Flames Scoring Chances – Game 45 versus Toronto

 

 

 

It was appropriate that Tim Hunter watched the proceedings tonight, because that game was about as ugly as the former Flames. Lots of sloppy play by both teams and each seemed to be skating through mud for huge sections of the contest.

Calgary was the better team in the first in terms of possession and chances, but things gradually tipped in favor of the Leafs somewhere in the middle of  the second. Part of that maybe fatigue from playing twice in two nights and part of it maybe whatever it is ails the Flames this season.

The best trio on the evening was Glencross, Stajan and Hagman, aided by nominal opposition and the best zone start ratio on the club. Iginla and Tanguay were the guys buried in the defensive end tonight and they struggled again. Jarome looks to my eye like he’s slowly sliding back to the player we saw in October and for most of last season after seemingly turning things around in December. Jokinen played with Bourque at ES and they were mostly bad as well.

On the back-end, Pardy is doing some nice work in the absence of Regehr, although one wonders how he’ll look when the Flames start playing clubs that don’t have kids and AHLers scattered throughout their forward corps. Bouwmeester had his second straight "meh" performance, bobbling some pucks and having a hard time moving the biscuit up ice efficiently.