**Check out this quote from the Associated Press recap of last year's New Year's Eve tilt:

“We played a pretty good game with the exception of our inability to be able to kill a penalty,” Edmonton coach Craig MacTavish said. “That’s killed us all year long. It killed us again tonight. We’ve got to find a way or find some new guys who can kill penalties.”

How's progress going on that, er, Coach?

**Olympic roster (Canada, Men's) thoughts:

• Brodeur, Luongo, Fleury: sure. I'd actually take Roloson instead of Fleury -- the guy has played well, consistently, for a season and a half now -- but since he's never going to play, why does it matter?!? *COUGH* Conkannen
• There seems to be an awful lot of disagreement as to who the "locks" are on D. My must-haves are Pronger and Keith, and that's all. Maybe Niedermayer, just because the guy has led as charmed a hockey life as has ever been lived.
• Past that, I'm fairly agnostic on who makes up the rest of the main six. Boyle is a nice player, but not indispensable and certainly not underrated. Bouwmeester can do a lot, but isn't the best at anything (apart from maybe high-minute fitness, which just isn't a requirement for this position). Weber's solid. Phaneuf and Regehr both have their charms. I like Seabrook, but I'm not at all convinced that a dozen players, including all the guys above, couldn't look as good or better playing with Keith. Etcetera.
  
• Iginla, Crosby, Nash, Heatley, Getzlaf, Thornton, Perry, Toews, and Eric Staal are on every list, yes? I'm OK with all of them (I wouldn't have Toews as a "must", but whatever).
  
• That leaves four spaces, where the choices seem to include: Marleau, Carter, Mike Richards, Brad Richards, Morrow, Doan, Patrice Bergeron, Mike Fisher, Ryan Smyth, Lecavalier, St. Louis, Penner.
• The idea, I certainly hope, is to select the 13 best outscorers, subject to some minor positional adjustments. Helpful hints for choosing should be: (1) if a West and East player seem equivalent, the WC player is probably better; (2) all else being equal -- including the 2-way thing -- take the goal scorer
• I think my picks are Carter, Morrow, Doan, and Smyth. Carter because of the goals, and the other 3 because they have long records of being tough WC players. It's tough leaving the other players off, excepting Penner & Fisher (maybe if they were 22 and having these "breakouts"), and Vinny and M.Richards (I don't like them).
• Lastly, Bruce Boudreau talked me into taking Mike Green as the 7th D. He offers something that no one else can, so why the hell not.
  

**The Flames aren't in a very good place right now, but I'm trying not to get discouraged. My happy thought in this regard, at least as it concerns making the playoffs, and apart from the happy news that Brent was willing to bench Jokinen in the 3rd the other night, is basically this:

Moss, Glencross, and Bourque have all looked pretty limp in the last month. Not hapless, exactly, but they're just not creating chances. Since all three have a fairly good track record of doing so, I think that has to change. Though I wouldn't count on Dawes being any better than he has been, even recently (the dude is a nice player for a waiver pickup), he's due for a couple more burst. Boyd is due for a burst. Bouwmeester is due to demonstrate some of the offense that makes him worth $6.6M/yr, rather than $4.4M/yr. Conroy, despite playing well and being a crucial member of the team, hasn't scored a goal yet. He's probably due. Etcetera.

In other words, I'm not saying that the Flames are snakebitten -- I'm saying that they can be better offensively (though not miles better), and probably will be any day now.

Today though? Um, uh, errr.... well, why the hell not. Though I feel the Lowetide superstitions with equal ferocity, I think the Oilers are headed for a bit more... shame.

Calgary 5 (Moss x2, GlenX, Conroy, J-Bo) Edmonton 3 (Souray, POS with two late ones)

Go Flames.