Forget about it! At the risk or sounding a little Soprano –ish the Calgary Flames have to put last nights 3-1 loss in Vancouver behind them and now. When the season ends there will be no shortage of time to micro analysis games and player decisions, but right now you have to have the ability to block it out and get ready to play Detroit. The best example of this came this past Thursday and Friday, one night Nashville blew a 4-2 3rd period lead losing 8-5 to San Jose, the next night out they beat Anaheim 1-0.

This final month of the regular season is a roller coaster and you have to guard against letting your emotions away from you, so far the Flames have done a good job. The facts remain that the Flames hold their own destiny in their hands they have to win the games in front of them, they are going to lose a few down the stretch the key is not to have a major skid.

The team did not practice today ahead of the game against the Detroit Red Wings, so not sure if there will be any line up changes tonight.

“It’s what we in hockey call a deuce and a nickel!” – Brian Burke GM Toronto Maple Leafs March 10th, 2010.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about those two quotes, the first one because it really does capture the emotion of the recent fortunes of the local hockey heroes, and the latter cause it makes me laugh.

A week ago I was writing about the amount of angry people I had come in contact with either in person or via the world wide web (e-mails, tweets, ect.) and how there were no shortage of threats to not care and not come anymore. I wrote that these were concerning to me because the chief enemy in sports is always apathy, and that they should be concerning to those higher up as well.

Well one week later life is good, the team is winning, and the belief that some thing good could still happen is alive and well in some circles (the chair does recognize those who are currently biting their tongues waiting for it to go bad again so they can say I told you so)!

I credit Brent Sutter for emphatically declaring that “the system” has not changed, that the players had finally bought in. “The System” has become that buzz word that everybody tosses around (yours truly included) casually and often to blanket true conversation of the issues at hand.

For the record my interpretation of the Flames “System” is simple: A puck pursuit theme that demands that the opposition be kept to the outside in the defensive end, with back pressure provided from all 3 forwards. Upon retrieval of the puck the offense moves up the ice as a 5 man unit allowing the defensemen to join in the rush. On the attack the puck should be dumped behind the opposition defensemen but in a retrieval position while the fore check consists of 1-2-2 aggressive attack. Shots you be directed to the net with traffic in front of the opposition goalie, and players in the “dirty areas”. Finally there is an emphasis of turning over pucks in the neutral zone while limiting your own turn over’s. Again that may not be your interpretation, it may not be the coach’s exact or literal interpretation, but I just wanted to put it down in words for once.

Flames practiced with all of the same lines intact, so there may not maybe any changes, but then again it is that time of season so you never know.

Flames will wear their retro jerseys for the final time this season, and will be giving them to fans following the game tonight.

“Winning cures all” – author unknown.

Biggest issue for the Flames coming into this game tonight is to show some emotion, play with some emotion that was a key ingredient not in their game Wednesday.

Flames pre game skate featured no line rushes or d-pairings so who is in and who is out will remain a mystery until the drop of the puck my the looks of it.

As stand alone deals they both make sense, clearly the Flames as an organization had made up their mind on Curtis McElhinney and because you had him signed for one more year you needed to find a partner who was willing to take that contract back the price would be to take another contract back hence the former starting goalie of the Maple Leafs is now the running mate of Kiprusoff. Toskala becomes by my count the 7th back up to Kipper since 03/04, if history has shown us anything he better play well in his first game and win it or he may not play again.

Steve Staios is a nice guy, a good guy, all of those character things you want in a leader, but he is 36 and a step slower then he was just a calendar year ago. Calgary has him for one more year after this season which takes away a little more of the off season flexibility away from you. I think Staios is going to be an upgrade over Aaron Johnson in the short term if for no other reason then he is a leader.

It should be pointed out that Darryl Sutter was asked about his lack of picks in the early rounds of the upcoming draft in LA. Sutter it should be pointed out that there is plenty of time to acquire picks before the draft once the season ends. Sutter has shown an ability to accomplish a lot at drafts with little going in so he really shouldn’t be judged to harshly on a draft that hasn’t taken place yet.

With all of that said yesterdays deals likely won’t have a big impact the rest of the way, the deals made in the 48 hour span a month ago are the ones that will make or break this team.

Say what you will about Darryl Sutter, and many have, he has never wavered from his stance of trying to do everything he can to win now. You are hard pressed to find a GM who has made more trades in the past 5 years, but that maybe the biggest problem. Unless the Flames can turn it around right away, make a charge, and then do damage in the post season there will be no shortage of legitimate questions about the amount of change this team has under gone.

The two new players are on the ice for practice today wearing their newly assigned numbers, Staios 27 and Toskala 35.

It isn’t all doom and gloom at practice today for the Flames, the 3 Olympians have been given they day off which leaves them with out another goalie, assistant coach Jamie McLennan has dust off his gear to help out today.

With that said I do think the Flames will be active today, as I talked about yesterday on the show, just accumulating draft picks or prospects would be surprised to see warm bodies coming in, but you never know. The final hours can be unpredictable, s few seasons back when the Thrashers were moving Hossa at the deadline nobody saw him going to Pittsburgh, while never publicly admitting to it there was no shortage of pundits who heard the Flames were in that one until the end. I bring that up for no other reason then to illustrate that a team may say their doing nothing and the end doing nothing but that doesn’t mean they weren’t talking or listening to other teams.

I have come around on the different pressure points in an NHL season I used to believe the Trade Deadline was the big one and while it remains important don’t discount moves that are made at the Draft in June and or course July 1st has become the biggest of all of the days when it comes to dramatic improvement of a club.

My theme for the next 6 weeks when it comes to the Calgary Flames if they make the play offs they will have earned it. The last 4 seasons or so you can make the case that Calgary has backed into the post season if they play off hockey this season they will have played well to get there in the final 20 games.

Lines

Hagman Stajan Iginla
Moss Backlund Bourque
Higgins Langkow Kotalik
Dawes Conroy Boyd
Mayers Nystrom Glencross
McGratten

Along with the two years remaining on Hagman’s contract the Flames look like today that they are coming out with more in the Phaneuf trade then the initial take. At the time it felt like the Flames might only acquire the services of Hagman and cap space moving forward.

TSN broke this story by the way, as the Flames continue to get their house in order ahead of the Wednesday trade deadline.

By the way the Flames 3 Olympians will not practice with the team today.

I can’t help but think of a rodeo after a game like this, where this game fits in the annals of history time will tell, but it will be one of the all time great Canadian victories because of the opposition. I will often compare Flames wins to those of a Bull Rider mostly when the other team isn’t very good, if you’re the cowboy you have to score yourself high and hope the animal gets a good score. If the U.S. was the bull today they helped the Canadians to a near perfect score.

The Americans were magnificent in this game and through out the tournament, likely it is of very little consolation to their team and their fans but it was because this gold medal comes against them that it means so much. Ryan Kesler was world class in this Olympics, what can you say about Ryan Miller named to the all star team, named top goaltender, and named MVP all richly deserved. I am no fan of Ron Wilson head coach for the Americans, but he admittedly did a terrific job with the youngest team in this tournament.

Credit Brian Burke for putting this team together despite his objections to the contrary, Burke did a masterful job, before and during of deflecting pressure and expectation and allowed his team to go in and just play.

Once again congratulations are in order to Team USA for a great tournament, and thus giving so much meaning to this Team Canada victory.

For you Flames fans how much did the final moments of regulation and overtime of the Gold Medal game remind you of game 7 in the first round of the 2004 play offs, funny enough in Vancouver. I plan on asking Jarome that question the next time I see him.

I hope that this doesn’t come out as pompous or corny but I am so happy tonight for the “Canadian Hockey Fan” who ever you are and where ever you are. It is impossible to define who is and what constitutes being a fan, I assume that just being Canadian was enough to make us all fans on this day. But the fans I am most happy for are those who invest themselves in the Flames, the Oilers, the Canucks, the Hitmen, the Royals, the Maple Leafs, the Heat, or what ever club team, but for the past 2 weeks have cheered for, and lived and died with the ups and downs of Team Canada. You got to go to the Top of the Mountain today with your team, so few of us get to do that with our club teams on a regular basis its fun to win isn’t it.

By now you are aware that Canada has set two very significant Olympic records, if not here they are 14 gold medals are the most at a winter Olympics and the most by a host country. Based on that information I believe we have indeed owned the podium!
Before the games I was very concerned that the Men’s Hockey would dominate the public’s attention and force our other athletes to the side, I am happy to report I couldn’t have been more wrong. Yes they were the dominate event there is no doubt of that, but all Canadian athletes seem to come together as one as Canadians, think of all of those other athlete’s wearing Team Canada jerseys in the final days.

Congratulations to Hockey Canada and all of the guys and gals behind the scenes who help make it Gold twice in the 2010 games. There is no equivalent in sport of this governing body; they have immense pressure on them to grow the game at the grass roots level and to continue to win at the elite level. I have gotten to know them from the outside and feel that their grunt work and behind the scenes efforts often go unnoticed but they deserve much credit for what has transpired in Vancouver so far. Understand that Hockey Canada’s mandate was to win 3 gold Medals; the third will be gold for the Sledge team at the upcoming Para Olympics.

Steve Yzerman deserves a ton of credit for the way he built and led this team to gold; he is easily a great candidate for any NHL GM vacancy in the near future. With that said watch for the Red Wings to promote Ken Holland to a President’s role and hand over the GM’s job to Stevie, just a guess but it is what I would do.

Kind of running of steam writing tonight’s blog, I know I will have more in the coming days, a couple of things as I wrap up:

Talked to Kelly Kirch our program director we will be replaying the Gold Medal game tomorrow night at 7pm.

Congratulations to Flames Captain Jarome Iginla for getting the assist on Sid the Kid’s Golden goal, Iggy has had no shortage of fires to deal with this, but for one day anyway he is a national hero, good on him.

What a game last night for Team Canada, little they I can say or add that hasn’t already been said, but I’ll go this way that loss is a huge one for Russian hockey. I don’t think Russia falls of the face of the earth as a hockey power but politically what happened in Vancouver last night was devastating.

The Russians were hoping to make a statement by using 9 players from the vaunted KHL to show that the league was on par or close the NHL. Now other teams including Slovakia are using players from the KHL but the Russians were forced when assembling their team to include as many as possible.

Why is this a big blow for the former Soviet Union power? 2 things it doesn’t give them any leverage or advantage when it comes to 2014 and the Winter Games. It is not as if they can turn around and say to the NHL we don’t your players we have the KHL’ers, and the Russian sporting public now knows it too. The NHL and Russians are playing a big dumb game of chicken when it comes to a transfer agreement. The Russians want way more money for players to come over and play in North America; they want to be a more attractive destination for North American free agents, and more then that they want respect from the hockey world.

Last nights loss to Canada isn’t the end of the World for Russian hockey or the KHL, but it sure as hell doesn’t help.

One observation from me on Team Canada’s play last night, they won that game 20 feet in front of and 20 feet behind their own blue line. Canada’s gap control and back checking was amazing they constantly turned the puck over from the Russians.

Canada will beat the Slovaks, that is my humble opinion, but it won’t be easy! Slovakia leads the tournament in both power play and penalty kill, while they have put up 30 plus shots in their first 4 games, they had only 14 shots last night in their win over the Swedes. By the way the Slovaks scored all 4 goals in their last 7 shots on goal.

Watch for Slovakia to have a tempered fore check, and to collapse 5 in front of Halak they will likely try to rope a dope Canada.

The Swedes, the defending champions, are out as a loss to Slovakia eliminated them last night and having watched 3 of their games in this tournament I was not surprised. They were much more skilled then any team they played but lacked inspired play.

If Canada does not win the Gold medal in Men’s Hockey it will mean that in 4 Olympics with NHL players there will have been 4 different Gold Medal winners.

I hope you are getting what you want out of the Olympic experience, for me I have enjoyed the hockey, but for me it is watching my friends and peers that have taken up most of my time. Peter Maher has been a treat to listen too, it sounds strange but when you work as closely as I do with Pete you take him for granted, but now that I am at arms lengths I am just amazed at how in control and precise Pete is during his broadcasts.

For me Kevin Quinn and Cassie Campbell have done an unbelievable job calling the one sided games in the women’s hockey tournament. It is the worst thing in broadcasting when you have to work a blow out, you have to make sure you sound upbeat and not bored, but when most of the games are all blow outs for the most part it is tough, both have been real good.

I thought Peter Loubardias had one of the great game calls last night in the Latvia Czech game. He is my friend and I AM BIASED, with that said he built the game up to frenetic pace in overtime, as a guy who is angling to do what he does, I thought Peter crafted a brilliant game last night.

Just a couple of my opinions as we head into tonight’s game and my timing is bad because I am sure it could come across as trying to excuse away a loss before it happens but it isn’t the case I assure you. First and foremost I don’t favor tournament formats over a play off series format. Case in point I have long held the belief that Memorial Cup while a great tournament isn’t the proper way to crown a Junior Champ, you ask these teams to win best of seven series to claim their league championships and then play a one game showdown it just seems wrong to me. But I accept it and don’t lose any sleep over it. All of that was a long winded way of saying what I would really love to see is these two teams play a 7 game series, will never happen but if it did wow!!!!

I don’t personally need a gold medal to prove to me that we are the greatest hockey nation, we are plain and simple. Hockey permeates our culture like no where else and there is a hunger and passion for it in our population which is the envy of the rest of the hockey world. Does a gold medal prove anything? Yes it does, who is best at that given moment, but even after the Olympic disaster in 2006 I never felt that we were any less of a nation when it came to hockey. Don’t believe the hype believe your heart on this topic, when it comes to hockey we are the leader, can we be better yes, but that is what makes us great is we always try to move forward sometimes in little steps and some times in giant ones.

Last night with a 4-0 lead Mike Babcock created quite a buzz when he took advantage of a IIHF rule allowing him to choose another shooter on a penalty shot rather then the player fouled. Nash was hauled down but Crosby took the shot and there appear to be two schools of thought either it was a bad move because it offended the player and his teammates or it was a great move because the coach was sending a message that 4-0 wasn’t enough and he sent his go to guy out there to try and score (he didn’t). I have talked too many today whose opinion I respect and they all seemed split right down the middle. I understand exactly what Babcock was trying to accomplish, showing his team that they were there to win no matter the opponent or the score.

Babcock will be ripped to shreds if Canada looses, the wolves are already at the door over his decision last night, his constant line juggling, and the way he handled his goaltending change. I credited Shaun Peyton (sp?) with the way he coached the Saints to a Super Bowl because he didn’t play the percentages or do the safe thing. Mike Babcock is trying to make sure that he breaks these players out their comfort zone trying to push buttons, I applaud him for it. But as I was told by more then one person in the NHL today, the players these days are less inclined then ever to be bullied by a coach, good bad or indifferent that is just the way it is.

Finally my bold prediction for tonight Canada 6 Russia 4, my heart tells me so.

Flames back on the ice today and according to Coach Brent Sutter all hands on deck minus the 3 players at the Olympics.

Texted with Jim Playfair Head Coach of the Abbotsford Heat asking him about Backlund’s play since being returned during the Oly break, the coach says he has been good. I think the kid is coming back before the game next Wednesday against Minnesota.

First an apology for something I got wrong during the pay per view game on Thursday (other then calling Perry Charlie for most of the first period) on the disputed goal at the end of the game I mistakenly said that the referee called the goal on the ice and that the review from Toronto had to come up with evidence to over turn that call. Brent Sutter explained to me yesterday that the ref in fact did not rule it a goal on the ice he was merely pointing to the puck. The difference is in the arm movement, apparently if the referee just points he is indicating the location of the puck, if he moves his arm up and down in a chopping motion he is indicating a goal. As a result the review was actually to find evidence that it was indeed a goal and not the other way around. Sorry for the confusion, but on a positive side that’s why we keep coming back to the rink everyday there is always something to learn.

There is no doubt a dark cloud hanging over this team right now (newsflash winning is fun) but the events of yesterday in Vancouver do for me put a little of this in perspective. A young man died participating in a sport, in a game, he was doing nothing more then pushing himself to his personal limit and hopefully entertaining at least or inspiring at most viewers of the games. I am as guilty as the next guy of drinking the bathwater; it is at the end of the day just a game and meant to be a diversion (albeit there is nothing wrong with it being a positive diversion).

Optional practice for the Flames today, but Dawes and Moss are in, Bourque is out.

TSN reporting that Jamie Lundmark was claimed by Maple Leafs, Flames say it is up to the team claiming a player to put out a release.

It is a possibility that the Flames will place Bourque on IR for a week to open up one more roster spot. It would be merely a paper work exercise, but it is just a theory that I have.