Postgame: Goodnight

The Calgary Flames took a convincing 6-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night, but the 41st win of the season for the team didn’t do much to ease the pain of a second straight year out of the playoffs.  Thanks to a Chicago 4-3 win over St. Louis and a 6-2 Anaheim win over San Jose, the Flames are officially eliminated from postseason play with one game still to go this season.

An absolute walk for the Flames didn’t start until the second period, and despite an 11-2 advantage in scoring chances, it was a scoreless tie after 20 minutes.  It really was a preview for pure and utter domination from the home side, as the Oilers were no match at any point for the opponents.  Shots after one period saw Calgary leading the way by a staggering 20-3 mark, and the lopsided nature of the first period didn’t change in the second.

The Flames would score three times in another one sided period, with Rene Bourque opening the scoring at 3:44 with a wraparound marker good for his 27th on the year.  Then the Iginla show began, with Jarome scoring twice before the period would let out.  He’d get to 40 on the season at 13:18 of the second before potting his 41st on the powerplay at 16:24; Iginla would take a gorgeous powerplay feed from Alex Tanguay, who went right point to left circle for a patented Iginla one-timer.  The Flames would take a 3-0 lead into the third.

Calgary wouldn’t let up, making it 4-0 less than a minute in, with Tanguay finishing a two-on-one pass from Mikael Backlund for his 22nd.  Edmonton would bust the shutout with number 15 on the year from Magnus Paajarvi, but Greg Nemisz’s first NHL point on Curtis Glencross’s 24th on the year restored Calgary’s four goal advantage.  The Flames would make it 6-1 when Iginla would complete the hatty, getting to number 42 on the season at 6:47.  Calgary would get a few more chances before the period would finish up, and they’d seal an emphatic victory.

What was interesting was watching the out of town scoreboard throughout the night.  Chicago won their overtime game early on in the second period, putting all eyes on Anaheim, which wouldn’t go very well.  They’d be up 6-1 as the Flames would finish their 6-1 win, and the Ducks would finish up with a 6-2 win.  Backlund said in the room afterwards the team basically knew after 40 that the season was over.

…why the Flames won?  On this night, because they were straight up dominant.  I know it’s the Oilers and I know they’re an AHL team right now, but in a game Calgary needed to win (they did at one point), the Flames put the foot to the floor and absolutely crushed the Oilers from start to finish.  Even though the game ended up not doing what they wanted, at least they didn’t miss the playoffs by losing a game.  Well…not this game anyway;)

Give it the captain.  Jarome would score three times for 42 goals on the season, and his line would be an absolute force.  Iginla, Tanguay and Backlund would make their Oilers matchups look like the kids most of them were, and for the second time in three games, he was straight up dominant.

Well, there’s no need to update the elimination number, because the clock did strike midnite on the Calgary Flames tonight.  Plain and simple, they were not good enough this season.  For two months they were great, as January and February were incredibly months for the team and their fans.  However, a flaccid month of November combined with average months of October and December did this team in.  With one more game to go, I do have to say…had you told me in in December that Calgary would be playing meaningful hockey in game 81, I’d have called you crazy.  That was fun, the run was fun, but the season wasn’t good enough for the Flames.