Let's make it official

After weeks of uncertainty the Calgary Flames are officially eliminated from Stanley Cup playoff contention. This ends days, weeks and months of faint hope and un-needed stress for most Flames fans who still wanted to believe this team was destined for the big dance.

It was the 3rd overall pick in the 2009 draft, Matt Duchene, who officially eliminated the Flames, when he scored the shootout winner in Vancouver tonight. That’s officially; unofficially it was over when the Flames decided to lose nine straight and Darryl Sutter mashed his hand on the big red panic button sitting next to his telephone.

Flames fans can at least breathe now. It might not be the sigh of relief they wanted to be taking but at least it is over.

No more wondering if the moves that Sutter made were the right ones.

No more wondering if Colorado, Detroit, Los Angeles or Nashville would lose tonight.

It’s over.

There will not be a playoff game played in Calgary for the first time since 2003.

This ends of streak of five seasons in which the Flames made the playoffs every year; a run that ties for third amongst active streaks in the NHL only behind Detroit (19 seasons, soon to be 20) and New Jersey (12 seasons, soon to be 13).

Is this something the Flames should be proud of? Sure, especially coming off of seven long years where playoff hockey in Calgary was something of a distant mirage. The days of the ‘Young Guns’ and Captain Todd Simpson were dreadful years in Cow Town and the last seven years have helped erase those horrible memories.

Unfortunately, the Flames have not been able to do much with those playoff appearances as they have been bounced four straight years in the first round. But, this is nothing different for the Flames franchise. Since 1986, the Calgary Flames have made it passed the first round only four times – 1986, 1988, 1989, and 2004. In three of those years they made the cup final, winning once in 1989.

Basically, what I am trying to get at is that the Flames have never really been clutch in any sense of the word. Only in the miracles runs of 86’ and 04’ and the cup victory in 89’ have the Flames had any real success in the NHL. It is hard to gauge what the real problem would be with all of those first round exits. Bad match-ups, unlucky breaks, choked, not good enough, bad goaltending, etc. The excuses are endless.

Looking at the stats though there is one season that becomes quite comparable; the 91-92 campaign.

Where in years prior the Flames were posting 100 point seasons, they failed to crack the 75 point plateau and missed out on the playoffs entirely; only to bounce back the next year with a 97 point season. This was of course the year of the famous ’10 player deal’ with the Leafs which sent Doug Gilmour to Toronto in exchange for a bag of pucks and three skate sharpeners.

Coincidentally, the Flames made a monumental deal with the Leafs this season that saw a premier player and top prospect go the Leafs for two soft forwards, another third line grinder, and a semi-decent defenceman.

This, much like 91-92 was, could be a turning point in the Flames organization.

It is up to the owners now to realize the problem and get rid of it before the dilemma becomes too dire and the Flames miss the playoffs for the better part of the next decade.

Darryl, it is time to hit the ol’ dusty trail.

This has been,

Newman on the Flames

P.S Calgary’s other team is making a run at the Memorial Cup. I will be with them the whole way this spring. Click here to read more: http://www.examiner.com/x-42438-Calgary-Hitmen-Examiner~y2010m4d6-Hitmen-lose-heartbreaker

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Flames improve chances

The Flames won 2-1.

The Avs lost 5-2.

“So you’re telling me there’s a chance!”

With the events of tonight, the Flames now sit only two points behind Colorado with a colossal, gigantic, enormous match-up against those same Avs on Friday night in the Mile High City.

Miikka Kiprusoff single-handedly won yet another game for the Flames, who have leaned on their goaltender far too often this season. He robbed numerous Coyotes on multiple opportunities throughout the game. That included a flurry of about two minutes in the first when the line of Stempniak-Lombardi-Wolski did everything but score. There was also about a five minute surge by the visitors in the final frame where Miikka was on his head making acrobatic saves at every turn.

The power play did score a goal; a laser beam off of Bourque’s skate. For the most part though, and especially in the first period, the power play hindered the Flames more than helped them.

On a side note, does anyone else think it is utterly hilarious and ironic that the Flames former back-up goaltender just gave the current Flames a much needed boost? Curtis McElhinney —Kipper’s former stick boy — was the winning goaltender for the Ducks tonight over the Avalanche. This was Mac’s 4th straight win as well. A guy who was shunned out of this city for not being a reliable back-up to call upon has now given the Flames more help than he ever provided wearing the flaming C. Irony at its finest.

Ales Kotalik: Scoring Machine?

A new nickname perhaps? Most likely not, but the fact that Kotalik is finally finding the net has been an added boost for the desperate Flames. That, along with line-mate Mikael Backlund’s performance tonight gave Flames fans something extra to cheer about.

Backlund is starting to show signs of the potential the Darryl saw in him when he drafted him 24th overall in 2007. Backlund has now picked up three points in his past two games and showed some grit tonight diving in front of pucks and battling down in the corners. He has the potential to be the number one centre that Iginla has always wanted, but is that asking too much from a rookie with only 19 games of professional hockey experience under his belt?

Speaking of the Flames number one centre, did you see Matt Stajan skate over the blue line and then drop the puck back over the blue line putting himself offside?

That guy’s got Skills, with a capital S! I’m sure glad the Flames didn’t sign him long term…

And one final plug, for all those people who did not catch my radio debut today on the CBC, click here to listen to the clip!

This has been,

Newman on the Flames

Source of Photo: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2010/03/31/nhl-coyotes-flames-west.html

Same Same, But Different

The score in tonight’s Avs-Flames game was 3-2 for 5th time this season.

It’s as if no other outcome is possible.

However, this time, the Calgary Flames finally beat the Colorado Avalanche on the back of a stand out performance by Miikka...err Vesa Toskala?

Is Calgary the place to go when you are Finnish, a goalie, and not performing how you should? Is Darryl Sutter the goalie whisperer?

In two starts since coming over from the Anaheim Ducks, Vesa Toskala is 2-0 with a 2.00 GAA and a .937 SP%. He has been, in word, great. Something Flames fans are not used to seeing from back-up goaltenders. And something Leafs fans never had the pleasure of viewing.

There is no goalie controversy, of course, but it is nice to finally have a faint hope of winning when Kipper is given the odd night off.

On the other hand another former Leaf, Matt Stajan, had a brutal game. He had a team high three giveaways on the night and looked out of place on the ice.

You must be absolutely NUTS to sign this guy to $3.5 million a year for 4 years. He is soft, as he constantly gets muscled off the puck, and his scoring touch is mediocre at best.

Did Darryl want to justify the trade that bad? This guy is the Flames number one centre?

You have Stajan, Langkow, and Conroy up the middle. Trust me, no one is scared Darryl.

Another newcomer, Ales Kotalik, showed his softness in Denver tonight. One play in particular stands out, and Ray Ferraro did a good job pointing it out. The play happened down in the Flames offensive zone when Kyle Quincey just pushed Ales aside and took the puck from him. Kotalik showed no sign of desperation, no willingless to outwork his opponent. For a team that has to be play with a sense of urgency right now, you simply can not have half-hearted efforts like the one you saw from Ales tonight.

Sharks are next in another must win game for the Flames. Fans will remember the last time the Flames played the Sharks.

Does a 9-1 curb-stomping ring a bell?

The Flames should be pumped to get some redemption following one of the worst defeats that this franchise has ever seen.

This has been,

Newman on the Flames

P.S. Visit http://hitmenhockey.blogspot.com for all the latest on the Calgary Hitmen as they march towards the Memorial Cup. It will include live game blogging and post game comments. Get on the Playoff Train!

Battle for Supremacy

A battle for first place in the Northwest division turned out to be a bit of a snoozer. Coming off a 3 game road trip in which they secured 5 of 6 possible points, the Flames came out looking tired. Getting beat to numerous pucks, the Flames could never find their groove in a loss to the Avalanche. For the second time this season on home ice, the Flames fell 3-2 to the Avs in what turned out to very similar games. The Flames once again severely outshot Colorado but failed to win the game. The Avalanche took advantage of their chances and were able to hang on to the lead; something they have been very good at this year. They are eerily similar to the Minnesota Wild of yesteryear, in that they lull you to sleep and then pounce on you when given the opportunity. Coach Joe Sacco (not Joe Sakic), has installed a very good system in Colorado and the young Avs are executing on a very consistent basis.

Can somebody tell me why Rich Preston was brought back to run the powerplay? Over the last nine games the Flames have gone a horrifying 3 for 33 with the man advantage. A team that was firing on all cylinders early in the season has gone ice cold. What is wrong? What is different? They can barely get into the zone and when they do, they take ill-fated shooting attempts that are either blocked or tipped into the netting. Jokinen simply fires the puck when it hits his stick as the thought of actually setting a play up never really seems to cross his mind. Nowadays a powerplay reverts back to two less minutes that the Flames have to defend their own goal. They might as well just ask the timekeeper to subtract two minutes from the time remaining and resume the contest. They must figure out their problems on the powerplay or the ‘goals for’ column will continue to shrink, and subsequently the loss column will continue to grow.

The Flames had a fantastic opportunity to claim first place in the division tonight with games in hand, yet failed to do so. Were the Flames complacent after winning five of the last six games? The first game back from an extended road trip always seems to cause problems for teams, yet that is no excuse for a Flames team that craves to achieve the elite rank in the NHL.

The Flames better be rested up because the pesky Blackhawks come into town on Thursday night. The history between the two teams is growing, and after the last match-up with the Hawks, the Flames should be chomping at the bit to destroy them. This time, Sutter will make sure to get out to a 6-0 lead….just to make sure.

This has been,

Newman on the Flames

Amazing Anderson

I am guessing that when the season began not many expected the Colorado Avalanche to have only 1 regulation loss through 11 games and be leading the Western Conference. A team that was scheduled to be occupying the cellar of the west for most of the year has come out of the gate on fire due to some stellar goaltending from journeyman tender Craig Anderson. Toiling in the Chicago and Florida systems for the last 7 seasons, Anderson has never been given the chance to take control of the number one role. He has had spurts of great goaltending the last couple of years in Florida, but the team always reverted back to the veteran Tomas Vokoun. Anderson went to Colorado with the hope of being the number one. He has shown everyone that he is clearly the man for the job. Posting a 8-1-2 record, with one shutout, a .923 save percentage and a 2.14 Goals against average, he has made the Avs a legitimate opponent on a nightly basis. He ranks 2nd in GAA and save percentage, amongst starters, and tied for 1st in wins. It is amazing how having confidence in your goaltender changes a player’s outlook on the game, as the Avalanche have not had this type of goaltending since Roy was between the pipes.

To add to his stats, Anderson has now officially just shut the Oilers out.

Looking ahead to tomorrow night when the Flames take on Anderson and the Avs. The Flames, for their efforts, are red hot coming off their most complete game of the season on Saturday, and look to continue the trend against the division leaders. The Flames out shot their opponent for the first time all year on Saturday and will have to extend that streak tomorrow night in order to get the 2 points. They will have to pressure the young Avalanche squad into making mistakes and continue to improve on their league leading powerplay.

The emergence of Rene Bourque has been a huge contributing factor into the Flames success this year and he will hope to build on his team leading 14 points against Colorado.

The Flames will look to go 6-0 against the division tomorrow night; which would go a long way into securing the Northwest title.

This has been

Newman on the Flames