Sarich leaks Oil from the ears

What do you think would happen if the top line on your team was Lance Bouma, Matt Stajan, and Tim Jackman? Well, you’d get your ass handed to you by the second-worst team in the league. You’d witness the team behind you in 9th place lose, and still knock you out of a playoff spot.

There was a point in this game were the Flames were out-shot by a 3-1 margin at 34-11 after two periods.  It was a bad, bad performance all around. Kipper played well for half the game, but alas even he fell apart in the second half of the second period.

Calgary’s top line was a combined -7 last night. Awesome.

And with that performance the Flames find themselves in a playoff position (although tied for 9th) for the first time this season. Hockey is exciting again, for the first time in years, but I wonder how long it will last? You would think the youth of Calgary can only continue at this rate for not too much longer.

This says it all

The single point means that Calgary is now two points back of Phoenix, which is okay because Phoenix is now in 7th place, and Calgary is 2 points back of L.A. for eighth. Got all that? This now means that the L.A. game Saturday night is a bigger game than the Dallas one was.

Why not retire his jersey? Is it because we have such a historic franchise of all-stars that we are running out of numbers? This team has been around for over 30 years and we have two: Vernon’s #30 and Lanny’s #9. Why not do what the Canadiens do and retire the number for a set period of time? Maybe keep the number retired for as long as that player is alive, and it goes back to the franchise upon that players death. So they’d be retired for 40 years or so. And in special circumstances a new player could ask the retired player if he could wear that number. Like if Marty Brodeur were to be traded to the Flames. And he probably will be, a la Grant Fuhr.

Who do you think is going to wear #2 after this anyway? They’d have to be a real jerk. Come to think of it, who has worn #2 for the Flames since MacInnis left? Are we really denying anyone anything? Jamie Allison, Mike Commodore, Alan Letang (who?), Darrel Scoville (again, who?), Darryl Shannon, and Brad Werenka. All due respect to that group of no-names, but denying them the privilege of wearing #2 would have gone unnoticed.

Al MacInnis was a first-round pick of the Flames in 1981, he would go on to be named an all-star eight times in 13 seasons with the team. He also took home the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP when the Flames won the Stanley Cup in 1989. MacInnis continues to hold the franchise record for assists with 609. His number was retired by the St. Louis Blues in 2006 (he was a Flame for longer) and a year later he was inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Calgary isn’t going to retire his number? Just. Plain. Stupid. Shame on you Calgary Flames brass.

So a lot to talk about.

1. Kipper. 41 saves on 42 shots. A .975 save percentage. There was more posts and crossbars (on both sides) in this game than I can remember. I can remember 5, but I’m sure there was more. So why wasn’t he an All Star? He is currently 5th in wins – which is pretty good for a goalie on a team in 17th place overall. He is 5th in the league in Goals Against Average (among goalies with more than 30 games) and 7th in Save Percentage (30+ games). The best 5 goalies in the league? I’d have to say Henrik Lundqvist, Jonathan Quick, Tim Thomas, Miikka Kiprusoff, Jimmy Howard. Of course Lundqvist, Thomas and Howard all have fairly decent teams in front of them.
2. Flames. The Flames haven’t lost to Toronto in Calgary for nearly a decade. The win moves Calgary to within one point of 8th, and 3 points out of 6th. Thank you slumping Chicago! Next up? A huge game in Dallas. A win and you put 5 points between us and the Stars. A loss, and Dallas is one point behind with a game in hand.
3. Phaneuf. Dion’s hook lead to a penalty shot which lead to Paul Byron’s 3-1 insurance goal. That is kind of what broke open the gaem for the Flames as the Leafs had all the momentum at the time. I think the penalty shot was the 3rd shot of the period for Calgary. Also, I’m not sure why he got booed, because he under-performed when he was here? Because he got too friendly with other player’s wives/girlfriends? Because we clearly lost that trade? Because there was a lot of beer consumed for a Tuesday? (I’m just saying, there was no booing at the beginning of the night), I don’t get it. I would absolutely have traded him. But for White, Mayers, Hagman and Stajan? Ouch.

Anyway, this year has been bad, as bad as I can remember. Curtis Glencross, Blair Jones, David Moss, Lee Stempniak and Derek Smith are all injured right now. That’s your entire second line. The second line tonight against the Leafs? Tom Kostopoulos, Mike Cammalleri and Blake Comeau. That line has a combined 18 goals all year, or as much as Mikhail Grabovski – T.O.’s number two centre.

Calgary has 254 man-games-lost due to injury this year (as of Feb 10) which is second most in the league. Second only to Pittsburgh.  But they win so they’ll get no sympathy from me. Calgary can’t win with a full roster, much less a decimated one. Feel bad for us!

The Sedin sisters still waiting for Stanley

It’s always great to get a win when you did not expect it. The two points moved Calgary from 12th to 9th (tied with Colorado) and two points out of 8th.The only downside was that Mikael Backlund suffered an undisclosed upper body injury during the second period and did not return.

Calgary now faces Dion’s Phaneufs on Tuesday (a winnable game for sure) and then a huge game against Dallas on Thursday. Dallas plays today (Sunday) the the Flames could be back down to 10th by mid-afternoon.

So even though they went went (essentially) two for three, they still remain in 11th place. Lame.

Here’s a badly Photoshopped photo of Jokinen eating his gotta-getta-goal burger. Craft on 11th actually has one about this size.

Ryan Getzlaf cannot power his way through receding hairline.

You know, for a loss that was probably one of the best games I’ve seen for awhile. Reader: please don’t start thinking that these two teams matched up well only because they are equals in mediocrity… don’t take this away from me!

Calgary went down early, down by two in two painful minutes in the first period. The Flames kinda tried to pick it back up, but it was on the Captain’s shoulders  (and with a great feed by Olli) to tie things up. This gave Calgary the opportunity to – and this was frustrating to watch – play for the tie. Even though the single point wouldn’t help in the playoff race because Phoenix won. Again, don’t take this away from me!

Anyway, it went to overtime and then a shootout. It took 16 skaters to decide the fate of these two teams, which is one of the longest shootouts I can remember. I didn’t miss any of it because luckily the game was late and I had caught up to real time by the time the PVR ran out. Hooray for technology, hooray for first world problems!