Scoring Goals turns into Wins

Maybe they were listening when everyone in the hockey world was laying into them for the horrible moves they made at the trade deadline and the atrocious game they followed with that night. The Calgary Flames (32-24-9) were a team that could not score. They have suddenly turned on the afterburners with ten goals in 2 games.

Leading the way is Jarome Iginla who recorded his tenth career hat trick in today’s game and added as assist. Rene Bourque is so far earning that giant contract extension recording 5 points in the last two games. Matt Stajan has 3 points in the last two as well. The newly formed top line of Bourque-Stajan-Iginla combined for 10 points in today’s afternoon tilt. Hey Brent, keep this line together!

Vesa Toskala, the Flames new back-up goaltender, recorded his first win in his first game wearing the red, yellow and black. It took the former back-up a little longer to record his first ‘W’; then again the Flames rarely hung 5 goals on an opponent while he was in net. Nevertheless, Vesa must be applauded for today’s performance as he played well in relief of his Finnish buddy Miikka. I know I laid into the Flames for making this move and I am still not a huge fan, due to Vesa’s horrible numbers, but hopefully that was simply the Leafs and not Toskala himself. One can hope, right?

This is a welcome sign for the Flames who have not had a reliable back-up goalie since…well, it has been a while. And no, Cujo was not reliable even though he stole that game versus the Sharks. He was quite possibly the most awkward and nerve-racking goalie to watch in the history of the game.

Iginla recorded his 30th goal of the season in this game. It marked the 9th straight season in which he has had thirty or more goals in a season. He now has 62 points this campaign and moves into 20th in the league in scoring. The Flames will need ‘Olympic’ Jarome to keep up his strong play if they have any chance of spring time success.

This Flames team has turned into a social chemistry experiment in a manner of speaking. Much like in the Olympics where teams were given little to no time to gel as a team, this Flames team, which includes 8 fresh faces (9 if you include Backlund), has been given the monumental task of climbing out of a non-playoff seed into the elite eight in less than a month. Not to mention the colossal pressure that Calgary has on them if and when they make the playoffs.

The Flames have now won 3 of their last 4 games and are playing better. Each and every game becomes the biggest game of the season; not to sound to cliché.

Tuesday’s game against the Red Wings is, well, one of those ‘big’ games. The Flames are 1-1 against the Wings this season and have out-scored them 4-3 in those two games. Kiprusoff recorded one of his 3 shutouts he has this season against the Wings back in November when he faced 40 shots on goal.

I am sure the Flames will try their best, but as Sean Connery so elegantly put it,

“Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen.”

The Flames have tried their best all year and maybe that has been the problem.

This has been,

Newman on the Flames

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Two for the Money

The Calgary Flames signed Matt Stajan and Rene Bourque to long contract extensions. In my opinion, both do not make a lot of sense.

As much as I like him as a player, Rene Bourque has been injury riddled since he started his NHL career. Only once has he played over 70 games in a season; his rookie campaign in Chicago when he played 77 games and recorded 34 points. The following seasons he has played 44, 62 and 58 respectively. He is on pace to play roughly 70 games this season, as he has already missed 9 contests earlier in the season. I understand the 6-year contract is front loaded, but it still doesn’t make sense.

Why would you take such a risk on a guy who is prone to getting injured? Also, how does he garner that kind of salary? He has eclipsed the 40 point plateau now twice in his career; this season being his second. Yes, his points per game numbers are high, but if he only plays 60 games a season what good is he? I would have way rather have seen a 3 year deal.

The salary cap is only due to come down in the next couple years and this deal could handcuff the Flames for a while if Bourque continues his annual visits to the infirmary.

I would have loved to have seen Stajan’s face when he saw that contract offer. I am sure he could not touch pen to paper any faster.

Similar to Bourque, Matt Stajan has not exactly been an offensive powerhouse as he has had only one season in which he scored over 50 points; that being last season. The difference between the two is that Stajan has been playing in Leaf Land for his entire career and the offensive output on that team has never been anything to marvel at.

Still, you can not grant him that kind of money for the 7 games he has played in a Flames jersey (2G, 2A, 7GP). He is a number two center who is being forced into the number one spot. Does this sound familiar? Langkow, Lombardi and Conroy have all been forced into this role, yet none of them have encompassed enough skill to compliment #12 properly.

Is Matt Stajan really the answer? The simple answer is no.

I guess developers build on ‘spec’ sometimes and I presume that is what Sutter has done here. I am just not sure that either of these two will be worth the cost in the long run.

This has been,

Newman on the Flames

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Hats Off to Bourque

The Flames headed into tonight’s game in their worst slump of the year, having scored only 13 goals in their previous seven games, in which they posted only one win, and two overtime losses. Pretty much every aspect of their game has struggled as well, and the team was in desperate need of a confidence boost. Often a trade or a coaching change is needed to change a team’s fortunes, or maybe some kind of tonic to rejuvenate the players. For the Calgary Flames, that tonic came in a blue and orange bottle, labelled Edmonton Oilers. Now can it turn the season around?

Despite an early Oiler goal, a deflection by Ryan Potulny, and being outshot 35-24, the Flames were able to come away with 4-1 win. Calgary’s attack was led by Rene Bourque, who scored his 2nd career hat trick, a natural, with a goal in each period. The win was the Flames’ fourth in four games against the Oilers this season, and moved them out of 8th place in the Western Conference. That doesn’t necessarily mean the Flames played well, but when the opponent is struggling so much, as the Oilers are, it can make any team look good. Adding to Bourque’s offensive heroics was the play of Miikka Kiprusoff who had another great game, stopping 34 of 35 shots. As he has done all season, Kipper kept the Flames in the game during the 1st period, in which they were outshot 15-4. After Bourque’s 2nd goal, things seem to calm down a bit, and the Flames were able to dominate the play in the 2nd half of the game, controlling the puck, killing off nine Edmonton power play opportunities and scoring both a power play goal and a shorty.

In typical Battle of Alberta fashion, the game had a quicker tempo then would normally be expected when facing the conference’s last place team, and right out of the gate tempers seemed to be flaring. Dustin Boyd and Andrew Cogliano scrapped following the Oiler goal in the 1st, and in the third period, Iginla, Regehr and Johnson all dropped the gloves, with Smid, Staios and Stone respectively. I’m sure Oiler fans would disagree with me, but the Flames won all four fights quite handily.

With lots of fighting, lots of hitting and the obvious distaste each city as for one another, it should be another good game when the teams meet for the fifth time this season in the annual New Year’s Eve game on Thursday night.

- TheRev

Quick Start; Poor Finish

The month of October played out like a typical Flames game. Out of the gate with a bang; 4 straight wins, 3 in the division, and a power play running just under a 50% clip. But, just like they did so many times this month, the Flames wandered off the winning path, and gave some points back to the field. Slowly becoming the team that gives up leads, the Flames gave up numerous multi goal cushions throughout the month.

Draw the curtains open.

The Flames start 4-0, getting 2 dramatic wins in the City of Champions, beating the Canucks in the opener and downing the Mini Mites from le Belle Province.

Enter Curtis McElhinney and chalk up the Flames first loss, a 5-2 drubbing at the hands of the Dallas Stars. The questions about backup goaltending persist as the Flames have yet to receive quality goaltending from their local backup tender.

Fly to Chicago, score 5, yes 5, goals in the first 11 minutes of the game. Chalk up another win, move to 5-1…errrrr hold up! The Flames manage to hold on and push the game into overtime and lose 6-5 in the extra frame; Flames tie record for biggest lead blown in a game and fail to gain an ounce of revenge on the team that bounced them from the playoffs a year prior. A possible turning point early in the season? Definitely a lesson learned in how to NOT maintain a lead in hockey.

New term in the dictionary created: “5 goal lead”- worst lead in hockey.

Flames play in Ohio the next night and are outplayed by a Blue Jacket team that has 2 goals disallowed that should have counted. End result, the Flames lose their third straight and that amazing start is a thing of the past. Kiprusoff continues to be solid to start the season, shedding the label of slow starter that has haunted him for the past 4 years.

Another home date with the Canucks and the Flames manage to get out to the “Worst Lead in Hockey”, yet this time manage to hold on for a 5-3 victory. Brian McGrattan gets the Gordie Howe Hat Trick in his home debut and knocks Darcy Hordichuk out with one swift punch to the melon; in the process becoming an instant fan favourite.

The Flames score 11 goals in their next two games and establish themselves as the highest scoring team in the league. Pundits everywhere are perplexed as to where the scoring could be coming from as Cammalleri no longer plays on the team. They finally realize that the depth the Flames acquired once Cammy left, makes the team more dangerous then in years past. Newcomers Sjostrom, Dawes and McGrattan continue to impress. Sjostrom showing his speed for the nail in the coffin against Columbus, while Dawes tallies 2 in the third straight victory over the Oilers. Mcgrattan fights MacIntyre in what should be lauded as the best fight of the year, so far, and gains even more fans in the process. Rene Bourque is the teams leading scorer and continues to rack up points on the teams second line with Langkow and Dawes; part of that depth that was mentioned earlier.

The Colorado Avalanche are leading the division? Is this 2001? A team thought to be battling the Leafs for 30th overall, is running through the league at an incredible pace. The Flames score 2 goals in the first 70 seconds of the game, only to slowly give up the lead and eventually lose to a team that should have been tired from playing the night before. The Flames lose their first divisional battle and 2nd home game of the season. Defensive miscues and timely giveaways starting to become habitual for Calgary as Brent Sutter’s system still has kinks left to be worked out.

This brings us to the Halloween game against the Red Wings and the only thing scary about this game was the lack of finish and the lack drive the Flames had. Not to mention the horrendous giveaway by Regehr to Maltby for the empty net goal to finish off the game. Kiprusoff makes a few awe inspiring saves, but lets 2 quick ones by him in the second, and the Flames lose their second straight and finish the month with a record of 7-4-1. 15 points through 12 games; not amazing, but not horrible. On par with the last two seasons starts of 6-3-1 and 6-3-3. The good news lies in the fact that the Flames have not pieced together too many complete games of hockey. The back to back wins over the Jackets and the Oilers stand as their best hockey to date, but there is undeniably more work to be done.

Kiprusoff is the MVP of the month, as he played outstanding in the majority of the time that he stepped on the ice. A drastic improvement from the October Kipper of old, and a welcoming sign that the goalie of 2004 is no longer hiding under a mound of grass anymore.

Rene Bourque, Eric Nystrom, Freddy Sjostrom, Brandon Prust, Mark Giordano and Brian McGrattan are all very close runners up to Kiprusoff in October. The depth players on the Flames all outperformed the stars of the team on numerous occasions.

“Olli Jokinen, please report ice level to pick up your prize as worst Flame of the month.” Scoring just two goals in the month and seemingly invisible for a majority of the games, Olli continues to not do himself any favours. The forced chemistry with Iginla failed as many predicted it would, and now Jokinen is meandering in the depths of the unknown as he continues to fail to find his spot on this team. $5.5 million for what exactly? If this continues, Jokinen might be on a direct flight out of Cowtown come July 1st of 2010.

Iginla will soon need to snap out of the funk he finds himself in, as when the scoring dries up, as it has the last couple of games, Iginla needs to be around to carry this team out of the fire. He has been anything but spectacular over the first month, scoring a paltry 9 points over the first 12 games; a far cry from the 19 he had 2 seasons ago.

With some work to be done in order to achieve elite status in the NHL, the Flames travel to Dallas on Wednesday to start a very busy November in which they play 14 games in 26 days. There is a lot of hockey to be played, and the Flames look as if they are a couple steps away from being the team to beat in the NHL.

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

Battle of Alberta Fight Night

For the last couple years the Edmonton Oilers had their way physically with the Calgary Flames. Steve MacIntyre would run amok on the ice and bowl over anyone that stood in his way.

Enter Brian McGrattan. Cue one the best fights of the year and McGrattan landing some of biggest bombs you will ever see NOT drop a human being to his knees. A heavyweight tilt that lived up to its billing.

Holyfield vs Tyson minus the ear biting.
Ali vs Foreman minus the jungle.

A great fight in which both combatants landed significant punches and energized the crowd, en route to a Flames team dominating 2nd period performance where they out shot the Oilers 19-9. The Flames peppered Khabibulin with 38 shots over the game and managed to outshoot the opponent for the first time all year. Not to mention the Flames eclipsed the 30 shot barrier for the first time, all the while limiting the Oilers to 25 shots; the Flames stingiest effort of the season. Despite having 7 Powerplays against them, including an extended 5 on 3 at the end of the second/start of the third period, the Flames limited the Oilers to only 2 goals.

The second line of Bourque-Langkow-Dawes provided a majority of the offence, including a beauty 2 on 1 shorthanded marker in the first period. Dawes potted in 2 goals and put forth his strongest game wearing the Flaming C.

Where are all the pundits that said this team would have trouble scoring goals? What is Calgary going to do without Cammalleri? Well, the Flames are averaging over 4 goals a game and are the highest scoring team in the league. Even with “Olli the Invisible” providing next to nothing on the score sheet, the Flames are scoring at will with help from their depth players like Nystrom, Dawes and Langkow. The emergence of Rene Bourque has been a welcoming sight and should be able to continue his ways unless the injury prone winger falls victim to another ailment (knock on wood). His shorthanded tally in the first, in which he shoved Grebeshkov over, took the puck and raced down the ice with Langkow proved to be one of the turning points in the game. He very much reminds us of a younger Iginla with his speed, his shot and his sense for the net. Let us hope he stays healthy.

The Flames are off to their best start in franchise history. 15 points in their first 10 games and they are seemingly hitting their defensive stride if last night is any indication. The highest scoring team in the league with the arguably one of the best fighters in the league provides for one nasty team to play against on a nightly basis.

This has been,

Newman on the Flames