Despite the Flames loss, game 6 turned out to be a very entertaining game with lots of hits, goals, and end-to-end play. However, the Flames fell just shy of completing the comeback again, and fall 3-2 in the series. Needless to say, Sunday’s game in Calgary is their most important game of the year.

Things I noticed from the game 6 are:

Positives:

With the exception of a few costly giveaways, I felt that the Flames play was their best of the series. They managed 36 shots on goal (compared to 10 in the previous game), and had several excellent scoring opportunities.

Kipper had a strong game, even though he allowed 4 goals in 26 shots. To be fair, the goals that were scored were very difficult goals.

Iginla looked great. This guy plays with so much intensity and is a true leader - you can tell this guy wants to win more than anyone else on the ice. His supporting cast needs to pick up their play.

Negatives:

Matthew Lombardi - this guy has amazing speed and can blow by most defenders, however, I don’t think he knows what to do with the puck when he gets close to the goal.

The secondary scoring has dried up. The majority of the goals are coming from their top 4-5 players, while most of the other players aren’t doing much at all. Huselius is ABSOLUTELY invisible and might as well be riding the pine and let a young guy come up from the minors.

The Big Guns for the San Jose Sharks have finally showed up and last night, Marleau, Cheechoo, Campbell, and Thorton lead the way in the Sharks win. Hopefully in Sunday’s game the Flames will get back to their old ways of shutting these guys down.

Once again, here are my quick hits from last night’s game.

• Quote from Roberto Luongo: “I don’t really care … My season ended (with the Edmonton loss) Thursday as far as I’m concerned.” That attitude would really irritate me if I was a Canuck fan. Or if I was Trevor Linden.
• I know it was a nothing game for Vancouver, but a 7-1 win is still pretty sweet.
• I kind of feel bad for Nystrom. 2 goals and an assist and he has to take a backseat to both Linden and Iginla.
• Glad Iginla potted #50.
• If I lived in Vancouver, I’d probably want to get on to golf season earlier, too.
• Very classy showing of the Flames to stay on the ice after the game to congratulate Linden.
• On that note, congratulations to Trevor Linden on an outstanding career. I liked him a lot better in a Canadiens uniform, but still respected him in a Canucks uniform. I hate it when classy guys like that play for my rivals, because it’s just so hard to dislike him.
• Have I mentioned lately that the Oilers suck? Thanks for Thursday night, though. We’ll send you some golf passes!
• I know we had pretty good success against San Jose this season, but the still scare me with the run they’ve been on lately. I would’ve preferred playing Minnesota in the first round.
• Nystrom, Boyd, and Moss should get some more ice time in the playoffs.

It’s go time now, boys. Time for the stars to step up and make us a contender. Let’s fire up the playoff pools, boys!

Here are my quick hits as I watch tonight’s game:

• Jarome Iginla is sure passing the puck a lot for a guy trying to net his 50th of the season
• According to my stomach, this one felt like a playoff game
• Oilers suck as much as ever
• Commentators are saying “can’t clear it” way too often
• I know Iggy’s our leading scorer, emotional leader and all that, but can we give Nolan the team MVP for bouncing the Oilers?
• Why is SportsNet telling me that I’m watching ‘Oilers Hockey’ … I’m watching FLAMES hockey!
• I know I wasn’t supposed to be cheering for Nashville tonight, but it’s worth it for the consequences to Edmonton
• SportsNet is calling this a ‘heartbreaking ending’ … I call it a flattering ending. Any team winning as many games in OT/shootout as in regulation time doesn’t deserve to be in the playoffs.
• Flames work isn’t done. Let’s get some wins in Minnesota and Vancouver to lock up that playoff position.
• I think I’ll be able to bring myself to cheer for the Oilers against the Canucks this week. If they’re going to be spoilers, they might as well do it in Vancouver.
• Oilers suck

Thank you, good night.

The Vancouver Canucks obviously wanted this game more than the Calgary Flames did. They seemed to win all battles, and were first to all the pucks. The Flames “Jekyll and Hyde” play has plagued the team throughout the entire season and tonight was a terrible time for Hyde to show up. This was a crucial game for the Flames to keep their chances of first place in the Northwest division alive. Now they simply need to focus on making the playoffs.

I have 2 major complaints about the Flames in the game tonight:

First, laziness. Sure they played last night and I am sure they are tired, but all teams have to battle through that so that cannot be used as an excuse. At every turn, the Canucks were faster, smarter, and played harder than the Flames. Naslund’s goal in the first period and Linden’s goal in the second were a perfect examples of this. In both cases, the Flames should have been able to be the first to pounce on the rebound and clear the puck, however, in both situations, the Canucks player wanted it more and demonstrated it by picking up the rebound and scoring.

Second, the Flames played a very undisciplined game tonight. They let their emotions get the best of them and paid the price for doing so. The Canucks (very effectively) got under the skin of many of the Flames players. The team was short handed for almost the ENTIRE 3rd period and the final 6-2 score could have been much worse. Cory Sarich took 5 straight (stupid) penalties in the 3rd period. Even the captain joined in the goonery as he took 3 straight penalties purely out of frustration.

Now, I am an extremely competitive person and I have been known to let my temper flare during certain sporting events. But professionals at this level need to be able to retain their composure and not turn into goons when the get down by a few points. This only makes the team look bad while the opposing team looks like saints. Keenan needs to calm everyone down and come back as a composed group for the critical game versus the Oilers on Tuesday.

Go Flames Go!

Is there currently a better captain in the league? I mean, this guy can do it all - Scoring, passing, grinding, hitting, fighting and most importantly, he does all this while being a great leader and teacher to the rest of the team. He’s also regarded by his peers in the NHL (not just his teammates) as one of the classiest guys in the league.

Last night he treated the 19,000+ fans in the Saddledome to an outstanding show - demonstrating how skilled of a player he is by scoring a natural hat trick against the Minnesota Wild. With only 8 games remaining in the season (all against Northwest division rivals), Jarome Iginla knew how important this game was and he brought his “A” game. Everyone else on the team seemed to follow suit as the effort displayed was fantastic. This is what a great leader does… Lead by example.

With only 2 weeks left in the regular season, Jarome Iginla has my vote for the league’s MVP.

I’ve always been a stats guy. In fact, when I was 10 I used to goto Jr. A. games in Olds and take stats on a notepad. Some things never change.

After Jarome Iginla broke Theoren Fleury’s goals record, I took a look at the stats and made note of the fact that Fleury reached his record in a bunch fewer games than Iginla had (791 vs. 847). It made me wonder what the impact of NHL goal scoring trends might’ve had on these two players’ statistics.

So off to the magical internets I went to find some statistics. Using the 1988-89 number of 7.37 goals/game, I standardized Fleury and Iginla’s goals per season to level the playing field, statistically. This is pretty simple and unscientific, but bear with me, it’s just for fun anyways.

Here are the numbers that I came up with (statistics up-to-date through March 12th game):

Based on these stats, if NHL goal scoring were on a consistent pace, Iginla would’ve broken the goal scoring record in the first half of last season, and he would’ve accomplished a noticeably higher goals per game average than Fleury. Not that I want to read too deeply into this or anything. Both Fleury and Iginla have made great contributions to the Flames organization, and will forever be a part of the Flames legacy. Of course, those NHL scoring trends don’t necessarily indicate that individual player scoring would all inflate proportionally, so we can throw the science right out the window.

But hey, that doesn’t make crunching these numbers any less fun, right?

Tonight is the night that Theoren Fleury’s franchise record for goals has fallen. A power play goal from the slot — not an uncommon play for Jarome Iginla — moved the captain to the top of the all-time Flames goal scoring list.  Sure, we knew the record would fall eventually, and we knew Iginla would be the one to break it.

There’s not too much to say on this topic: the greatest Flame of all time, now solidifying that claim with his statistics. Congratulations Jarome. I’m glad to have witnessed this goal, along with so many of the prior 364. Keep them coming!