefully lack luster Robyn Regehr, quite frankly, and until he turns it around, Calgary will continue to suck with a man down.
On the plus side, Kristian Huselius and Damond Langkow continue to get the job done. Despite lacking an Iginla to draw away defensive heat, both guys are proving to be significant offensive threats. On a night where the rest of their teammates were consistently outdone by the opposition, the two combined for 3 goals, 9 shots and a +3 rating. It's fairly safe to say the game would have been a complete rout without these boys in the line-up...
Anyways, some bad stuff, some good stuff and a predictable outcome. All will be poems and roses once again if the Flames can dig up 2 points against the injury-depleted Stars. Should Calgary lose again, however, I may have to consider another win-streak inducing extended holiday...
Monday, January 15, 2007
A Welcome Return
What's this? I bugger off for a couple of weeks and the Flames decide to tear it up - sans Iginla? Secondary and teritiary scoring in spades? Suddenly 9 games to the black?
Whoa. It seems my excursion couldn't have been more ill-timed: I missed 3 key victories over divisional rivals that included a 7-3 ass-stomping of the Avs (on the road!) and Friesen's first goal of the season! Against Edmonton! Although somewhat belated, that juicey little fact is probably the best Christmas present I received this season. What else? Ritchie's promotion and scoring splurge. Kipper's return to form. Lombo's continued excellence. Not to mention the team's right around 6th in the league in terms GPG. And, The Oilers are sucking. Almost all's well in Flame country right now.
I say, "almost" because, as I glance through some stats stuff here, it seems the Flame's special teams still pretty much suck. The PK would be downright horrendous if guys like Huselius and Lombo weren't constantly racking up points with a man down. It's not hurting the team too much currently, but...
Okay, no more complaints. I earnestly wish I'd be around to enjoy the past couple improbable weeks, but such is life. I'm still kinda dazed and confused so I'll be easing myself back into the blogging slowly but steadily over the next week or so...
Anyways, tonight the Flames play the streaking Nashville Predators. Nashville is great at home, has the 2nd most points in the conference and have beaten the tar out of Calgary over the last 2 seasons. Ugh. Course, THIS is the game I return home to watch.
Oh well. Just watching hockey again will be nice enough. Any kind of Calgary success - be it a win, a tie in regulation or some special teams success - would be a bonus.
So, to be realistic, let's say 3-2 Preds in a S/O. Huselius and Ritchie with the Calgary goals.
Go Flames!
Whoa. It seems my excursion couldn't have been more ill-timed: I missed 3 key victories over divisional rivals that included a 7-3 ass-stomping of the Avs (on the road!) and Friesen's first goal of the season! Against Edmonton! Although somewhat belated, that juicey little fact is probably the best Christmas present I received this season. What else? Ritchie's promotion and scoring splurge. Kipper's return to form. Lombo's continued excellence. Not to mention the team's right around 6th in the league in terms GPG. And, The Oilers are sucking. Almost all's well in Flame country right now.
I say, "almost" because, as I glance through some stats stuff here, it seems the Flame's special teams still pretty much suck. The PK would be downright horrendous if guys like Huselius and Lombo weren't constantly racking up points with a man down. It's not hurting the team too much currently, but...
Okay, no more complaints. I earnestly wish I'd be around to enjoy the past couple improbable weeks, but such is life. I'm still kinda dazed and confused so I'll be easing myself back into the blogging slowly but steadily over the next week or so...
Anyways, tonight the Flames play the streaking Nashville Predators. Nashville is great at home, has the 2nd most points in the conference and have beaten the tar out of Calgary over the last 2 seasons. Ugh. Course, THIS is the game I return home to watch.
Oh well. Just watching hockey again will be nice enough. Any kind of Calgary success - be it a win, a tie in regulation or some special teams success - would be a bonus.
So, to be realistic, let's say 3-2 Preds in a S/O. Huselius and Ritchie with the Calgary goals.
Go Flames!
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Back to Denver
So while Metrognome is on a cruise in the Caribbean he has asked me to keep the blog updated. Now my writing skills and in depth analysis don't even compare to his, which probably explains why on many occasions I would resort to posting pictures of women and polls. But alas I don't think that will suffice this time around as the blog has not been updated since he left a week ago.
I also have been away to Mighty Duck land during the holidays and did not keep up with the Flames. So I was pretty shocked when I came back and see so many injuries in the lineup. My first game was watching them play Dallas. I was expecting the Flames to lose that one, but they pulled off a W even after being out-shot and out-played.
Their next game vs. the Wild was fantastic! I don't think I have ever seen so many nice goals by the Flames in one game. The icing on the cake had to be the behind-the-back pass from Lombardi to Ritchie for the short handed goal. Absolutely sick!
As for tonights game against the Avalanche I don't know what to predict, especially with Calgary's shitty on-the-road performance. I am hoping for the W but that might be tough as the Avalanche will probably not want to give up 2 in a row at home (after losing to the Wings on Tuesday).
My prediction for tonight is a 3-2 Win for the Flames with Lombardi, Tanguay and Ritchie scoring.
Go Flames Go!
P.S. Congratulations to Kipper for his 100th NHL win against the Wild on Tuesday!
P.P.S. Metrognome went on a gay cruise :D
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Various and Sundry
So Calgary won the New Years match against the Oilers for the second year in a row. The fact that the victory propelled the Flames back atop the NW division standing is less fun and interesting than the great wailing and tooth gnashing that has arisen from the Oiler faithful in it's aftermath. Ahh my foes how I love to wallow in your misery!
What's more, Jarome Iginla managed his 50th, 51st and 52nd points of the year against the Greasers. Talk about "bounce-back player of the year"; Iggy is currently 3rd in the league in terms of overall points and 1st in terms of ES scoring. The only other WC player even approaching Jarome on the list is Teemu Selanne with 50 points. And he's played 4 more games. As it stands today, Iginla has the 2nd best PPG pace in the NHL behind Sid the kid and is hovering around an incredible 3.90 ESP/60 figure. Wow.
Another Flame leading a statistical category is Kristian Huselius. In the midst of a career season himself (and on the strength of 2 recent empty-net goals) Juice is 2nd in the league in shooting percentage behind only Alexander Radulov. And given his recent play and subsequent promotion to the top line with Iginla and Langkow, don't expect this number to take a plunge any time soon.
Speaking of offense, did anyone notice that the Flames are actually averaging 3 goals per game??
So Roman Hamrlik returns and low and behold!, Dion Phaneuf is back to playing a lot on the PP and a little bit on the PK. Thank God. Not insignificantly, Hammer's return also pushed Andrew Ference back onto the 3rd pairing where he most certainly belongs. Roman's importance to this team, and Kipper's stats, can't be overstated.
Also, did anyone notice Zyuzin was scratched in favor of Mark Giordano last game? Was that an injury thing or has Playfair finally realized, like the rest of us, that Gio is the superior player?
Finally, tonight the Flames take on the Canucks for the umpteenth time in the last 2 weeks. Frankly, I thought Vancouver was extremely fortunate to come out of the last game with 2 points: they got a couple of really lucky bounces, including the OT winner, and Kipper played one of his worst games in recent memory. In addition, Jarome wasn't much of factor, which has been a rare occurance this season. Meaning one or both of the Flames superstars are bound to make some significant contributions this evening. Also, I can't see the Canucks beating the Flames at the Dome twice in a row, especially now that Hamrlik has returned. As the magic eight ball once said, "all signs point to yes" (yes being a Calgary win).
Calgary 3, Vancouver 1. Lombardi, Hamrlik and Iginla with the goals.
Go Flames!
What's more, Jarome Iginla managed his 50th, 51st and 52nd points of the year against the Greasers. Talk about "bounce-back player of the year"; Iggy is currently 3rd in the league in terms of overall points and 1st in terms of ES scoring. The only other WC player even approaching Jarome on the list is Teemu Selanne with 50 points. And he's played 4 more games. As it stands today, Iginla has the 2nd best PPG pace in the NHL behind Sid the kid and is hovering around an incredible 3.90 ESP/60 figure. Wow.
Another Flame leading a statistical category is Kristian Huselius. In the midst of a career season himself (and on the strength of 2 recent empty-net goals) Juice is 2nd in the league in shooting percentage behind only Alexander Radulov. And given his recent play and subsequent promotion to the top line with Iginla and Langkow, don't expect this number to take a plunge any time soon.
Speaking of offense, did anyone notice that the Flames are actually averaging 3 goals per game??
So Roman Hamrlik returns and low and behold!, Dion Phaneuf is back to playing a lot on the PP and a little bit on the PK. Thank God. Not insignificantly, Hammer's return also pushed Andrew Ference back onto the 3rd pairing where he most certainly belongs. Roman's importance to this team, and Kipper's stats, can't be overstated.
Also, did anyone notice Zyuzin was scratched in favor of Mark Giordano last game? Was that an injury thing or has Playfair finally realized, like the rest of us, that Gio is the superior player?
Finally, tonight the Flames take on the Canucks for the umpteenth time in the last 2 weeks. Frankly, I thought Vancouver was extremely fortunate to come out of the last game with 2 points: they got a couple of really lucky bounces, including the OT winner, and Kipper played one of his worst games in recent memory. In addition, Jarome wasn't much of factor, which has been a rare occurance this season. Meaning one or both of the Flames superstars are bound to make some significant contributions this evening. Also, I can't see the Canucks beating the Flames at the Dome twice in a row, especially now that Hamrlik has returned. As the magic eight ball once said, "all signs point to yes" (yes being a Calgary win).
Calgary 3, Vancouver 1. Lombardi, Hamrlik and Iginla with the goals.
Go Flames!
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