Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Flames Game Day
The Flames host the Blues tonight (730PM MST, RSN West). First some miscellany:
**I caught about the last 10 minutes of the Oilers game last night, and wish I had been holding a pen, but a few notes from memory:
** Tyler and Tom have both noted a funny (i.e. crying on the inside) quote from Bill Daly, in response to the Forbes story on increased franchise values: "That's not unexpected. That's what the CBA was intended to accomplish." They're both pretty hard on the media too, and fairly, I'd say.
That said, I'm a forgive-and-forget kind of guy. I'd be happy to give everyone a pass on the crappy, way-too-credulous lockout coverage, if only they'd start thinking more critically now. When the lockout ended, I had 3 questions for hockey writers. Briefly:
**Oh yeah, Game Night! Unlike our Western Canadian competitors, the Flames have gotten the job done against the Blues since the lost year. They got Stempniaked (man, that comment thread is funny in retrospect) in the shootout the first game last season, but won the last three, plus the first this season.
The Blues have been pretty much as expected so far this season: better, but not playoffs better. A Flames win tonight is important. If LT can use baseball jargon, I suppose I can use golf...
The Oil's win last night was like birdieing 18 at the end of a weak round; the scorecard (2-2-1 road trip) doesn't really look that bad. A Flames loss tonight would be like finishing a real good round by double-bogeying the par-5 18th: a lot of the progress against par made through a tougher stretch of holes is somewhat nullified by making a 7 when it ought to have been a 4 or a tap-in 5.
Calgary's malodorous special teams (both 26th-ranked) have got to get it together one of these nights. I'm gonna call a 5-1 win, with 3 PP GF, 0 PP GA, and a hat trick for Mr. Alex Tanguay. Go Flames.
**I caught about the last 10 minutes of the Oilers game last night, and wish I had been holding a pen, but a few notes from memory:
- Liles should clearly be suspended for what he did to Smyth. Calling that a "knee-on-knee hit" is actually charitable to J-M. Liles was standing still -- it was a trip, and a bloody dangerous one (the same play is illegal in football).
- Was Liles claiming injury? No misconduct or match penalty was recorded -- just a minor -- and yet Laperriere served it for him. Bit of a noodle-scratcher that I can't find an explanation for.
- Chuckled a bit at the love for Roloson's "beautiful save" on Hedjuk from about 3 feet off the goal line. The one angle showed it leaking through his legs and being pushed back in by... I'm sorry, was that Toby Petersen out there making the nice play with 45 seconds left?
- Obviously MacT is still counting on Horcoff for his defensive play, but #10 just does not look right in the attacking end; he's in a legitimate slump. He made a couple plays on the PP that reeked of desperation. The slapper from the top of the circle that misses far side and ends up behind Roloson is just not a play a guy like Horcoff makes when he's going good. Same with the weak cross-ice feed at Pisani that could have been deflected or intercepted by 3 of the 4 penalty killers (and was). It's startling, really. (I'll let Edmontonians in on a secret: Horcoff had a de facto nickname on Flames radio through the playoffs last year, and it was "If Only We Had A Guy Like". As in, just about every time his name came up, it was in the context of If only we had a guy like Shawn Horcoff... Right now we do, only his name is Langkow and he's the same player as he was before.)
** Tyler and Tom have both noted a funny (i.e. crying on the inside) quote from Bill Daly, in response to the Forbes story on increased franchise values: "That's not unexpected. That's what the CBA was intended to accomplish." They're both pretty hard on the media too, and fairly, I'd say.
That said, I'm a forgive-and-forget kind of guy. I'd be happy to give everyone a pass on the crappy, way-too-credulous lockout coverage, if only they'd start thinking more critically now. When the lockout ended, I had 3 questions for hockey writers. Briefly:
- How do you plan on judging whether the new NHL CBA is an improvement over the old one? Is there at least one objective standard that should be met?
- The owners won and the players lost. If the new CBA is not an improvement, is it the owners fault?
- And if so, what level of skepticism would it be appropriate to cast on the owners' proposed solution next time?
**Oh yeah, Game Night! Unlike our Western Canadian competitors, the Flames have gotten the job done against the Blues since the lost year. They got Stempniaked (man, that comment thread is funny in retrospect) in the shootout the first game last season, but won the last three, plus the first this season.
The Blues have been pretty much as expected so far this season: better, but not playoffs better. A Flames win tonight is important. If LT can use baseball jargon, I suppose I can use golf...
The Oil's win last night was like birdieing 18 at the end of a weak round; the scorecard (2-2-1 road trip) doesn't really look that bad. A Flames loss tonight would be like finishing a real good round by double-bogeying the par-5 18th: a lot of the progress against par made through a tougher stretch of holes is somewhat nullified by making a 7 when it ought to have been a 4 or a tap-in 5.
Calgary's malodorous special teams (both 26th-ranked) have got to get it together one of these nights. I'm gonna call a 5-1 win, with 3 PP GF, 0 PP GA, and a hat trick for Mr. Alex Tanguay. Go Flames.
# posted by Matt @ 11:24 am 
Comments:
I agree with everything you said about Horcoff's play last night (the high circle PP slapshot particularily stands out) but I would still take him over Langkow. Horcoff can play the PK and actually wins faceoffs. Plus, like you say, Horcoff is in a slump, while I think Daymond is just being Daymond.
I did not understand the love for Rollie's save on Hejduk last night either. Imagine if it had squeaked in (and it darn near did) -- letting in the tying goal from that angle would have been goat city. He made a routine save look difficult by almost flubbing it.
Anyway, the Flames will show the Oilers what you do with a team like St Louis -- you beat them black and blue (bwa).
Go Flames.
Matt, when I have to read the Flames writer to get a post game analysis on the Oilers, you have officially laid the smackdown on Andy for the time being. Well done.
It appears Garbia is out of commission after all that street hockey.
Did Grabia have a massive coronary on Saturday while running down the rink on a break away?
CinO is unusually quiet of late too.
A co-worker of mine was at Flames/Ducks on Friday night, and happily reported that the Sattledome booed CFP lustily. I have a new found respect for Flamers....
yeah they did get a little over excited about the save... but here is the reason that Petersen was on the ice late...
"I don't know if there's anybody I feel more comfortable with having the puck in open ice than Toby right now. You just know he's going to make the right play. His decision-making has been impeccable."
- Oilers head coach Craig MacTavish on the strong play of Toby Petersen since being recalled from Iowa.
Also, I just read this on ESPN's power rankings for the week...
Fans were rallying to raise $10,000 to give back to coach Craig MacTavish for a recent league fine. How about that one victory in the past six games? Can you raise money for that? Or raise Jussi Markkanen from the dead?
...ouch
Hope Smytty is back in the lineup ASAP
Lombardi's +10 is damn impressive but before you start throwing out comparisons to Horc I must ask if Steve Lombardi's getting all the tough matchups because that's how MacT's always rolled with Horc.
Anyway I was worrying about Horc but after the last few games not so much. He started playing much better in the Mtl game and now he's generating chances, his line'st taking on the other team's top line and is consistently outchancing them and it's just a matter of time before he starts potting a few.
I don't have a clue why Liles wouldn't be suspended — but he's not going to be.
Granted, it's not a standard Domi-elbow-to-the-face suspension type move, but it was dangerous as hell — and that should be the main criteria for suspending players anyway.
Matt, Do you have any suggestions for Lotto tickets? Your predictions have certainly been within, what the military call, circular error probable. Kiprusoff is quietly climbing the goalie stats and with 3 shutouts now leads that category. Iggy is now in the top twenty in scoring and is really playing steady. PK seems to be improving, although StLou probably isn't the sternest test.
For the Liles hit, it looked to me like he was taking a split stance to throw a hip check, and Smytty was just far faster than he anticipated, and thus the knee on knee. Then again, he could've just done a potentially career ending move on purpose.
As for the Flames game, always good to see Kipper putting up great numbers, especially for my fantasy team. Which been, to this point, really lacking in the goaltender statistics.
**yawn** another Flames win ... what is that now? FIVE in a row? Surely a standard the other half of the BoA will never achieve this season.
My team has quietly slipped into a playoff spot and sits but one point behind (and an 11 round shootout away from being even) the cursed Oil with a game in hand. Should be a good game next week.
And for those numerologically minded readers of this site, the Flames GPG is 2.70, which is not meaningfully different than the GPG of the Vaunt (a mere 2.72). Yes, the Oil's offence is positively Flame-ish.
Go Flames.
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I agree with everything you said about Horcoff's play last night (the high circle PP slapshot particularily stands out) but I would still take him over Langkow. Horcoff can play the PK and actually wins faceoffs. Plus, like you say, Horcoff is in a slump, while I think Daymond is just being Daymond.
I did not understand the love for Rollie's save on Hejduk last night either. Imagine if it had squeaked in (and it darn near did) -- letting in the tying goal from that angle would have been goat city. He made a routine save look difficult by almost flubbing it.
Anyway, the Flames will show the Oilers what you do with a team like St Louis -- you beat them black and blue (bwa).
Go Flames.
# posted by 
: November 14, 2006 12:18 pm
: November 14, 2006 12:18 pm Matt, when I have to read the Flames writer to get a post game analysis on the Oilers, you have officially laid the smackdown on Andy for the time being. Well done.
It appears Garbia is out of commission after all that street hockey.
Did Grabia have a massive coronary on Saturday while running down the rink on a break away?
CinO is unusually quiet of late too.
A co-worker of mine was at Flames/Ducks on Friday night, and happily reported that the Sattledome booed CFP lustily. I have a new found respect for Flamers....
# posted by : November 14, 2006 1:04 pm
: November 14, 2006 1:04 pm yeah they did get a little over excited about the save... but here is the reason that Petersen was on the ice late...
"I don't know if there's anybody I feel more comfortable with having the puck in open ice than Toby right now. You just know he's going to make the right play. His decision-making has been impeccable."
- Oilers head coach Craig MacTavish on the strong play of Toby Petersen since being recalled from Iowa.
Also, I just read this on ESPN's power rankings for the week...
Fans were rallying to raise $10,000 to give back to coach Craig MacTavish for a recent league fine. How about that one victory in the past six games? Can you raise money for that? Or raise Jussi Markkanen from the dead?
...ouch
Hope Smytty is back in the lineup ASAP
# posted by : November 14, 2006 3:11 pm
: November 14, 2006 3:11 pm Lombardi's +10 is damn impressive but before you start throwing out comparisons to Horc I must ask if Steve Lombardi's getting all the tough matchups because that's how MacT's always rolled with Horc.
Anyway I was worrying about Horc but after the last few games not so much. He started playing much better in the Mtl game and now he's generating chances, his line'st taking on the other team's top line and is consistently outchancing them and it's just a matter of time before he starts potting a few.
I don't have a clue why Liles wouldn't be suspended — but he's not going to be.
Granted, it's not a standard Domi-elbow-to-the-face suspension type move, but it was dangerous as hell — and that should be the main criteria for suspending players anyway.
Matt, Do you have any suggestions for Lotto tickets? Your predictions have certainly been within, what the military call, circular error probable. Kiprusoff is quietly climbing the goalie stats and with 3 shutouts now leads that category. Iggy is now in the top twenty in scoring and is really playing steady. PK seems to be improving, although StLou probably isn't the sternest test.
For the Liles hit, it looked to me like he was taking a split stance to throw a hip check, and Smytty was just far faster than he anticipated, and thus the knee on knee. Then again, he could've just done a potentially career ending move on purpose.
As for the Flames game, always good to see Kipper putting up great numbers, especially for my fantasy team. Which been, to this point, really lacking in the goaltender statistics.
**yawn** another Flames win ... what is that now? FIVE in a row? Surely a standard the other half of the BoA will never achieve this season.
My team has quietly slipped into a playoff spot and sits but one point behind (and an 11 round shootout away from being even) the cursed Oil with a game in hand. Should be a good game next week.
And for those numerologically minded readers of this site, the Flames GPG is 2.70, which is not meaningfully different than the GPG of the Vaunt (a mere 2.72). Yes, the Oil's offence is positively Flame-ish.
Go Flames.
# posted by : November 15, 2006 12:10 am
: November 15, 2006 12:10 am Post a Comment
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