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

Newman on the Flames on CBC

Newman was on CBC Radio One this afternoon talking about the Flames's last gasp effort to make the playoffs. You can listen to the clip right here:

Newman on CBC


-TheRev

Hitmen beat Warriors 4 games to 3!

Check out my game review at the examiner.com!

Click here: http://www.examiner.com/Calgary-Sports.html

Flickering Flames

According to Sportsclubstats.com the Calgary Flames have a 4.7% chance of making the postseason. A slim, faint, flicker of hope, but hope nonetheless.

The schedule is not very easy but the Flames have no other options than to run the table for the rest of the season, and even then they need help to get into the tournament.

If they win all six remaining games then they have 78% chance of dancing with the big boys. If they only lose one game in extra time, their odds drop to 50/50. What makes anybody think they have a chance of sweeping the rest of the teams? Sundays win in Washington is really the only reason for any sort of optimism.

After coming off two of the most crushing defeats of the season – a 3-2 loss to the Isle and a 5-0 blow-out at the hands of the Bruins – the Flames shocked most around the league with a gusty performance versus the best team in the entire league; a 5-3 win in Washington.

The Flames finally played desperate hockey; something that eluded them in the two prior games. Maybe the on/off switch in their brains was finally manoeuvred into the right position, or maybe they were able to see the passion that Jim “Hulk Hogan” Playfair showed the day before. Someone in the organization had to blow a gasket, but no one thought it would come from the former Head Coach and current bench boss of the farm team.

That being said, that is the kind of emotion that needs to be shown. These players need to care, and until Sunday they have looked more interested in teeing it up on the links rather than competing for the greatest trophy in all of sports.

The remaining schedule plays out like this with the Flames record against the team in parenthesis:

Coyotes (1-1-1)
Avalanche (1-3-1)
Blackhawks (0-2-1)
Sharks (2-1-0)
Wild (1-3-1)
Canucks (3-2-0).

Add those up and the Flames have a 8-12-4 record against the remaining teams. They have never had a winning streak go past five games this season. Their penalty kill has lost its way allowing five goals in the last two games. The power play continues to struggle going one for their last nine chances.

4.7%...for all intensive purposes, it might as well read 0%.

This has been,

Newman on the Flames

And now, the end is near

“You're not, you're not good, Al. You stink.”

That was Ty Webb referring to Al Czervik’s golf game in Caddyshack.

He might as well have been referring to the 2009-10 version of the Calgary Flames as they all but sealed there playoff fate Thursday night on the Island with a 3-2 loss to the third worst team in the league.

With only eight games remaining and only one of those games coming against a non-playoff team, Flames fans might as well come to the realization that for the first time since 2003 their will not be a playoff game played in Calgary.

Their powerplay once again failed them when they needed it most, going 0 for 5 on the night. This, against an Islander team with the fourth worst penalty kill in the NHL. The Flames powerplay unit ranks 25th in the league with 16.5% of all chances finding the back of the net, which is worse than last year’s unit that finished 21st in the league with a 17% completion rate.

It was hard to imagine a powerplay worse than last years ‘No practice man-advantage’ unit, but I guess the Flames one upped themselves this time.

What is there to say really? Besides stating that last nights game was simply a microcosm of the entire season; at least the parts of the season that costs the Flames a birth of in the playoffs.

They weren’t able to find goals when they needed them. They were led by their fourth line and Eric Nystrom has emerged as the Flames offensive threat of late. No offence to the man formerly referred to as ‘Nyzerman,’ but he should not be the one counted on late in the season to provide the offensive support.

Jarome Iginla has one goal in his last eight games. A guy who his leaned on so heavily in this city to provide goal scoring simply did not come through when it mattered most. He did not step up to the plate and should hold some blame for this season as Captain and leader of this team.

The Flames have gone through Coaches like water in the last five years so its hard to imagine that Brent Sutter will be handed his walking papers. You have to figure the blames has to fall somewhere else this time.

The players? Definitely! But first and foremost the mastermind behind this whole operation must atone for his mistakes. My eyes are firmly planted on you Darryl.

At least now the Flames will be able to get tee times at Bushwood with Al, Ty, Danny and maybe even Judge Smails.

“Just be the ball, be the ball, be the ball. You're not being the ball Danny.”

The Flames clearly were having a difficult time ‘being the ball.’

This has been,

Newman on the Flames