Friday, October 14, 2005

 

Positives for the Flames


Comments:

Who was that who got beaten to both sides on the Dallas breakout that led to the OT goal? Surely not Phaneuf? (Thanks to an exotic form of colour blindness, the dark-crimson uniforms make it near-impossible for me to see the Calgary sweater numbers.)

I was in the bar, and when I saw whoever-it-was get his doors blown off, I laughed out loud and got up from the booth. I think I was already touching the fire to my Schadenfreude cigarette when Boucher popped the puck home and made it official for accounting purposes. Of course, it merely meant that a much better team got the extra standings point, but I enjoyed the hell out of it anyway.

And by the way, nice five-acre Conference Championship banner you guys got there. Jesus, talk about begging for some bad karma. Don't you realize that the thing basically shouts "We don't ever expect to need room for more of these"?
 


Fun (very fun) fact: Rhett Warrener's 28:46 for the evening actually exceeds Chris Pronger's average ice time (28:23) for the Oilers.
 


Good idea, keep hacking on Iginla, I'm sure that won't end embarrassingly.

And to channel Dave Barry, Schadenfreude Cigarette sounds like a good name for a rock band.
 


Try channeling someone funny next time, see if that works.
 


I have a dynamite, Bobby Bittman-type act I'm working on.
 


Colby, while nobody is nearly as clever as you, and you are oh so eager to point that out, you will get your cummupance. Hemske? Conklin? Horcoff? Ulanov?

I can wait to smoke my schadenfreude cigarrete, you pretentious ass.
 


Whoa. Slow your motor big-rig. The line between whimsical repartee and contemptuous derision isn't that hard to find is it?
 


Mr. D-mac, for one, its "Hemsky" not Hemske. I know spelling isn't that important for someone who refers to themselves as "D-mac", but still, the least you can do is show a little respect to both Mr. Hemsky and Mr. Cosh!

And stop drinking that Calgary Flames Kool-Aid, sure the Flames aren't horrible, but they sure could be playing better.
 


While I understand and accept the rules around respectable debate and discussion, there's only so much show boating a man can take before someone like me snaps.

Colby Cosh is the Jagr of the Battle of Alberta blog. The insulting little salute after a goal makes you want to break his fingers.

I'm sure Colby and appreciate that.
 


Actually, the flames are horrible right. Groin grabbingly awful. But it'll come together when Iggy starts scoring with regularity and regehr comesback.
 


Since "pretentious ass" is a substantially fair criticism, I'll concede that I am well prepared for the Oilers to start sucking and for the Flames to stop. Believe me, no one in the universe is more prepared; I can't see where or how I've given anybody the impression that I believe Shawn Horcoff is really Jari Kurri reborn. Obviously if I thought the Flames were destined to trail the conference with Chicago and Columbus--which is where their play so far puts them, objectively--I wouldn't have been nearly so happy about the other Great Satan beating them, now would I?

So is there an answer to my original question about who gave up the Stars rush, or is the subject of this weblog just gonna be my fat ass for the foreseeable future?
 


I think the truth is that the Stars rush was created once the entire Flames bench looked up at the scoreclock and realized that they would have to participate in a shootout. At that point they all panicked at the thought of Chris Simon in a shootout, and subsequently, they turned the puck over.
Even though Kipprussoff has been well prepared for a shootout, as he has played 5 games now without any defence, so why should a shootout be more difficult, the fact remains that Iginla can't crash the net on a shootout, and Amonte can't pass it. Hamrlik can't skate, and Phaneuf can't knock the goalie over. These are all concerns raised in that final 1:26 seconds, which all contributed to Boucher's goal.
 


I thought the question was rhetorical. Yes, the guy you were looking at was Phaneuf (Modano got past him wide, then stopped and got around him to the middle). That said, I'm pretty sure it wasn't his job to pick up the trailing Boucher as well; Amonte or Langkow missed his assignment.
 


Sure, and everybody in the league is going to get pickpocketed by Modano occasionally. But Boucher still had time to stop at the bench for a hoagie while Phaneuf got unstuck.
 


"Who was that who got beaten to both sides on the Dallas breakout that led to the OT goal? Surely not Phaneuf? "

I'm not sure if it was or not. NHL.com shows that Phaneuf, Hamrlik, Langkow and Amonte were all on the ice at the time. I didn't notice any major foul-up by the Flames other than Kipper letting in another soft goal.

Phaneuf played another good game, and if he was beat, so what? Pronger gets beat every now and then, every player does. Pronger was on the ice for LA's first two goals on Tuesday. Whooptee doo.

It's hard not to respect how well Phaneuf has done, being one of the best Flames so far this year, killing penalties, on the power play, logging a shitload of ice time for a rookie d-man, scoring, fighting, and handling the pressure like a 10 year vet.

Maybe Cosh is sticking Phaneuf under the microscope because he's bitter that another Edmonton native
will turn out to be a Flames superstar.

BTW
Phaneuf's stats so far = 1 goal, 1 assist, 11 PIM, plus 2, 15 shots, 21 minutes/average. (on a team with 14 goals for/23 against)
Pronger's stats so far = 0 goal, 2 assist, 4 PIM, plus 3, 5 shots, 28.23 minutes/average. (on a team with 12 goals for/11 against)
 


OK, looking at the NHL.com highlight video (which shows the sequence of events from a different angle than Sportsnet did) I see there's been some confusion here. The player I was referring to wasn't Phaneuf, who made the textbook play in Calgary's end, protecting Kiprusoff against the pass to Lehtinen. I was talking about the original bustout from the Dallas end.

Watch Langkow on the tape--he's the guilty party. He basically lets Modano eat a loose puck, and then makes no effort to keep up (and support an overmatched Phaneuf) as Modano and Lehtinen do a passing drill through the neutral zone. From the Sportsnet angle it was more obvious that it was a game-ending play; they had a camera pointing straight up-ice from Kiprusoff's right.

I'm told that a Mr. Abraham Zapruder also has some good amateur Super-8 footage.
 


Maybe Langkow was pouting from losing the #1 centre spot. Or, more likely, because I benched him in my fantasy league.

Actually, I do like the way Langkow handles himself on the power play - very smooth and in control with the puck, much better than Conroy was. Of course, I'd like him a lot more if he'd produce some points on the power play.
 

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