Post Game: Thoughts From A Sad, Drunk Man

 

 

Was it Benjamin Franklin, or possibly even Scott Oake who once uttered that famous phrase: "…but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except refs and offensive zone penalties"?

I’m being told that neither man said anything close to resembling this, but regardless, it’s a nice frame for tonight’s theme. Your Calgary Flames fall 6-3 to the ridonculously good San Jose Sharks, but despite everything, the Flames possibly might not just a little bit maybe didn’t deserve to lose this one.

Although they still did.

 

Yup.

Not that the Sharks weren’t great, or that some of the penalties were deserved, or that there weren’t some breakdowns from the boys in red that dictated how this game went, but like, damn homey, what was up with the penalties tonight?

Three of them occurred in the offensive zone, which I would say has to be some kind of record, but the Flames existed in the 80’s, so I’ll bet it’s not.

Brent Burns, who looks like a homeless Bob Ross, scored 56 seconds into this game on some pretty spectacular blown coverages by the Flames D, and thus began a long, introspective, booze fueled look into my soul that would last until the final buzzer and Calgary’s two game losing streak.

When I regained focus, Burns, who was tremendous as Martin in Knocked Up, scored his second of the game, a deflection in which I initally thought Scott Hannan scored on (!), which would have been so cruel and unfair that if it WERE Hannan’s goal, it would have been the knell in the coffin for the Flames right then and there. The fact that it went to Burns, who has a Burlington Coat Factory stuck to his head and is a good hockey player, seemed to awaken Calgary.

The Flames scored a power play goal in the second, which is amazing, because the team was usually the one taking the penalties, and also because their power play for the better part of the night was about as effective as Elliotte Friedman trying to quell the idiocy on the HNIC Hotstove Panel. Sean Monahan, of course, OF COURSE, slipped the puck past Antti Niemi on the man advantage, and all of a sudden we had a hockey game.

Until more penalties happened and Joe Pavelski scored. Pavelski had, to that point, a breakaway and a partial breakaway, but Karri Ramo, who was excellent against a powerhouse Sharks team, turned him away on both occassions. Put him in front of the net on a power play, on the other hand, and Pavelski is unstoppable.

So that sucked.

The Flames made it worth watching, I guess, in the third, as Flames Nation favourite Mikael Backlund potted one while killing a penalty (surprise!!!). Calgary brought themselves back into relevance a few minutes later, as Jiri Hudler does what apparently Jiri Hudler does all day, which is score goals.

But it was not enough on this night. Pavelski and Marleau ran wild all over the team all night and hey, you guys all saw it, 6-3 final.

Not an unsignificant number

Take your pick in this one. TJ Brodie was uncharacteristically terrible. Giveaways all over the ice, blown coverage, sloppy puck handling, it was ugly. Let’s hope he can put it past him, because he looked like Andrei Zyuzin out there, and we don’t want that to be a develping trend.

The penalties, uh, well they factored in. The Flames took 10 (TEN!!) minor penalties, in which the Fins scored on three of them, which if you do the math, was the difference in this one.

Also, and I don’t know if you guys have noticed this early on this season, but the Sharks are VERY GOOD AT THE HOCKEY. Thornton, by his standards, was quiet (although very good), while Marleau was everywhere, and Pavelski and Brent Burns (seen here going for a pre game jog) were offensive juggernauts.

Tim Jackman and Brian McGrattan played six minutes combined in this one, so maybe the idea of dressing facepunchers who bring nothing else to the table and running your other three lines ragged might not be a great plan either. #goblairjones

image via Clyde

Yep, he let in 5 goals, but Karri Ramo was terrific. He made 30 saves, many of them six to ten bell Sharks chances, and in many cases he held strong in some very nervous moments while the Sharks ran roughshod over a groggy looking Flames defense.

Which is good news, because hopefully he convinced the coaching staff that he’s worth a few more starts down the road here and we never have to see Joey MacDonald ever again. 

I, like probably you, thought this game was over less than a minute in when the Sharks went up 1-0 so, SO early, and technically I suppose that ended up being true, but the Flaming C at least made it worth watching. It was at times both an exciting and incredibly frustrating game to watch. The Flames did some very good things against what is very obviously the best team in the NHL right now, and there are a lot of positives to take away from it.

On the other hand, there were instances where you got the impression that San Jose were just toying with the opposition, and hey, they’re that dynamic that they can get away with it if they want.

The bad news is that the Flames 5 game road trip through the coast rolls on. The good news is, this SHOULD have been the most trudgingly difficult challenge the team faces, and that part is over. Los Angeles is up next, and although they’ve been borderline Buffalo Sabres this season, this is not an easy win, and Calgary will be in tough.

Sean Monahan is staying on this team. We can cease the debate, it’s basically moot at this point. Play Ramo. Put in Cervenka. Pass it to Sven. Go Blair Jones. Goodnight.

 

 

Read ’em and weep. And weep. And weep.