Back to basics
By Ryan Lambert
15 years ago
That’s a tough one to swallow.
After the way Calgary pummelled Montreal the other night, you had to figure the team had turned some sort of corner. That maybe, even if it was a home game the Flames had won, the high-octane offense might continue, or the heads-up defense.
No such luck. The Flames’ offense was poor once again last night (only 23 shots) and pretty much everything else was unimpressive. How does a team as good (on paper) as Calgary get outshot by Anaheim 30-16 at even strength? And the best part is, there’s another game tonight.
Oh the dread we now feel going into any road back-to-backer. There’s no way they win tonight, right? I mean, it seems literally impossible. And the Kings aren’t playing badly any more either. So that’s just great.
The Good
- Dion Phaneuf-Mark Giordano pairing finally had a good night collectively. Phaneuf was active, getting his stick in passing lanes, and creating turnovers that the Flames took up the ice. Giordano was doing much of the same. It was rather refreshing to see.
- Miikka Kiprusoff was the best player on the ice. Despite getting peppered with 40 shots, he made 37 saves, and quite a few of them were difficult. Even the game-winning goal got tipped by a defenseman (Phaneuf, funnily) so he can hardly be faulted for the OT loss.
- Speaking of which, getting *a* point on the road is better than getting no points on the road.
- The Lombardi line was very good once again.
The Bad
- Apart from his goal, Todd Bertuzzi was his normal subpar self. This might be the first 20-goal, 30-assist guy that has ever cost less than $2 million and still had a disappointing season.
- Calgary may have created scoring chances by getting traffic to the front of the net early in the game, but it seemed to completely abandon the strategy once Bertuzzi’s goal, the direct result of Iginla getting his ass in JS Giguere’s face, went in. “Up 1-0,” they said. “That’s good enough for us.
- At some point the Flames need to realize that you don’t win hockey games with just two goals.
The Ugly
- *This spot reserved for every one of Jarome Iginla’s last five games*
- More road losses to playoff teams. Hooray.
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