The Flames visit Vancouver tonight in the back half on the HNIC doubleheader (that's 8PM MST, as is the style at this time). Alain Vigneault is shuffling the Canucks' lines (hello again, Sedinlund!), but as far as I can tell the blueline crew will be the same bunch from Thursday. As of a couple of days ago, this would have been a genuine stumper for me.

Q. Who are Alex Edler, Patrick Couloumbe, and Nathan McIver?

a) The guys who sold YouTube to Google
b) The accused in the Duke lacrosse "case"
c) The executive producers of Corner Gas
d) The Vancouver Canucks 4/5/6 defensemen

It's (d) of course, which goes a little ways towards explaning that 6-0 loss to the Ducks Thursday. And speaking of the Ducks, how about that game last night?

The Ducks are obviously very good. They certainly could have won last night with some different bounces, or poor goaltending. But with respect to George Johnson, I don't know if you can stretch that into would have. It was an interesting first 7 minutes. For the Flames it went roughly like this:

Good shift (Lombardi line), fantastic shift (Iginla line), Langkow penalty, successful PK, good shift (Richie line), Prust penalty, successful PK, Goal, Goal.

Now, if you're familiar with the Calgary Flames hockey club, you may be aware that they're less inclined to take chances with a 2-goal lead. This goes part of the way to explaining the 37-18 shot count (as does the 5-2 PP discrepancy). On the other hand, the Ducks hemmed the Flames in their own zone for long stretches, especially later in the 2nd. On the other hand, the Flames did sprinkle some attacks and scoring chances in there as well (unlike G7, where own-zone pressure was interrupted only by neutral zone turnovers). Who knows! I'll be looking forward to future Ducks-Flames games.

Extra: Earl posts possibly the most famous photo in Saddledome history in his debriefing. I don't remember if I've mentioned this before, but I know that guy. He worked at the golf course I play at for at least a summer (after this photo was taken, too). He insists he was not intoxicated (obviously lying). He also says at least a couple of people nearby stiffed him for the money they said they'd give him if he did it (probably true).

Also, apart from the overall composition, the best part of the photo is definitely the shock/laughter beer coming out the nose of the young lady lower left.

As for tonight, who knows. The Flames won the 1st four matchups last season (1 in S/O) and the Canucks won the last four (2 in OT). Anson Carter and Sami Salo killed the Flames last year; they won't be a problem tonight, but Yo! Luongo! may well be. I enjoyed this bit in the Vancouver Sun:

Remember when we used to make fun of how offensively challenged the Flames were? Well, they still are, but they're scoring more goals than the Canucks. Before their game Friday night, Calgary had averaged 2.64 goals per game and ranked 21st in the NHL. Vancouver is averaging just 2.29 goals per game and is ranked 28th.

Call it 2-1 for the visitors (Tanguay, Phaneuf). Go Flames.

INSTANT UPDATE: Looks like Salo is back. Stay out of the penalty box please, lads. Also, hope the Oilogosphere has fun today.