I had wished that as with my Arizona sojourn, another trip to the Southern U.S. would signal a Flames’ winning streak. We’ve seen how that’s worked out, unfortunately, so any hope that spending all my time during the winter months in a more hospitable climate would act as a talisman for the team has foundered. I was all ready to pitch that idea to Murray Edwards for a few bucks, too. Drat.

At any rate, life does go on, and the round-up is back for a perusal of a few items of interest around the patch. This week, the Flames hit the rocks, the Pens carry on quite swimmingly, and the endless bickering over the Coyotes’ fate is, well, endless.

 

The Flames are just about done, by the looks of Wednesday’s affair. 4 scoring chances in 56 minutes at EV won’t do, and frankly that 6-3 score was kinder than the game itself might have merited. The official end may not happen for a bit, though, since Calgary has a middling AHL team on the schedule Saturday, followed by several more days off. Small mercies, indeed.

The players gave the usual spin afterwards, but reality puts me in the uncomfortable position of agreeing with both DomeBeers and Eric Francis. That fact alone should drive me to a contrary position, but the evidence is fairly clear. The Flames likely aren’t good enough, and their putrid record against the best of the West this season has been no accident.

There was some fairly pointed grumbling about the play of the Flames’ most expensive defender in Wednesday’s game thread, as more than a few folks were ready to run Jay Bouwmeester off the road following a series of sad performances over the last week. I’m not content with his offensive output over the last couple of years, and lord knows he was horrid in San Jose, but he’s a long way down the list of villains this season.

As I often tried to note when people were exasperated with Dion Phaneuf’s ticket, it’s always wise to remember that “bad contract” ≠ “bad player”, and the fact that Bouwmeester is likely making about 2M too much is just one of those things that happens. There are a few players on the Flames that are basically operating at replacement level making 3M a year or more, so any serious crying about Bouwmeester seems to be a case of people wilfully missing the point.

Beyond the foregoing, I’m going to allow the season to finish before offering up any sort of proper eulogy. They looked dead as a doornail at Christmas time as well, which leaves me inclined to let it all play out, delusional as that likely may end up being. Calgary has run pretty hard up until Wednesday, so if nothing else, the days off might be enough to at least let them finish decently.

One matter I am curious about is the potential for a return by Daymond Langkow. The reports that came out when he returned to practice implied that it was strictly conditioning that was holding him out, rather than any fear of re-injury. That, and making his cap hit work, of course, although the injuries to Moss, Modin and Pardy should create enough retro LTIR space to allow Langkow to be activated if he’s ready. I have no expectations of him, and irrespective of results, I’m just glad he’s healthy enough to play at all.

 

Ryan Howse was named to the WHL Western Conference 2^nd all-star team after a 51 goal season. Somewhat surprisingly, he still has some junior hockey to play, as a late season streak pushed the Bruins into 6^th place after they spent most of the winter outside the top 8. They’ll play against Spokane in the first round.

Across the Atlantic, Tim Erixon has been playing a ton of minutes for Skellefteå AIK in the Elitserien playoffs. He’s been at or around 25 a night through the first 9 games, and he tallied nearly 34 in SAIK`s second round opener against Luleå . SAIK has lost the first two semi-final games in OT after dispatching Linköpings HC in a 7 game first round series.