• Dec. 09: @ Blackhawks, 5:00 PM, RSN West
• Dec. 11: @ Panthers, 5:30 PM, RSN West
• Dec. 13: @ Lightning, 5:30 PM, Flames PPV
• Dec. 14: @ Hurricanes, 5:00 PM, RSN West
• Dec. 16: @ Blues, 4:00 PM, Flames PPV
• Dec. 18: @ Blue Jackets, 5:00 PM, RSN West

Six afternoons over the next week and a half are probably going to determine the fate of the Flames 2007/08 season. They need a 4-2-0, or a 4-1-1, or 5-1-0 mark, simply to reduce the distance between them and 8th place. And simply treading water until they get back home is no good, for two reasons: the first is that time's-a-wastin' (my motto's always been when it's right it's right), and the second is that their sked on this road trip is riper than their sked after they get home: the first 7 games after they get back (5 at home) are Stars, Devils, Canucks, Ducks, Canucks, Rangers, Sharks.

**The thing that gives me the most satisfaction about this site is the probability that hockey fans who read it are smarter for the experience. This is not to say that I know more about hockey than the people who make their living in it; I don't. Charlie Simmer knows a lot more about the game than I do, and just because he usually fails to demonstrate that in his capacity as a TV analyst doesn't change that fact. There are a million unquantifiable things about the game that I couldn't pretend to understand.

However, we do some things of value here (and in the hockeysphere in general), and I like the idea that regular readers can no doubt see through some of the familiar tropes of the paid media, as well as identify instances when they are just plain wrong.

In that spirit... last night Millions (who btw I think is good at his job) and Simmer had a doozy of a mercifully-brief discussion before the OT last night. Millions posed the question to Chucky: "What's the strategy here in an interconference game? Do you take a few more chances?" To which Simmer replied, "I've seen coaches use 3 forwards and 1 defenseman in this situation."

Shades of the anachronistic Guelph study! From 1999 to 2004, there was 4-on-4 OT but no shootout. If one team scored, they got 2 points and the loser got 1; if there was no goal, the game ended in a tie and each team got 1 point.

So: in OT games against a team from your own conference (with whom you were competing for a playoff spot), there was the obvious benefit of scoring a goal and gaining a standings point, but there was also a -- lesser, but non-trivial -- benefit to denying your opponent a goal and a standings point. A tie was a better result than an OTL.

But in games against the other conference, this second benefit did not exist: a tie was an identical result to an OTL, because who cares if the team in the other conference got an extra point. As such, the incentive to throw caution to the wind and go all-out to score in OT was much greater in these games (hence the idea of 3 forwards).

This calculus does not exist anymore because one team wins every game. NO TIES. There are no strategy implications whatsoever to conference v. non-conference opponent. Someone is going to win, so every team's best strategy all the time is simply to do whatever makes it most likely that it will be them. That may mean trying to last until the shootout, or it may mean trying to avoid it, but whether the opponent is a West or East team is entirely irrelevant. FYI.

**What the hell is going on with Dion Phaneuf? As MetroGnome noted in his Blues pre-game,

Phaneuf had one of the worst months of his professional career, on the heels of one of his best. Hopefully he settles somewhere in between.

True. Last night at times he looked frighteningly incompetent, and particularly later in the game he looked weak and tired -- my amateur eye tells me that whatever his problem is goes beyond possible confidence issues, or the ups-and-downs of a long season. Which leaves two things:

1. He's hurt.
2. He's (ahem) "taking care of his body" like a regular 22-year-old, not a millionaire pro athlete 22-year-old.

Millions used "Flat-footed" to describe Eriksson on the shortie, but how about Phaneuf on Malkin's PPG?
Feel free to watch the video at NHL.com, but thanks to the soccer-uni-like rink boards, we can see that Malkin is moving towards the net and cocking his wristshot, while Phaneuf moves approximately half a letter in TELUS. While defending the pass to, it looks like, Kipper. Oh, and the reason the Pens are in the Flames end is because of a half-assed Phaneuf clearing attempt around the boards. Considering Regehr is now out for ~ 4 weeks, this is really... bad.

**And I'm sure the O**ogosphere will get to this, but... BWAAAA-HAHAHAHA:

Forwards Jarret Stoll and Raffi Torres will be watching the game from the press box, while Liam Reddox will be penciled in for his first career NHL game.

Stoll and Torres were on the ice for the Penguins' second and third goals in the third period en route to a 4-2 Pittsburgh win over Edmonton on Wednesday. Zach Stortini, the other forward on the Oilers' shutdown line, will play tonight...

**Go Flames.

UPDATE: This is for Danny in the Comments, and also so maybe I can get this song out of my head by giving it away. Also, what did this dude do with his Lego before YouTube?