Random thoughts on the game…

Tonight, the Calgary Flames finally came prepared to play a full 60 minutes and played some of the best hockey that I have seen all year. They were finally able break down the “Bulin Wall” and contain the Blackhawks first line scorers.

While talking with some co-workers this afternoon, we were discussing the importance of the “energy guys” for the Calgary Flames and what they needed to do to help the Flames succeed. Players like Glencross, Moss, Nystrom, and Bourque needed to have more significant roles and provide some secondary scoring. Wow, did they ever pull through tonight. They all looked amazing and played with great intensity.

I still think there are some guys out there on the ice that need to change their game drastically. Todd Bertuzzi has been frustrating to watch this entire series. I have lost count of the number of times he has made blind drop passes, only to be intercepted by the Hawks and hurried up the ice on an odd man rush. Dion Phaneuf, although playing better of late, seems to lack any sort of emotion. Dion is at his best when he harnesses his emotion to battle against the opponents top lines.  It also baffles my why they continue to play him incessantly on the power play. The power play is struggling tremendously right now and I think that Dion is one of the major reasons why

Lastly, the needless goonery by the Blackhawks in the final minutes of the game was a disgrace to their team. While it may have increased the intensity heading into game 4, a player like Adam Burish (and his coach) must be penalized for their wreckless actions. In the end, it just made the Chicago players and coaching staff look bad.

That being said, game 4 should be a dandy!

Western Conference

VS

While the Ducks have been one of the better teams in the latter part of the season, I just don’t think they have the depth to beat the Sharks. The Sharks have been a powerhouse in the NHL throughout the entire year and are not going to be an easy opponent in any round. However, I think this will be wildly entertaining series that should go the distance.
Trevor’s Pick: San Jose in 7

VS

Columbus’s first attempt at the playoffs could be short lived. Although the Blue Jackets did have some success against the Red Wings in the regular season (3-3), I don’t believe they have what it takes to beat the veteran Detroit team.
Trevor’s Pick: Detroit in 5

VS

As much as I hate to admit it, any team that has Roberto Luongo between the pipes is going to be difficult to beat. As we have seen many times this year, he can win games single-handedly when the rest of the team decides to take the night off.
Trevor’s Pick: Vancouver in 6

VS

The Flames have had a terrible time trying to handle the young, speedy Chicago Blackhawks this year. Dropping all 4 decisions this season, the Flames are definitely the underdogs in this contest. While the Flames players all seem to be confident that they can win this series, I think this will be a huge undertaking. The Flames fan in me is obviously swaying my decision in this one…
Trevor’s Pick: Calgary in 6

Eastern Conference

VS

What a roll reversal from last year. The B’s are dominant this year while the Habs struggled to make the dance. I predict the Bruins will be too much for the Canadiens and the series will be quick.
Trevor’s Pick: Boston in 5

VS

Any team with Sean Avery deserves to fail miserably and rot on the golf course. While I don’t think this will be an easy task for the Capitals, I believe #8 will prove he is truly the most valuable player in this league and win the series for Washington.
Trevor’s Pick: Washington in 7

VS

While Carolina played tremendously for the second half of the season, and in fact won the season series with the Devils 3-1, I don’t think that the Devils will roll over in the post season and let that trend continue. A healthy Martin Brodeur, snipers like Zach Parise and Patrik Elias, and a post season all-star like Jamie Langenbrunner make the Devils a sure favourite.
Trevor’s Pick: New Jersey in 5

VS

This should be one of the most exciting series in the first round and should go the distance. Both teams are extremely talented offensively, however I believe the more physical team will eventually win.
Trevor’s pick: Philadelphia in 7

With a .907 save percentage, and a 2.80 GAA, one might suppose that Miikka Kiprusoff isn’t having a very good season. However, I would venture to say that he has been the primary reason why the Flames are currently sitting comfortably in 1st place in the North West Division. His play of late has been outstanding his saves have been world class.

The Vezina Trophy is awarded annually to the National Hockey League’s goaltender who is “adjudged to be the best at this position”.  Under this definition, Miikka Kiprusoff may not be considered by many as a candidate for this prestigious award. However, if you ask any member of the Calgary Flames, I am certain they would all disagree. Last week’s shut out win over the L.A. Kings, and his play last night versus the Canucks are some of many prime examples of how valuable he has been to the Calgary Flames this year. Night in and night out, he gives the Flames a chance to win.

Here is my Schrute-like evaluation of Miikka Kiprusoff this year:

Fact: Miikka Kiprusoff has played more games than any other goaltender this year. Last night he played in his 53rd game of the season. Every Flames win this year has been backstopped by number 34. His TOI is also the highest in the league playing more than 3100 minutes to this point in the season.

Fact: Kipper has seen more rubber than any other goaltender this year. In total, 1565 shots have been fired in his direction, of which, 1419 of them have been stopped.

Fact: Kipper has more wins than any other goaltender this year. 33 wins already putting him on pace for 47 wins on the season. The current NHL record for wins was set in the 2006-07 season by Martin Brodeur in which he won 48 games. If Kipper can pick up a few extra wins in the coming weeks, he could easily break the record this season.

Fact: Miikka Kiprusoff earned his 4 shutout of the season last week in a 2-0 win over L.A. - this ranks him tied for 6th among NHL goaltenders this season. Thanks to an average of 30.4 shots against per game this season, shutouts have been hard to come by for Kipper and the Flames this year.

Fact: From a Calgary Flames team perspective, Miikka Kiprusoff owns numerous records including most wins in a season, most games played in a season, most shutouts in a season, and most total shutouts for the franchise.

Fact: Without Miikka Kiprusoff between the pipes this year, the Calgary Flames would find themselves in a much different worse situation right now.

Apparently, there has been quite a controversy around a song produced by a Calgary Sports Radio Station, the Fan 960. The song, called “GOAL”, is a parody of the song “Lola”, performed by the Kinks, and was written the day after the Oilers were beat 10-2 (worst home loss in Oilers History) by the Buffalo Sabres on January 26, 2009.

I found it quite humourous how upset some fans were when they heard it. NHL Message boards and forums lit up with Oiler fans commenting on how “classless” this was. I am not sure where these so-called “fans” have been for the past 25 years, but in case they’ve been living in a bubble, might I remind them of the rivalry that exists between these 2 teams. Seriously. Get over it.

From a biased Flames fan perspective, I found this to be tremendously amusing.

For your listening enjoyment!

(Compliments of Fan 960)

Wow, what a game! The Calgary Flames hand the San Jose Sharks their first regulation home loss of the season. In fact, it’s the first time the Sharks have lost in regulation in the Shark Tank since February 14 of last season (that is truly unbelievable). This game was intense and had everything you would expect from two of the premiere teams in the NHL. It felt very much like this game was being played in May.

Watching the Oilers vs. Wild game just prior to watching the Flames vs. Sharks was like watching a WHL pre-season game prior to an NHL playoff game.

I don’t recall seeing a Flames squad with this much confidence. They seem undaunted. They are calm, cool, and collective in any situation and don’t seem to panic when they fall behind by a goal or two. This speaks to the maturity of the club and the fantastic job being done by the coaching staff.

Curtis Glencross (one of the phenomenal off-season pickups by Sutter) was incredible at both ends of the ice in the game. It’s unfortunate that his name didn’t show up on the score sheet - he very much deserved a point or two tonight. I am curious to know what the Oilers management was thinking when they let this guy go. It was also nice to see Phaneuf get that monkey off his back. A hard working goal and a game winner to boot.

Kipper continued his stellar play tonight. His confidence level seems to be rising exponentially along with the rest of the team. After his shaky start to the season, he has really picked up his game. He leads the NHL with games won and is now 4 games ahead of Nabokov in second place. I know Kipper really likes to play a ton of games, and he seems to be handling the pressure fine. I only hope he can continue to perform at this level while playing so many games.

This weekends games should be amazing!

Watching the game tonight, there was 1 player who stood out above the others for me. No, it wasn’t Nystrom (although his short handed goal was a beauty) or Phaneuf (who did  several great defensive plays) - it was Kiprusoff. He didn’t have to make a lot of saves tonight, but he did have to make some spectacular (and timely) ones. It seems that he has found his groove again. The way he is moving around the crease, and his positioning lately reminds me of his performances back in 2004. The way he is playing of late gives the Flames a chance to win every night.

Here’s hoping he can bring his “A” game to the Dome on Friday versus the Oilers.

After watching another painful shootout loss for the Calgary Flames, I decided to do a bit of shootout research. Anyone who follows this team closely knows that their success in the shootout is abysmal at best. They don’t seem to have the right skill set in this particular facet of the game. But, how do they compare to the rest of the teams in the NHL?  Since the shootout came into effect in 2005, there have been some astoundingly poor statistics for the Flames. As of tonight’s game, here are some facts:

Total Number of Shootouts: 24
This is the second worst (or best - depending on your view) in the NHL. The only team in the league with less shootouts is the Carolina Hurricanes (currently sitting at 23). Based on their shootout success, the Flames should be doing everything to keep this number as low as possible. On the flipside, the New York Rangers have participated in an incredible 50 shootouts since 2005!

Shootout Winning Percentage: 0.333
That’s good for 28th in the league, only to be outdone by Ottawa (0.286) and Philadelphia (0.31).  It’s difficult to believe that the Flames can win only 1/3 of the shootouts in which they are involved. Compare that to teams like the Dallas Stars (0.73) or the New York Islanders (0.667) and it’s easy to become a frustrated Flames fan.

Shooting Percentage: 27.85%
79 attempts, only 22 goals. This percentage gets the Flames into 25th place in the league (starting to notice a trend?). Essentially only 1/4 of the shootout shots are going in the net. If you watched tonight’s game, you can see why - all three shooters simply tried to fire the puck as hard as they could through the goaltender.  No dekes, no moves.  After losing Huselius and Tanguay in the off-season, the Flames have been left without any real “finesse” players. The top 3 teams in the league are the Dallas Stars (42.11%), the San Jose Sharks (40.91%) and the Los Angeles Kings (40.19%).

Shootout Save Percentage: 0.589
I suppose this stat can only be blamed on one person… Kipper. This is the 27 worst save percentage in the league and is unacceptable from the highest paid goalie in the NHL.  During the game, Kiprusoff has an extremely fast reaction time. He has the reflexes of a cat. However, I believe this to be his down fall as a shootout goalie. It is simple for a player to get him to commit - one quick deke later, and the puck is behind him in the back of the net.

Each time a Flames game goes to a shootout, my first thought is to turn off the TV and accept the loss. The bonus point awarded to the winning team could sure be useful down the stretch when teams are fighting for their playoff lives. A few extra points could mean the difference between 3rd place and 8th place in a competitive Western Conference. If I were Keenan, I would be spending a few practices trying to improve in this important component of the game.

With only 2 wins in their last 7 games, the Flames are back in action versus one of their division rivals, the Colorado Avalanche. Their last setback, was an embarrassing 6-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks, and after 5 days rest, look for the Flames to come back firing on all cylinders.

During the break, the Flames have been focusing heavily on defensive aspects of the game… not just by the defensemen, but by all positions. The Flames have given up an incredible 24 goals in the past five games (nearly 5 goals per game!) and have hung Kiprusoff out to dry more than once. The team’s original goal for this year was to decrease the average goals against per game by .5. If they expect to achieve this goal by the end of the year, they are going to have to become the best defensive team in the NHL for the remainder of the season.

Darryl Sutter has to be scratching his head, wondering what needs to happen in order to motivate his team. The game against San Jose was an excellent test to see how the Flames could handle an “Elite” hockey club and, as the final score indicated, the team failed miserably. The good news? The Flames now know what level they need to play at and what they need to do to get there. If they don’t do that quickly, I think we can expect to see some adjustments to the Flames lineup.

Each year, the excitement mounts as I count down the days until the Flames season opener. However, after last night’s game, I think I am going to skip future season openers, and count down to the second game of the season.

Let’s face it, with the exception of a portion of the first period, the Flames were dominated by the Canucks last night and the final score was reflective of this. But really, should I be so surprised that the Flames lost their season opener? In the past 14 seasons, the Calgary Flames have marked a “W” in the win column only once in their first game.  In Kiprusoff’s 5 attempts in a Flames uniform he has 5 straight losses.

This team seems to be cursed when it comes to season openers:

Season            Score     Outcome     Opponent
2008-2009         6-0              L              Canucks
2007-2008         3-2              L              Flyers
2006-2007         3-1              L              Oilers
2005-2006         6-3              L              Wild
2003-2004         4-1              L              Canucks
2002-2003         3-0              L              Canucks
2001-2002        1-0              W             Oilers
2000-2001         4-3              L              Red Wings
1999-2000         5-3              L              Sharks
1998-1999         3-3              T              Sharks
1997-1998         3-1              L              Red Wings
1996-1997         3-1              L              Canucks
1995-1996         3-3              T              Lightning
1994-1995         3-3              T              Jets

Saturday, luckily, is a new day and a new game. A different Flames team must show up to the Saddledome in order to regain their confidence. In the past, Kiprusoff has been known to bounce back “big-time” after significant losses - this is one trend that I hope will continue.