The Battle of Alberta: Flames Game Day

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Flames Game Day

Flames @ Canucks, 8PM MT, RSN West

I guess this is a huge game tonight, but I find myself not caring all that much. I get more convinced by the week that, notwithstanding the impact of injuries, the Blue Jackets are at least as tough an opponent as the Blackhawks. I'd like Game 7 in Round 1, if it comes to that, to be at home, but I'm not losing sleep over it.

And the other thing is, a big part of the fun of the regular season is not just seeing where your team finishes so much as finding out what kind of team you have -- and nothing in the final three games is going to affect my opinion of that one way or the other. The Flames:

are a pretty good 5v5 team that reliably outshoots the other guys
give up too many shots and chances on the PK
have an average PP that could go either way over a short stretch of games
have a stupidly effective "3rd line" of GlenX/Conroy/Moss
aren't quite as good defensively as they ought to be given their payroll on the blue (and their payroll overall)

And most importantly, aren't going on a deep run unless they get significantly better goaltending in the playoffs than they've gotten in the regular season. On January 29th, I posted about Kipper's steadily declining EV SV%, .907 on the season at that point. Then on February 27th, I noted triumphantly that in the intervening 29 days, his EV SV% was .931 -- huzzah! I mean, harrumph, because in the 38 days since then, it's .892 [runs to office washroom to yack, sob quietly].

Since the evidence points so clearly towards Kipper needing lots of work to stay sharp, I'm sure the lads will lose tonight, and #34 will start both ends of the B2B against the Oilers too -- it'll work out for the best!

Calgary 2 (Langkow, Moss), Vancouver 3 (Sundin, Sedin, Salo in the OT). But, Go Flames.

# posted by Matt @ 4:15 pm

Comments:

I don't know if I've ever seen you predict the Flames to lose.

Given that, I'm tempted to bet my entire net worth on them tonight.

# posted by

PDO : April 07, 2009 5:40 pm

That Luongo kid might be something in this League.

# posted by

Doogie2K : April 08, 2009 10:28 am

I'd rather play a rookie goalie in the first round of the playoffs, over a Stanley Cup winning one. File under: More Likely to Unravel

# posted by

Temujin : April 08, 2009 2:21 pm

I can't wait to see you start handicapping!! Like before I have my playoff pool draft ;)

# posted by

Hemsky is a gangsta : April 11, 2009 6:12 pm

Good thing you didn't care. You can take the boy out of southern Alberta, but you can't take the southern Alberta out of his psychological defence mechanisms!

# posted by

Colby Cosh : April 12, 2009 8:21 am

Best of luck to the Calgary Flames against the Chicago Blackhawks this post-season.

# posted by

Doogie2K : April 12, 2009 10:47 pm

# posted by

Anonymous : April 13, 2009 1:39 am

I agree with peter. w.

# posted by

LittleFury : April 13, 2009 3:25 pm

I ran that Chinese text through Google Translate. Turns out it means "Who had a better 5-on-5 save percentage this year: Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers or Miikka Kiprusoff? If you guessed the guy making $8.5 million, you're wrong."

# posted by

Colby Cosh : April 13, 2009 8:42 pm

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Flames Game Day

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