One down, 81 to go . . .
The good: Rene Bourque and Mark Giordano, who hobbled out of the 2008-09 season, were in full stride to start 2009-10. Giordano’s ice-breaking power-play goal was one slick piece of work.
The fourth line turned in some energetic shifts and one profitable one as Brandon Prust scored a goal.
The uniforms looked awesome. With any luck, the Flames will go 5-0 with the blood-blister/ketchup-bottle look and be tempted to switch to these babies full time. Straight and horizontal lines? No diaper effect on the back hem? Bee-yoo-tiful. Added bonus for Flames fans of a certain age — constant flashbacks to Hakan Loob, Joe Mullen, Gary Suter, Jim Peplinski, Carey Wilson, Colin Patterson et al all game long.
The bad: The Flames seemed to trot out the worst ever version of the prevent defence in the third period and it could have — and perhaps should have — cost them.
The penalty-killing, which ranked No. 4 in the league a season ago, got off to a rough start but did come up with a clutch kill in the third period and the lead at one slim goal.
Lastly, and this has nothing to do with the Flames, the NHL needs to do some work on its new scoreboard features. As of 10:30 Friday morning, the boxscore from last night’s game showed two No. 20s, Adam Pardy wearing No. 55, Prust wearing No. 29, Nigel Dawes with 14, etc.
The curious: Funny how all kinds of people — including play-by-play man Mark Lee last night — are now addressing the subject of Dion Phaneuf’s poor season in 2008-09, and not just the dip in points. A year ago, it seemed like all the TV talking heads and guessperts were playing down or ignoring any suggestions that No. 3 had lost his way in his own zone.
What it means: Brent Sutter has a perfect record as Calgary’s skipper and the Flames have delayed for at least a few days any talk of another slow start. Saturday brings Round 1 of the Battle of Alberta and another encounter with their old pal Nikolai Khabibulin.
Pretty much agree with your "good" list.
-Bourque looked pretty good.
-Jersey's looked good, but they should only be used when the other team is retro; would look awesome beating on the Oilers if they both went retro for all their meetings.
-Did Iginla play? Or WAS that Hakan Loob? Top line needs to do more.
-Bouwmeester with a 29 minute night.
-Staffan Kronwall is a bit of an adventure.
All in all… its just nice to have hockey back!
Kent has this over at http://www.matchsticksandgasoline.com/
Rhett Warrener Named Scout For Flames…
…Warrener will work closely with Director of Player Personnel Duane Sutter and Pro Scout Ron Sutter in identifying professional talent as well as assisting with the development process of prospects currently in the organization.
No real surprise as Daryl loves The ULTIMATE Warrener *(shout out to Duncan)*
Caught the game last night on CenterIce. In the US, DirecTV and Versus are in a battle over who can carry the VS games and how much to charge. Whatever. So I miss a few games a week, but with DirecTV and the CenterIce package I can get 90%+ of the games anyways.
Watched the Flames and Nucks last night, and was pleased to see the Classic Flames Uniforms. Too bad they aren't going back to these fully. IMO they should.
Caps did it, and I think it is for the better.
Jean Lefebvre wrote:
~Better plan the parade now~
I thought the jerseys were kind of awful… Too much of a McDonalds look.
Still, it was nice to see the Flames had the Can't Nucks their asses, in spite of the old-style jerseys!
*had = hand. EDIT BUTTON, PLEASE.
@ OvenChicken8:
Yup… ~the Flames are goin 82-0… and Matt Stajan's gonna score 164 goals for the Leafs this year~
Those jersey burned my retinas.
I don't know why everybody is picking the Canucks to win the division. If Luongo falters, they're fuc*ed.
The Fish wrote:
luongo faltered last night and we hung on to win. Personally I doubt they win the division with AV as coach… his message and style must get tiresome to the boys rowing the ship.
my 2c
MY EYES MY EYES!
Those jerseys need to be toned down, or they need to send everyone in the viewing audience shades.
Good win though!!
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