Time and space is often mentioned as a strategy for a team to have success. As in, “we need to reduce the time and space the opponent has the puck.”

  As the Flames get back into action Tuesday night at home to Colorado, they have had some time to re-group without losing too much space among their rivals in the NW Division.

  After Thursday’s loss in San Jose, the Flames were in a 3-way tie for top spot in the division. While the Flames rested, the Vancouver Canucks took over sole possession of the lead with 22pts — 3 more than the Flames. Minnesota is 2nd with a 2-point edge over the Flames.  Edmonton and Colorado remain behind Calgary.

   Defense coverage was preached vigorously by Mike Keenan and his coaching staff in the 3 days of practicing leading into tonight.  After allowing 15 goals in the past 3 matches, tightening up is imperative.

   The Flames and goalie Miikka Kiprusoff had their best game defensively against Colorado back on Oct. 28 winning, 3-0.  A similar outcome tonight would do a great deal for the team’s confidence.  The Avs are hot having won 3-straight including the last 2 in shootouts.

   Its the Avs final appearance in Calgary this regular season and with captain Joe Sakic sidelined with a back injury, that Oct. 28 game may have been his last game here.  Sakic could play on Thursday in Denver against the Flames but their have been indications that he could retire at the end of this season

   The busiest portion of the Flame scheduled ended Thursday night, but a portion of the scouting report on the San Jose Sharks was inaccurate.

Everything else about the shoot happy Sharks was as advertised, but their PP was supposed to be a weak link.  Ranked 19th in the NHL entering the game.

That wasn’t a license for the Flames to take penalties, but they did early in the game and the Sharks converted on their first 3 opportunities with the man advantage on their way to a 4-0 first period lead and a 6-1 win.

Flame captain Jarome Iginla sumed it up best. “The Sharks are a good team, but we were bad.”

Why?  Nobody really had the answer as the Flames continued their pattern of inconsistent play.

The cry out of the Flame camp at the start of the season was that the goals against had to be better than last season.  That hasn’t happened. Three times in the last 5 games the team has allowed 6 goals in a game.

Miikka Kiprusoff was beseiged with 20 shots in the first period and made a number of outstanding saves before he was pulled at the start of the 2nd period in favour of Curtis McElhinney.  It was the first time Kipper has been yanked in a game this season. Kipper made a number big stops early before the Sharks scored a pair of goals 28 seconds apart just past the 8-minute mark.

Mike Cammalleri, returning after missing a game due to the flu, scored the only goal against former Flame backup Brian Boucher.  That was on a PP at 10:13 of the third.

After playing 10 games over the opast 18 days and compiling a 5-5 record, the Flames now off until Tuesday.

   It was 205 days ago that the Flames last were in San Jose.

   Then it was a Game 7, win or go home.  Now its Game 18 and a chance to regain sole possesion of first place in the NW Division where the Flames are presently tied with Vancouver.

   Then, as now, the Sharks are the top team in the Pacific Division, but they’ve gone one step further by leading the entire NHL with a 13-3-1 record.

    Rookie coach Todd McLellan thus far has had a relatively easy initation to the head coaching ranks into the big leagues.  Although his Sharks have lost their last 2 games including the last one on Tuesday an OT loss to Nashville. That was the Sharks first home ice setback after reeling off an impressive 9-0 record in the Shark Tank. 

   The Sharks will be without #1 goalie Evgeni Nabakov tonight. Former Flame back-up Brian Boucher gets the call in the nets for a 3rd straight game.  High scoring forward Jonathan Cheecho will miss another game with an upper body injury, but is close to returning.

    The Flames will get Mike Cammalleri back in the line-up tonight. He missed Tuesday’s win over Toronto with the flu bug. Says he’s much better now. With defenseman Jim Vandermeer lost for 6 to 8 weeks with his broken ankle the team is down to 6 blueliners. There are no plans presently to call up anyone from Quad Cities.

   The last time the Flames were in San Jose they absorbed a 5-3 loss and were eliminated from the opening round of playoffs. A win tonight would offer a small measure of revenge.

  Dion Phaneuf could barely see out of his left eye on Monday.  On Tuesday with the injured eye open he had an eye for offense.

   His goal and 2 assists sparked the Flames to a 4-3 decision over the Toronto Maple Leafs, who may have been  playing in the Saddledome but had a large contingent of fans cheering for them. Phaneuf’s eye injury was sustained in Chicago on Sunday.

   Dustin Boyd moved up to centre the #1 line and responded with his first 2-goal game in the NHL. This gives him 6 for the season in 17 games after 7 goals in 48 games in ’07-8.  Jarome Iginla had a goal and a helper. The 3rd member of the line, Curtis Glencross, played a strong game in both ends and assisted on Boyd’s 2nd goal which turned out to be the winner.

  The Leafs got on that scoresheet first on Tuesday, but 2 goals 1:06 apart gave the Flame a lead they wouldn’t relinguish.

   The Flames played much more their own style after not doing so in weekend games in Columbus and Chicago.

The Flames PP, which flirted with being #1 in NHL toward the end of the team’s 6-game win streak, misfired at key times during weekend.

Especially in Sunday’s 6-1 pounding in Chicago.

The Flame PP was 0-for-8 against the Hawks after going 0-for-5 in Saturday’s 3-1 setback in Columbus.
Now Mke Keenan’s crew has lost 4 of 5 games since the win streak ended last Sunday in Anaheim.

Against the improved Blackhawks, the Flames had the PP for 6 of the game’s first 9 minutes.  It produced no goals and soon Chicago would have 1-0 edge, with a PPG,. The Hawks took a 2-0to the first intermission.

The Hawks scored anothe  in the 2nd period before Dustin Boyd scored with 1:21 left.

Often a goal late in a period inspires a team. But not the Flames on this night.

The Hawks deflated any rally thoughts with 2 goals in 32 seconds to start the 3rd.

Where do the go from here.  Back home on Tuesday to face the NHL’s early season comeback artists — Toronto Maple Leaf.s

   It’ll be the#1 goalie for both the Flames and Bluejackets on Saturday here in Columbus.

Well, not exactly.

The Flames’ Curtis McElhinney and the ‘Jackets’ Steve Mason both have the #1 on the back of their jerseys.  In the big picture neither is their teams’ leading goalkeeper. They are playing for somewhat different reasons.

McElhinney, the Flames most impressive goalie during the pre-season hasn’t played a minute since as Miikka Kiprusoff has been THE MAN.  Kipper gets a break tonight as the 25-year-old McElhinney gets just the second start of his NHL career. The Calgary Minor Hockey product, considered a late bloomer, started on Nov.25 of last season in St. Louis.  He didn’t get any goal support in a 3-0 loss.  He looks for a better fate tonight.

The 20-year-old Mason already has 2 NHL wins in his first 2 starts. Both this week and both against Canadian teams — Edmonton and Montreal.  The star for Canada at last year’s World Jr. Championships might actually be the ‘Jackets’ #3 netminder at present.

He was called up recenty due to an injury to #1 man Pascal Leclaire. Then when #2 man Frederik Norrena needed a break, Mason got his first NHL start against the Oilers on Wednesday and made the most of it. Then he defeated the high flying Canadiens last night. Coach Ken Hitchcock stays with his hot hand.

Former Flame Kristan Huselius played Friday night and scored a goal in the shootout, but he’s a game time decision due to a lower body injury although he indicated strongly this am that he’ll play. The Flames have a number of players bothered by the flu thus the line-up isn’t unclear until the pre-game warm up.

New hotel and new goalie for the Flames but the same-old, same-old.

The Flames woes in Columbus is becoming old hat. Even when they hang their hat in a different hotel.

Despite changing hotels for the first time in 15 visits to the Ohio capital, the result didn’t change.  The Bluejackets won, 3-1. The Flames have won just 3 times in 15 in the home of the Buckeyes.

Mike Keenan even changed goaltenders, giving Curtis McEllinney his first start the year.

For the rookie was the same as he last start on Nov. 24 of 2008.  He played pretty good but gone little goal support. At least he had one goal, which was one more than he got last year losing, 3-0 in St. Louis.

Columbus got a goal 4:03 into the first period. Soon after Rick Nash rattled off the post, then McElinney settled in.

The stifling Bluejackets defensive play kept the Flames off their game all night. The only goal was on the PP from Jarome Iginla 1:05 into the 2nd period.
The Jackets would add a goal later in the 2nd and another in the 3rd.

Sunday the old goalie Kipper comes back to play in a city that has been much kinder to them — Chicago. The Flames have won the last 3 times they’ve played in the Windy City.

…And they checked into their some old Chicago hotel late Saturday night.

   When Jarome Iginla scored his second of two goals just 38 seconds into the 3rd period, little did he know it would be his first GWG of this season in this scary 7-6 Flame triumph.

   At the time, it gave the Flames 7-3 lead over Nashville, but when the Predators struck for 3 goals (even strength, penalty shot and SHG) late in the game, the Flame captain’s goal ment much more than orginially assessed.

   GWG’s are nothing new to Iginla. He led the NHL with 8 last season.

   This was one of those strange games that come along once or twice a season. In the end, both head coaches will likely pass on viewing the CD.

    The Flames looked like they’d chalk up an easy win when they led 4-0 after first period and 5-0 a little more than 2 minutes into the 2nd.  There was even talk on our broadcast, perhaps in  jest, that Craig Conroy, who had 2 first period goals, was on pace to tie the NHL’s modern day record with 6 goals on the 40th anniversary of when Red Berenson did for the St. Louis Blues.

   The nasty Predators kept clawing away at the Flames lead and finally with 20 second left in the 3rd period it was down to a one-goal difference. A 7th goal didn’t develop and the Flames 2-game losing streak was over.

   It was such a bizarre contest that the Flames smiled knowing that with the 2 points they gained, they were still in a tie for first place in the NW Division.

   Last season it seemed the busier the Flames were, the better they played.

   That has not manifested itself in the early going of this season. Twice, thus far, the Flames have played games on back-to-back nights and twice have played 3 games in 4 nights.

   Friday’s clash with Nashville is the start of another stretch of 3 games in 4 nights. After travelling on Friday, the Flames play Saturday in Columbus and Sunday in Chicago.

   So far the Flames are 0-2 this season in the 3rd game in 4 evenings. Last season they were an impressive 12-4.

   In back-to-back situations in 2007-08 Mike Keenan’s crew was 8-4 in the second half of the pair.  Four times the club won both halves.  This season the Flames are 0-2 in the 2nd and once lose both, that was against Edmonton Oct. 17-18.

   While the Flames have dropped 2-straight, the Predators arrive here after being blanked, 4-0, in Vancouver on Tuesday. The  Preds have lost their last 4 games on the road. 

   Over the last 2 seasons the Phoenix Coyotes have lost more games than any NHL club when giving up the first goal.

   Tuesday, Wayne Gretzky’s team yielded the opening goal to the Flames 3:20 into the game. However, the Coyotes came back and won, 4-2.

   After absorbing 4-straight losses to the Flames, the Coyotes finally turned the tables.

   The Flames not only got off to a good start scoring-wise but for the first 10 minutes or so had their game plan working masterfully.  Perhaps the thought got into their heads that it would be an easy night because the team got off its game.  The Coyotes clicked for a SHG just beyond the midway point of the first period and soon had a 2-1 lead.

   Then the Flames got another break. Generally a team scoring in the closing seconds of a period deflates the opponent. With 16 second left in the first period the Flames tied the game.

   It didn’t demoralize the Coyotes, who came out and scored the only 2 goals of the 2nd period with by sticking to the basics frustrated the Flames.

   Playing desperately in the 3rd stanza the Flames pressed to get back on the scoreboard, but 

Coyotes goalie Illya Bryzgalov wasn’t going to permit any more goals as he played outstandingly stopping all 15 shots in the 3rd. The biggest save was on a Flames 2-man breakaway while shorthanded when Wayne Primeau set up Rene Bourque only to have the Russian goalie stretch out to make the save of the evening, giving his team a huge lift, again.

  Thursday night its Nashville in the Saddledome.