**Three-and-a-half years later, the Flames are finally back in St. Pete to play the Lightning (530PM MT, Flames PPV). As bad as TB has been on the road, they've been that good at home: HmPP ranked 4th, HmPK ranked 5th, and a +21 goal differential (+56/-35) in 16 home games.

The Cavalier, in 16 HmGP, is 14G-17A-31Pts, +12, and seems to be doing it against the visitor's #1 line (looking at a number of their home games using Vic's H2H site, I'd say there's little doubt that Jarome and Vinny will be seeing a lot of each other tonight).

Although Marc Denis got the shootout win in Montreal on Tuesday, odds are that usual starter Johan Holmqvist will be in net tonight.

(Sidebar: my other idea for today's post header was from the same movie -- "Hey babe, I negotiate million dollar deals for breakfast. I think I can handle this Eurotrash." Also, I think I've blogged this before, but the biggest Hartford Wolf Pack fan on the internet once had this to say:

...the worst player in Wolf Pack history?-- Holmqvist gets my vote, hands down.

Late bloomer, shurely.)

**Thumbs up to Jardine for getting the ball rolling on Olympic roster spitballing! Here's my guess, about exactly 2 years until the actual roster is named:

The main thought -- concern? -- I had in the 15 minutes I spent looking at this was that while Canada could probably ice eight excellent forward lines, it's quite likely that there will teams, with an 's', in Vancouver with a better defensive corps. Because right now we're looking at a field of Pronger, Phillips, and 25 guys with non-trivial holes in their games (based on Nov/Dec Phaneuf anyway; October Phaneuf could be pencilled in for 25 minutes a game).

**I admire Allan Muir's work at SI a lot -- I'd put him in the Top 5 of paid hockey writers -- so it is with both surprise and horror that I report: of all the terrible ideas suggested to "help" the NHL in the past several years, the one he is marketing in yesterday's piece is the. worst. of. them. all.

**Interesting data point on the quality of the 2008 draft: Canada's final roster for the World Juniors includes five draft eligible players, named to the squad ahead of:

• the #8, #10, #20, #27, #32, #41, and #47 picks from the 2007 draft
• the #16 and #26 picks from the 2006 draft

Of the roster players who are drafted, none are prospects of the Flames or Oilers (or any Canadian team, for that matter)

**Prediction: more skyyy-rockets in flight.

Calgary 5 (Iginla x2, Langkow, Conroy, Regehr)
City of Champions 3 (Richards x2, some guy)

Go Flames.