Iginla Leads Flames into Break

The Flames not only won, but they dominated for most of the game tonight beating the Anaheim Ducks 3-1. Jarome Iginla led the way scoring back to back goals in the 2nd period; his 26th and 27th goals of the season. Iginla is now rolling with 5 points in his past 3 contests. He rose to the occasion the way a Captain should. He was skating hard, he was shooting the puck with confidence, and he was shooting the puck a lot more. He has averaged just over 5 shots per game in his past 5 games; the main reason for his recent surge. He has led by example as the Flames have out shot their opponents in 5 of their last 6 outings. Jarome now ranks in the top 20 in the league in scoring with his 2 goal performance tonight.

This was the first time in 5 games that the Flames managed to score more than 2 goals. Tonight also broke a 5 game losing streak against the Pacific division; losses coming against the Ducks, Sharks, Stars, Coyotes and Stars again.

The Flames are 11-2-1 when the game is played on Saturday, which is by far there best winning % on a given day. Sundays are their worst as they are 0-3.

The Flames go into the Olympic break 4-3-3 in their last 10 games. You can look at that in two ways: either they have been able to gain points in 7 of a possible 10 games, which isn’t too bad, or they have lost 6 of 10 games going into the break which is below .500 hockey, and simply not acceptable.

The Flames have the ability to be a good hockey team and I believed it showed in tonight’s performance. The key for them is to fore-check hard and pressure the opposing defence into making mistakes. They need to skate as a team or they will fail miserably. They do not have the talent to take shifts off and win games.

Kiprusoff goes into Vancouver starting the last 13 games; lasting the duration in all but the 9-1 Shark massacre. This, due in part to the Flames trying to lurch their way out of a tailspin and the fact that Kiprusoff has been nothing short of amazing. He has a GAA of 2.08 in the last 12 and a Save % of .923. He has deserved a better record but has not received the offensive support that he has desperately been craving.

I was secretly hoping that Jari Kurri would somehow name Backstrom the starter for Finland just to give Miikka some much needed rest.

Every Flames fan knows that the season starts and ends with #34 and if he goes down the Flames can kiss whatever hope might be left straight down the toilet.

On a non-hockey note: Congrats to Jennifer Heil for winning Canada’s first medal of the games. It’s too bad it was not gold. It’s also too bad those Americans couldn’t be more gracious in victory; arrogant pricks.

This has been,

Newman on the Flames

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Lightning Strikes Twice

The Flames fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning in overtime tonight by a score of 2-1. A hurtful reminder of the last time Calgary lost 2-1 in the St. Pete Times Forum. For those who do not know, it was game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup Final, a loss that Flames fans will not soon forget.

Two goals by Ruslan Fedotenko was all the Lightning needed that night, as the Flames ran out of gas in their 26th postseason game. Six years have passed since that memorable spring run and you look down the line of the Flames bench and there are very few that can even recall that fateful game. Jarome Iginla, Robyn Regehr, Craig Conroy, and Miikka Kiprusoff are the only Flames left from that run. Cory Sarich, however, was in Tampa, but he was celebrating as a part of the Lightning. Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier are the only Lightning players still in Tampa since their inaugural championship. It is amazing how two teams can look so different in only six years. A definite sign of how the salary cap era has forced teams to shuffle the deck more often than not.

Back to the game.

The Flames have now managed to grab points in six of their last seven games. They have climbed back into 7th place in the Western Conference. The powerplay is 3 for its last 7 attempts. Kiprusoff has a .938 SP% over the past three games; alright, so some things have not changed. Following the trading bonanza that took place a week ago and discounting the bizarre circumstances that surrounded the Flyers game, the Flames have looked much improved. They are not out of the woods yet, but most Flames fans might agree that the team looks better, which is a good thing.

Giordano has fully embraced his expanded role, since the Dion departure, as the go-to offensive threat from the back-end recording two of the Flames three goals on the weekend. Jay Bouwmeester has also looked better playing close to 30 minutes in both Florida games and recording points in two of the last three.

The Flames actually dominated a team in the face-off dot, winning 28 of 46 draws in the Florida. They also more than doubled the Panthers in shots and despite the heroics of Tommy Vokoun the score would have been much worse.

The Flames are clearly still trying to figure everything out and with the injury to Rene Bourque, and the absence of Dawes, Moss, and a lesser extent Conroy, they will be hoping for the new additions to start finding the net a bit more.

Speaking of new additions, who knew Ales Kotalik was brought into fight? What a goon! The reason he did not have his jersey tied down was clearly because he never expects to scrap; possibly a savvy move by Lightning forward Stephane Veilleux.

The Flames fly to Ottawa for a game against the Sens, than back home for a match-up with the Stars and Ducks before the Olympic break. The Flames, who have played 2 more games than Colorado, Nashville and Vancouver, simply need points in every game this week to position themselves well for the long Olympic hiatus.

This has been,

Newman on the Flames

Source of Photo: http://espn.go.com/media/nhl/2004/0607/photo/a_miikka_il.jpg


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