You Are Cordially Invited To...

... clamber back onto the bandwagon.

Yeah, we can shuffle over. Plenty of room here!

I have to confess (that life being busy) that I wasn't able to follow the Flames through their last two games. That said, they seemed to finally be adding those intangibles we spend a lot of time here moaning about.

Coming back from 3-0 in Nashville was impressive, but even better was in Phoenix, where we got the lead early on, and never let go.

So now we know we're capable of complete games. We're capable of difficult wins. Question is, how long can we maintain this particular tempo? And can we do this night in and out against great teams?

I have to confess that I'm still not hopeful on this front. Certainly a number of things have turned the corner for us so far. Kipper is still Kipper (I maintain that his terrible performances at the beginning of the season were more a result of defensive lapses than anything else), Bertuzzi is looking to be more like his old self that we hated in his Vancouver days, than the useless putz we sniggered at in Florida or Anaheim.

The big question is still the defense. While Phaneuf is now receiving the lion's share of minutes, he's still not quite as steady defensively as I would like. And it's hardly limited to Phaneuf. Overall, I'd just like to see more consistency from the entire corps, and we haven't yet got that.

Tonight we'll be up against the Avs. They've had a very similar trajectory to ours this season - sucking up the beginning, but now rounding into form. It'll be interesting to see who comes out on top.

Go Flames.