(Inspired by discussions here)


Looks solid, no?

**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.

Slightly different presentation today. Notes:

• You don't need to apply much of a "strength of schedule" adjustment to state that, based on performance to date, the eight worst teams in the NHL are all in the Eastern Conference. (And that, as such, every team in the West has been good enough to make the playoffs in the East.)
• Buffalo has more clearance on 9th place than Chicago
• How can Carolina be that bad when they play so many games against other bad teams?

These are interesting. I don't know who sponsored the survey, and who else it has been sent to, but these three questions were sent to me by someone who had taken the survey. The survey was administered by a company named e-Rewards, a company out of Texas. The only information provided was as follows:

"Topic: Study About Consumers
Research Sponsor: A Valued e-Rewards Partner"

That's it. I'd be interested in hearing what others think of the questions. I think a large number of them are pretty leading, but I also haven't seen the entire survey. Maybe it balances out.


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Labels: New Arena

"We're still far from having a hockey team," Charest warned.

"We would need a multi-purpose centre and I believe in that project because a city of Quebec's size needs a multi-purpose building."

But one prominent sports economist suggests that if the project were truly smart economics, private investors would already be lining up to build the arena with their own money.

Michel Poitevin, head of the University of Montreal's economics department, notes that the Montreal Canadiens were purchased, and their Bell Centre was built, without public funds. So was the city's Saputo stadium for the Montreal Impact soccer team."

Bold mine.

Labels: New Arena

So, if the Flames beat LA tonight (830PM MT, RSN West), they move into 1st place in the West by this measure. If they beat LA and the Caps lose in Tampa (Ovechkin messes with their chemistry!), they move into 1st place in the NHL.

Which is really not where I thought the Flames would be 10 weeks into the season; not before training camp, and certainly not after watching their first half-dozen or so games in October.

Kipper's results this year have been shocking in their excellence. If we're lucky, it's because some nagging health issue resolved itself with rest over the summer. If we're unlucky, he's Jose Theodore in the spring of '08. Olli Jokinen's enthusiam for shooting the puck in the last week or two has also been enjoyable. I still think he stinks all things considered, but right now he's providing *something* for the money.

One of the posts I didn't write this summer was that the Flames have too many Europeans -- the joke being that they only have two, but those two individuals were the worst value for the dollar. The fact that this observation is N/A right now, particularly with respect to Kipper, goes most of the way towards explaining 18-7-3.

Calgary 2 (Moss, Phaneuf) Home of the Bodybag 1 (someone called Meat Train?!?). Go Flames.