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The Flames will hold their exit meetings and final availability tomorrow; I expect it will be a zoo down here when that happens since there are more questions then answers the day after.

First some news you probably already have heard that the AHL approved the placement of a franchise in Abbotsford earlier today, the Flames will become the NHL affiliate. While this is a great bonus to the Flames to have their team under an hour away by flight it remains a risky proposition for the local operators. Safe to say this was a very hot topic among NHL people with WHL interests in the area. Minor pro sports in Canada has always been a tough proposition, but putting having a Canucks rival operating in their shadow should prove to very interesting.

Thanks to everyone who stayed up late last night to talk on overtime, if you didn’t get a chance but still want to be heard I think Dean is doing open phones on the Big Show today and P-Stein will be doing a special 2 hour open line show tomorrow night from 6-8, and I pretty sure that I will be taking calls later in the week on Sportsline.

Quick Notes:

The most common thing I have heard and read in e-mails is “I know they were injured, but…..”.

I thought the goalie would have taken the brunt of the individual player criticism, but it was the Captain who has drawn the most scorn initially.

A lot of questions about the coaching the biggest pet peeve that I hear from listeners and e-mailers had to do with the constant line juggling.

A handful of fans were very angry that Jarome Iginla would turn down an invite to the world championships (as of last night he hadn’t been invited but why wait in getting mad at something)!

I really have given little thought to looking ahead, but a thought on looking back, in many ways this team never divested itself of its demons from the last part of the regular season.

Take last nights game for instance it many ways it was a microcosm of what has plagued this team over the past 9 weeks, poor special teams, poor offensive execution, a late charge but to little to late.

For those looking for blood I think you will get what you are looking for, the team will now take sometime to revaluate itself from top to bottom, but this team will be very different next season for sure.
Congratulations to Dale Tallon and Joel Quenneville for the job they have done with the Black Hawks they have assembled a great young team that should be a constant play off threat for the next number of years. Can they beat Vancouver in the next round? Yes! Will they beat Vancouver in the next round? I don’t think so; I think Luongo might be on one of those rolls!

Well the early results are in and apparently there is no joy in Mudville, in just over an hour here at the dome most conversations have tended to migrate to the darker side of things. Take it for what it is worth I do find that the media as a whole tends to be a glass half empty group.

Mike Keenan was an interesting study over the past couple of days, after game 5 he put the loss on himself saying that he didn’t properly prepare the team, yesterday he didn’t really back those comments up at all. He was short and to the point, seemed like a guy who is at the end of his rope with his team. I wonder if even a vet like Iron Mike is feeling the strain, a number of national writers like Larry Brooks and Al Strachan have suggested that Keenan’s tenure with the club is tied to playoff success.

The Flames have come out for the morning skate and Dion Phaneuf is not on the ice, Matt Pelech is the extra d-man. It should be noted that it is possible that Dion will still play, so until we hear different we will leave it at that.

Pretty quiet morning skate and maybe that is a good thing, Saturday the Flames were reportedly in great spirits and we all saw how things went there.

Jim Playfair running the drills in practice, he does that a lot but I fail to mention it a lot.

Lines:

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

Leopold Sarich
Eriksson Vandermeer
Pardy Aucoin

Kiprusoff

Updated 11:52am - Mike Keenan just had his press conference and he stated in no uncertain terms that Dion will NOT play tonight.

Quick notes from the Flames availability today:

Dion was not available, and Keenan referred to him as being day to day, he left mid way through the 3rd period last night.

Talked to Aucoin and he said he was fine despite just playing 2 minutes in the 3rd period.

The Flames remain on message when pushed about injuries they all say that there is no room for excuses at this time of the year.

The mood in the room was serious and a little sullen, I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but I remember that prior to game number 6 against San Jose the Flames were surprisingly upbeat. Curious if the mood carry’s over that way into tomorrow.

Mike Keenan was very pointed in his answers today, after the game last night he put the loss on himself, didn’t go down that path at all today. He did bring up the officiating in a couple of answers, and took exception to a number of questions.

I asked Mike if there was a danger of talking home ice for granted he said they “had no choice”!

Roger Millions asked the coach if he wanted his team to play with anger, or desperation Keenan answered that he wanted his team to play with “pride”!

One observation that I have from today is that my major concern for the Flames heading into game number 6 is health. So much as been made of Calgary trying to wear down the Hawks in this series, it seems it is working the other way. While Chicago has been very physical and relentless I think that the Flames came into this series already wounded and are not getting healthier. While it is an excuse that the Flames refuse to use, as Calgary prepares for game number 6 will the locals be healthy enough to dispatch the Hawks in Game number 6.

By now you are probably aware the Flames are going to have Langkow, Bourque, and Conroy back in the line up.

Calgary has been here before this is the 8th consecutive play off series that the Flames have been tied going into game number 5.

The Hawks seem to be spending a lot of time answering questions about the physicality of the series so far, and it seems to be getting to them a bit, as Adam Burish seems to be the most vocal about the subject.

From the department of the bleeding obvious the Flames have to find a way to win on the road to win this series, while the Hawks don’t.

Quietly Dion Phaneuf has had a very strong series from a defensive stand point, for a guy who struggled in the plus minus battle all year long he is a +3 so far in the first 4 games. Dion also was right up their all year long in shots for the Flames but has only 6 so far in the series.

Ollie Jokinen has taken a little of the stage away from Iginla leading the team in points and shots two areas Jarome usually leads his team in.

Cam Barker has had a great series so far and finds himself among league leaders in scoring for d-man in the play offs.

Rene Bourque is out Andre Roy is in.

I know I spent all day saying he would play, he skated with Iginla and Conroy in the morning skate, and he took the pre game skate.

I worry it maybe the ankle again, after he fell in game 3 in the first period.

That’s what happens when you try and read too much into things.

Is there a scarier team then the Vancouver Canucks, not because their dominating but because they just find ways to win.

Goalies are getting abused in the post season so far, watch for this to become a talking point at some point in the near future.

Rene Bourque was “day to day” with an upper body injury yesterday, is out on the ice for practice.

I have no feel for what to expect tonight, I know that the Flames were happy with the win but not happy with the overall game especially in their own end. The Hawks don’t seem too rattled at all by all of the talking going on, but they have to come out tonight and back up their confidence.

Lines

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

Leopold Phaneuf
Pardy Aucoin
Vandermeer Sarich

Kiprusoff

Mike Keenan points to TSN having a broadcaster in between the benches as the reason the trash talking has become such a big issue. I think it is just typical of what happens during an off day in a Canadian market, everything gets hyper analyzed.

Joel Quenneville for the second day in a row refused to get caught up in any kind of war of words with Keenan, and or the media.

The answer to the question raised on overtime last now has an answer; Dustin Byfuglien did not receive a minor penalty at 19:03 as the game sheet online said. This morning the game sheet has been changed and the penalty was to Seabrook, so their was no problem, other then just a clerical one on the game sheet.

Boy if I had a dollar for every “biggest game of the year” statement uttered today I would be a rich rich man.

No shortage of goalies as the Flames practiced this morning, all 4 were in attendance.

The Flames are skating the injured guys and the black aces a couple of hours before the main group.

Sarich is out skating this morning.

Kiprusoff left practice about 15 minutes in.

Lines

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

Pardy Aucoin
Vandermeer Sarich
Phaneuf Leopold
Eriksson

Some confusion to who might be playing on the Blue Line and Keenan wasn’t giving any answers.

Joel Quenneville confirmed that Patrick Kane is a game time decision; Colin Fraser will play if Kane can’t go.

You can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/HSLRob

No real earth shattering news out of the Flames availability from earlier, although Sarich did say that he expected to be ready for Monday’s game. No update on his injury or what went wrong last night that saw him play 7 minutes and change. I love the cloak and dagger that the playoffs provide when it comes to injuries.

No magic bullet offered up by anybody in the room today, all basically said that they have played well for stretches but have to find a way to avoid the wild swings of the second periods of games 1 and 2.

An observation made by more then one of the media today was that the Calgary players looked confident and where all in good spirits. As one scribe said “you watch Montreal players and they are glassy eyed and look like deer in the headlights, but not the Flames, Why?”

I don’t know if it is a good thing or bad, when it is all said and done when ever that is I guess we can go back and assess whether or not they knew something we didn’t or are just oblivious to the situation they are in.

Quick dip of the big toe into the water gives me a rough temperature of the fan base after game 2 and it is pissed, polite for the most part, but pissed none the less.

As you can imagine most of the discussion last night had to do more with the what if’s based on the series continuing the way has so far, and that’s fine, but there is still games to be played and I am curious to see how this one turns out.

The numbers are tremendously skewed against the Flames; the Hawks are 16-2 when winning the first 2 games of a series, while Calgary I believe is 0-9 when losing the first two. Well aren’t I a little ray of sunshine on your Sunday afternoon.

2 things that I believe are good signs as the Flames head home:

Home ice they are just a different team here at the Dome plain and simple, now you can’t take that for granted but I much prefer Calgary’s situation then that of Washington. I always think of the Darryl Sutter/Jim Playfair line that “it’s our job to give juice to the building not the other way around”, so here is hoping that the Flames can bring the C of red into the game early.

The play offs are the biggest stage of the year and as a result everything is hyper analyzed, the fact is the Flames didn’t play that bad, there is a base of performance to build on coming home.

2 things that concern me heading into game number 3:

The health of the blue line, well many of us sit and beat he crap out of this team because of their poor play in the lat 6 or 7 weeks that doesn’t change the fact that their D corp is hurting. I don’t raise this as an excuse but the reality of the situation with a healthy blue line the Flames are in tough against this Chicago team.

I haven’t seen too many weaknesses from Chicago, now it’s just 2 games but the Hawks have not shown many flaws. They don’t seem to lack in experience like some predicted, and they are just as prepared to play physical as the Flames are. They are full marks for a two game to none lead so far.

I will say this, I live in a bubble here as I spend all of my time it seems talking about one team its flaws and short comings, but this has been a very good series of hockey so far.

Game number two has brought out the mix master in ol’ Iron Mike, and for many of you, you are going to get what you wanted as Jokinen and Iginla are going to start on different lines.

TSN and the Herald have all reported that the Flames will start with new lines for tonight’s game, here they are as reported.

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

Peter Maher did warn me that it is quite possible they could go back to the original lines from last game at any time.

Cory Sarich is back in, but it is Anders Eriksson coming out not Adam Pardy as you might have thought. Eriksson logged over 22 minutes in game number 1, was minus 2, but gave the Flames an option for the 2nd power play unit. Pardy played under 12 minutes and at time looked a little over his head at times.

But you hire and pay a coach to make these decisions and it is easy to second guess moves we will have to see how it all works out.

Flames were dominated in the face off circle in game 1 and will need to win back that battle tonight. The Hawks were 61% in the face off dot; only 4 players took draws for Chicago Burish, Bolland, Pahlsson, and Toews.

There has been a lot of debate over the past 48 hours in the NHL over teams cheating in the face off circle in the first couple of games with Columbus and the Rangers whining the loudest.

For the record it is always this way in the first couple days of the posts season and coaches and players campaign publicly to try and sway the decision making process’s of the official’s and the league, I don’t think it really works.

Speaking of which I am curious to see what happens at the united center tonight as Keenan has been working the media hard to get his message to the officials. I thought the Ref’s let the two teams play on Thursday night, and I think that does benefit Calgary in the long run.

I didn’t bring it up on Sportsline yesterday although I meant to, just my two cents on what happened to Roger Millions on Sportsnet prior to game 1. I can tell you that having a slip up like that air is the biggest nightmare in my business. I am not going to pretend that I haven’t enjoyed similar mistakes when they have happened to other broadcasters that I don’t know, because I have had a laugh like everybody else when you see those blooper shows.

I am also not going to pretend that I haven’t done the exact same thing but never have it air, it is a good lesson to us all that reality in this day age with so many eyeballs watching and waiting you have to be more careful.

Roger was hung out to dry by his camera man and the staff in Toronto at Sportsnet, and it should be pointed out that Roger did not have his regular shooter with him in Chicago. But here is the rub, as on camera talent or the voice on the radio you are the one who gets the credit and the blame when something good or bad happens that is the way it is.

Roger has my support and I feel for him, he is a good man who is taking a beating right now that very easily could have happened to me or any of our other colleagues.

We continue with the soft launch of our Twittering, and will be twittering prior to, during, and after the game tonight at Shanks.

www.twitter.com/HSLRob