Sunday, November 02, 2008

 

Flames Game Day x2: California, yeah

Last night the Flames beat the Kings 3-2, this evening they roll into the OC to face the Ducks (6PM MT, RSN West). I didn't think the Flames got dominated quite as badly as Mark & Marc were making out on HNIC (heh... Mark & Marc were making out...), but the Kings did have some nice scoring chances. I thought Kipper had his best game of the season, dude was on the ball and moving around well.

**As is becoming the custom, Bertuzzi had just an atrocious game. Might have been his worst yet, at least right up until the point where the stopped clock showed the right time and one of his little drop passes found a streaking Flame.

**Full marks to Primeau this season (Prust, Nystrom, and Roy too). He's been a lot better than I expected (!!), remembered, etc. I have no trouble maintaining that his current role matches the full extent of his demonstrated abilities, but he is doing a really nice job in that role. Nystrom still has comically awful touch around the net, but has otherwise progressed a bit. I still haven't seen Prust play enough to be opinionated about him, but at the very least, I like him a lot more as a Nieminen-style initiator than as a Godard-style exactor of revenge.

**So the Flames are officially off to their best start in years (since Iginla won the Richard & Art Ross). Dowbiggin collated this bit of trivia last week, it is record thru 15 games in recent seasons:
Yep, that 7th win -- in but their 11th game -- was a big thrill.

**Keenan Watch: no serious beefs from me yet, although that's pending the announcement of tonight's starting G (it had better be McE). I think sending Bertuzzi out to "defend" a 1-goal lead is unconscionable, but it may be one of those situations where you have to burn your hand before you'll believe the stove is hot.

And along the same lines as the goalie management, I think playing Phaneuf this much is too much. Surely past 26-ish per game, there are diminishing returns; they still want him to hit and jump into the play on occasion, yes? He played 31:12 on Thursday vs. the Bruins, which is just insane for a game in October than ended in 60 minutes.

**Tonight. Last night's W would appear to be a classic win at the end of a winning streak that you didn't necessarily deserve, which would thus put tonight's game into the "likely blowout" category, what with it being Part2 of a B2B, on the road, Ducks seem to have their ship together, etc.

I'm not sure if the Flames will win, but I'll be watching carefully to see if they can keep the chances fairly even. If they can put in a "good enough to win" performance tonight -- even if they don't -- I'll be fairly impressed with the squad, and awfully optimistic going forward.

Calgary 3 (Iginla, GlenX, Giordano)
Anaheim 3 (Selanne, Getzlaf, Beauchemin)

And Bertuzzi with the SO winner. Go Flames.

Comments:

Re: Pahneuf playing 30 minutes a game - the extreme sheltering of Giordano is the other end of the spectrum. I dont think Giordano is such a detriment that he needs to be kept at 10 minutes a game.
 


Listening to Crawford grudgingly praise Kipper was maybe the high point of the night for me. I'm sure he thought a kitten died every time he did it.
 


But that was one hell of a drop pass.
 


My favourite Marky Marc meme was that "Bertuzzi and Iginla have shown great chemistry so far this year." My cat meowing would have been a more effective analyst last night, and also given Anze Kopitar better questions on After Hours.
 


My favourite Marky Marc meme was that "Bertuzzi and Iginla have shown great chemistry so far this year."

haha! I choked on my drink when I heard that.
 


Is Andy still around? What about Sac? This is turning into a flamer only site?
 


Maybe one of them started a live-blog of the Canadian Finals Rodeo and Rexall security acted habitually...
 


This site sucks for Oilers fans. Bring back an Oilers Blogger at least.
 


So Andy took that TV spot and retired? Replace him. Now. This site is too good to let go like this. No one is going to turn to this site if it's Flames only.l
 


Where did AG get a TV gig? Good for him, BTW!
 


Matt, can you please explain why you think that Bertuzzi has played attrocious? I am out of the country right now, so I haven't seen any hockey this season. I see he's doing pretty good on the PP, but his +/- is low. Do you mind ellaborating on this?
 

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