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I watched about half of the Edmonton-Chicago game. They were pretty bad. I detest the Oilers as much as the next Flames fan, but they seem so far outside the picture now that we should look at the divisional/wild card conference games in terms of how they can help us. The games they dropped to Chicago and Dallas worked against us. Plus, with them out, we don't want them getting a prime lottery pick, so they'd better pick up their heels and lose in like 8th or 9th from the bottom rather than 3rd or 4th.

As an additional aside on the Edmonton-Chicago game, I can't believe how bad their play-by-play guys are. Their pro-Oiler comments were downright delusional. We're so lucky to get Rick Ball and Kelly Hrudey most nights.
 
I watched about half of the Edmonton-Chicago game. They were pretty bad. I detest the Oilers as much as the next Flames fan, but they seem so far outside the picture now that we should look at the divisional/wild card conference games in terms of how they can help us. The games they dropped to Chicago and Dallas worked against us. Plus, with them out, we don't want them getting a prime lottery pick, so they'd better pick up their heels and lose in like 8th or 9th from the bottom rather than 3rd or 4th.

As an additional aside on the Edmonton-Chicago game, I can't believe how bad their play-by-play guys are. Their pro-Oiler comments were downright delusional. We're so lucky to get Rick Ball and Kelly Hrudey most nights.
I hate listening to Oiler games on TV or radio, the homerism is ridiculous. Even worse on the radio side where they are downright amateurish at times. The worst is Rob Brown.
 
Hellz yeah! Too bad they had to give the Wild a point, but two points is sweet. When they gave up the lead, I was ready for a triple face palm....like not this again. They got the win though.
 
I watched and listened to as much as I could, but I had curling yesterday so I could only catch so much. I'm not surprised Minnesota managed to tie it up. They're a really tough team with an impressive home record and they paid a gypsy witch doctor to put a curse on the Flames. I'm perfectly happy with the result even if it involved giving up a point. Great work from the top line and from Smitty. He's now sporting the best save percetage in away games from what I hear. Here's hoping he can go .943 or better against Tampa tomorrow.
 
Great all around game the Flames tonight. I thought they played about as good a road game as a team can play, nicr to see them get stronger as the game went on, instead of clinging to the lead. Mangiapane looks like h belongs out there. Great move by Jankowski on his goal.
 
Really, really impressed with almost everything tonight. Smith looks solid per usual. Gotta be a huge confidence boost for the team.

Any doubts about putting Versteeg vs Ferland on my blank retro have been quashed tonight. Ferland wins.
 
Really, really impressed with almost everything tonight. Smith looks solid per usual. Gotta be a huge confidence boost for the team.

Any doubts about putting Versteeg vs Ferland on my blank retro have been quashed tonight. Ferland wins.
Ferland's been great. It's great that we already dealt with his contract lol.
 
I missed most of the game because I had online gaming plans with a buddy living up in Edmonton right now, but I was watching the score like a hawk. Tampa looked so deadly late in the first and early in the second, we got away with murder a bit on this one. But any time you take down the best team in the league at home, you're doing something right. Ferland has been unreal these last few games I hope he can stay on this pace and shoot for 50+ points by the end of the season. The 2 year contract was the right move with him, but if he keeps this up we might not be able to resign him come the end.

(Aside: I play Heroes of the Storm and Europa Universalis 4 pretty regularly and a bit of everything else if there are any other gamers out there.)
 
The Flames sort of hung on for a good part of the first period and early part of the second period, but got stronger as time went on. IMO, the turning point was when Smith stopped Paquette's penalty shot, the Flames seemed to own the game after that.

The way Tampa can dynamically transition into scoring chances on the rush is impressive. They certainly have skill, and you can see why they have the league's best record, and man, do they ever move the puck well on the PP. Thankfully the flames PK has been better lately. Just need to get the power play going, as right now, the Flames are almost as good as anyone 5 on 5.

Also interesting is the Flames road record.....only 5 losses on the road. Tied for best in the league.
 
I did see the penalty shot. I thought that Gio should have had more faith in Smith to begin with and took an unnecessary penalty. But man did Smith make a fool of Paquette when he got his chance anyway.

If Smith can keep his road record at this level for the duration of the season I think he should get Hart consideration. It's silly to me that it always goes to offensive forwards when defensive players seem to have more single handed impact on the game. I was reading that it took to the new year before the Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak line in Boston had a 5 on 5 goal against. :eek: I get that MacKinnon (whose name seems to bet getting the most Hart buzz to date) is leading a surprisingly resurgent Avalanche team to a possible playoff berth, but tell me that a 2 way god like Bergeron, a road warrior like Smith, a out-right bandit like Bobrovsky or dominant generational D-man like Karlsson doesn't do more for his team than just a guy who puts pucks on or near the net.

EDIT: RE: The PK

Sounds like Jankowski getting PK time has been vital to our special teams turn around. I wonder if this could precipitate the end of Backlund's tenure? He's a beauty in the community and a heart and soul guy on ice with 500+ games as a Flame, but he's about to get a whole lot more expensive and you could argue he's taking up ice time that might better belong to Jankowski at this stage. I've heard that Calgary has a potential interest in Zack Smith from Ottawa, who is supposed to be more of a 3rd line centre and special teams specialist. I wonder if that's an indication of the way management is thinking about the Backlund situation.

I'm not entirely convinced myself, but there's some smoke there.
 
Just for fun I thought I'd throw a list together of the players on the roster this year to see which GM brought them in. Are there are any I've missed let me know. Anyhow it's interesting to see that 4 players Sutter brought in are still with the team, and are key players (Ferland, Brodie and Backlund) Four of Feaster's players (Gaudreau, Monahan, Jankowski, Hathaway) are still on the team and a couple are are very much key players. Jankowski was drafted very young, and he looks like he'll be a solid NHLer. Treliving has made his mark on the team, and for the most part he's done well. He's had 4 first round picks in his tenure, and two of them look promising (Bennett and Tkachuck), and one first rounder was traded for Hamilton., the other, Juuso Valimaki is too recent to tell yet. Granted both Tkachuck and Bennett were high picks...same for a couple of Feaster's picks (Monahan and Jankowski)
I think overall Treliving has done a good job at both drafting and picking up players. I guess time will tell.

Mikael Backlund - Sutter
Matt Bartkowski - Treliving
Sam Bennett - Treliving
TJ Brodie - Sutter
Troy Brouwer - Treliving
Micheal Ferland - Sutter
Michael Frolik - Treliving
Johnny Gaudreau - Feaster
Mark Giordano - Sutter
Dougie Hamilton - Treliving
Travis Hamonic - Treliving
Garnet Hathaway - Feaster
Jaromir Jagr - Treliving
Mark Jankowski - Feaster
Brett Kulak - Feaster
Curtis Lazar - Treliving
Andrew Mangiapane - Treliving
Sean Monahan - Feaster
David Rittich - Treliving
Mike Smith - Treliving
Matt Stajan - Sutter
Michael Stone - Treliving
Matthew Tkachuk - Treliving
Kris Versteeg - Treliving
 
I thought the Flames played great this afternoon. Does anyone remeber the last time they played well in an afternoon game? Hawks also lost, and with any luck the Csanucks can beat the Wild.
 

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