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The final game in 2007 tonight, as the Calgary Flames play host to the Vancouver Canucks, a New Years Eve Classic perhaps? It could be I think the Canucks might be the 2nd best team in the Western Conference behind the Detroit Wings, thanks to their goaltender. The Canucks are not your typical Elite NHL team, on paper they look very beatable, but their dedication to their system and Roberto Luongo has made them a tough test for everyone.

For the Flames the plan for beating the Canucks is pretty simple shut down the Sedin’s and Naslund line. So far this year that line has accounted for 19 points in 4 Vancouver wins over the Flames.

The Flames face a very big challenge this week, playing 4 games in 6 days, but the kicker is the Wednesday game versus the Rangers, followed by a game the next night in San Jose. On the surface not a big deal, but the Airport in San Jose does not allow night flights, so the team will have to fly into Oakland and bus it to San Jose. With any luck the Flames should be in their beds by 3am local time.

The Canucks are not taking the morning skate having played last night, but for the Flames it seems to be all hands on deck for the skating.

Lines

Huselius Langkow Iginla
Tanguay Conroy Nolan
Primeau Smith Goddard
Nystrom Lombardi Boyd

Phaneuf Hale
Aucoin Eriksson
Regehr Sarich

Kiprusoff
McElhinney

Well, Well, Well, for the first time this season Mount Saint Keenan erupted yesterday towards the media, kinda of. I have wrote before on this blog that is my belief that early in the season many in the 5th Estate were counting down the days before Iron Mike went ballistic. As a matter of fact after a few early season losses there were some who just showed up at practice the next day on speculation the Keenan would snap, guess what it didn’t happen until yesterday.

Being one of the select few in that media scrum I can tell you that Mike was agitated by the questioning, but I am not sure it qualifies as a meltdown. I have no doubt that there is tension between the coach and his goalie, but there is tension with the coach and most players when a team loses.

Calgary has now lost its last 3 games in a row, after winning 6 in a row, am I missing something or is this a very streaky team. That is a redundant question!

Practice before tonight’s game was optional, no Jarome, no Kristian, no Daymond, no Dion, but Kiprusoff is out there.

A thousand apologies for no posting yesterday, around the Holidays we get a little short handed around here and as a result we were running around a little bit yesterday to try and get a 4 hour Sportsline show off the ground, plus get the Flames game ready. Bottom line, I just plain and simply ran out of time, so lets get caught up on a few things.

A little confusion over Owen Nolan yesterday, at the beginning of the day it looked like he was in, then after practice it looked as if he was out, he ended up playing a created a lot, lead the team in 6 shots he had missed the last 3 games with a stinger.

Talked to Ryan McGill the head coach of the Quad City Flames yesterday, some good news for Brent Krahn, he is back on the ice practicing and could be activated over the weekend. Kevin Lalande has started the last couple of games in the AHL and has played well, but according to McGill he still has to find some consistency. I asked him about Matt Pelech the Flames first pick in 2005, Ryan said his game has come along but he still needs to find a mean streak. I asked McGill about Pelech’s foot speed and he said it’s not a concern at all.

Last nights game in Vancouver came down to goaltending, well neither goalie was spectacular, Roberto Luongo out dueled Miikka Kiprusoff though and the Flames lose their first on the road after 6 straight wins. I am very curious about the way the Flames respond after this game, the two previous losses in overtime were games in which the Flames outplayed their opposition but didn’t get the win, last nights game was not that way.

The stockings are all hung by the fire with care, but there is one more game for the Flames to play before the brief Christmas break. I often wonder how difficult it is for these players to concentrate with the Holidays swirling around them. I myself find the last couple of days before Christmas are tough to focus on, I love the holidays and get caught up in all of the hoopla.

The Devils are the opposition tonight, I haven’t seen them live since 2001ish, and so I look forward to seeing them up close and personal. The one regret that I have is not seeing Martin Brodeur more live, but that will change a little bit next year with the new schedule.

Rhett Warrener did skate before the practice today which indicates he is a couple to 3 weeks away from returning. Moss, as we understand it, is still on crutches so he is a little further behind.

Lines
Huselius Langkow Iginla
Nystrom Lombardi Yelle
Tanguay Conroy Boyd
Primeau Smith Goddard

Phaneuf Eriksson
Regehr Sarich
Aucoin Hale

Kiprusoff McElhinney

The Calgary Flames make their long awaited return to the Dome tonight as they host the Dallas Stars; I am guessing that those in attendance tonight are going to give their hockey heroes quite the welcome when they come out onto the ice. We were talking this morning around here about what if they opposite happened on the road, probably the first game for a new coach, and maybe the first game for a number of new players.

The Stars are playing very well heading into this game tonight, despite losing Thursday night in Vancouver, the have won 4 of their last 5, and even beat the Edmonton Oilers at their own game winning in a shoot-out Tuesday up north. Mike Ribeiro of the Stars has really come into his own with Dallas after a rocky finish in Montreal a couple of season’s ago, to the point where a lot of teams are shadowing Dallas’s leading scorer.

Sergei Zubov is leading the NHL in scoring by d-men, 32 points in 35 games, but why is he never considered among the NHL’s elite. By that I mean when ever you and your buddies get together and debate who is the best defenseman is how deep into the conversation do you have to get before Zubov’s name comes up? Pretty deep I would guess. He ha continually been one of the leagues best point producing blueliners for well over a decade, but never gets much recognition. The only reason I can come up with for his lack of attention, is his lack of profile. Zubov does not do many if any interviews, he just plays the game and goes home, that’s it. Nothing wrong with that, but a couple of sit don interviews with Hockey Night or TSN, or a cover story interview with The Hockey News could go a long way to improve that.

Daymond Langkow is out for practice today, he did not skate yesterday during practice after tweaking his leg.

Lines – I would suspect they will change

Huselius Langkow Iginla
Tanguay Conroy Yelle
Nystrom Lombardi Primeau
Nilson Boyd Goddard

Nolan Smith

Phaneuf Eriksson
Regehr Aucoin
Sarich Hale

Kiprusoff McElhinney

The Flames going for 6 in a row against Columbus, all wins, all on the road, and all on this trip, this accomplishment has not been achieved by a Calgary NHL team before.

For the Flames tonight both Owen Nolan and Dustin Boyd have stingers and are game time decisions, Miikka Kiprusoff is in goal and Pascal Leclaire goes for the Jackets.

Jarome got the 1st star yesterday for last week and well deserved, but one thing jumped off the page at me. A couple of years ago around the trade deadline all of the talk was about who Darryl Sutter would go out and acquire to help Iginla. Sutter said something that was very interesting at the time; it wasn’t about getting somebody to play with Jarome to make him better it was about getting Iginla to make those he plays with better. I think we really have seen that the last couple of weeks, he has elevated the game of both Huselius and Langkow over the last couple of weeks. I think we are watching the captain take another step to another level in this league.

Tomorrow Mike Keenan will be made available to the media around the league on a conference call to discuss reaching 600 wins; I wonder what kind of stories will be written coming out of this interview. My guess is your going to see pro and con stories about Iron Mike that’s just the way it goes for a guy as controversial as the Flames coach.

The Calgary Flames try and make it 5-0 on this road trip as they take on the St.Louis Blues this afternoon, and a familiar face will return to the line up. Wayne Primeau has missed 27 games with a high ankle sprain is back in the line up today, I think a little earlier then most thought, original estimates had him returning after Christmas. Dustin Boyd will not play in the game against the Blues due to a burner, not sure how long he will be out.

Mike Keenan goes for career win number 600 tonight; say what you will about Keenan’s reputation 600 is a heck of mark for any coach.

On Friday the Blues acquired Andy McDonald from the Duck for Doug Weight, a prospect, and a draft pick. We will have to wait to see how the prospect and the draft pick turn out, but on the surface I really like this deal for St.Louis. In this game tonight the Blues will play him between Kariya and Boyes, I think MacDonald is s piece player not a guy who makes everybody better. With the Blues I think he fits well with the other pieces that they have with the young guys and some of their vet’s.

The old goalies go tonight, Kiprusoff in for Calgary and Manny Legace who was hurt during warm up against the Flames on December 4th will go for the Blues.

2 corrections from last night, first of all the “Yeah Baby’ on the Iginla hat trick goal was the first regular season “Yeah Baby” since March of 2004 when the Flames clinched a play off spot, not Iginla’s 50th goal a couple of year before that. Second a caller thought he recalled the Flames beating Tampa 10-0 before, a quick glance at the media guide I didn’t see it, but on second review it is right there big as life January 2, 1996. That’s the last time the Flames scored a bunch of goals last night, I hop you can forgive me.

I really enjoyed that game last night when it was all said and done, for it to be Tampa and to have the best players scoring all of the goals that was fun. Also early in the week there was the debate about the best player in the game with Lecavalier and Crosby getting all of the attention, boy did Iginla jump into that debate in a hurray. I believe that Crosby is the best players in the game, but maybe because I see Jarome so much I take him for granted.

Tonight is Carolina it looks like Kiprusoff will start in goal, optional skate this morning so I am not sure of any other changes.

Popular former Flame Mike Commodore will not play tonight do to a broken finger.

Sorry about the painfully slow updates over the last couple of days, between administrative BS that a large corporation will make you go through from time to time, and family stuff I have been a little backed up.

Got a text message from a friend of mine in Edmonton, “When I”, telling me that the Oilers are going to be sold to Darryl Katz, about an hour later it’s in the news. This once again goes to show you the off again on again nature of pro sports these days, I am curious to see if carries through with the promises he made to the community the first time he tried to buy the team. We will have Jason Gregor on from the TEAM1260 in the 3 o’clock hour.

Flames and Tampa in Tampa tonight, not a lot of news out of this one, same line up as Tuesday for the Flames.

Cory Sarich becomes the current NHL Iron Man in this game at 419 games, off the top of my head I believe Doug Jarvis’s record is 942, a ways to go yet.

Flames prospect Leland Irving was released by Team Canada, although he was the back up last year in Sweden, he seemed to be playing from behind from the start at the camp. Irving has nothing to hang his head about, it is up to him though to go and show it was a mistake.

Boy a lot of memories come flooding back today when you think back to June 7, 2004 the last time the Flames played in Tampa. The biggest memory for me was the realization that was over, it just seemed to end way too quickly.

Not a lot to report from Florida today, optional for both teams. Yelle is back in for the Flames no word on who will be out.

Kiprusoff gets the start in goal, I wonder if he is going to play every game on this trip? If they have some success over the next couple of nights, Keenan may ride the hot hand.

Interesting talking to Steve Montador yesterday, the Panthers d-man didn’t have a lot of positive things to say about the crowds in Florida, they are down about 2000 a game this year.