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Storylines (to help at the water cooler):

• Mike Cammalleri comes back into the linup after missing three goals and quickly makes up for his lack of goals this year with a hat trick. The last was Cammy’s 200 career goal.
• Leland Irving starts his fourth straight. After looking pretty solid in the three previous games yet rewarded with a 1-1-1 record, plays average and comes away with a win.
• Seven goals is the most that Calgary has scored in years. This year they hadn’t scored more than five, and six held up as the highests since January 2012.
• The Flames are now 500, 2 points back of Edmonton and 4 points out of eighth. With two games in hand.

I think that the only surprising part of this game was that the Flames scored first, and were leading after one. I think thing there was a moment during this game that either team, or anyone watching, thought Calgary was going to pull this off. Let’s face it, with Irving in net (although with a save percentage of .879 he has got better stats than Kipper),  no Cammy (who has zero goals this year), no Sven Baertschi (no points this year), and no Mikael Backlund (who’s 4 points in 8 games is the most impressive stat of the four on IR), this is a team who will be hard-pressed not to finish in last place.

But you know what? If you’re going to suck and get the first pick overall, you might as well do it in a shortened lockout season! Maybe that has been Feaster’s plan this whole time?

Not to belabor the point, but out of the 41 goalies in the NHL (with at least four games played), Kipper is rated 39th in save percentage. Ouch.

Finally a game-well-played pays off. Or maybe that’s just well-enough played. After heartbreaking losses to both Colorado and Chicago, the Flames got their act together with goals by Iginla and Glencross, Dennis Wideman had a goal and an assist, Mark Giordano scored, Mike Cammalleri had two assists, and we got solid goaltending from Kiprusoff — for two periods.

Miikka Kiprusoff is going to be re-evaluated today (Wednesday). What is positive is that it didn’t look serious as he didn’t even leave the ice and he was able to finish the period before sitting the final frame. It’s been called a lower-body injury and that’s all we know for know.

What a great game that was. I mean, it sucks that we lost… but if you play like that for 65 minutes you’re not going to lose many games. This was by far and away the best game that the Flames have played in a long, long time. Like years… they had 47 shots! Calgary’s second line had 20 shots, outshooting the entire Chicago roster (who had 19 shots total).

Does anyone remember 47 shots by the Flames? That was the most saves Ray Emery has ever made. Calgary outshot Chicago 24-6 in the third period. The Flames were dominant and looked like they had the game in hand when they took the lead with 35 seconds left in the game. However, the Blackhawks tied the game with three seconds left and Emery sitting on the bench.

Unfortunately there were only two things that would cause them to lose. One, Kiprusoff lets in a bad goal or gets a bad bounce, the former has happened a lot in this young season. Or two, it goes to a shootout. The Hawks were just hanging on for the last 25 minutes of this game knowing that the minute overtime ended – even though they were getting torn apart on the ice – they would regain momentum in a second, and become favoured to win.

Here is what Chicago coach Joel Quenneville had to say: “They’ve got to call the cops after that performance. (Emery) stole two points. He was spectacular. I’ve never ever been outplayed, outchanced like that in my life. That was a special performance and it continued on in the shootout.”

And this is the reason I can’t stand the shootout. It makes whatever happened in the game moot, and the outcome is dependent on 8 guys rather than 50.

First of all, I’ve been away. Apologies for not doing by tri-weekly gripe about Calgary.

Second of all, what is going on with Kipper? I mean, we expect a slow start from Iggy, but every game that both Kipper and Iggy take off is a game we’ll lose. Every time.

There is no excuse for losing this game. Colorado was tired, they had no confidence, they were being out-played, and Calgary absolutely fell apart in the last 5 minutes. Kiprusofk’s two soft goals was the difference here.

The bright spot so far is the chemistry between Juri Hudler and Roman Cervenka. But why Matt Stajan is allowed to play in the NHL is beyond me. I really believe that Stempniak or Jones or even Roman Horak would be better suited to play with those two.

Calgary outshoots Edmonton 35-20 to capture their first win of the season, which included holding the Oil to just 10 shots in the final 40 minutes. However I’m not sure if the Flames looked good, or the Oilers just were that bad. Doesn’t matter I guess, two points are two points.

New line combos posted, with the injury to Sven Baertschi this changes things up a bit.

This was a weird one. No goals in the first, four goals in the second period, none in the third. Calgary comes back from going down 2-0 and being badly outplayed in the second. Calgary had two 5-on-3 opportunities. The shootout goes to the fifth round and only one Flames player – Tanguay – scored. Both Schneider and Kiprusoff stopped 34 of 36 shots for a .944 save percentage. Chris Butler was scratched for last night’s game.

I guess the positive here is that they got one point from Vancouver, in Vancouver. The negative is that they are now 0-2-1 for the season.

Recap: The Flames went down 3-0 early in this game before scoring twice late in the first to make a game of it. An early goal in the second got the Flames back in the game, with Glencross leading the way with a couple power play goals. The Flames took over in the second, but couldn’t take the lead, despite out-shooting the Ducks 14-3 in the second period. The Ducks got back to form in the third with a couple quick ones on route to a 5-4 win.

It was the same story as the first game, the Flames played great for one period and lousy for two. Kiprusoff’s .792 save percentage is hardly looking like “mid-season form.” Iginla is off to his regular slow start. Bob Hartley hasn’t won a game. I know it’s early, but this is the equivalent of going 0-4 to open the season – if this were a regular season.

Roman Cervenka is returning from Phoenix, AZ this evening where he was seen by a specialist at the Mayo Clinic. He has been cleared to return to practice on Thursday, January 24th and will be eligible to play on Saturday, January 26th, pending coach’s decision.

Jiri Hudler is expected to return to Calgary late this evening and will be added to the Flames’ active roster on Wednesday, January 23rd, but will not be joining the team for Wednesday’s game in Vancouver. He will be eligible to play on Saturday, January 26th, pending coach’s decision.