Back to the scene of the crime

And what a difference our next visit to San Jose makes.

Our previous visit is already the stuff of local legend - the stinking up of the Sharks' barn, the cancellation of the wine tour in Napa (Guys? Just sayin'. You coulda had a fabulous time there. And unlike me, you can probably afford it...), the bag-skating over the weekend following, then, miraculously, the Flames playing like contenders.

Simply miraculous.

And we saw results. Last week the Sharks came to play, and unlike the rest of their Western Canada road swing (a swing, which, this year, seems markedly less intimidating than in years before), could not leave the Saddledome with a win.

I don't expect the same type of game we saw last week, since particularly, we'll be the visitors. The Sharks are coming off a 7-1 pasting of Tampa Bay, but they'll know the Flames are not the sadsack Lightning (for one, we already traded our Francophone star to the Habs). Expect a fantastic game. It should be fun!

In other news! I was in the Saddledome Sunday to watch the Hitmen (with a ridiculous 38-6-1-1 record) take on the Swift Current Broncos. And was startled to see no other than Flames prospect John Negrin play for the Broncs, having just been traded there the night before. I will chalk up his unremarkable play (well, he DID get an assist) to having been traded the day before, plus travel. But it was a good game. For the home team at least.

It is what it is, but it is not a cliché

What a crazy season this has been. We're at the half-way mark already? That can't be right. I'd like to apologize for the infrequent postings to this blog, but the real world cannot be PVRed and life goes on. But in the meantime, Kent, WI, and Matt have all been prolific and analytical and highly entertaining.

I'm not sure many people predicted that by the midpoint of the season, the Flames would be a "top six" team in the league. And if they did predict that, they probably changed their mind after the infamous events San Jose beat-down on November 13th. They've pulled it off, somehow. The team has simply looked consistently good since November 13th, and even our 3rd and 4th lines are looking good.

What is notable about this season is how little our "top three" guys are contributing to this. In most years, Iginla, Kiprusoff, and Phaneuf are all-stars and there's a dropoff from there. This year, all three are arguably underperforming: Kiprusoff is getting wins, but he's still not performing like an elite goaltender in my eyes. Iginla has been good, but he hasn't been exceptional. Phaneuf needs to work on his aim and still work on his defensive coverage -- I don't think "lazy" is the correct word but on many goals, I see "#3" skating well behind the player that scored. The Flames' success has come from the hands of the team as a whole, and it's a great thing. The work ethic, speed, and skills of Rene Bourque and Curtis Glencross have, in my view, inspired this whole team -- I believe they supply additional motivation to the rest of the team. It doesn't have to be the Jarome Iginla or Dion Phaneuf show each night, and these guys keep proving it. The effort and consistency from everyone on the team, and the continued underrated efforts of Daymond Langkow, are ensuring that this team is ferocious and firing on all cylinders each night. Even Todd Bertuzzi, oft lamented by my fellow bloggers, has been playing fairly well all season. I still stand by my assertion that he's not even close to being the "biggest disappointment" on our team this year, in fact he's overperforming if you take into account his salary in my estimation...things are looking good.

But now we've had a break. The Flames have been sitting idle since Thursday, and now we're facing off against St. Louis tonight. It'll be all too easy to underestimate St. Louis (especially since they've lost their one-man-army in Lee Stempniak), combined with potential overconfidence from their recent record and 5-2 wins and the challenge of getting back in the saddle after a long weekend, this may be a bigger challenge than is expected. In a lot of ways, I'm looking at tonight's game against lowly St Louis as a barometer for future near-term success. If the Flames can shake off the little bit of rust, play competitively, and put in a solid game tonight I think we'll be okay. It's about forming those good habits again.

We can't forget that Vancouver isn't too far back. With Loungo back and Sundin on the team, they will get better. I'm glad we've extended the lead as much as we have with Loungo out and Sundin playing like a Maple Leaf, but that can be short-lived. Vancouver's a one-man show, and that one man has returned.

Pre-game: Happy New Year! Edition

So after a fabulous, turkey-full Christmas replete with distractions, I think we're ready to get back to work here.

It's been an excellent Christmas for the Flames. They've had a chance to rest up, got to play the sad-sack Senators and the nosediving-in-slow-mo Wild, and now Edmonton's up.

Edmonton played a bit of a bad-luck game against Ottawa last night. Not only did they permit the Sens to end their really long losing streak, they also lost Pouliot and Hemsky to injury.

And the Flames? They haven't been playing perfect* hockey for weeks and have still managed to scrape by. I'm particularly encouraged that the scoring is coming mostly from guys not named Jarome, and not named Slopp^w Dion. That said, it would be nice if they could string together some goal-scoring, and get Dion out of his -11 hole. Our best players should be well, our players who play the best, and at the moment, I'm not convinced they are.

(*like that ever happens even in a really good year)

So I'm basically expecting a holly jolly good time at the 'Dome. Fireworks at 8.

Yikes

So tonight, we face the Chicago Blackhawks at home. Just right out, I'm jealous of anybody who gets to go to tonight's game. And what a far cry it is from last year or the year before - if you had hockey tickets to give away, you just couldn't get anybody to even take your tix vs Chicago away (how do I know? Let's say I watched Calgary play Chicago a lot on my visits home...)

Chicago has been one of the geniune good news stories of the league this year. Can't hate on them, no I can't. (At least, not anymore). And really, the league could use more of them.

This is really going to be a good test defensively of the team. Chicago has so many guns, with arguably just the fourth line not possessing much offensive firepower. But it'll be exciting, it will be! (Provided the good folks at Sportsnet don't lull you into a false sense of fatigue).

On a closing note, I'm disappointed Minny recalled Krys Kolanos mere days after we played them. Disappointed!

Go Flames.

Pregame @ St. Louis: The kids are alright edition

Wait, didn't we just play these guys?

Anyways. I was impressed by the St Louis "who are these guys?" Blues. Fantastic, young team that can easily keep up with the Calgary Langkows.

The last time I watched us play the Blues was when I attended the Flames blogosphere meetup at Schanks; surprisingly, we won that game, but it was a lopsided effort on both ends. I don't doubt we'll see the same thing again. So yeah, seatbelts, fastening, all that good stuff. You know the drill.

Now! I also want to talk about St. Louis' division rivals the Blackhawks. It's been all over the internets; I just want to point out (again!) that they very quietly made a classy classy gesture for their GM... originally it wasn't publicized but it's a big deal now.
These are the guys who should be getting the bulk of the press about their off-ice lives, not the Sean Averys of the league.

Pregame @ Detroit

Sigh.

Dividing Line

To the casual eye, they look like any two hockey-obsessed teenagers anywhere. There they are, suiting up for practice. And playing road hockey. Tussling a bit. And going to practice. And doing random stuff, hanging out, shooting hoops, going to the corner store.... all that sort of thing.

Except these kids aren't growing up in a random neighbourhood just anywhere, they're in Northern Ireland. That's right, Belfast, the hometown of what was temporarily the favourite team of all fans of Theoren Fleury, past and present. And one of these boys is Protestant, and one is Catholic. Let's just say they're streetproofed in ways we'll never have to be.

They were featured in a 2004 National Film Board documentary called When Hockey Came to Belfast, directed by Linda Conway. And by following the boys through their everyday lives, the documentary illustrates the transformative power of hockey (it's rough, tough, and firmly non-sectarian, not having much of a history in that part of the world).

I found almost every shot of this documentary to have something of interest, whether it's kids doing kid-things, or an image of a savage partisan mural. Conway cannily intercuts light-hearted footage of the kids playing hockey or goofing around with more serious bits, showing the grim reality of growing up in Belfast, never spending too long in either mood. It's a real eye-opener, watching two fifteen year-olds catalogue all the ways you can tell whether somebody is in the right side of town or no, or hearing their parents worry about whether their boys... and their families... will come to harm from this particular friendship.

And the message of the documentary is simple. People can get along. When you've been living in a small small world, maybe all it takes is a crazy sport from somewhere else to show you just how broad your horizons can be.

So if you have an hour free, track down this film and give it a go. Definitely a gooder.

Les Habitants Flames de jouer, en attendant les émeutes

Bonjour!  I'm so hyped for tonight's game that I could tolerate a Frenchman!  I've always been a fan of Tangs so it'll be good to see him again, even if it's on the other side.  I'm also hoping the Flames can keep this momentum we've sustained,  Boyd will be back, which is good and bad.  Good 'cause I like the guy, bad 'cause the team has something going and I'm worried this'll throw a wrench in the works of a functional and successful team.  I'm always the pessimist.

I confess to being a quasi-Habs fan, they're perhaps my second favourite team in the league and have been for quite some time.  It doesn't hurt that they've been pretty good recently, but most importantly they're a fun team to watch.  The atmosphere at the Bell Centre is amazing, it seems to pump up the players who play in the arena (on both teams) and result in a disproportionate number of good hockey games.  Or so it seems, anyway.

I'm not sure why everyone has the hate-on for Bertuzzi as a disappointment.  The man signed for 1 year at $1.95M.  I look at disappointments from the angle of salaries combined with expectations.  My expectations with Bertuzzi were fairly low given his recent years' performances, and the salary is undoubtedly low.  For what he's being paid, I'd assert that Bertuzzi is what I expected and not a "disappointment".  On the other hand, Lombardi's performance has been decidedly lacking and definitely beneath his potential.  Sadly, if I had to peg a disappointment so far this season...it'd be Lombo.

Open Ice Fantasy: Through November

Here's a quickie post, the current standings of the 2nd annual Open Ice Fantasy League. I'm getting absolutely killed by my goalies, thanks to Brodeur's injury and inconsistent backups. Killlllled.

1. Retired Warreners (MG Kent W)
2. Flaming C (Paul-Marc)
3. Wasilla Meth-Heads (my brother)
4. The Naughty Nilsons (Leanne)
5. Steel Thunder(ST)
6. The Pantless Pirates (me)
7. Bancouber Pucks (Marcel)
8. FB Craig Conroys (Duncan)
9. screaming dobermans (WI)

Circus

So the Sean Averys are in town tonight. What do we expect? Well, in terms of guys not playing hockey, the trash talk will be flying fast and furious (I expect "sloppy seconds" to be mentioned more than once) between all the usual suspects.

On the ice? Well, Turco has been all sorts of abysmal this year. So the key will be to just get as much on the net as we possibly can. Ideally, we get a game like we had the other night against Vancouver, where Kipper could have been replaced in net by a sack of potatoes for all the action that he saw.

Should be a gooder tonight... I'm just sad that nobody's mic'd up.