You can forgive some who follow the Calgary Flames for being pretty darn impressed with what the saw on Friday night, even though their team fell 2-1 in a shootout to the Buffalo Sabres.  It was a great game from start to finish, and it was 2 really good hockey teams going head to head.

The positives are fairly numerous for the Flames…they were skating, they were intense, they were engaged and were strong for most of this hockey game.  The final 45 minutes of this hockey game were very well played by the Flames…they were drawing penalties, they were generating offence, they were strong defensively and they grinded things out.

The tale of this game saw the Sabres with the edge in the 1st period, while Calgary was the better team in the middle frame…both teams brought it in the final 20, and it was a hell of an overtime as well.  This is a very good Sabres team, and the Flames were right there with them and had opportunities to win this game.

I know some won’t be happy with the 1 goal for Calgary, but I think Head Coach Brent Sutter will take a 1-1 game like that any day over some of the loosey goosey, higher scoring wins we’ve seen earlier this season from the Flames.  Were there good scoring opportunities for the Sabres?  Yes, there were.  But I think the consistency of Calgary’s defensive game continues to come along, and that’s encouraging to see.  Let’s not forget that Calgary has allowed just 5 goals in their last 5 games.

The PK was great once again, even though they did allow the Roy goal.  Calgary has allowed just 2 powerplay goals in 26 tries.  Kiprusoff was money in net once again…through 4 games, he’s made 119 saves on 122 shots against.  Robyn Regehr continues to play well, he’s +9 over his last 10 games…Giordano and Phaneuf had nice games on the blueline.  Calgary blocked 13 shots and deflected about 700 more, and that continues to be a glaring strength of this team.

But what about that powerplay?  Calgary’s man advantage is now just 2/28 over the last 7 games…that’s 7.1%.  I’m not sure what the problem is…the movement is there, the shots are there, but it just seems like maybe there’s a little come-down from Calgary’s intensity when they get up a man.  It’s something Brent Sutter addressed after the game, and it’s something we all know he’ll address with his team behind closed doors.

Next up for the Flames is Saturday night on the road in Toronto…gametime is 5 pm.  Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Steinberg960.

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