The Blame Game

Sure, its easy to sit back and criticize after the fact. Thats exactly why I'm going to do it!

Forwards:

Alex Tanguay - totally invisible. Although several times I could've sworn you were playing with

Tony Amonte - Hmm...-2, good one Grandpamonte. Honestly, this guy HAS to have pictures...

Jeff Friesen - Just because

Daymond Langkow - not your finest game

Defence: Everybody, but in particular:

Roman Hamrlik - beauty game there. What, like 7 penalties and 1000 giveaways? Nice job.

Brad Stuart - Way to fire the puck out on the PK. Out of the field of play that is. Nice job 1-1 against Tootoo as well. I think you may be the best 1-1 defender in the NHL!

Dion Phaneuf - Wasn't the best time to pinch there buddy.

Andrei Zyuzin - lets say this, the high point of your game was when I thought you might be too hurt to continue.

Mark Giordano - I would say your biggest mistake of the game was the suicide pass to Amonte. Why couldn't you have placed it a bit more out of his reach so he REALLY got hammered?

Robyn Regehr - sadly, you were probably our best tonight, but can we cut down the number of breakaways against while you're on the ice to two a game or so?

Goalie: None. Kipper played average but wasn't the difference.

Good players:

Jarome Iginla - accounted for 2/3 of our offense.

David Moss - nice screen on the other 1/3 of our offense

Craig Conroy - Close but no cigar. Still, I thought your game was on.

Stephane Yelle - you won the important defensive zone draw at the end of the second, too bad you won it back to Harmlik.

Kristian Huselius - one of the few + players, set up Jarome for a goal

That's about it.

Does anyone notice that one list is shorter than the other? Oh, that reminds me, how do you think the golf courses are going to look in April?

Roman Rule?

Watching that Minnesota/Calgary game last night I was impressed with Calgary's tenacity. This team seems to be more able to comeback from a small defecit compared with earlier in the season. In the first period the Flames did not look good, but the second period brought several positives including Rhettro's shorthanded marker (who would've called a Rhettro goal before the game, especially a SH?). I though Iggy looked possessed, especially after he scored his 300th goal of his career (he's closing in on the recently retired Joe Niewendyk, and the immortal Theoren Fleury.)

John Garret proposed before the game that Roman Hamrlik has been the Flames best defenceman of late, and while I won't go ahead and agree with him, I will say he's played suprisingly well lately. He's been jumping up into the play more often, he's been in better position defensively and it's been showing up in his +/- and the scoreboard (in the sense his strong play is correlated to the Flames success). The other pleasant suprise about Hamrlik is that he's much less overpaid than he was earlier in the season. Given the inflationary rate of defenceman salaries, and given his ice time, Hamrlik right now is, dare I say it, being paid at a fair rate.

Why are the Flames so bad on the road? Someone was saying to me that this is either a testament to Calgary's coaching (in that when the coaching staff are able to get the desired matchups they DOMINATE) or a sad exposition of the coaching staff (in that if they don't get the exact matchups, their poor systems get exposed and they consistently lose).

Obviously there are other explanations, (like maybe the players are totally spooked about playing on the road and they're gripping their sticks), but its an interesting theory.

And what about Kiprusoff and shootouts? How can a goalie be so good during the game, and so bad at shootouts? Look, a lot of times the shots Kipper faces in the shootout are next to impossible to save, but he needs to find a way. Speaking of, Calgary's shooters need to find a way to put the puck in the net.