No Afternoon Delight: Flames lose second straight

By Derrick Newman

Well, that was an exciting Saturday afternoon of hockey at the Saddledome.

Anyone who actually paid for tickets should be forming a line at the box office demanding their money back for that snoozefest.

Now, to be fair, this was in the cards from the beginning given the odd time of the game (2pm), which usually means players rhythms are thrown off forcing them to come out either slow, disjointed, lethargic, or all of the above.

Also, the Flames were playing the Nashville Predators, who possess no enigmatic scorers on their team and work as a team defensively to lull you into a dreary slumber and subsequently take advantage of a lucky bounce – the first goal they scored off Niklas Bergfors shoulder—and then pounce on one of only legitimate scoring opportunities all game to put the nail in the coffin and the fans fleeing for the exits in disgust.

It wasn’t pretty.

Hank was Screaming: Karlsson re-signs

The Calgary Flames have re-signed back-up goalie Henrik Karlsson to a two-year contract worth $1.725 million. He posted a 4-5-6 record last season with a .908 save % and a 2.58 GAA.


Comments from Jay Feaster regarding the signing (taken from flames.nhl.com):

"We are very pleased to have Hank under contract and welcome him back,” said Flames General Manager Jay Feaster. “Last season he demonstrated that he is more than capable as a dependable back-up goalie to Kipper who can win games for us when needed and get us valuable points in the standings. Hank’s game performances, especially after long layoffs and in relief efforts, his work ethic, and his positive personality earned him the trust and support of Brent and his teammates and we are happy to have him back in the fold."

The signing doesn’t surprise me and it’s probably the right one. As much I would love to see Leland Irving given a chance in the NHL, it would probably be best to have him gain some more confidence at the AHL level and bring him up for a maybe a spot start here or there.

Regardless though, Irving will not just play dead. He will battle even harder in training camp to try and prove to the Flames brass that he deserves to play in the big leagues –and he will play with the big boys one day, that much I am sure of.

I believe Irving is the future of goaltending in this city once Kipper decides to move on, whether to the retirement home or to another franchise.

Karlsson is simply a solid number two at this point. That’s not to say he couldn’t one day be a starter but I’d like to think that the Flames would love to see Irving, a Flames draft pick, between the pipes one day.

Karlsson is the safe play and he showed last season that he can be reliable when called upon. Depending on how the season goes will depend on how much work he receives. If the Flames are forced to play catch up again like last season, expect The Calgary Tower to be stapled to the end of the bench and forced into the role of permanent water boy/bench warmer/cheerleader.

With the Karlsson signing, it still leaves Tanguay and Pardy as realistic guys to be re-signed before July 1 – Staios is gone, Modin is not coming back, Babchuk apparently wants too much money, Mikkleson is replaceable and Morrison is the wild card and could be a last minute deal.

And with the salary cap set to increase to $64 million next season, you would think that signing Tanguay is all but certain now. The Flames sit at just over $57 million right now which leaves roughly $6.5 million to sign Tanguay and a couple other fill in players.

Hopefully they are just crossing those “t’s” and dotting the “i’s” as we speak.

Feaster has a busy two weeks ahead of him.

Newman
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Flames goals against not the problem

Just a few things I wanted to touch upon following the Flames 3-2 shootout win over the Minnesota Wild.


Thing #1: Darryl Sutter and his claim that goals against are the Flames big problem

Yes, the Flames rank 24th in the league in goals against per game. But, if you dig a little deeper you will see that these numbers are quickly skewed due to a couple blow out games. The recent 7-2 loss to the Canucks where the Flames basically gave up following the Canucks 4th goal, coupled with the Caps dismantling of the Flames on Halloween night, also a 7-2 beat down, are the two cases I speak of. Subtract those two bizarre outings and the Flames sit tied for 11th in GA. The Flames problems have never been stopping the puck – take last year as an example where the Flames finished 5th in the league for GA.

Flames Problems Have Changed

Well, at least the problem isn’t scoring goals anymore.


The Calgary Flames, after averaging less than two goals for their first half dozen games, have become an offensive powerhouse reminiscent of the 84’ Oilers – averaging nearly four and a half goals per game.

It’s simply ironic that once the Flames start scoring, the defence decides to take a break. They have allowed 10 goals in their last two games. The defence was horrid, but the goaltending wasn't much better.

In his first home start as a Calgary Flame Henrik Karlsson allowed six goals on 33 shots. It wasn’t his finest performance and definitely didn’t instil a bunch of confidence in the team, the coach, or his fans.

Flames in Net

The goaltending position in Calgary has never been a worry for the past half decade, and considering Flames fans tend to worry about pretty much everything else, it’s nice to have one less thing. This season, Calgary looks to have its strongest tandem to date in between the pipes with Miikka Kiprusoff and newcomer Henrik Karlsson manning the 4X6.

Kipper for his part, was the lone bright spot and hands down MVP of the Calgary Flames last season. Was he smoking a new kind of weed? No one really knows.

Regardless of what dope he may or may not be into, Miikka Kiprusoff is a world class goaltender that deserved a better fate last season.