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Prior to the morning skate both Jarome Iginla and Mike Cammalleri were out by themselves working on give and go’s and one timer’s. This would lead me to believe that today’s morning skate will be optional. Watch and see if the try a play were one of them comes out of the corner while the other one back’s away from the oppositions net and receives a one timer.

Just a few stats about tonight’s game they may or may not be interesting:

Mark Streit of the New York Islanders is the only defensemen currently leading his team in scoring, the former Canadian has 32 points the same as teammate Doug Weight but he has one more goal then weight so he is listed as the winner.

The Calgary Flames outscored the San Jose Sharks 4-0 5 on 5 last game which means for the first time this season the Flames are on the plus side of that statistic. Calgary is now +2 in 5 on 5 situations. For interest sake the New York Islanders have given up 44 more 5 on 5 goals then they have scored.

The Flames have lost just 1 game in their past 10 ten versus teams considered cellar dwellers.

I enjoyed my conversations with Scott Gordon of the Islanders and Bob Nicholson of Hockey Canada on yesterdays show.

I thought Gordon did a good job of explaining his vision of what type of team he has and what type of team he visions his club being. They have some nice pieces in place but they are very young and if things don’t change much they are likely going to add another prominent piece this summer in Montreal at the draft. Gordon knows that is going to take a while, just talking to him I was impressed with his passion for the game and his team, I hope he gets the time to develop the club. The one issue that I think has been prominent on the island has been the lack of continuity. I understand that when things aren’t going well keeping the status quo is a hard sell but there is a difference between languishing at the bottom and re building.

Bob Nicholson has been a very good friend to the program over the years, and the President of Hockey Canada was good enough to give us a little time yesterday. First off let me deal with Ottawa rumors question first, I always find it a little uncomfortable asking guests about rumors because what the heck are they going to say, so I wasn’t surprised that Nicholson deflected the question about the Senators saying that he felt it was in bad taste to comment when good people who he knows from their time with Team Canada. I believe that Bob Nicholson will be in the NHL and I have thought that for a while, but I always viewed him more as a president and I don’t see a scenario where Bob leaves Hockey Canada prior to the Olympics.

The jersey situation for Team Canada is going to get uglier before it gets any better, Nicholson was very black and white when I asked him about the Canadian Olympic Committees stance on this, he is pissed with them; expect an announcement on what they will wear in the coming weeks.

It is an optional practice not skating for the Flames with the main group Iginla, Cammalleri, Kiprusoff, Regehr, Bertuzzi, and Mike Keenan. Mike Rogers made a keen observation this morning; this was the first time that Bertuzzi didn’t take a morning skate optional or otherwise. His back was acting up over the weekend which is why Lundmark was summoned on stand by on Sunday.

The Flames 2nd line has been very productive in the past 3 games with 11 points, led by Todd Bertuzzi with 5 points, Langkow is doing bad with a 6 game point streak that has seen him collect 9 points.

2:36pm - Flames have recalled Mikael Backlund this afternoon and specultion is rampant that if Bertuzzi can’t go the Flames former 1st round pick will make his NHL regulation debut!

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at 11:42 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.