The Heat is On

 

 

As mentioned below by Ryan, the Heat began their season with a bang this past weekend, sweeping the Peoria Rivermen 4-1 and 6-2 in back-to-back game. Although you can’t take much from just two contests against the same opponent, it’s a nice start to the season for a team that has historically had trouble scoring.

– It didn’t take long for Sven Baertschi to start living up to the hype. Not only does he lead the team in points (4), his two goals were sniper quality (dirty dangle and a slap shot from the top of the circle) and he leads the team in shots with 7 in two games. It looks like Troy Ward has him on the top line and top PP unit already and the kid is delivering. 

Again, it’s just two games and all caveats about small samples apply. Still, hard not to be encouraged.

– If you watch the highlight packages for both games, you might come away unimpressed with Danny Taylor – just about every goal that beats him is from a less than ideal angle. That said, he finished the first two games with a .932 save percentage so he obviously got the job done overall.

– Related: Troy Ward still doesn’t think Leland Irving is the better goalie. In fact, despite the organization jumping through hoops to get Irving a professional "try-out" contract to play in Abbotdford, the former first rounder hasn’t even dressed yet.

It’s more evidence of the organization’s apparent ambivalence (and growing apathy) towards Irving as a worthwile prospect.

– Make sure to take a spin to Ryan Pinder’s Heat Hub blog, where he shares a few thoughts after each game. No one has seen more Heat hockey than Ryan the last couple of years, so you can’t find a better authority on the club.

– The Heat site also has the team’s schedule posted here. The first three weeks are pretty much all back-to-back weekends, but things change after that.

– We plan to start posting Heat gameday threads here at FlamesNation. We won’t do the livechat thing, but feel free to come by and share your comments. The first GDT will be this Friday when the Heat take on the Wolves.

Other items of note: TJ Brodie has 3 points already. Reinhart has a single assist, but also just one shot on net. Roman Horak is currently playing on the wing.