Since my feverish delight in Oiler fan pain has steadily dissolved into a kind of pity, Saturday night's win was more about addressing Calgary Flames issues than simply handing the Greasers another loss. Now that the Oil are plumbing the depths with the WC also-rans, beating up on them became less a motivating factor in and of itself.
So while winning the Battle of Alberta for a 3rd straight season was great, HNIC was more about winning on the road and staying in the hunt for the NWD title for the Flames. The 4-2 victory was certainly a step in the right direction, of course, but wasn't quite the domination I was hoping for. Edmonton was most certainly in the game until half way through the 3rd period, despite being a demoralized and injury riddled squad. How is it that Edmonton was allowed to hang around for so long?
Rhett Warrener and Andrea Zyuzin - I proposed somewhere earlier this year (possibly in comments on HG's blog) that whoever plays with Warrener seems to struggle. Low and behold, the Flames go on the road where the 3rd d-pairing can't be as sheltered and there's this two-some getting dominated all night. By the likes of MA Pouliot and Fernando Pisani to boot.
Although Calgary now has 2 healthy defensemen sitting on the sidelines (one of which I know to be a capable 6th guy in Giordano), Playfair continues to play the obviously hobbled Warrener. I say "obviously hobbled" only because it is my hopeful explanation for Rhett's continued inexorable spiral into utter uselessness. Course, it doesn't help his cause being paired with Andrea, who needs no excuse to suddenly and inexplicably suck on his own. After a couple of a decent performances at home, Zyuzin once again proved he's a fringe blueliner Saturday night: I mean, as he stepped up to make the ill-advised pinch that lead to the Pisani's second marker, I was heard to expostulate "What the hell is he doing? No need to pinch now!" Cue the inevitable resultant goal against. Hopefully this means one of (if not both) Giordano and Hale will draw in against the Blues.
Lackluster supporting cast - Anyone notice Lombardi on Saturday night? How about Tony Amonte? Wayne Primeau probably played his worst game as a Flame, capped by the brain fart that resulted in Sykora's break-away in the 3rd. Yelle scored, but wasn't much in evidence otherwise. If Calgary wants to continue to win on the road, especially against stiffer competition, they're going to need all hands on deck. Nashville is the last stop on this roadtrip and they have players that actually score when you send them in on clear-cut break-aways.
Not that it was all bad this weekend. Tanguay and Juice continued their strong play. Jarome got back on the scoresheet, although he still didn't look overly dominating. Kipper was excellent again, holding the fort with strong, timely saves in the 3rd that ultimately swung the game in the Flames favor. I also thought Brad Stuart put in another solid performance and was actually the better player of the Stuart/Regehr pairing. The Dion was good and bad all night, though his massive pasting of Toby Peterson near the end of the contest was something to behold.
Anyways, I'll take the win but remain dissatisfied with the road performance. The Flames will need to get gradually better on this trip if they want their success to continue. The Blues are another club playing for next year, but can probably be considered a superior team to Edmonton, currently. And then there's the dreaded Predators. Be sure that the latter will gladly eat our weaker links alive if they don't play with brains and urgency.
