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An interesting but mainly useless stat the Calgary Flames are 2nd in the league in regulation wins with 13, the San Jose Sharks lead the league with 15 wins.

Wayne Primeau was one of the first players out on the ice today; he didn’t play on Thursday because he couldn’t get his boot on because of swelling.

While we are on the subject of useless stats I don’t think anybody would be surprised if I told you that Lundqvist and Kiprusoff are 1st and 2nd in the league when it comes to minutes played, but who is currently 3rd in the league the answer later in my blog.

The Flames were very quick to point out yesterday that winning the first of this home and home series is useless unless they follow it up with a victory today and close the gap to 1 point on the Canucks.

My theory on Cammalleri’s hat trick on Thursday is this, Vancouver is so tuned into shutting down Iginla that they were locked onto him and that freed up Mike, interesting to see if the Canucks adjust tonight.

Only player not on the ice for practice was Dustin Boyd, for those like me wondering why Boyd would travel to Vancouver and not play on Thursday it was simple. The Flames wanted him getting treatment from Morris Boyer rather then have some one else work on him while they were away.

Lines
Cammalleri Lombardi Iginla
Glencross Conroy Moss
Bourque Langkow Bertuzzi
Prust Primeau Nystrom

Pardy Sarich
Giordano Phaneuf
Regehr Aucoin

Kiprusoff

Joey McDonald of the New York Islander comes into action today having played the 3rd most minutes in goal in the NHL.

Flames need to craft a plan to stop the Vancouver Canucks, it needs to be detailed and it needs to be followed to the letter. Well the Canucks will be with out Roberto Luongo and Ryan Johnson for Thursday’s match up (I will leave it to you to determine who is more important) this is not a team ready to take a big dive.

Vancouver has lost just once in regulation in the past 13 games, while Luongo is lost for the next ___weeks Curtis Sanford has played in the last 3 games and beaten Minnesota in Minnesota, Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, and knocked off Detroit in overtime at home.

Getting to the Canucks goalie is not the Flames biggest challenge, stopping the 3rd line of Kesler, Burrows, and Hansen and who ever is playing with the Sedins on any given night is. Both lines proved fatal to Calgary at the start of this year and will be a test for Calgary’s renewed attention to defense.

With just 6 games against the Canucks the Flames can’t afford to come out flat versus the left coasters, as there already seems to be a slight mental block being formed when the two teams meet.

Interesting to talk to GM Darryl Sutter last night for many reasons, but one in particular when asked by Mike Rogers about Adam Pardy Darryl said he would have liked him to play more. This was a little tip to me that Sutter has been very hands off with this team so far this year so much for the speculation that he has been in the ear of Mike Keenan all season long. Say what you will about Keenan it is clear this his team to lead.

If you missed it the audio of the interview with Darryl it is on the FAN960.com website.

A couple of days off for the local hockey heroes after their 5-2 setback to the Red Wings on Saturday, it couldn’t have been very settling as they watched Vancouver come back to tie and then beat the Wings in overtime last night with no Luongo.

The next couple of weeks will be very telling for the Flames with the home and home with the Canucks and then their longest road trip of the season so far in early December.

I can’t help but think that Mike Cammalleri is not getting used nearly enough, every time he is out there he seems to make something happen. It almost sounds like the back up quarterback argument I guess, but I will say this, the power play was more dynamic with him at the point. Coaches love it when you second guess them.

Interesting to see if the Flames can get back to their shoot, shoot, and shoot again mentality that they had last week versus Colorado, the Kings remain one of the best in the league in giving up shots. LA hasn’t surrendered more then 30 shots in 11 games, when you consider the age of some of their blue line it is a minor miracle.

Lines for practice

13 Cammalleri 18 Lombardi 12 Iginla
7 Bertuzzi 22 Langkow 16 Boyd
20 Glencross 24 Conroy 17 Borque
23 Nystrom 19 Primeau 25 Moss

Roy and Prust extras

Regehr Aucoin
Giordano Phaneuf
Pardy Sarich

Kiprusoff
McElhinney

This afternoon should be a real special one for Chevy and Nasty who will host their 1st ever Grey Cup edition from 4-5.

Optional skate for the local hockey heroes this morning in preparation for their first meeting with the defending Stanley Cup champions at the dome this evening with Iginla, Aucoin, and the head coach all taking the early ice off.

Stiff test for the Flames in many areas but the biggest will be in the discipline department as the last thing on earth you want to do is put this wings team on the power play. Detroit on the road is clicking at over 36% with the man advantage, and owns the leagues best road record as a result of it.

Detroit has become the model for the rest of the league to try and copy in so many ways except one, goaltending! Would either Chris Osgood or Ty Conklin be a starter any where in the NHL, well maybe LA, but they sure seem to work for the Wings. Ken Holland has told me that they just don’t want to spend their money on the position so they choose to go with journey men between the pipes.

Flames roster looks like the same as the 2 games against Colorado earlier this week, the wings won’t have Holmstrom and have decided to go with former Oiler Ty Conklin as their starter tonight.

A couple of numbers that I found odd when looking at them, the Flames resurgence’s this season have both corresponded to a reduction in shots and penalties that they take. Calgary is just 4-4 when they keep a team below 27 shots it is only slightly better at 3-2 when they keep a team below 23 shots. In games that the Flames give the opposition fewer then 4 power play opportunities they are 6-3, I thought the number would be better.

First off let me just say I am not surprised by the results of the CFL’s awards handed out last night, but I will say that I am disappointed. Calvillo is a good person and a good quarterback and his story off the field this past calendar year has been an inspirational one, but he was not better then Burris was solely based on his division. He was not good against the west and padded his stats during games against Hamilton, Toronto, and early on against Winnipeg.

I understand where Henry’s frustration comes from, he is a proud guy and really wants to do well, but he is aware of the criticism that is out there of him and his team mates. I think there will be some disappointed in his reaction to not winning last night, but what I hope is that is true frustration will manifest itself on the field Sunday afternoon.

I would really like to go off on this but if the Stamps come out and stink the joint out it is a rather moot point complaining about who should have won awards for the regular season.

The local hockey heroes were back on the ice en mass today, originally we were led to believe that it would be an optional skate, but it turned into a full blown practice with all hands on deck. My guess is tomorrow’s game day skate will be highly optional.

Lombardi is close, but I talked to him and he gave me no indication that he is going to be back on Saturday.

The Flames seemed really happy with their performance in the past couple of games, but by no means do they feel they have righted the ship. The Red Wings will be a much stiffer test for the local’s, the Flames will look to contain the Red Wings shots and stay the heck out of the penalty box. Right now the defending Stanly Cup Champions are scoring a power play goal every 3rd opportunity, they went 3 for 5 in Edmonton last night enroute to their victory over the Oilers.

Want to have some fun today go read some of the blogs and on line stories in the Denver newspapers, there is no love affair for the Av’s right now, I love it.

Flames finally get back into game action after a 4 day hiatus that allowed them some much needed practice time. The Flames who had crept up into the top 13 in gaa after a rough start, but have fallen way back down to 28th.

Looks like an optional practice this morning as Jarome Iginla was out very early and left before everybody else came out.

No Joe Sakic for the AV’s tonight he is back home in Denver getting his back worked on and won’t be here for the game tonight, leading to some speculation that he may have played his last game at the Dome. This is the 3rd and final meeting between the two clubs here in Calgary and next year he will be 40 and he may not play again after this season. I am not convinced that Burnaby Joe is done after this year.

It looks like Matt Lombardi won’t be back in the line up tonight after missing nearly a month with an upper body injury. He was hurt October 23rd in Nashville and hasn’t played since but has quietly ramped up his work out’s the last week or so and may play in the near future.

Not skating this morning with the main group, Iginla, Cammalleri, Langkow, Bertuzzi, Regehr, Aucoin, and no Keenan.

Talking to the players after practice today it seems that the Flames may have tweaked their defensive zone coverage and may play a little bit more of a trap to try and cut down on goals against.

What the hell was that? I guess that I should be more diplomatic, but give me a break 4-0 after 1 and a 6-1 loss when it is all said and done it just isn’t good enough.

I have spent a lot of time around the local hockey heroes the last couple of weeks both at home and road and they don’t show any of the classic signs of a team imploding. That’s not an attempt by me to gloss over the last couple of road losses, just an observation that has me quite frankly baffled.

I have seen teams that have some apart at the seams and they all show similar traits. You have to watch for small groups or cliques forming with the team dynamic, I haven’t seen that the team travels well, and has fun together behind the scenes. Teams that are falling apart will often begin to question their direction and leadership, again nope and nope, at least not publicly! Teams that are falling apart tend to be consistently bad or progressively get worse; this team is too up and down.

Those aren’t hard and fast rules but observations that I have made over the years of hockey teams unraveling, usually at lower levels then this.

No doubt that the team and organization doesn’t want this question raised, but I think it is fair to ask! Have the Calgary Flames quit on their coach? I think there is empirical evidence to star building a case that they have.

I think firing coaches in the middle of the season is more often then not a desperate act, it rarely works, and quite frankly if a move is made early in the season the bigger question should be why the hell didn’t you do it in the off season?

In back to back 6-1 losses on the road the Flames showed the same couple of characteristics a lack of urgency to start the game and a lack of desperation when they fell behind. In both San Jose and Chicago the Flames reverted back to what plagued them at the beginning of the season like bad mental mistakes, poor judgment, and a refusal to commit to the details (face-offs, sticks in lane, and working as a 5 man group).

So who is responsible the coach for not having the team prepared and motivated or the team for not being prepared and motivated?

This I know to be true the Flames coaching staff would have given the players all the information and tools to beat the Sharks and or the Hawks so I rule out preparation, but motivation that might be the issue.

If this team has quit on its coaches or coaches then maybe a change is in order but then what? What if this group of players doesn’t want to play for the next coach, you see where I am going here don’t you?

I have covered this team for 6 years, 5 NHL seasons, and the only thing that has been consistent about the team is their constant lack of consistency. At times it is just a minor blip, at other times like now it is downright mind boggling. Even the much heralded 03/04 team suffered the same bouts of malaise. Why? I don’t know, hell I don’t even have a theory other then this is again a player issue of some sort.

As I stated before I think is a far question today to ask if this team has or is quitting on the coach, but in the final analysis if they have done that then they are just as guilty as the head man.

It has been a funny a couple of weeks around the team as I referenced in my blog after the Chicago trip, after every loss the questions are asked off the record by media and fans a like is a shake up coming? If it is then get it over with do it, time is off the essence even if you don’t think a change is necessary I think you would agree that putting it off is just causing more second guessing.

I have gone on and on about whether this is a fair question or if that is fair but I have given very little in opinion, so here it is. This team needs a shake up of some sort, it needs to have a Wholly S*** Moment so if the coach is staying then maybe somebody needs to go, or maybe somebody important needs to sit for a week or two. In my world I believe that even this slump can be worked through, but I am the minority I am sure!

San Jose does love its Sharks; it is hard to be impressed with the support that the guys in teal get. The area around the arena has plenty reminders that you are in sharks country. Banners on the light posts and signs in the local eateries all show their support for the local hockey team not sure how far that extends beyond the downtown core though.

The HP pavilion is a great building for hockey not as cavernous as the Sommet Center in Nashville or as big as the United Center in Chicago, but I doubt there is a bad seat in the house. The concourse area is clean but very antiseptic; it reminds me of a hospital with a lot of white, grey, and polished metal.

Great to see a ton of red jerseys in the crowd last night, that has been the one observation that I have picked up in my 3 road games so far. There are always Flames fans around and many are from Calgary traveling to a far away destination to watch their team, that’s another thing that ticks me off about the last couple of games, I talked to people who were so excited to cheer on the Red in a foreign building and then the team gives them nothing to get excited about.

One other thing well I am at it, I apologize if you watched the Pay Per View broadcast last night and felt that I made too much of the San Jose Shot total, I should have saved my edititorial comments for the show this afternoon are this blog. The Sharks shot total is a total crock, they didn’t have 20 shots in the first, and the Flames on the other hand were correctly portrayed on the shot clock. At the end not a big deal as most buildings have an idiosyncrasy or two when it comes to stats.

Here we go again, the doom and gloom is out for the local hockey heroes much like it was after the first 5 games, and may I say for all the same valid reasons. There seems to be a sense of inevitability around this team when they lose, that something major will happen. The e-mails come in and the questions get asked “if the team loses their next game you think __________ will be gone?”! One day I have a stronger opinion then others, I will say this I do believe this is a player issue and they have to figure it out, you can fire coaches you can trade players but at the end of the day how much are you really changing. If it is a false sense of change that players need give it to them but until this group of players picks them selves up and plays with consistency we will go up and down the rabbit hole every couple of weeks.

Not out for the morning skate Jim Vandermeer has a broken ankle and is out 6 to 8 weeks and has been placed on injured reserve, and Mike Cammalleri didn’t skate and is out with the flu but may play.

Out for the skate is Dion Phaneuf with his messy looking eye, yesterday it was swollen shut but today it is some what open.

Iginla is also out on the ice; he had battled the flu all weekend and was off yesterday.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are an interesting bunch they are the only team with more media and support staff then players. It is a circus when the Leafs come to town I can’t imagine what it is like for a team like Nashville who aren’t prepared to handle the media that follows the Flames let alone a group 4 or 5 times bigger.

Lines – take it for what it is worth

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

Regehr Sarich
Pardy Phaneuf
Giordano Aucoin

Kiprusoff
McElhinney

Well that was a major disappointment, I was really looking forward to seeing the Flames and Hawks go at it at the United Center on Sunday night, and in the end I saw the Hawks and a couple of Flames.

I can only imagine the calls that Boomer took in my place on overtime after the 6-1 loss in the windy city. I can imagine there are a number of people looking at the Flames first 5 games and this last 5 and making their minds up on what type of team has been assembled here.

The team has completely gone away from the defensive game they seemed to employ just about 10 days ago. They did not do a good job of eliminating the odd man rushes and sealing off the attacks tonight. There was way to much room for the young quick hawks to exploit tonight.

I know it is probably not fashionable to praise the goalie, but Miikka was left to his own devices on Sunday and if it wasn’t for him this game would have been much uglier.

Jim Vandermeer suffered an injury to his foot/ankle in the game and didn’t return and there was no further info given after the game so I don’t know what his status will be for Tuesday’s game against Toronto.

One area that it is really jumping off the page at the end of this road trip was exactly how ineffective the top line have been for Calgary, I can’t think of two many 5 on 5 chances generated in Columbus or Chicago by Iginla’s line or even the second line. During their 6 game winning streak there were plenty of examples of the Flames creating off the rush or cycling the puck for chances.

Talk about a guy fighting for a job Brandon Prust fought 3 times in 24 hours and his team didn’t win either game. That is a tough way to make a living at the best of times.

Pretty quiet around the team after a loss like the one suffered in Chicago, you really wonder what goes through the minds of everyone involved. How many of them are angry or mad (most I am sure), how many replaying the game trying to figure out some answers? Or do any of them have an ability to put it behind them, clear their minds and get ready for what ever (None, I would bet)?

I have been around a lot of different teams at all levels of hockey and one thing is consistent, after a loss like that you give coaches a wide berth. They don’t have the luxury of getting physically involved in the game so all of their emotion is pent up. I have seen yellers and screamers, but the most common coach is the brooder, the guy who just sits their staring holes through anything or anyone who happens to catch their gaze. I know for a fact that I don’t have the temperament to be any type of high performance coach, I would be a screamer, I have a tough time holding my emotions in check at the best of times, but if I was in a situation where there was microphones and reporters asking questions, or worse yet corporate types asking me about failure I think I would lose my mind.
Martin Havlat was very good in the win for the Hawks scoring a goal and adding a pair of helpers. He has played every game for Chicago this year which hasn’t happened since he was acquired from Ottawa. Havlat played just 35 games last and 56 the year before, he has been pegged a band aid, but when this guy is on he is world class.

The Pay Per View broadcast was a little more challenging this go around as opposed to the first broadcast in Nashville. First and foremost the game was different, it was hard to try and come up with entertaining ways to tell the story when the Blackhawks scored the 2 quick ones in the 3rd period. Add to that and a few technical glitches that happened behind the scenes, some of which yours truly caused and some I didn’t.

I do find that the transition from radio to TV is a challenge some of it I was prepared for some of it I wasn’t. Tonight for instance their were a couple of times that I just bulled through a couple of breaks like I would on my radio broadcasts, but again I have to remember there is a director and it his job to tell when and where to go (i.e. Rob has to do a better job of listening to others).

Charlie Simmer has been a real help making me feel comfortable and pointing me in the right direction when I need it, I only wish people could see Simmer away from the camera he is a gas. We are blessed to have some real pros work in this Calgary market like Charlie, Peter Maher, and Mike Rogers; they all are good broadcasters but funny down to earth guys when they are off the air.

The United Center in Chicago is huge, that is the one thing that struck me tonight, just how big it is and loud it is, when things are going right for the Hawks it is bedlam in there. It is a very clean facility with staff every where, I don’t think you can go 10 feet in the building before coming across somebody who works there, its just teeming with staff. I hate to say it because I love the building but you get to enough of these new buildings and you really do get a feel for how out of date the Dome is. The services and amenities that all of these new buildings are really important in making it a fun experience for the fan, you still have to win, but the building as a role in the whole evening for a fan.

The neatest part of the United Center experience was seeing the organ that they use so much during games in Chicago. It is housed right up in the press box area, with its own suite. It has the Hawks logo all over it; it looks like it is really really old. The guy playing it really gets into it too, and I think he started playing it about 90 minutes before they dropped the puck.

It was really evident that Toews was going to score on Sunday night he had chances all night long only to be thwarted but Miikka Kiprusoff, when he did score in the 3rd he looked like a kid who had the weight of the world lifted from his shoulders. They call the kid “captain serious” around the team, and he cut his hair during their break to try and change his luck. I wonder if he will be in Vancouver in 2010, no doubt Kane will be there for the US, but there are going to be a lot of guys on the radar for Team Canada and I would imagine Toews is in the mix.

Chicago certainly lived up to its billing for me on the trip; I had a few hours to kill and strolled down Michigan Avenue on Saturday afternoon. It was like being in a John Hughes film, the streets were packed, the traffic was snarled, and there was no shortage of high end shopping and familiar name stores to poke in and out of. The side streets were neat to explore as they were lined with those brownstone town houses, again like it was right out of a movie.

The restaurants were great as well; Barry Strader and Andy Leblond (one of our outstanding production guys) hunted for deep dish pizza for 2 and half hours and finally got one at a little hole in the wall named Uno. Barry and I agreed that it was the best pizza we ever had, best crust, best sauce, best sausage, it was just delicious. Later that night we went to a place called Carmines that was ripped right out of the Sopranos; it was an upscale Italian eatery that also specialized in Steaks and Chops. Again we were not disappointed going back to our hotels stuffed for the 2nd time in a very short time in the Windy City.

I learned a few things in Chicago, first and foremost traffic lights are optional, and the only people who seemed to pay any attention to cross walk signs were Canadian tourists. Taxi’s drive differently then any of us can and or should, my god these guys in the downtown area seem to make up the rules as they go on.

The NCAA needs to start paying athletes; this observation has nothing to do with anything other then the observation of watching thousands of Ohio State fans pour into downtown Chicago on Saturday afternoon. The Buckeyes were in town to play Northwestern and once the game ended their fans hit the city. You couldn’t swing a dead cat with out hitting somebody wearing an Ohio jersey or jacket. Seriously they need to start reimbursing the players for all of the paraphernalia they are getting to people to buy and follow them around in. For the record you couldn’t swing a dead giraffe downtown the last 2 days without hitting a Tennessee Titan fan but those players are handsomely compensated.

All in all Chicago has been one of my favorite stops so far, having been to Columbus, Nashville, San Jose, Vancouver, and Ottawa most recently. A fella could get into a lot of trouble in place like Chi town, conversely a person could have a lot of fun as well.

It appears that in an effort to combat their busy schedule the Flames didn’t have an organized morning skate. Is it a story when the Flames choose not to skate in the morning? Probably not, but everyone involved in the game, and that includes the media, are creatures of habit so eyebrows were raised, but it isn’t that significant in my mind. For the record I was more surprised that the team skated yesterday a day after the loss, I was thinking that it might have been a maintenance day, but it wasn’t.

For the record the Flames are in the middle of 9 games in 14 days with 2 sets of back to backs, it’s a challenge for sure, but not unprecedented by any stretch of the imagination.

For about the 4th game in a row there is speculation that Curtis McElhinney may get his first start of the season tonight, he may, but it is becoming a bigger story then it is actually. McElhinney has not played since the early part of October during the pre season, so he is going to be on some level a little rust early on.

Always fun to have the Predators visit since it means that former Flames coach Terry Crisp comes to town, and boy does Crispy liven up the room. Today Terry had 3 of his grandsons down with him and they were the stars of the morning down at the Dome. By the way Crisp signed our Hot Seat in the hot stove lounge today.

Calgary comes into this game tonight with the same number of points as they had through 13 games last year, but the Flames are 1-2 in November and would really prefer not to have the same month as last year when they went 4-10.