Solution to all our problems

Everyone including myself has been frustrated by the recent play of our Calgary Flames. There is no denying that we are in a funk. With the exception of beating up on the Desert Dogs, we haven't had a decent game in weeks. Why? Well, the answers are varied, but most folks seem to agree on one thing; we haven't had much 'spark', 'jump' or 'enthusiam' as of late. I have listened to the interviews, read the hockey columnists and blogs, and no one seems to have an answer as to the solution.
No one, except me that is. The answer is surprisingly simple. If you want to change the direction that the club is headed, there is only one thing left to do; trade Kipper.
You heard me, trade away our reigning Veznia Trophy winner. It just makes sense.
Right now Kipper's value is still really high. He is still a top tier goaltender in this league, and would command something extremely valuable in return.
Now I know what your thinking; why would we trade away our most valued and consistent player when we are on the cusp of greatness?
Cause he ain't staying, and we sure as hell aren't on the cusp of greatness.
We aren't going to make the playoffs, and we aren't going to be a .500 hockey team. We are going to hope and wish and pray and our Flames will still crap the bed. Why not trade him away while his value is high, and we can start rebuilding for a couple of years down the road? Let's write off this hideous season right now, and look forward to starting fresh next year. Get used to the idea Flames fans. When his contract expires, Kipper is a good as gone.
Here's 5 reasons why;
1. We aren't playing good defense right now. On second thought, we are playing terrible, awful defense right now. As a whole, the defensive core is lazy, indecisive, and soft. We don't seem to want to change, and as a result, we will continue our opponents glorious chances to our opponents. Despite Kipper's unbelievable talent, this will result in goals for them, losses for us, and a terrible GAA for Kipper.
2. As mentioned Kipper's contract is up very soon, and with that comes the threat of him leaving us as a free agent. Now there are some of you that think that Kipper will want to stick around here, and help us win a championship, but your off your rocker. He is the reason that we are touted as being a championship team, and without him, people would realize that we aren't even a shadow of the '04 team that came as close as you can to winning the Cup without actually doing so. He is facing more shots, better scoring opportunites, all with less help than ever before. You honestly believe that he is going to give up his winning lotto ticket to stick it out with the Flames and renegotiate with the always generous Sutter? Not likely.
3. We don't have any other Fins on the team. Kipper's english bites, and with no one to speak his native tougne with, he has no one to bitch and moan about how bad we are. All that frustration stays bottled up and that is unhealthy.
4. Calgary is going smoke free on January 1st. Yet another reason to get the hell away from this city and it's fans.
5. We don't deserve him. He is the greatest goaltender in the whole world right now, and the last thing he hears at the end of every home game is 'BOOOOOO'. Yeah, I'd sure as hell stick it out here.

I found the solution to all our problems, now it's up the Sutter to do the right thing. Trade away our best player before he becomes another Jim Carrey. In fact, while your at it, see what you can get for Iggy and Dion. Since we are making changes, let's fire that moron Playfair too. If we dump the core of our team and start the rebuilding process right away, maybe we can get a jump on the competition. So are we all agreed? Giving up is the way to go?
Good. Great. Grand.

Just one more thing; Did I offend anyone? Any Flames fans out there that think my opions are insane? Did this post piss anyone off?

Good.

Now all you have to do is find one single Calgary Flames player to read it, and maybe we can get off our collective asses and win some friggin hockey games.

Sigh

Only the guy wearing a bright red Flames jersey would make this cartoon any more appropriate than it already is...

At this juncture, it's hard to point to any one thing this team is doing wrong. They are just plain inept all over the ice. The Capital's first two goals were utter garbage. The ill-advised scrambling by the Calgary defenders on both occassions was strongly reminiscent of beer-league shinny hockey... Ference and Warrener in particular were bad all game... I dont recall a single puck battle won by the forwards in or around the defensive zone all evening... Tanguay, Kobasew and Friesen were complete non-entities at either end of the rink...

Im pretty much at a loss, myself. The players aren't even executing basic, elementary plays: there isn't an offensive of defensive scheme in existence that would save this group right now. Panic and confusion are the order of the day 'round these parts currently. And Im not sure what needs to be done to fix it.

On the other hand, Iginla is playing really well.

Positives:

Few.

Negatives:

Innumerable.

(Cartoon purloined from here.)

From Cats to Caps

After Saturday night's ball-dropping the Flames look to avoid sinking even deeper into the divisional basement when they play the Washington Capitals tonight (Hurrah! It's actually on sportsnet!!).

I couldn't watch the Preds game but by all accounts the Flames came out flat and only started to play decent hockey when they got down by two goals. The stats agree with this account: Calgary only managed 16 shots through the first two periods while giving up 30. Hardly the best way to start a game against a strong team and a known nemesis.

Other issues reared their ugly heads again. The Flames reverted back to being outright terrible at face-offs, winning 41% on the evening. In addition, Calgary took 7 penalties to the Nashville's 3. Before the game I mentioned the Flames would have to stay out of the box as much as possible to give themselves a chance to win. No doubt Playfair was preaching the same thing. Too bad the team didn't listen.

From a coaching standpoint, I would hope that the loss against the Preds spelled the end of the Tanguay/Langkow/Iginla trio. From the onset of the preseason and further that's a combination that has never been successful and Saturday night was no different. While Iginla did manage a couple of goals, the first was during a PP with Juice and Lombo. Tanguay wasn't anywhere to be found on the scoresheet: in fact he only had about 14 minutes of ice all night (less than Lombardi and Amonte), meaning Playfair probably dropped him from the #1 unit during the game. Also, it looks like Kobasew is back getting his customary 9 minutes of ice, which drives me crazy. Charles is young, fast and can score - let him loose! Add in the fact that Huselius had all of 11 minutes on Saturday (as opposed to Friesen's 12 or Lundmark's 14)and one can see why the Flames had (have) trouble scoring...no ice-time for the skilled guys!

Sunday offered a glimmer of hope, however. It was mentioned in "TSN ice-chips" (now gone) that Playfair had re-united Juice with Langkow/Iginla and Tanguay with Lombo/Kobasew for Sunday's practice. Tanguay never played better than when he was servicing the left side on the "1A" line and Huselius needs top flight linemates to make any sort of difference. With Lombardi playing excellent hockey, I figure this gives the Flames a decent two pronged attack (while simultaneously taking the pressure off of Tanguay to click with Iginla). If the Flames can re-ignite the offense they found against Montreal and Toronto while continuing to improve on the defensive side, they should be able to find their way back into the win column. I hope.

Positives:

- Iginla scores another 2 goals. He has 3 goals and an assist in his last 3 games.

- By all accounts, Kipper was amazing on Saturday. Apparently he kept the score within reach.

- Lombardi with another point. Eight points in the first 9 games is a great start for Lombo.

Negatives:

- Terrible start against a dangerous foe. Duh.

- Discipline. As mentioned, another 7 PPs against.

- Offense. Another night another 1 goal loss.

- Alex Tanguay. Flubbed a couple of chances and was ineffective otherwise. Only 5 points in 9 games so far.

- Secondary scoring. Iginla scores and the rest of the team watches.

- Flames once again limp into November as one of the worst teams in the league.

The Caps are in town after being shut-out by the Oilers on Saturday. Washington has a couple of dangerous forwards in Ovechkin and Semin, a decent starting goaltender in Kolzig and little else. The Flames will need to challenge the Caps lackluster blueline corps (Brian Pothier, who was a 6th defenseman in Ottawa, plays nearly 30 minutes a night in Washington) while shutting down Ovechkin's line. The Dion should be back in the line-up after missing Saturday's game thanks to flu symptoms, so it should be interesting to see how he matches up against the Russian phenom...

6.1 Million Dollar Debt... Updated

I don't know how one can accrue such a debt but it seems like Mr. McCarty has done it somehow and now is selling his Stanley cup rings (and other sports mementos) to pay off his debt. Too bad I didn't have a bit extra cash laying around or I would pick up one of those replica Stanley Cups that he is auctioning off. Hopefully it all works out for McCarty soon and he focus more on his hockey career.

Story here

UPDATE
I was just watching theScore and Darren McCarty released a statement Sunday night stating that this $6.1 million debt is from business ventures with his friend (probably not a friend anymore) that have gone bad. He apparently co-signed on a few properties/loans and has "maybe" seen 10% of it returned to him since. So now he is basically screwed.

Predator Preview

The Predators roll into town on the heels of their 4-3 victory over the Sharks. Nashville struggled out of the gates but have turned it around recently. Course, whether they were winning or losing would be immaterial to the Flames - Calgary went 0-4 against the Preds last year, which included the clubs most humiliating loss (9-4) of the season.

In order to avoid such an outcome, Calgary will look to continue the improvement on special teams we saw against the Coyotes. In addition, the Flames will have to learn how to stay out of the box if they want to have a fighting chance to end this losing streak against the snarling cats. Another dominating night in the face-off circle wouldn't hurt either.

Keep an eye on Matthew Lombardi (or, at least, his stats since the game isn't televised) tonight - I personally think he's been the best Flame forward to date. He's tied for the club lead in points with 7 and is far away the top Calgary skater in the +/- category (+7). Like Tuesday, he'll be centering a line with Kobasew and Friesen. Despite being largely ineffective, the #1 line will once again consist of Iginla, Langkow and Tanguay. The possibility remains that Tanguay and Iginla will start to click at any time, but I wouldn't hang any prediction of that happening on the results so far. As I've mentioned previously, Tanguay looked the most comfortble when he was skating with Lombo and Charles. So, tonight, hopefully it either starts working between the two top paid players on the team, or Playfair abandons this experiment for more well proven combinations.

Prediction: Iginla and Vokoun fight in the corner in the third. Flames win a squeeker 4-2 (with an empty-netter).

Bwahahahahaaa!

Malkin's 4th Goal

Amazing

Happy Birthday Kipper!

Miikka turns the big three-oh today.

Since he's the only reason the Flames win any games at all (right Oilers fans?) I figured I should commemorate the occassion with a stolen cake image. Horray for Kipper! May you confound and frustrate your rivals for another 30 years!

They Would Have to Pay Me

Apparently some job site has decided to purchase the naming rights to the Phoenix Coyotes Glendale arena. The deal will see Jobing.com pay $2.5 million per year over 10 years for the privilege(?) of dubbing the Coyotes home rink the "Jobing.com Arena" (laff).

The absurdity of the moniker aside, one has to wonder which Jobing exective thought this was a good idea: while there is a certain wisdom to "buy low, sell high", one also has to have the confidence the asset in question will, some day, appreciate in value.

Not a bet I'd currently be willing to make, myself. The Phoenix franchise is hitting rock bottom right now and doesn't seem to have the history, fan-base or management necesssary to weather such a storm. What Jobing has probably puchased is 1-3 years of a ridiculously named building half filled with disappointed and/or apathetic people. Hopefully by then the beleaguered team will move somewhere else before they begin to suck so completely they create an immense, inescapable black-hole, resulting in the total imposion of the Southern States. Should the latter occur I guess they'd have to settle with "the Jobing.com Event Horizon", which admittedly sounds more impressive.

Dear Diary: Jackpot.

The Coyotes were the tied-up cheerleader to the Flame's Quagmire last night. I mean they are a really, really bad hockey team. In a slump. Completing a back-to-back-game road schedule...

Not to be a wet blanket or anything, because the Flames did in fact win convincingly by improving on a number of areas they were previously sucking the big, syphilitic bone at, but...I can't honestly remember the last time Calgary played such an utterly incompetent opponent. Check that. Incompetent AND demoralized. By the time it was 6-1 and Curtis Joseph was leaping around desperately in his crease to keep his "team" within 5, I actually felt a twinge of outright pity for Gretzky and his players in general. Well, not Morris, but everyone else. Except Jovo.

MadMac covered most of the positives in his post below. I'll hasten to add a very strong showing in the face-off dot was an additional plus (something I've been harping on), not to mention such an impressive spread of scorers on the night: I can't honestly remeber the last time the Flames had 6 different guys tally in the same evening. Yay for secondary scoring!

The game was hardly a perfect one for the home team, despite the score. Calgary still managed to take 9 penalties on the evening, more than half of them in the offensive zone. While the PK was great, one has to conclude that a stronger opponent would have made the Flames pay for their lack of discipline on any other night. Further, I thought Iginla was thoroughly ordinary for two and a half periods and Tanguay reverted back to the pensive play that he showcased earlier in October. I think a return to the second line is in order for him. He and Iginla seem to think too much when they're paired...

But, enough griping. It was nice to get the tied up cheerleader and even better that the Flames had the offensive potency to do something with her (for a change).

As for the Coyotes, I think they have to go back to Edmonton to face the Oilers again. Ugh. I hope MacT's bunch lubes up first; for Gretzky's sake at least.

Just what the Doctor Ordered!!!!

You couldn’t have asked for a better performance from the Calgary Flames last night. In their 6-1 win over the struggling Phoenix Coyotes, every facet of the Flames game seemed to be unstoppable.

All night long poor Greztky looked frustrated and well he should. His team got their collective asses kicked in a game that was as close to a must-win as you can get in the month of October. Phoenix looked like a basement dwelling team often does; slow, out of synch, soft on the puck, and plagued by poor goaltending. (Although I thought Curtis played rather well in relief, but more on that later).

You have to have some sympathy for the Great One. I mean, he was the single greatest hockey player ever to strap on skates, and now he is the coach and part owner of one of the league's worst teams. His best player left the game with back spasms (Doan), and while I could mention how terrible the rest of the squad is, I won’t...

I won’t go into great detail on how he has some of the least liked hockey players in the professional ranks among his squad. I won’t talk about how loud mouthed JR and former tough guy Owen Nolan are not pulling their weight, even as darkhorses. I could mention that Jovo was chronically overrated when he played in Vancouver and now he is showing his true sub-par colours in the desert, but again, that just wouldn’t be right. I will not talk about how Comrie’s ability to break up a team from within is rivaled only by the size of his huge cantaloupe head. Lastly, I sure as hell won’t mention the former Flames cast-offs of Morris and Saprykin are one step away from working at the same gas station as Rico Fata.

I won’t do that though, I have too much respect for Wayne.

In the past couple of years, when the Flames were facing off against a team as weak as this one, the fans were usually treated to a ‘closer-than-it-should-be’ Flames win of 2-1. Not so on this night though.

The much maligned special teams play had a MONSTER game in particular. It all started just under 6 minutes into the contest when Chucky opened the scoring with the first of 3 powerplay goals on the night. (The Flames would eventually end up going 3 for 10 with the man advantage). Perhaps even better than the PP was the penalty kill, as the Flames shut out the Desert Dogs on all 9 of their powerplay advantages. In addition to being perfect of the PK, the boys in red took it one step further by tallying a short-handed goal on a two on none by Tony Amonte.
The fore-check was devastating, causing multiple turnovers and I am sure more than a few bruises on the Coyotes defensemen. Kipper was outstanding, absolutely robbing some chump dressed in white at one point in the game. (I don’t remember the specifics as I was yelling at the top of my lungs).

Dion was a tank as usual, rocking Nolan just inside the blue line, adding to his already huge highlight reel hits package. (Coming soon – Don Cherry’s Rock ‘em, Sock ‘em all Dion addition). Iggy had one of his trademark ‘faster than a speeding bullet’ wrist shots from inside the blue line to beat Cujo, and although he only garnered 2 assists, Damond was the games first star.

Of all the positives, in my opinion, the top three were:

1. Guys who need to score all notched one – Juice. Amonte, and Hammer all got their firsts.
2. Jarome shooting the puck more, he had a couple of really, really close calls to go with one beauty of a goal.
3. Kipper stopped 26 of 27 shots, and stood on his head whenever we needed him.

The toughest thing that we have to do now is keep this momentum up for three days until we face off against my least favorite team; the Nashville Predators.

GO FLAMES GO!

A Lone Voice

Thanks to a comment in this Mirtle post I've come across what may very well be the only Phoenix Coyote fan-blogger out there. I suggest we support this brave soul as much as possible - it's not like his team is going to provide much sustenance for his spirit or self esteem. In addition, it might be interesting to have an insider's perspective on the train wreck that is the Phoenix organization...

Deja Vu...Maybe

On October 27th of the 05/06 season, the Flames met up with the arguably inferior Phoenix Coyotes in desperate need of a win. Instead, the club turned in a pitiful 11 penalty, 15 shot performance and lost the game 3-2. It was the 12th game of the season and Calgary was languishing near the bottom of the league in most statistical categories. Going into the contest most people thought a big win over the struggling Desert Dogs was both needed and assured at the time.

Fast forward a year later. The Flames are once again floundering in the league's basement thanks to a few weeks of thorough bed-shitting. And owing to their Franchise being a total farce, the Coyotes are once again the de facto "cure-what-ails-ya" opposition. Course, my overwhelming desire is that the Flames do not repeat last season's luckluster performance this evening.

Not that they will have to play particularly well to win tonight. One of the few minor differences about this season's contest is that the Coyotes are probably even worse than they were previously (somehow). Gretzky's band of Misfits have averaged only 2 goals per game over their first 9 games, while allowing a league worst 4.22 goals against. Leading into tonight, Phoenix has lost 3 straight games, two of which were shut-outs. And their special teams have been just as bad as Calgary's...which is saying something.

As if that wasn't enough, The Coyotes are playing the second game of a back-to-back couplet tonight and are starting their back-up goaltender, Mike Morrison (3 GP, 6.00 GAA, .811 SP). They have guys named "Lisin" and "Yandle" playing more than 17 minutes a night. And Derek Morris is a chump.

So, like last year, Im looking at all this and expecting a nice, fat, juicy blow-out win. Course, like last year, the Flames could end up being fed to the bottom-feeders thanks to their penchant for being a back-up goalie's best friend. So, while the Coyotes should technically be a guaranteed win and the first, faltering step towards redemption, they may well end up pushing the Flames to rock bottom...

Mostly it will depend on which Kipper we see tonight: the Vezina winner or the preseason flopper. It also wouldn't hurt to, say, win some face-offs, block some shots, or actually score on the PP either. The latter task will be left up to the new (old) #1 trio of Jarome Iginla, Damond Langkow and Alex Tanguay. Jeff Friesen has been moved up to the 2nd line with Kobasew and Lombardi while Juice has been dropped to the 3rd unit with Lundmark and Amonte. The fourth line will consist of Nilson, Ritchie and McCarty.

Honestly, Im not thrilled with the new arrangements: Huselius may prove useless on a third line and the Kobasew/Lombardi/Tanguay was just starting to mesh nicely. I suppose the potential benefits include a very swift 2nd unit with the inclusion of Friesen as well as a (potentially) potent first line...not that that proved true earlier in the season though...

Anyhoo, grave predicitions based on past behavior aside, I think the Flames will pull out a victory. Whether it'll be thanks to Calgary playing well or Phoenix playing badly is another matter. The margin of victory will reveal which was the case tomorrow.

GO FLAMES GO!

Sutter is Silent, but for how long?

During his tenure as the Flames head coach, Darryl Sutter was known for being the strong, silent type. The one possible exception to that was he never hesitated to call out Flames players in the Media. Jarome, Dion, Damond, Juice, Robyn, Tony, the list goes on and on. In years past, no one was ever above being named when they weren’t towing the line.

Now that he has given up being the bench boss, his time in the media has lessened (probably much to the dismay of every hideous suit and tie producer in Calgary). As a result of less time in front of the microphones, Sutter hasn’t had a chance to call out any of the Flames players in what has proved to be yet another terrible start.
Which brings me to my point; how much longer before Sutter calls out Jim Playfair?

Before we begin, let’s just get a couple of things out of the way up front:

- I understand the season is just beginning.
- I know that Sutter would never have chosen Jim if he didn’t think he was capable of doing a good job.
- I am not panicking about our chances of the playoffs or even the Stanley Cup.
- I am, however, wondering how much longer Sutter will publicly stay silent about the Flames woes.

Let’s look at what has been troubling the Flames thus far this season:

1. Abysmal special teams
2. Inability to win on the Road
3. Top players not producing
4. Goaltending

Sound familiar anyone?
These are the same problems we had last year. However, unlike last year, Jim has decided to do things a bit different than Sutter did:

He has not called out anyone individually.
He has not mixed up his lines.
He has not tried to send the players a message (with a bag skate or other similar unpleasant activities).

Now, Sutter is not an idiot, in fact, despite his terrible wardrobe, he is one smart cookie. He knows that if he steps in and calls out specific players he will be undermining Jim’s authority in the dressing room.

But, what about calling out Jim?

When next he runs into a member of the media, why not talk about how Playfair needs to step up? Although unlikely, here are a couple of reasons why it’s more likely than you might think:

1. Sutter has proven that he is willing to call out any and all folks that need to perform better. What makes the current head coach less of a target than your 7 million dollar forward?

2. Sutter is more than willing to be the ‘big bad boss’ if it will help the team win. Rumor has it that Sutter was extremely well respected when he was the coach, but not particularly well liked. Jim on the other hand, is supposed to be the exact opposite. Well liked, with little respect. Now I know it’s a stretch, but if Sutter called out Jim, he could publicly stand up for himself and earn a bit more respect from the current Flames roster. Think it couldn’t happen? Think again. Sutter knows how to motivate people, at this level, that’s one of the biggest responsibilities of a head coach. If I have thought of this, so has he.

3. Why not? The Flames aren’t playing their best hockey. The four problems I listed have resulted in losses against playoff bubble teams. Playfair looks nervous behind the bench, and, although it’s early, I bet that Sutter feels its time to do something.

Could this happen? It might.
Will this happen? Probably not.
One thing is for sure though, it is something for all you fans out there to think about, and more importantly, comment on.

The Great Sites Just Keep Coming...

"On the Forecheck" is a hockey stats blog I recently discovered thanks to Off-Wing Opinion. The piece that caught my eye was "Wrist Shot Wonders". The Forechecker assembled the top 100 players in terms of wrist-shots taken from last season and ranked them by shooting percentage.

Guess who came in first?

Not that it's helped the Flames a great deal thus far. But at least there's hope...

Interesting new Hockey Site

A new web resource called "hockey-recap" was recently brought to my attention by the site's creator. Take a gander and you'll see there's a wealth of useful information. I find the injury update section of particular interest, although that's just the tip of the ice-berg. As of today, Hockey-Recap will be added to the sideboard.

Mirtle has a more in-depth discussion about it here.

At Least the Trip's Over

Finding a way to lose.

I didn't want to drag this old cliche out. I really didn't. But they've FORCED me to. Three straight games of one goal deficits, brain cramps, shoddy special teams and losses to potential play-off bubble opponents. It's only fitting, really.

And so it went last night. The floundering Bruins not only managed to score on their first shift, but also on their first powerplay of the evening. The Flames penalty-killing is so utterly pitiful right now it took the Bruins a mere 4 seconds to score with the man advantage.

Many of the other issues that lead to losses previously in the roadtrip were front and center last night as well. Another soft goal by Kipper. Oh for three on the powerplay. Friesen's give away at the Bruins blueline lead to the first tally - another PeeWee level mistake on a team that supposedly prides itself on defensive awareness. Let's not forsake the dumb penalties taken by Amonte and Warrener in the 3rd either. During a game in which the officiating was surprisingly lax, Amonte breaks his stick and then waves it at a passing Bruin. Automatic call. Shortly after that, Warrener manages to cap his 12 minute, -1 performance by clearing the puck over the glass from his own end. Automatic call.

Finding a way to lose.

Not that it's all bad, though. Lomabardi and Kobasew are FINALLY getting close to 20 minutes a game. Coupled with Tanguay's continued improvement, it looks like the Flames might actually have 2 legit scoring lines for a change. The challenge that remains is getting all of the team's supposed strengths back on track.

Positives:

- Alex Tanguay. Scores second of the year and looks much more comfortable. Probably best game as a Flame.

- Lombardi/Kobasew. In concert with Tanguay, Lombo and Charles have combined to form the Flames most consistently dangerous unit the last two games.

- Dion Phaneuf. Playing nearly 30 minutes per night.

Negatives:

- Bad end to a miserable roadtrip. Only managed to snag 3 of 8 points against beatable opponents.

- Special teams. Like last October, the Flames are amongst the very worst in the league in both PK and PP. Last night it cost them. Again.

- Rhett Warrener/Andrew Ference. Watching these two guys give the puck away no less than 3 times during a shift that culminated in Murray's 1st goal had me yelling at the TV. Sigh.

- Miikka Kiprusoff. Outdueled by Raycroft, Huet and now Toivenen. Has given up a minimum of one bad goal per game in the last 3 contests.

- Jarome Iginla. Jarome looked really tired all night. For the third straight game, Iginla came up empty when the Flames needed a gamebreaker.

- Face-offs. Only Iginla eclipsed the 50% mark in the circle last night. And he's a fragging WINGER.

- Injury to Yelle. Just when the Flames are sturggling they lose their best defensive forward and face-off center. Early indications are he suffered a fractured ankle, meaning he'll be out for a significant period of time. BOOO!

- Tony Amonte. Starting to approach "totally useless" levels.

The Flames return to Calgary to take on the equally terrible Coyotes next Tuesday. One way or the other, a losing streak is going to be snapped....

Bruise the Beantown Bruisers

trip news and such will be delayed until further notice...

The Flames take on the struggling Boston Bruins tonight. Seems the Chara lead Beantowners have stumbled out of the gate despite the significant additions of Savard, Kessel and the Big Z in the off-season: the Bruins only gathered 3 points from the first 5 games and were outscored 21-10 in that time.

Course, the Flames haven't been "Sabre-ing up" the league themselves either. Thanks to back to back 5-4 losses to Toronto and Montreal, there's some speculation that the team reverted to a more "run-and-gun" system (either through de facto application by the coaches or a du jour implementation by the players), resulting in the Oiler style 5-4 set-backs.

Personally, I think the truth of the matter is much more simple, if less intuitive: mediocre goaltending and terrible special teams. As Matt points out in his Game-day thread, the Flames have been laughably bad on both the PP and the PK thus far this season. Consider the Montreal game: 3 PP and 1 SH goal against. Simple things like losing face-offs and allowing shots from the point were the culprits here - the fact that Calgary actually managed to bury some of their scoring chances for a change is an unsullied and encouraging positive. To the point, I don't believe the Flames have to stop scoring 4 goals a game in order to prevent 5 goals against. The two need not be mutually exclusive. A stellar Kipper and/or average special teams play wins us the game in Montreal - not fear and trembling whenever a forward crosses the threshold into enemy territory.

Individually, there have been some excellent performances from Lombardi, Kobasew and Giordano recently. The fact that the second line (Tanguay-Lombo-Kobasew) was easily the Flames best against the Habs was a required step in the "secondary scoring" direction. Further, although it was discouraging to see him whiff on ANOTHER break-away on Tuesday, Iginla has been playing at a level superior to that which we saw from him a year ago. Once the PP wakes up, expect Jarome and Huselius to start potting a few more.

The disappointing few include Langkow, Kipper and Amonte. Beyond his beauty goal on Saturday night, Langkow has looked rather stunned out there. For evidence, see his awful, awful give-away to Johnson versus Montreal (the result was Bonk's 2nd goal). That was quite simply a PeeWee level error on his part. Amonte has been the blah player he showed he was last year - fast and wily and pretty much useless in the offensive zone.

Kipper hasn't been terrible recently, but he certainly hasn't been great: Sundin's overtime winner, for example, was a pretty stoppable shot. The Bonk, Kovalev goals as well as the second Souray marker were also archetypal "big saves" for Kiprusoff on most nights previously. Like last year, expect Kipper to return to form sooner rather than later (partially dependent on when the Flames get their ST act together).

Overall, color me optimistic about tonight and beyond. I was most worried about the Flames scoring some goals. You'd find me far more pessimistic had we lost the past two contests 3-1 or 3-2...

The Return

6 days, 3 cities, 2 live hockey games and 1 viewed on a fuzzy TV in an obscure hotel corner.

Whew. Too much to catch up on right now to fully update everyone on my time away. Here's a quick and dirty list of my impressions though:

- Offense, Yay!

- Defense, Boo!

- Even-strength, Yay!

- Special Teams, GAG.

- Lombardi, Yay!

- Langkow, Boo!

Details and trip pics will be added soon...

Instant Game Preview: Flames at Maple Leafs

All your Hezbollah are belong to us

Who: Calgary vs. Toronto
When: Saturday, October 14th @ 5:00pm MT
Where: ACC
Why: Is for fun.
TV: CBC

What do the Flames need to do to win?
One of two things: Either score a bunch of goals (and by "bunch" I mean more than the one goal they had against Ottawa) or continue their strong defensive play. To up the offense, they need to forecheck hard and pressure the Leafs to cough it up. This is their most efficient manner in generating offense.

What do the Maple Leafs (shouldn't it be the Leaves? ... dumbasses) need to do to win?
Ummm, other than praying for a miracle ... they should definitely play better defensively. They can certainly score goals but if the NJ game was any indication, they certainly need to shut the door. Raycroft should be an upgrade over Aubin. And somebody from the backend needs to step it up if Wozniewski is unable to play.

Prediction:
Calgary finally manages to score more than two goals in a game. They get three. The third being an empty netter in which Phaneuf body checks the puck into the net from, get this, HIS side of the red line! Final score: 3-1. Toronto loses another defensemen in the second period forcing Ponikarovsky to the third pairing. Poni's father is enraged and demands a trade. He is subsequently flipped to Florida for D-man Branislav Mezei.