<%=siteName%>

A couple of teams who are having really good weeks meeting at the Dome tonight with the Flames having won 4 in a row and Bruins have won 3 in a row including back to back shut outs.

Return for Andrew Ference to the Dome, he was out watching the Flames early and was able to say hello to a lot of the staff and media prior to the Bruins practice.

Wayne Primeau will play in his 800th NHL game against a former club tonight.

Matt Lombardi is back skating with the main group today, which should mean he is close to a return.

Optional pre game skate again today for the Flames, no Iginla, Phaneuf, Langkow, Aucoin, Cammalleri, and no head coach.

Calgary have not played the Bruins here at the Dome since Dec 17, 2005 when Miikka Kiprusoff shut out the Bruins 3-0, if memory serves me well Stephane Yelle had a short handed goal and an assist for the Flames.

Funny what a difference a week makes in the ol’ NHL, even for the local hockey heroes 7 days has made a difference. While no one is quite ready to compare the Flames to the Detroit Red Wings of this past June but they have done a lot to distance themselves from the first 10 days of the season. A number of factors have played a big role in Calgary finding their gear.

The Captain – Today named 1st star in the NHL after leading all scorers with 5 goals and 2 assists, but it was in the two road games where the guy who was runner up for the Hart Trophy last year showed up. Down and out in Nashville mid way through period number 2, Iginla picked up his team and carried them on his back, he was double and times triple shifted but he was the reason the Flames took two points on that night. Saturday it might have been the quietest 3 point night, but again the Captain left his mark in that win as well.

The Goalie – Miikka looked really good last week giving up just 5 goals in the 3 games, he was very strong in all 9 periods even in Nashville in the 2nd where the Pred’s scored 3 in 2:28, he made a couple of stops that kept it from going to 4-0. In each and every one of those games he made a save that he wouldn’t have made a week ago and certainly is playing with confidence.

The D-Man, Dion Phaneuf has played a much more controlled game, much better in his own end, and he is far more composed on the ice. 2nd in the league right now for average time spent on the ice during the game. He would tell you and think most of us would agree that he still has plenty of work to do in his own end, but he was better last week then in the first week.

The 3rd and 4th Line’s – If you have listened to overtime you have heard me talk about the need for this team to have some sort of threat coming from its 3rd and 4th line I think they had it this last week. Wayne Primeau has played some of his most inspired hockey as a Flame and made a great play to allow Brandon Prust to score his first ever NHL goal on Saturday. While Mike Keenan still mix’s his lines up a lot its still evident that Calgary won’t have to rely on number 12 for all of its offensive chances.

All in all a good week for the Flames, but which is the real Flames the one that played the first 10 days of the season or the one that played the last 7. It is probably some where in the middle right now, but you hope that as the season wears on you hope they become more and more like the one form the last 3 games.

Wow, what a great couple of days on the road in Nashville, didn’t see much more then the 4 of 5 square blocks around the Sommet center, but it was fun. Some quick observations about the Predators, their city, and their fans.

They don’t have a large fan base, that is evident in the paltry crowd there on Thursday night, probably less then 10,000, but the fans they have are rabid. Outside of the Flames C of Red jerseys I have never seen a fan base decked out in merchandise like Nashville’s hockey team. The odd thing was it seemed like everybody was wearing something different jerseys, jackets, t-shirts, sweat shirts, wind breakers, hoodies it was endless.

To attend a Predators game for the first they should give you a manual, they have chants and traditions for almost everything that happens in the game it is really quite amazing.

The building is odd, in the stands it is dark blue and yellow to match the home town team’s uniforms, it just seems like a little much. It is a very cavernous venue, built more for concerts then sports.

Talking to the Nashville players they all love it there, but all seem to understand that it is an uphill battle to keep the team there. Downturn in the economy, a lack of corporate sponsors, and as I said before I don’t know how it works with out a bigger fan base and I don’t what else you can do to get people to come. It is a fun time at a Predators game, but after 11 years if you haven’t gone to game you likely aren’t going to go.

They advertise very heavily in the strip area around the arena, on the walls, on the sidewalks, everywhere. Outside of that 3 or 4 block radius Nashville is Tennessee Titan territory.

Talking to head Coach Barry Trotz yesterday before the game I asked him if they would welcome Alexander Radulov back into the dressing room. Trotz didn’t rush out and say they would, he indicated it would be up to the players to allow him to come back. He felt that if the young Russian could rebuild the bridges he burnt with his Predator teammates then it would work. Barry equated it to a player in a contract hold out situation. I then asked him if he wanted Radulov back, he smiled and asked me if I thought the Flames would want Jarome Iginla back if he had done the same thing.

Barry Trotz is an interesting guy; he said he listened to the FAN960 a lot when Peter Maher and I greeted him after his team’s morning skate. The book on Trotz from the local media is that he can be moody, but when the Canadian teams show up he tends to open up.

The local hockey heroes may have taken a huge step forward last night at the Sommet center with one of their best road periods in recent memory. You would probably have to go back to Oct 13th of last year when the Flames exploded for 3 unanswered goals in the final frame in? You guessed it Nashville, winning that game 7-4. Weird stuff always seems to happen in Nashville against the Predators, not every game but at least once a year, you remember a couple of season Calgary got rolled in Nashville 9-4.
Talking to Darryl Sutter last night during the 2nd intermission and his team down by 2 goals he pretty much mapped the way back into the game for his team when he said the established veterans not the new guys had to lead his team back into this game that is exactly what happened.

Jarome Iginla was spectacular in the final half of the game scoring the hat trick to lead the Flames to the win, but it was his first goal in the 2nd that set the table for the comeback. It was vintage #12, I could almost tell when he got the pass from Conroy that he was going to bury it.

Craig Conroy was at his best early in this season, picking up a pair of helpers, but more important he had jump and he showed some versatility when Keenan shortened the bench.

Kiprusoff was sharp, particularly in the late going of period number 3, he did give up 3 goals in 2:28 in the 2nd period (a new predator record) but you couldn’t fault him for all of those goals. His poise late in the 3rd when Nashville was pressing for the tie must have been a huge boost for his teammates. I think back to a week ago after those Edmonton games and many of us were wondering if he was capable of being a top goalie, or if he had lost his game. Kiprusoff has shown me anyway that he is still very capable, now it is a matter of proving it over the entire season.

Jim Vandermeer may have played one of his best games as a Flame, took a bad penalty early in the third, but over came that with an all round performance. Big #4 played a little up front late in the 2nd and it was very apparent that he was able to gain more room for Iginla out on the ice. Most of the game saw him on the blue line where he was an effective penalty killer blocking a number of shots, and they don’t keep track of it as a stat but he had a real active stick deflecting away a number of Predator passes.

Dion Phaneuf was good, played a little more of a composed game as we saw Tuesday in the win over Washington. Statistically he had a good game with 2 helpers and being +4, it and Shea Weber were a treat to watch on the ice.

Matt Lombardi got hurt in the 2nd period when he tried to bring the puck to the front of the Nashville net, I am no doctor but if I were to bet I would say shoulder injury.

Flames penalty kill was the difference in this being an important road win and being a Predator blow out, Flames killed off 8 of 9, but more importantly then that they killed off 2 full two minute 5 on 3’s. When the Flames ran into penalty trouble early in the third it looked like their goose was cooked but a big kill seemed to turn the game around.

Flames were 56% in the face off circle (that’s off the top of my head I left my stats in my suitcase) which was very good considering the Predators were the 3rd best team in the face off dot coming in. It was very noticeable on the penalty kill and late in the 3rd when it seemed as if the Flames won every big draw.

I will say this about the Flames they like beating the Nashville Predators; it was a very excited bunch of players and Coaches in the bowels of the Sommet Center last night. I had talked to Conroy and Iginla about the rivalry before the game and both indicated to me that it really started when former Pred’s goalie Thomas Vokoun chased after Iginla wanting to fight him in 02/03 and again in 03/04. Barry Trotz had an interesting take on it when I asked him he thinks that the Predators are a lot like the Edmonton Oilers and it is easy for the Flames to get up for a team with a similar make up to their provincial rivals.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who wished me luck before my first pay per view game last night, I really appreciated the support. Thanks to everyone who dropped me a line afterwards as well, I certainly was the beneficiary of a great hockey game to call.

I am pleased with the first game, there are area’s which I will be better at the next game just because I have the first one down and I understand the pacing better now.

TV play by play is much different then radio I didn’t know that until I started to work with Peter Maher and John Shannon from the league in preparation of my 10 games this year. There is a lot more going on from a technical point of view on television that we don’t have in radio which means more people, which means more co ordination. The biggest difference for me though was the control factor, on radio the play by play man is the quarterback he makes the decisions he dictates the flow, Peter Maher is as good as I have eve scene at doing just that. In TV you aren’t in control, almost consistently someone is talking in your ear, and the producer and director are giving the orders you have to obey their commands and describe the play at the same time it is different.

For the record 90 seconds after Prust and Tarnasky fought my director chimed into my ear “good energy Rob, tone down the fights, okay?” I was prepared for that, somehow I didn’t think my radio fight calls were going to translate very well to the world of TV, OHH Well!

How nervous was I, I am right handed I had to hold my stick mic with my left hand cause I was shaking so bad from nerves. Yup, 16 years in this business and I still get hyped up, I couldn’t sleep the night before the game and I didn’t sleep last night, too excited.

Charlie Simmer is a pro, I have worked with Charlie before and quite honestly I already knew he was a pro even before this trip, but just watching him and the way he carries himself he is a great mentor. Add to that you can’t walk 10 feet with out someone stopping to talk to him, and bar none best hair in hockey!

First time that Barry Strader (who is my cousin) and I got to work together on a game, I felt he was really strong, I am a big fan of his work since he just gets to the heart of the matter in his interviews. Barry is very matter of fact on air, and really down to earth off the air, he was really really good last night.

Thanks again to Peter Maher who took me aside at the morning skate and gave me some sound advice and got me in the right head space for the game, again he just knows when to say the right thing at the right time.

Tip of my hat to the guys from Jumbo Tron at the dome who put the game together behind the scenes Carlo, Peter, Mitch, Andy, Chris, and Jules don’t get much recognition but those guys work their bags off to make the game happen, and even more impressive is the time put into all of the features that it takes to fill the dead air in pay per view. It’s a different animal when you don’t have commercials and you have to fill each and every second, between you me and the fence post I would love to do it in radio, just go and go, but TV is a different.

To all of those who bought the Pay Per View last night, Thank you! If you enjoyed it I can only tell you that the next one in Chicago on November 9th will be even better. For those who may not have liked the broadcast please see previous sentence.

I love blogging on airplanes, no distractions, and plenty of time to get to everything. Good lord I am not sure I have written anything this long since college.

Stiff test for the Flames as they play the Caps tonight a team they have not beaten in regulation since March 26 1998 when they won 3-2. The Caps are officially unbeaten against the Flames in their past 8 meetings, but when you play every other year or so it should be taken with a grain of salt.

The Flames had an interested observer at practice today; the Capitals Alexander Ovechkin sat on the visitor’s bench and took it all in.

A lot was made yesterday by the media about Cammalleri centering Iginla and Bertuzzi, the one thing I will say about this line is they will all shoot.

Flames didn’t practice very long but boy did they have a long meeting afterwards, the local hockey heroes met for about 40 minutes after the skate that is roughly 30 minutes longer then normal.

The Capitals are a very cheerful bunch, their staff can’t don’t enough for you and their players are very easy to deal with, you hope good things happen to this team.

As you’re probably aware we have a new chair in the hot stove lounge that we are getting signed by our guests to auction off for kidsport at the end of the year. Boomer asked the Cap’s PR staff if #8 would sign it for us, and just like that Ovechkin walked in and signed the chair.

When to make a change? and what change should be made? Those are the questions that I can’t escape, every where I go for the last couple days, those are the things I keep hearing.

Yesterday I spent about 5 hours on my roof stringing Christmas Lights (I agree it is way to early) so I had time to give it quite a bit of thought, but I really didn’t come up with answers, just more questions.

I am not a believer in change for the sake of change, or making a move because you’re mad or angry with some one. So if you want to fire a coach or trade a top player there had better be a plan for handling the change.

5 games into this season and this team already appears tight and that isn’t a great frame of mind to find yourself in. You can point fingers at coaches and I would point them at the players, someone has to take responsibility here.

If you just leave it alone it will take care of itself! Well it may very well take care of itself, but what if it doesn’t? It is almost comical to me how the last 4 years have started off in very similar fashion; clearly there is a reoccurring issue that has to be isolated and fixed.

Again as I stated before I do not really have the answer, but the brain trust of this team had better get a handle on it, this is a club who had some pretty lofty expectations for itself coming in and is pretty close to having to just win to be battling for a play off spot.

This is a team that needs a statement tomorrow, a statement on the ice, a statement from management, or a statement from somewhere what direction are you going. The world seems to be watching what is happening in Calgary right now, let alone your fans are watching and wanting to believe the messages from the pre season.

I will say this I believe the patience shown by the GM in the past couple of years may not be there like it has been at the past. Ownership wants to win right now and very, very badly (despite the conspiracies that are out there) and as a result the pressure is on the management of this team. Darryl Sutter and Ken King would both tell you that there is pressure to win every year, but this year it would be double I am sure.

If the players like the coach and playing with each other then they had better get on the same page as I doubt that this is a team prepared to wait until Christmas to shake things up. Well I can’t see any major changes between now and the end of the first 10 games, but if nothing changes I would bet that all options are on the table by the start of November.

For you fan club members here is a BONUS CODE: CHAMPIONS (expires Oct 20th at midnight)!

Got an e-mail from Wayne Fleming earlier today, one that he sent out to everybody who had sent him an e-mail after the tragedy earlier in the week in Omsk. I want to just share a bit of it with you, quite honestly it is quite an emotional read.

“Alexey Cherepanov (19 years ) was one of the finest & definitely one of the most talented young men (perhaps the most talented) I have ever coached. He was the complete package, very mature for his age, very respectful of his teammates, staff and everyone around him and always had a great little grin on his face. He was truly Omsk’s favorite son.

The team has taken it very hard & obviously some harder than others. The impact of what has happened has devastated a city, a state & a country.”

A little bit of what has been like for former Flames Coach Wayne Fleming this past week. Wayne did say later on in the e-mail that at no time did he question why he was over there, that’s good; I can only imagine how hard it is to be in a foreign country dealing with a tragedy.

The morning skate is a little different today, bulk of the players can out early with Nystrom and Primeau wearing white jerseys as opposed to the black uniforms traditionally worn by everybody on game day. A bunch of players practiced the power play for about 15 minutes with Nystrom and Primeau acting as penalty killers. The main group hit the ice at 10:30 and everybody switched back and the media was a little less puzzled with everybody back wearing the same color.

Looks like Kiprusoff will play tonight and as it was pointed out to me by another member of the local 5th estate it wouldn’t be that surprising to see him play tomorrow as well. The Flames don’t play a lot in October, divisional game, and he may need to play out of his funk.

Lines

Bertuzzi Langkow Iginla
Cammalleri Lombardi Bourque
Glencross Conroy Moss
Roy Primeau Prust
Pardy Boyd Nystrom

Vandermeer Phaneuf
Giordano Sarich
Regehr Aucoin

Kiprusoff
McElhinney

Fan Club members here is a BONUS CODE: CHAMPIONS (expires Oct 20th at midnight)!
News out of Chicago today that Denis Savard has been gassed just 4 games in, they won 4-1 over the Coyotes but still the coach gets the axe. The Blackhawk’s are 1-2-1 to start the season and with the expectations so high management pulled the pin. This is stupid! Last year Atlanta was 6 games into their season before gassing their coach, this year it was 4 games, next season I guess it will be 2 games in. Common sense has long been a victim in the sports world. I am not suggesting a change wasn’t necessary but have the foresight to see it for what it is during the off season and make the change at the right time. For the record former Av’s coach Joel Quenneville will take over as the head coach, Joel I am sure will do a good job.
With all of that said both papers in town wrote articles on the local hockey hero’s goalie that in many ways echoes the sentiment of some in the fan base, the question has been asked if Kiprusoff has lost it to never get it back again? I think that Bruce pretty much accurately portrayed my response in his column today.
The Flames practiced today with their captain today, Jarome missed yesterday but was out there today.

For FAN club members here is a BONUS CODE: CHAMPIONS (expires Oct 20th at midnight)!

Flames picked up their first win last night against the Av’s, it was a positive step on many fronts, probably the most noticeable improvement came on the power play. While the first 2 goals weren’t pretty PP goals, but they were scored by jamming the front of the net, the traffic was good to see. The other thing that I thought was good to see was Cammalleri playing the point on the man advantage; he looks really comfortable at both ends of the ice.

Jarome Iginla was called out by the media prior to this game since he had no points in 2 games, it took a while but #12 finally hit the score sheet in the 3rd period when the game was tied getting the 4th goal and assisted on the game winner from Bertuzzi. This followed the captain getting into his 2nd fight in as many games at the end of the first period. No too concerned about the Captain, but he was challenged by the 5th estate and he showed up.

The other aspect that was questioned going into this game was the goals against and overall defense, well not so much. 4 goals is still way to much, there are no shortage of fingers that can be pointed at goalies, blue liners, and forwards, but at the end of the day it is this aspect of the Flames game that still needs to come around.

Much lighter mood around the Flames practice today, although no Jarome who was excused for a maintenence day after leading the team to the win last night.

Coming up this afternoon on the show we will go one on one with Miikka Kiprusoff, as well on Flames at 5 we talk to Paul Swangard the Managing Director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon about the economic crisis and its effect on the NHL.

For the record I have no problem with Iginla fighting, never have never will, it is part of what makes him who he is, but every time it happens the debate rages on.

For you fan club members here is a BONUS CODE: CHAMPIONS (expires Oct 20th at midnight).

Strange day down here at the dome, the current Prime Minister Stephen Harper is visiting the Flames and watching practice, which means thee is a whole whack of security people here who aren’t here normally. Harpers kid actually got out and skated with the Flames.

Notable Statistic for tonight’s game if the Flames win they will have their best record after 3 games post lock out, a dubious honor indeed.

In case you missed overtime after the game on Saturday there were 3 major topics broached. Kiprusoff was certainly the top topic with more and more people coming down on the side that he maybe on the downside of his career. The coach also garnered some attention, with a couple of people calling for his removal. There were also a fair number of comments about the officiating.

Thanks to all of those who helped out with the Thanks Giving Walk and Run for Alzheimer’s on Sunday, Peter did a fantastic job as the MC. Thanks to my friends (re: deadbeats) in the media and some other generous donors I was able to raise just over $600. For the record finished the 10k in 1 hour, shaving 9 minutes off my last years time.

Lines this morning

Bertuzzi Langkow Iginla
Prust Primeau Nystrom
Bourque Lombardi Cammalleri
Glencross Boyd Moss
Conroy and Roy

D pairings unavailable

Kiprusoff
McElhinney

Flames lines this morning.

Bertuzzi Langkow Iginla
Cammalleri Lombardi Bourque
Prust Primeau Roy
Glencross Conroy Moss

Pardy Phaneuf
Regehr Sarich
Vandermeer Aucoin

Kiprusoff
McElhinney

Extra forwards Nystrom and Boyd, extra –man Giordano

Mike Keenan was not on the ice for practice today; Jim Playfair ran the pre game skate.

It was pointed out to me yesterday that while defensively the Flames weren’t really good in the last 2 periods on Thursday, the big problem was a fore checking issue. The Flames were not happy with the pressure they applied and felt it led to the transition for the Canucks being to easy.

Mood was slightly better on the ice today, but still pretty serious. It is after all just one game in, but I believe the attitude of the players the last 2 days is a reflection of how crushing they felt the game in Thursday was.