I'm going to die from the tedium drama...

I don't know what to make of the team anymore. Not that that's a bad thing, they're just inconsistent, I guess.

Looks like I missed a good one Thursday. My guess is Mixmaster Mike will continue his line-juggling ways (anything to remind the boys not to be complacent) tonight, and continue to emphasize defence-first (we know that works... why don't we do this more, ahem, regularly?) Unlike Colorado, I don't see to remember doing particularly well against Minnesota this season. Definitely not better than seasons past anyways.

Minnesota's got their share of late-season bumps and bruises, the latest casualty being ex-Calgary draft pick Kurtis Foster. When do we get no-touch icing?

If you're getting tired of the late-season roller coaster, 'tis also the time of year to go forth and catch playoff hockey! The Hitmen only sold 9,000 or seats last night, so there's definitely room for more. The team mostly does their thing by committee... besides Alzner, there aren't any standout stars, but these kids could teach the big boys across the hall a thing or too about gettin' it done. They've been smokin' hot this year, have been startlingly consistent, and I'm looking forward to watching listening to them go deep (semester is right in the middle of busy, so unfortunately, I won't be planting my ass in a seat at the 'Dome anytime soon).

Oh. They also all dyed their hair blonde. That means good things, yes?

So...go Calgary!

I don't do mornings

...so this is the only way to put up a pre-game.

Ohhhh. The all-important divisional game. This one in particular is a huge one, since should we win and not give up any pity points, we'll be back atop the NW Division. Again.

I haven't been paying much attention to Minnesota this year, but they're on a slight skid, having lost the last two in a row, for reasons (honestly) unknown to me. Check out what Kirsten has to say, maybe. Ignore the Iggy hate, do.

We're building on some good momentum from the latter three games this week. I don't actually think it's a big deal whether Kipper bags a shutout or not, but it was nice for him to finally get that out of the way (besides saving my bacon in a couple of fantasy leagues). I really enjoyed the physical play they put forth against Detroit, though I could have done without Owen Nolan-the-bonehead.

Speaking of boneheaded, that Phaneuf hit on Kopecky looked pretty dangerous, though not intentionally malicious (I don't expect Dion to have a camera in his ass to notice Kopecky's helmet is off). From our experience with various Detroit fans from last year's playoffs, I have no doubt they will join their Edmontonian brethren in labeling Phaneuf a headhunting caveman who relishes small children, kittens, and fuzzy baby seals as his Sunday brunch entree. Whatever. He's OUR caveman.

What little we saw of Vandermeer looked fine, though (as expected) not stellar. Obviously opposing teams will push on him pretty hard until it's obvious he's used to the new team and the new system. Definitely an improvement on Eriksson, and no worse than last year's late pickup of David Hale.

I just want to say one more word about Alex Tanguay. Namely, BOOYEAH. Kudos to him for if not ignoring all the tedious trade talk, all but daring the Flames to trade him. I've pretty much been ignoring all mutterings about Tanguay, because even if it makes sense in a cap world, we don't get that far in the playoffs without him. And TSN and half of Montreal want us to trade him for spare parts? No way in hell.

So! It will be a Flames win, but afternoon games are pretty screwed up, so either the score is way high, or it's next to nil.

Vacation was LAST month...

I'm left cursing the NHL schedule again. Curses! What do you mean there's exactly one Flames game a week from last Friday till next Friday? I'm not disputing the guys need a break, but really, we should pack in as many games as possible before Eriksson feels better.

I'm not kidding!

I meant to do a post-game about last night's tilt a bit earlier, but alas, alas...

It's amazing how much better Matthew Lombardi looks (not that he isn't already lookin' good, heh) when he's not babysitting Boyd or Nystrom. Simply amazing. Though I was a bit surprised that he and Yelle turned out to be such a good combo offensively. I would have put them as strictly a PK tandem...

And Tanguay. I understand the mathematics of the salary cap, but I don't think there was a better cogent argument against trading him than seeing him all pissed off and afire last night. He's usually much more chill than that...it's nice to see him pour it on.

(Note to Fletcher: No, we're not giving him up for Gary Leeman. No! Not even Gary Leeman AND Doug Gilmour...)

And no, I didn't miss Eriksson. While the D was by no means air-tight, it was much improved.

This was the sort of game I think I needed to see the Flames win again. Tight, low-scoring, boring as all hell. Lately, these sorts of games have been the ones that have eluded them, whether they're being hypnotized by the Isles or flat out asleep against Nashville. We've seen more than enough this season already though - we're not out of the woods yet.

Overall, I'm feeling pretty good headed into the All-Star Break. Team looks good, team is mostly healthy, Kipper is in fine form again (hopefully he doesn't spend a week in Aruba and lose his edge over the break).

Hopefully Huselius will continue to show us some fine fine moves. How about that off-the-leg-and-into-the-net-trick? YES?

I have a few plans to keep us all entertained while we wait for the games to start again.

For one, Dave and I usually do a Sporting News fantasy league or two to while away the season. A new season starts up after the All-Star Break, and any of you who are interested in joining up should drop us a line soon, in return for an invite. Yes, WI, that's you! And Kyle? And anyone else...

As the league stands...let's say I can guarantee you guys won't come in last. Dave already has a lock on that, right?

Dave?

Broken Face + Kool Krys Kolanos + JFJ a Mistake + Deetroyit

According to TSN.ca, Kurtis Foster of the Wild has a "broken face". That's perhaps one of the more bizarre injury descriptions I've seen. Maybe a bit insulting as well, at least if it were applied to Ricci or Smyth. He'll only be out 3 to 5 days, so apparently it's just a minor break in his face.

---

In one of these awesome 2 degrees of separation examples, Krys Kolanos has been playing a damn fine game in Quad-Cities for the baby Flames. 6 points in 6 games since he joined the team. He was my brother's friend's friend from school back in Calgary. A 1st round draft pick of the Phoenix Coyotes, he had a decent rookie year in the NHL before injuries set him back. He attended the Flames training camp this year, and states he'd love to play for his hometown team, but was sent to Q-C -- which he promptly didn't report to, reportedly over salary issues. Sutter recently called him up, worked something out, and presto-changeo he's on an AHL contract and doing decently there. If he keeps this up, I reckon it won't be too long til he lands a contract with the big boys.

---

Shock and Awe: Hiring JFJ was a mistake. But a mistake the Leafs will apparently stand by until he makes a huge mistake*.

* (Huge mistake is defined as a monstrous mistake more massive than signing McCabe on his long-term, huge-salary, no-trade, no-movement contract)

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Flames play Detroit tonight at the Joe. Brings back bad memories of last year's playoff run, every time we play there. My brother and I made the pilgrimage all the way to the land of Ford (which, if memory serves, was about a 40 hour drive from Toronto when you include the lineup at the border and the way time stands still in Windsor). The locals were enamored with the beauty of the new stainless steel urinal troughs they had installed at one of the two (I think there's only two!) bathrooms in the entire place.

Will Phaneuf start as LW again? No, probably not. That was pretty funny though. Nice work, Keenan.
Will the Flames win? No, probably not. Detroit's a great team right now and the Flames are wishy-washy flippy-floppy.
Will the Flames score a goal? I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict Yes. At least one. Probably with Iginla getting a point.
Will Kiprusoff have a great game? I'm thinking yes, yes he is. He did well against Detroit in the playoffs, anyway. Besides, there's no talented players on that team, right? Just some no-name Swede who probably wishes he played on a talented team like Vancouver or Phoenix.

Go Flames!

Minny pre-game: Are We There Yet?

Game night again!

After that embarrassment Sun...

Oh, this is a Flames blog? Well...I don't want to talk about the Stampeders anyways.

Um. Not much to say...gotta win soon...Minnesota's weaker than we'll ever see them the rest of the season, what with Gaborik and Demitra out with groin injuries (matching? No, don't think about that), Backstrom having had a pseudo-groin injury over the weekend, and Walz being out.

That said, we're still going to have to take care of things on our own end. Secondary scoring, blah blah, penalty killing, yadda yadda, and something I think doesn't get emphasized enough for the Flames (but which I heard plenty of for the Stamps), which is to avoid penalties. Easier said than done, I know, but ... then we don't have to worry about the PK, right? Right?

I think that concludes today's wrap up. I don't want to dwell particularly on how we've lost the last four to division rivals, but keep that in mind for future reference. Um, that could be kind of important. Not that I'm going to lower the boom on the boys yet, but, yeah, that could be kind of important.

Look for Calgary to bounce back in a big way. 5-3 Calgary (worked for us the first game vs them...)

Hangover

(Or my theory about what happened last game. Somebody must've been "celebrating" Nolan's 1000th game early... )

Sooo...Minnesota tonight. Not too many expectations here - after all, Minnesota's played strong all season, and haven't lost yet. And the game's not anywhere I can watch it. We did stink to high heaven last game. I'm not sure what it was, but the Sharks had a much easier time of the Flames Monday than when I saw them play during the pre-season. And that's all I'm saying about that.

Anyways! McElhinney's out in Quad Cities, Keetley's back in town. I suspect they want to give McElhinney actual ice time which was a bit nicer than the other night so he can properly work his lower body (Note: Also a useful term when you can't remember which body part is broken).

I do expect Calgary to come back strong, even if they have not been put through the bag skate. They are professionals, after all.

Count on a low-scoring game. I expect we'll be pretty stingy for once, and Minnesota always is.

The Torture (Minnesota pre-game #2)

Clearly it's my passing out which is doing it. Worked for the Hitmen again last night, ha!

I spent most of Tuesday's game dead asleep (not my choice, darn this flu), and that seems to have clinched things. I'm told that the game was probably more enjoyable that way, especially via radio.

There's some definite positives to take from last game. A strong showing by Kipper is probably the most notable. There were times when I was conscious enough to take in the play-by-play, and just think, for any random shot, "I don't think that's going in." And ha! I was right all of the time Tuesday night despite being drugged up to the gills and semi-conscious. What else? I'm liking the pairing of Warrener and Hale a lot. I don't know what it is, but Warrener seems to be struggling less with Hale around. Or maybe that "full-body injury" is healing.

Others have chimed in with negatives... but meh, it's been a downer of a week anyways off the ice. So get well soon ST and HG (how weird is it that we all make trips to sick bay this week?), and let's go for another road win...

The Agony (Minnesota Pre-Game #1)

Well, replicating exactly what I did last game will be one part easy and one part tough.

Chips? Not happening. Passing out? Should be very workable.

Tonight should be about as pleasant for the boys as it is for me. They're playing the Wild, I've got the flu.

I don't have much else to say... yes, it's a road game, yes, it's a must-win, yes, we need more points between ourselves and Colorado...

Sigh. Back to bed then...

I take it back, I take it all back.

Nevermind.

And nevermind the new NHL. I hope Bettman choked on his morning biscotti when he realized that we generated another trappy sister-kisser in the 'Dome last night.

My thoughts on the game (minus the ten minutes I spent passed out and oblivious to everything):

Kipper is back. Easily the best player on either team on the ice last night.
Gift-wrapped. Was it just me, or should we have been able to put more than one shot past Harding, given how little time he's spent playing? I guess we need to give some credit to Minnesota's D for collasping around him.
Gift-wrapped, Part II. Praise be to Iggy, indeed, but praise also the refs and Brett Burns. Why do other players in the NW always forget that when you make Iggy mad, he will make you pay? Not that I'm complaining. And nothng beats watching highlights in the morning and seeing that zillion-watt-smile.
MIA. Where the hell was Lombo in the second half of the game? I checked the shift chart, and it looks like he and Primeau didn't have more than a couple of shifts. You'd think he'd be good to counter a speedy team like Minnesota's becoming, but what's the story here? We saw an awful lot of Friesen/Yelle/Nilson by comparison.
Not out of the bushes. I'm still seeing a lot of trouble in the defensive zone, specifically, our inability at times to clear the puck. Also, this game reminded me a lot of the usual sorts of road games we play, probably due to our offense trying fancy-schmancy plays which don't work so well when the other guy's defense is boxed up tightly in front of their goalie.

Up next: We got a big game Saturday night. We're riding some highs, the other guys are riding some lows. Should be a good time.

This just in: Bigfoot spotted

Flames got a SHOOTOUT WIN

...

against MINNESOTA.

This is MOMENTOUS!

Glory be to Kipper and Iggy.

I am overjoyed. Too overjoyed to type coherently.

Back to our regular schedule (Minnestota pre-game)

So, the trade deadline circus was even more entertaining than usual, thanks to the melodrama going on up north. I'm not a nice person. I enjoyed it very much.

It's a bit of a shame that the Oilers have decided to rollover and die for the season already - it takes a lot of the punch out of the game Saturday night. Love the guy or hate the guy though - I'm sure Kipper will not mind not having to get up close and personal with Smyth's backside for yet another night.

My take on the trade is that it was clearly rushed. I'm not really talking about whether each side got fair value from the other. Yet, with everybody and their pet dog knowing that Edmonton has to find a strong, offensive-minded d-man, they went and got forwards. Are they planning on trading their burgeoning froshie class for help in the back? They'll have to. After all, it's not like they have their own farm team where they can stash these kids and develop them.

And a key reason we haven't noticeably stumbled due to injuries this season is the farm. The kids play together, they learn the system, they develop Pavlovian responses to red-and-black-and-yellow. A guy goes down here, no problems. We can plug a kid in, pronto. And from the one Knights game I saw this year, the kids are definitely all right.

Can the Oilers do that with their prospects, present and future? Not so sure.

I've also wondered a lot over the last day or two about would we do the same thing to our guys? Certainly the way Ference left Calgary gives you pause. But at the end of next year, or even trade deadline time next season, are we going to see some of our pending free agents leave for places barely known?

Anyways. It's game night! Unlike us, our boys are pros - I'm sure that while they were even more edgy than we were yesterday, they've got their focus back. We get Minnesota again, who seem to also have a set of Evil Twins this year as well. Like us, they boast a strong home record and a wimpy road record.

Hopefully that'll be enough to push us all the way to a 3-2 win. And then we can get ready for Saturdaaaaaay!