When the late, great play-by-play broadcaster Danny Gallivan in the 60′s called a slapshot “cannonading”. He received mail saying there was no such word as cannonading.  Gallivan replied, “There is now.”

   Out of reverence to Gallivan, the #1 Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster in the 50′s, 60′s, 70′s and all-time, no other PBP man has used the word.

   Now, I’ve come up with another word not in the dictionary, which is certain not to get the same acclaim as Gallivan’s cannonading. It’s “Out-of-town-Scoreboarditis”

  It’s the best I can come up with to describe why the Flames were so flat last Thursday and Saturday for games in NYI and Boston. Having seen a succession of results from out-of-town go against them, perhaps, the Flames’ subconscious left them feeling they had no chance to make the playoffs. On Saturday night the out-of-town scoreboard produced some helping outcomes and the team picked up and defeated Washington on Sunday.

   The Saddledome scoreboard and our Subway Restyaurants Out-of-town Scoreboard will both get good work outs Wednesday as Brent Sutter’s squad meets Phoenix.  As well, at the same time, Colorado plays Anaheim.  A Flame win and an Avalanche loss in regulation would reduce the Flame deficit to a mere 2 points  from the 8th place Avs heading into Friday’s showdown in Denver.

   That’s why I said on Tuesday’s “Insider” on the Fan 960 that the Flames were in a better position now than they were a week ago. Then, like now, the Flames are 4pt out of 8th, but now, instead of chasing a team on  the rise (Detroit), they are chasing two slumping teams (Colorado and LA). 

  The just completed 3-game Flame road trip East offered perfect examples of why games are played.

  You can look at form charts and make educated guesses as to what may happen. But they are just that, guesses.

  Sunday, in Washington, it was the NHL’s #1 teams with the #1 offense facing a struggling Flame squad slipping closer to elimination from the post-season having the league’s lowest scoring offense.

  The Capitals entered the game having scored 98 more goals than the Flames.  At the end of the first period, the score was 4-0.  It wasn’t the Caps ahead but, rather the Flames.  The final was 5-3 and on the flight home from the U.S. capital, the team learned Colorado had lost to San Jose.  The Flames are back to being 4pt out of the final playoff spot now held by the Avalanche.

  Who would have through that Rene Bourque would have outscored Alexander Ovechkin? He did with a goal and 2 assists, while Ovie had a goal and one helper.

  For 40 minutes it was as good a game as the Flames had played in a while.  Clearly, a type of performance that would have won the earlier matches on the journey at New York Islanders and Boston.

  Thursday’s clash with the lowly Islanders was supposed to be an easy Flame win. Instead a 3-2 loss.  That was followed by a huge embarrassment in Boston being blanked 5-0 in a contest that was supposed to have been much closer.

  The Flames have 6 games left starting with Wednesday’s home assignment against Phoenix. The Coyotes play Tuesday night in Vancouver.  Supposedly, the Flames as the “rested” team have an edge but maybe not.

  That’s why they play the games.

  For the first time in a decade, the Flames find themselves in a race for a playoff spot with 10 games left on the regular-schedule.

  The deficit entering Tuesday’s 73rd game of the season at home against Anaheim is 4 points behind 8th place Detroit and 6 points behind 7th place Colorado.

  The last time the Flames were in a race for a playoff spot this late in the season was 1999 when after 72 games they were in 8th place in the West Conference with a 2-point advantage but were eliminated with 3 games remaining.

   The Flames haven’t been in a race for a playoff spot the last 5 seasons since at this point of the season they were already in good shape to make it including the ’03-04 season.  However, between ’00 and ’03 the team was already out of the playoff race being 12-or-more points out at this stage.

   With Daymond Langkow, Curtis Glencross, Christopher Higgins and possibly Jamal Mayers sidelined, players with good scoring numbers in the past must step up.

   Captain Jarome Iginla has one goal and one assist in the last 6 games.  His LW Rene Bourque has 2 goals in 5 games (both in the same game) while centre Matt Stajan hasn’t scored in 8 games although  he does have 4 assists in the past 3 games. 

   As well, 4-time 20-goal man Ales Kotalik hasn’t turned the red light in 14 games.  Niklas Hagman, who already has 20 goals this season for a 4th straight season, is 12 games away from his last goal.  David Moss, a 20 goalgetter last season for the first time, hasn’t scored in 8 matches and just once in 34.  Nigel Dawes has only one tally in the last 21 contests he’s played.  On top of that, defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, who has average 15 goals the last 4 campaign, has only 2 goals in total and none in 54 tilts.

   Speaking of scoring, Anaheim’s Teemu Selanne leads his team in the Saddledome after scoring his 600th career goal on Sunday.  Just the 18th player notching 600. 

Friday’s 4-3 Flame over San Jose was the 15th game the club has played since GM Darryl Sutter started his team’s facelift.

The record is 9-5-1 since Dion Phaneuf moved to Toronto and Ollie Jokinen became a New Yorker.

Projected over 82 games that would see the Flames finish with 98pt. More than enough to garner a playoff spot with an outside chance of being among the Top 4 in the Western Conf.

15 games, of course does not a season make. If it did, the old gang might still be together since they started the season on pace for 104pt after the first 15 matches. In fact, after 30pt matches they were on pace for 113pt.

Then when the crew slipped into an 8-15-5 shell to the first game in February and the team out of a playoff spot for the first time all season, the Big Boss broke up the bang in a big way.
The full fallout is yet to shake out and won’t for a while. As I’ve written and said previously the Flames are better on paper now than they were.

On-the-ice, since the arrival of Steve Staois and Vesa Toskala, heading into Sunday’s afternoon game in Minnesota, the squad has won 6 of 8 games while, on average, outscoring the opposition 3.5 to 2.

Continuing at this pace for the balance of the season and the the revamped Flames are far from being “Done Like Dinner” as the newspaper headline suggested last Wednesday.

Perhaps Vesa Toskala should start every game in the Flame nets.

That, of course, won’t happen but lately the only times the Flames have been able to get an early scoring jump in games has been with the recently acquired Finn in the nets.

….And he’s becoming the slump stopper, too.

Wednesday, just like it was in Minnesota on March 7, his teammates gave him a 2-0 1st period lead to work with. The finish was a 3-2 decision in Colorado ending the club’s 6-game losing streak vs the Avalanche.

The 5-2 win over Minnesota ended a 4-game losing streak against the Wild.

Wednesday Rene Bourque started it off with a SHG then Eric Nystrom followed with an even strength marker.

Bourque scored a PPG early in the 2nd for 3-0 edge.

Bourque now has 22 goals — a career best. Nystrom 8 also his highest NHL total.

Toskala in 8 periods of work has allowed only 4 goals.

Will he get the start Friday at home vs San Jose? No, but he might play again in Minnesota on Sunday.

Whether its Toskala or Kiprusoff, getting a 2-0 lead in the first period is something Coach Sutter would like every game.

For the record, the last time Kiprusoff had a 2-0 first period lead was Nov. 27 in Detroit in a 3-0 victory.

   Three times already this week the Flames have seen first hand the advantages the “rested” club has when playing a “tired” team.

   Now it comes into play again Friday when the Flames host San Jose.  It will also come into play 3 other games before the end of the regular-season.  The Flames will be the ”rested” team in 2 of the 3.

   Friday, Brent Sutter’s club faces a Shark squad that played in  Vancouver on Thursday.

   The week started in Vancouver on Sunday as a rested Flame team lost 3-1 to the Canucks, who had played at home on Saturday.  Then Monday, the Flames returned home to face a rested Detroit team and the Red Wings prevailed, 2-1.  Then on Wednesday the rested Flames won 3-2 in Colorado against the Avalanche, who had played the evening prior in St. Louis.

   Taking advantage of ”tired” teams could benefit the Flames in their quest to make the playoffs.  In addition to Friday against the Sharks, Calgary also will be the rested group March 25 when the play in New York against the Islanders and again on March 31 when they host Phoenix.  The reverse will be true March 28 when the Flames skate in Washington after a game the previous day at Boston.

   So far this season, the Flames haven’t been as advantageous as they’d like when being the rested collection.  The record in such situations is 2-4 with a 1-1 mark on the road but 1-3 in the Saddledome.

   Injured forward Christopher Higgins and Curtis Glencross figure to miss Friday’s clash with the Sharks as the Flames look to avenge a 9-1 loss in San Jose on Jan 18.  On that occasion the Flames were the “tired” team having played the night previous in Anaheim. 

  Since Monday’s 2-1 loss to Detroit, I’ve heard it said “the Flames have a daunting task to make the playoffs”.  I’ve seen it written in newsprint, “the Flames are all but out of the playoff picture”.

  The situation isn’t as bleak as some suggest.  Here are the facts.  The Flames are 3 points behind the 8th place Red Wings in the West and 5 pts behind 7th place Nashville. Brent Sutter’s crew has 13 games remaining as do the Wing while the Predators have 12 left.

   True, Detroit and Nashville have better finishing schedules on paper, than the Flames but there is still plenty to play out.  A win Wednesday in Colorado over the Avs and Calgary would one point behind Detroit, again.

  Clearly, the Flames need to be more productive offensively and some PPG would help, but defensively Sutter has his squad very close to having the best Goals Against Average in the league.  

  The Flames have the NHL’s 3rd best GAA at 2.57.  Of the Top 10 defensive teams in the NHL, the Flames are the only team currently not in a playoff postion. Sutter’s skaters have a shot at having the best GAA by season’s end. Phoenix and New Jersey, the co-leaders have a 2.55 mark.

   Over the last 40-plus years, the team with best GAA record has never missed the playoffs.

  Another historic not that I was reminded of Tuesday by respondant/listener Sean Elekes.

   The last time everybody got wild about the Flames was the ’03-04 campaign when they went to the Stanley Cup finals.  After 69 games that season, the Flames hads 77 points. Just as they do now.  That team finished with an 8-4-1 record. A similar finish now would easily garner a post-season spot.

  In their most important game this season so far, the Flames had another 2-1 final score on Monday.

  It marked the 15th time in 69 games the score has been 2-1.  The Flames most popular score this season. Unfortunately, it was the Detroit Red Wings with the 2 as Tomas Holmstrom tipped a Johan Franzen shot past Miikka Kiprusoff with 1:19 left in the 3rd period. Franzen’s shot was going wide of the net.

  Coach Brent Sutter stated right from the out3rd period when Brian Rafalski was banished to 4 minutes for high sticking.  The Flames managed just 2 shots in the 4 minutes. The Flames have failed to score on their last set in September that his club had to win the 2-1 games.  Out of the 15, they have won 7, lost 7 in regulation and 1 in extra time.

  In games with such a slim margin for error, special team are frequently the difference. It was in this one. The Red Wings got their tying goal on a power play in the final minute of the 2nd period just after Curtis Glencross failed to score on a penalty shot. The Flames gained a 1-0 edge at 1:47 of the first with Craig Conroy’s 3rd tally of the season.

  The Flame PP had a great chance to break the 1-1 tie early in the 3rd when Brian Rafalski was handed a double minor for high sticking.  The Flames managed only 2 shots in the 4 minutes. The PP has now failed in its last 14 attempts.

  Falling 3 points behind the Wings for 8th place in the Western Conf., the Flames now need help over the final 13 games to make it 6-straight seasons in the post season.

  The  Red Wings have a slightly better finish schedule.  Detroit plays 7 of their 13 matches at home.  The Flames play 8 of 13 away from the Saddledome, which may be good considering they have a better record on the road.

  The Flames get an advantage in that they just one set of back-to-back games left.  The Wings have 3 with the 2nd on the road each time.  Detroit plays supposedly less quality opponents.  The Wings play 7 non-playoff teams including Columbus 3 times and Edmonton twice.  As well the Wings face 3 first place clubs.  The Flames have 4 games remaining against non-playoff squads and have 5 left against #1 teams.

  The Flames look to start the turn around in Colorado on Wednesday against an Avalanche team that has beaten them all 4 times this season by identical 3-2 scores.  The Flames second favorite final score.

For the first 20 minutes Sunday, Vancouver Canucks exhibited why are the superior team in the NW Division.

Then for 40 minutes the Flames played their game and gave the Canucks some reason to fear them should the clubs clash in a playoff series next month.

First, the Flames must get into post-season play. The Sunday 3-1 defeat left them in 9th place one point behind 8th place Detroit, who they host on Monday.

Brent Sutter’s skaters need to be ready from the start against the Red Wings.

Clearly that wasn’t the case Sunday as the Canucks peppered Miikka Kiprusoff with 20 shots, scoring on 3 of them.

The Sedin twins, Daniel and Henrik, both scored as did Ryan Kesler. They could have more but for Kiprusoff’s great work.

He got the remainder of the evening off as Vesa Toskala took over.

The Flames then settled into their game allowing only 8 shots over 40 minutes — none in the 3rd period.
The Flames took 27 shot over the last 2 periods but the only goal was scored by Robyn Regehr midway in the 3rd against Roberto Luongo.

While Monday may not be “must win” for the Flames its the next thing to it. A loss would drop then 3 points behind the Wings. A win and they’d be one ahead.

  As part of a promotion, the Flames look the jerseys off their back Thursday night giving them to 24 lucky fans, whose names were drawn at random.  They didn’t give any goals away shutting out Ottawa, 2-0.

  The club extended it winning streak to 4 games with some great shot blocking.  Led by defensemen Marc Giorando and Cory Sarich with 6 and 5 blocks respectively, the Flames skaters got in front of 30 Senators shots.  The 32 that got through, Miikka Kiprusoff handled flawlessly for his 4th shutout of the season.

  Plus, two defensive forwards — Jamal Mayers and Christopher Higgins — scored the goals.

  In winning their 3 previous games, the #1 line of Iginla-Stajan-Bourque supplied half the goals.  In this one, they got none, but didn’t to.

   Standingwise, the Flames started the night in 8th place in the Western Conference.  Dropped to 9th by the end of the first period when Detroit won at home over Minnesota. By the end of the evening, the Flames were in 7th spot with Nashville after the Predators lost in San Jose.

   The Flames get Friday and Saturday before facing 4 keys games in 6 days starting Sunday in Vancouver.  Then home on Monday vs Detroit before going to Colorado for a Wednesday date and then back home to face the Sharks next Friday.

  Some big challenges as the Flames seek to keep their winning ways going.