The Flames go back to the scene of the crime this evening to play the Red Wings at the Joe (530PM MT, Flames PPV). You may recall that they played a few games there in April without much success.

If not, let me refresh your memory. They were utterly dominated from the opening puck drop in Game 1. Game 2 wasn't quite as bad (call it dominated, but without the utterly), and the score was closer until partway into the 3rd. Everyone then stressed that the key for the Flames was to get off to a better start, and to stay out of the penalty box. In Game 5 they did exactly that -- excellent 1st period, 3-1 PP advantage -- and then got blown out of the building in the 2nd and 3rd, concluding with Jamie McLennan's bizarre 18 second appearance where he pulled a Butch vs. Maynard with his goal stick.

But! It's a new season. Keenan's thoughts on last season's road record:

It wasn't on his watch. He is not particularly interested in being sullied by it.

"Don't know anything about it. It's all foreign to me," says Keenan. "You don't really know unless you're in the locker-room and you have a feel for what's going on. It doesn't matter to me and it shouldn't matter to this group."

It'll take some time to know if he has the mojo to push the Flames up a level or two, but as I mentioned after Game 1, I'm pretty bullish on him based on early impressions. Alanah talked about his appearance on HNIC's After Hours and had the same general impression as me ("...somewhat pleasant, engaging, entertaining and even likable. (God, that was disturbing.)")

There was one exchange that stood out to me, though. I noted in April, after listening to a post-elimination interview with Playfair, that when someone talks about learning from their mistakes but doesn't acknowledge having made any, they're probably full of it (that or deluding themselves). When Scott Oake asked Keenan about past mistakes, he was fairly specific: while he didn't want to apologize for being emotional per se, he needed to react better to losing and be a better leader. That is, he echoed nearly exactly what MacT said the other day:

Keenan, the new coach of the Calgary Flames, can bring a lot of energy and leadership to a practice or on the bench, but he sometimes let his hatred of losing get the best of him, MacTavish says. "Sometimes yesterday's loss would seep into the next game.

"His biggest weakness was his inability -- and it might be his biggest strength -- to rationalize defeat. ... It's hockey, and there are times as a team that you play well and you lose, and he had a hard time differentiating that from the times that you played poorly and lost."

A negative atmosphere would pervade, with the coach ripping into players. "I hated that as a player, just the negative energy, like everybody is walking on egg shells. You can't prepare for a game like that."

If he really has learned this lesson, it's an excellent, excellent sign.

Somewhat Less Excellent Sign?: Look who's a heartbeat away! Interesting article at NHL.com:

To characterize Keetley as a lightly regarded player doesn’t begin to describe how far off the radar he was. He played in a bantam house league at age 15 -- as a forward. By his own description, he was just trying to plow guys over.

"I really didn’t know what I was going to do in hockey at that point," he said.

What a leap: at 18, he went 21-5-3 (1.66 GAA, 0.933 SV%) in the WHL, turned 19 in April, got drafted in the 5th round (2005), then led the league in Wins twice and won the MVP. Looks like when we're talking about Flames' prospects with unknown ceilings, we should probably include this dude.

Word is the David Moss will be back in the lineup, which is great news. Scott Cruickshank has the 2nd/3rd lines as Huselius-Conroy-Nolan and Lombardi-Yelle-Moss. I quite liked Lombardi and Yelle together in Game 1; if ML is going to be on the nominal 3rd line, this seems like a solid combination. And having Moss going to the net adds an element that was a bit lacking top to bottom in the first two games.

Trivia: in my debriefing of the preseason BoA, I said, "...Adrian Aucoin simply does not look like a good powerplay defenseman. I sincerely doubt he's next to Phaneuf on the #1 unit by October 15th." As it happens, Aucoin stayed on the #1 PP unit for a grand total of one shift. Since then, they've been putting Huselius on the LW and Tanguay at the point. Maybe there's something to this "live scouting" business after all.

Tonight's prediction: the PPV will have lousy production values and some agonizingly puffy features; Godard will not be missed in the lineup; Roger Millions will make us all fall in love again; and special teams will boost Calgary to a 4-3 Win. Go Flames.