- The hurt is coming fast and furious now. Mark Giordano joins Daymond Langkow, Rene Bourque and Wayne Primeau on the sidelines. Gio hurt his shoulder in the Minny game and is likely out for the remainder. I doubt we even see him in the post season. That just sucks.
- The Bert/Lundmark/Greentree line held it's own in EDM, which was faintly surprising to me. Still, it's not a trio I'd run out against a club with any sort of significant depth. That's not to denounce the efforts the two fringe guys put in, but they're in the AHL for a reason. Playing them with one of the worst forwards on the Flames at ES is basically attaching a bulls-eye to their backs.
- Darryl Sutter's trade deadline is looking much more interesting than it was just two weeks ago. Calgary now has significant depth issues, especially up front, with a brutal 7 game road trip on the horizon. In January, another top 6 forward was a want - it's now been upgraded to a need, assuming the team's goal is finishing third in the conference.
- Columbus in town and Im heading to the game with Matt, who was kind enough to share his tickets. Im looking forward to watching the Blue Jackets because I consider them a very interesting club and think they're going to make some noise in the near future. Im half cheering for them to make the play-offs, plus I have Steve Mason in Mirtle's blogger invitational pool, so it's a bit of a win-win for me this evening.
- Calgary's PP is abysmal right now. I noticed last game that individual Flames are being isloated too easily during puck pursuit and retrieval in the offensive zone, which is something which shouldn't happen with the man advantage. I don't know if the players just aren't trying hard enough (one of the few times you'll see me use that phrase) or are thinking too much about setting up in their various zone during entry, but the puck support has got to improve.
- Dion Phaneuf is hitting bottom. He has to improve going forward. He was a complete train-wreck last game from my where I was sitting: he was the sole cause of the Oilers 5on3 PP in the third period, he lost his man on the cycle leading to Cole's goal and there was a handful of other scoring chances while he was on the ice. Both his decision making and execution leave a lot to be desired currently. Thank god he's still just 23 and has time to work on things.
