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Flames now find themselves in a tough spot with Vancouver winning last night the schedule really does line up against the local hockey heroes, for no other reason then the Canucks have 2 games left against Colorado. The Avalanche are beaten up and demoralized and are losing by at least 3 goals in games recently. The Flames need to focus on trying to win out if they want top in the Northwest.

Interesting challenge for Mike Cammalleri after he had his ice time reduced to next to nothing on Saturday night. #13 saw less then 11 minutes versus the Wild, that coming after being demoted to the 3rd line to start the game.

If you didn’t see live, I didn’t either, Andre Roy was up to his usual high jinks after the game on Saturday. During Hockey Night in Canada’s post game show, they were interviewing Ollie Jokinen when in the back ground a pair of legs appeared out of the Flames door. They weren’t just a pair of legs it looked like Superman flying through the air, Google it or you tube it.

Just a stat to keep your eye on the Captain has just 2 goals in his last 10 games.

Lines

Glencross Jokinen Iginla
Lundmark Langkow Bertuzzi
Cammalleri Conroy Moss
Peters Boyd Nystrom

Regehr Aucoin
Vandermeer Phaneuf
Leopold Sarich

Kiprusoff

Well now their just 1 up on Vancouver heading into action tonight. For a season that was for the most part devoid of drama, the last 8 games shall be good theatre.

All hands on deck for the morning practice, no skate yesterday so there probably nothing to read into the fact that the normally optional morning skate isn’t.

It is just an observation so take it for what it was worth, but the team was loose this morning, they did admit they have been to tight, I guess we will see.

Lines

Glencross Jokinen Iginla
Bertuzzi Langkow Lundmark
Cammalleri Conroy Moss
Boyd Peters Nystrom

Regehr Aucoin
Leopold Sarich
Vandermeer Phaneuf

Kiprusoff

Just note that the lines are likely to change before, during, and after the game.

Well less the 24 hours after I declared him close but not that close number 7 draws back into the line up for the Flames after missing 11 games. The Flames were 5-6 with out Bertuzzi in the line up, I don’t believe that the number is a direct reflection of the big guy himself but rather the lack of his line as the team also missed Bourque for all and Langkow for some of that time.

Peter Maher is reporting that the Flames may make an adjustment on the blue line, which means Adam Pardy will likely draw in, but for whom?

David Van Der Gulik was reassigned to Quad City today to make room for Bertuzzi, I can’t help but think the Flames will either have him up for next year or allow him to go some where else to get an NHL job, you could say the dame thing for Warren Peters who has proven to me that he is a bona fide 4th liner in the league.

Blue Jackets Head Coach Ken Hitchcock told the media earlier today that he likes the way his team has played the Flames this year, despite their modest 1-1-1 record versus Calgary. His contention is that Calgary’s best players have scored while his haven’t. To his point the deadliest sniper on the Jacket roster Rick Nash has a single goal and nothing else in 3 games versus the Flames, while Iginla has 4 goals and 3 helpers in 3 contests.

Kristian Huselius looks like he will play tonight, he missed the fist two games against Calgary and was held with out a point the last time he faced his former club. #20 is second on the Jackets in scoring with 55 points, doubtful he will get back to his 66 points he had for Calgary last year.

It was a very good game in Pittsburgh last night and 2 months ago it very much could be excused as just one of those games, but just one of those games doesn’t exist at this time of the year. I have said it on many times it is a results orientated business and last night the result wasn’t there.

Recent history of the Calgary Flames has the team backing into the play offs in the last couple of weeks of the season, that’s what concerns me. While the play offs are indeed a brand new season, it might be kind of novel to go in a bit of a roll and not spend the entire build up to game one answering question about what happened from game 72 to 82.

Over the last couple of days I received no shortage of opinions on what is or what isn’t happening, they range from the subtle to the sublime, the well thought out, to the what the hell did just waste my time for? Safe to say the Flames need to turn things around if for no other reason then they owe it to their Fans the opportunity to feel good about this team heading into the post season.

Not much new to report from the Flames game day skate in Pittsburgh from earlier today, same line up as Monday for the Flames.
Peter Maher reported yesterday that Todd Bertuzzi is on the road trip, I doubt very much that he will play in these two games but it is a good sign that he is back around his team mates that usual signals a players return with in a week.
A very sobering number as I prepared for this game tonight, a number that I am sure a number of you are aware of, a number of you probably won’t be surprised when you hear it, but I guess I just hadn’t taken the time to sit and ponder it until today. As we speak right now the Flames are 24th in the league in team goals against, or to put it in better perspective 16th out of 16 teams who occupy a play off spot right now. Just prior to the road trip at the begging of the month I had noticed that they had crept up to 17 or 18th but this has been a tough month for Calgary when it comes to giving up goals. It should be noted that the stat is just that, I have no doubt that the team can play better defense and quite honestly if this team goes beyond the first round it will be because they have ratcheted down the game in their own end.
Still doesn’t change my mind that Miikka Kiprusoff has been the teams overall MVP this season for that that is worth.
Also from the department of meaningless stats in the NHL the Detroit Red Wings are 30th on the road in Penalty Kill and were just 26th in overall PK as of Monday.
It is funny how each year in any sport and with any team one guy gets singled out by the fan’s the media, by everybody wrongfully or rightfully it happens every year. This season the award (and I would suggest rightfully) goes here in Calgary with the Flames to Dion Phaneuf. I think you know your having a bad year when then less then 12 months after being nominated for the Norris I have people calling me wanted him traded out of town asap. He does join some very illustrious company here in this town with that tag, one of whom just led the local football heroes to a Grey Cup as their quarterback.

7:17pm - I am currently eating a healthy heaping helping of Crow, Todd Bertuzzi likely will be back tomorrow in Columbus. It has been a very quick recovery for Todd when the injury happened I was told it would be right at the start of playoffs, but good on him for working hard and getting back 10 days early.

The weekend turns out to be a big push for the Northwest division, with the Flames losing on Friday the door was wide open for the Canucks but they didn’t take advantage.

With that a win tonight by the Flames over the Wings and Calgary is back to being 5 points up on the Nuck’s. It should be pointed out that most would have guessed a Flames win on Friday and a Vancouver win on Saturday so we would have been in the exact same scenario.

Tough game for the Flames Friday night, that goes with out saying, it is incumbent on the team to learn from those mistakes and use the anger that was clearly in the room afterwards to get them out of their rut.

Optional practice this morning, but a couple of things that stood out, Bertuzzi hung around for the practice didn’t participate in the drills, but was out there.

Kiprusoff is out for the optional which isn’t shocking but isn’t the norm either.

The Flames recalled David Van Der Gulik from Quad City for tonight’s game; I thought he played well on the road trip.

A very interesting stat that sort of disproves a myth; the Red Wings have the best road record in the NHL, yet have the worst PK on the road in the league.

No a lot of news from the Flames today other then Andre Roy is out, Adam Pardy is back in and Jim Vandermeer will move up to forward.

The Blues will be with out Keith “Walt” Tkachuk who was thought to have a broken wrist and may have missed the rest of the season, x-rays from today show that it isn’t broken. He is listed as day to day and won’t be playing tonight.

Flames need this win since they are just 3 points up on Vancouver and with no games until Monday the Flames really don’t want to go into that home against the Red Wings only up by 1 point.

Blues are really good in game 2 of back to backs with a record of 5-1 in their past 6 game 2’s.

Couple of thoughts on our interview yesterday with Lane Sweating from the Abbotsford group trying along with the Flames to bring an AHL team to the town (the interview by the way is in the audio on demand section on FAN960.com):

What happens to Flames prospects if the AHL team is not approved in the next month, what is the fall back plan. Quad City is out for next year for sure, and the team has too many prospects to start splitting the affiliation.

Well there is no written provision that WHL teams will respect the territorial rights of other WHL teams when it comes to owning other levels of hockey teams, I think it is safe to say that the Flames have pissed off the WHL as whole with a move into Chilliwack and Vancouver’s backyard. Is that good or bad? The Hitmen owners are not universally loved to begin with.

The Abbotsford ownership group has pledged to make travel for games cost neutral for the opposition that commitment is not going to come cheap. The history of the AHL in Canada is spotty at best.

I hope it works out for everybody involved, but I will take a wait and see attitude, a lot has to happen to make this work.

Just a couple of thoughts from a couple of areas from the Flames skate today:

Bourque and Bertuzzi both skated for the first time prior to practice, it is another step on their road to recovery, the good news is that if everything goes right they should be on schedule to join the team prior to the play offs.

Andre Roy did not skate today he suffered an upper body injury in the game versus Dallas last night.

Jamie Lundmark seemed to be the story today after scoring a big goal and facing off against Steve Ott is a little first period dust up. I had a chance to talk to talk to him today and he is very humble about what he has achieved, but seems to be aware that the spotlight is on him. He got a heck of an endorsement last night from Mike Keenan who declared him an everyday NHL’er, public praise isn’t always part of Iron Mike’s repertoire.

The Flames can’t be held responsible for their opposition, so with that said I do view the win last night as important but far from a complete turn around. The Stars playing two games in as many nights were desperate, but with out many of their front line offensive players either on the limp or out all together played like a vulnerable team. Calgary needs to use last night as a building block, the Blues if nothing else on Friday will have more offense then the Stars did.

Really enjoyed my interview with Lanny, Colin, and Perry from the Flames alumni in which they talked about their recent trip to Afghanistan to visit our troops. If you didn’t hear it please go the fan960.com and listen to the interview in its entirety on audio on demand.

Optional practice for the Flames this morning, and no skate for the Dallas Stars so not a lot of news to come from the rink today.

Not Skating for the Flames this AM Kiprusoff, Regehr, Phaneuf, Aucoin, Iginla, Cammalleri, Langkow, and the head coach.

Peter Maher has suggested that McElhinney could get a start tonight, there is no real tell tale sign that would suggest either way so I guess we will just have to tune in and find out. It appears after the team meeting that it will be Kiprusoff in fact in net tonight.

No line up changes for the Flames, but Mike Keenan did warn that the lines from the last couple of games probably won’t stay the same.

I had a chance to to talk to Flames gaoltending coach David Marcoux earlier today for an interview that we will play on Flames at 5, and it was almost comical in how it started.

“Hey Dave thanks for talking to me, I think you know what it is about?” I said.

“Same as every year at this time right?” He said.

“Yes sir is your guy playing too much? I said.

“Couldn’t you just run last years interview? He said.

Sadly I can’t find it or I guess I could have just played the tape from last year. Let me jump in and say that I think it is a justified question to ask whether or not Kiprusoff has played, or is paying to much. The answer quite honestly can be bent to meet the needs of just about anybody.

In the Flames system/organization the actual expectation is that Kiprusoff will play 60 to 70 games, right from the get go. Yo umay not agree with that philosphy, but that is the philosphy.

I understand it, as I have said before it isn’t the way I would do it but that is a moot point anyway.

The real issue for the locals is their overall defensive play, way too many tip shots allowed, way to many give aways, and the penalty killing has been poor. Now does the goalie have a role to play in that? Yes, but it is hardly laying at his feet.

Sitting here blaming the goalie is too easy, it is the team that needs to cut down on the goals against.

For the record Peter Maher believes that Curtis will get the start tomorrow.

Great test for the Flames over the next couple of days as the Canucks are turning up the heat, we will get a great indication of what type of metel this team is made of as they try and fend of the left coasters.

Lines at practice: (courtesy of Scott Cruickshank of the Calgary Herald)

Glencross Jokinen Iginla
Roy Peters Nystrom
Boyd Conroy Lundmark
Cammalleri Langkow Moss

Regher Aucoin
Leopold Phanuef
Vandermeeer Sarich
Pardy Warrener

The Flames appear set to employ the same line up against the Maple Leafs as they did Thursday in Detroit. Adam Pardy is the only healthy body available for the skaters, and I suspect we will only see him in spot duty the rest of the way.

I have a concern about this game tonight as the Flames have had a recent history of let downs after emotional wins. In January the team went into San Jose and handed the Sharks their first home defeat, after that game the Flames came home and lost to Phoenix and then traveled the next night to Denver and lost to the Avalanche. Earlier on this trip the team won a big game in Philadelphia and subsequently lost the next 3. They do need to guard against over confidence tonight against a struggling Maple Leafs team.

Quirky stat of the day, on 4 occasions this year the Flames have come back to win a game when trailing after 4o minutes of play, all four wins on the road and all four wins against the central division. Add to that that 3 of the 4 wins came in games that the Flames started the 3rd trailing by 2 goals. For the record twice in Nashville, St. Louis, and Thursday against Detroit account for those wins.

Further reason to win this game in Toronto tonight for the Flames Vancouver will play twice before the Flames do on Wednesday, better to be 9 points up and watching 2 out of town games then being 7 points up.