Flames Game Day: Time to quit jacking around

OK, stop losing, now, please.

A jumble of thoughts on the Flames, including last night's loss to Nashville:

**Sometimes when the top line doesn't play well, the thought is, "Yeesh, we need better depth so that we can have success when our All-Star doesn't score." (And sometimes it's true.) But sometimes, and last night was one of those times for me, the thought is, "Well, DUH. When your top line doesn't score and doesn't really create anything, your team is generally going to look bad. That's not a roster management issue; that's reality for 25-30 teams in the league."

**Anyone remember those terrifying days in June, where one of the big fears about Keenan was that he was indefensibly biased towards over-the-hill veterans, and thus younger players who might make a more positive difference (and improve all the while) would rot? Ah, were we ever so young? Actually, this seems like a good time to do a Mike Keenan Halfway Review.

What I Like:

• What he's doing with the top 6 forwards. I do continue to believe that Langkow should be with Tanguay/Nolan and Conroy with Iginla/Huselius (they switch back and forth quite a bit), mainly because Conroy and Nolan are the weak offensive links there and should be kept apart, but for the most part those lines are being put in a position to succeed and help the team win (and Conroy has been playing well).
• The use of Regehr and Sarich together behind the lines that are more likely to get pinned in their own end.
• His willingness to give young players a legitimate chance to prove themselves.
• His overall coach-demeanour. His public criticisms of players, on the somewhat rare occasions that he makes them, always match what the players themselves are already saying... while he's not quite Badger Bob, he typically focuses on positives (and convincingly)... behind the bench he looks like a guy who has his shit together.

The Unknown, Indifferent, and/or Irrelevant:

• Kipper. Maybe Keenan is screwing with Kipper's head, but it would be hard to identify how. Obviously he has given Kipper the opportunity to play his way through his struggles. He hasn't embarassed Kipper in a game situation (either with a quick hook after an early bad goal, or by leaving him in to face a pounding in a game that's already lost, a la Tremblay/Roy). Maybe there is something that Keenan needs to do -- or stop doing -- to unleash the awesome power of KipruSave, but if there is, it's very far from obvious what that might be.
• Phaneuf. Why does he look better than ever at times, and worse than October 2005 at others? Who should he be paired with to maximize his effectiveness? If I or anyone else had so much as a guess here... maybe I was too hard on Playfair last year regarding Phaneuf's stall.

What I Don't Like:

We'll start with an extended quote from MetroGnome's lovely rant this morning:

Matt from Battle of Alberta said yesterday [~] "don't run a kid line against Nashville...Trotz will take advantage", and guess what? With 25 year old rookie Nystrom out, Keenan replaced him 26 year old sophomore David Moss. The predictable result was poor Lombardi and company skating against Arnott, Radulov and Dumont at ES all night. In comments after the game, Radio personality Rob Kerr said something to the effect of "Dustin Boyd really needs to improve his board work, especially when trying to get the puck out in his own zone." My response is...NO FUCKING SHIT. Show me a 21 year old rookie who's been converted from his natural position and playing against the other team's top line that DOESN'T struggle at that.

No doubt Mike Keenan has his own reasons and perceptions, but what he's doing with the 3rd and 4th lines Is. Not. Working. It's good to have Moss back, and he's actually proven himself quite effective over the past year at the little plays (i.e. on the boards, getting it out of his own end, etc.); he just doesn't have a scorer's touch.

If Nilson's spot in the doghouse is essentially permanent -- and it certainly appears to be -- then fine: but Yelle needs to move up with Lombardi/Moss. Last night, on one of the few forays the 4th line made into Nashville's zone, Yelle showed a few times that he can keep the puck alive on the end boards, and win possession from a defenseman. Those three would have at least a puncher's chance against good lines.

Now, this creates a "problem" -- if Yelle is not around to babysit Godard, the 4th line gets killed, right? Almost definitely... which is why Godard should be up in the pressbox, with a sticker on the door that says "For Use in Grudge Matches Only". Then you could have Boyd, Primeau, and Smith (or Nystrom, or Nilson, or Godard on special occasions) as a 4th line that is used carefully, i.e. not for defensive zone faceoffs on the road when you know bloody well that Arnott, Dumont, & Radulov will be coming on for the home team. When/if the bench shortens, particularly when the Flames are trailing, Boyd can still be spotted in on the other lines.

Maybe my prescription is stupid, but the Is-Not-Working is indisputable. Since the beginning of December, Lombardi is +5/-18 and Boyd is +7/-14. Boyd has the highest GA/60 on the team, and but for Anders Eriksson, it's by a mile. My preference would be to see if the veterans Yelle and Nilson can earn their money the old-fashioned way, but I'd settle for "something else".

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The Flames are in Minnesota tonight (630PM MT, TSN), and that might actually be cause for some optimism: the Xcel Centre has actually been good for righting the ship the past couple of seasons.

They may well have saved their season this March there with back-to-back wins. And in '05/06, they hit St. Paul at the end of a disastrous road trip (sound familiar?) and pwned the Wild, followed by 3 more wins.

Prediction: Curtis McElhinney gets the start; Calgary wins 1-0 despite being outplayed and outshot by a wide margin; on Thursday morning the Flames announce that -- what an amazing coincidence! -- there's a problem with CuJo's medical, and the contract offer is rescinded.

Enough with the dreaming and bitching, on with the rooting. Go Flames.