Carnival is in full swing in Brazil this week, and the same sort of hectic action has surrounded this team in Calgary for the past few days. The spectacle and drama, if not the weather, draw parallels to the situation in this city. Players called up to the grand spectacle, players gingerly dancing out of the lineup, players having surgery, juicy trade rumors, its got it all.
Tonight, a game against a somewhat unlikely playoff opponent if the post season started today, and one of the final Western conference opponents the Flames will face over the next stretch of games, with the longest game of the regular season. The Flames have handled the Columbus Blue Jackets the last few games at home, going 4 and 1, and hope tonight they can once again let their unre-lent-ing offensive guns loose and provide a festival atmosphere for the patrons at the Saddledome.
On The Line
This evening, a chance for the Flames to get back on proper course after a somewhat bumpy track the last few games, albeit games they’ve managed to pull points out of seven straight, to be clear. A chance for Darryl Sutter to observe the makeup of his injury hampered on ice product, 185 short hours and ticking, to go before he’s to finalize this club’s 2009 playoff roster. For Columbus, on the cusp of a inaugural playoff appearance, pressure to stay in the top 8 in the Western Conference. They’ve seen what a bad week or two can do to Conference competitors, and with the extra pressure of “Is this the year?” meaning more then an NHL marketing slogan, rather it being the best opportunity in the franchise’s existence to make the playoffs and solidify a slowly dwindling fan base. One can only imagine if the Blue Jackets manage to piss this chance away this season, giving the standings now, what that will mean for the franchise’s viability ….so yeah…no pressure.
The Flow
The first period starts off with an uncharacteristic opening minute for the home team. A goal. For the Flames. A terrible rebound on a soft shot from the point on Steve Mason, and Mike Cammalleri smartly spots Jarome Iginla before getting crunched. Iginla has nothing but yawning nylon netting staring him in the face. 1-0. Just over 2 minutes later, pressure by Columbus and a sampling of the period long sloppy play by the Flames defenders handling the puck, results in a clear shot on net in tight from RJ Umberger, the rebound popped up and Umberger was the first one to reach it swatting at it with his stick, and tying the game up at 1. The rest of the period was tilted in Columbus’ favour. Kristen Huselius, certainly looking to prove to others that he has the skills and doesn’t have a love affair with the corner boards Flames saw him cuddle up to down the stretch this time last season, was dangling and doing all sorts of creative maneuvers, while hearing a smattering of boos. A few shots on net, a breakaway thanks to a slow footed Adam Pardy, but no damage was inflicted by #20. The Flames defense really did look dumbfounded the whole period, and battled on every shift it seemed. With forwards clearing the zone early not helping the situation, each and every defenseman had issues with proper clearing and passing in that first period. 15 shots on net for Columbus that period ended up being over half the shots they would end up with all game, and at least half of them were on solid scoring chances. Some solid Miikka Kiprusoff saves, including the aforementioned Huselius breakaway, and some other quick reaction saves kept the Flames tied going into the second.
The second started out as the first ended. Columbus buzzing around the Flames zone at time, the Flames defenseman and backchecking forwards still looking to get settled. Columbus pushing it desperately trying to get that lead, throwing all they could at the Flames. A Columbus powerplay almost seemed to be the turning point of this contest. Unsuccessful and mostly uneventful, it appeared that the Jackets then let down, having thrown all they could at the Flames, yet still remaining tied. A glorious chance on the PP as Nash passed the puck in front to a streaking Columbus player, but they missed the easy tap in, instead bungling the puck back to a out of position Kiprusoff, with no damage done. That was it for any Columbus roar. The first Flames powerplay soon after, the Flames encountered a very passive box, and perimeter passing lead to a Dion Phaneuf blast from the high slot, which avoided David Moss’s inner thigh and blew past Mason. A few minutes later, on a delayed call upcoming to a suddenly tired looking Columbus defense, the Flames had the extra attacker for a good 20 seconds. More perimeter passing lead to the puck ending up at the point on Iginla’s stick. An absolute pinpoint pass to find Micheal Cammalleri all the way down 45 feet away at the side of the net, for a quick one timer, to stretch the Calgary lead to 3-1. The pass really needed to be appreciated from a couple angles for its accuracy and zip. An odd sequence at the end of the period..Mason coming out to challenge for a loose puck, his clearing attempt doesn’t get out of the zone. Instead of a leisure skate and tap in for a unmarked Lombardi, the play gets called for Iginla for charging Mason. Quite dubious, as it appeared as if Iginla and a Columbus defender got tied up with Mason, who ended up falling…and the penalty wasn’t called until it was clear that an easy Flames goal was to be the result. Anyways, the Flames now in control on the scoreboard 3-1 after 2, with the shot clock now at 22-17 Columbus.
The third, frankly, was a yawner. Columbus’ efforts were thwarted and energy seemingly zapped after no success through the first period and a half, and were already seemingly looking ahead. The Flames played a neutral zone clog up that held the only dangerous looking line in check., and took advantage on the counter attack, Eric Nystrom with a breakaway, and the fourth line again later in the period with a turnover in the neutral zone, leading to a clever 3 way passing play that almost resulted in a Jamie Lundmark goal. Jarome Iginla ices the game with an empty net goal…to cap off a dominating performance and 4 points on 4 goals. Flames win this one, rather easily after some first periods struggles, 4-1, shots almost even at 29-28 in favour of the visitors.
Three Stars
- Jarome Iginla: 2 goals 2 assists. Buzzing. One almost expected a pass back to Curtis Glencross on that open net, but instead a nice little flop shot from centre ice, found its mark. Highlight of this game for the captain, was the incredible pass made to Cammalleri to all but seal this one up.
- Michael Cammalleri: His deft first minute pass to Iginla got the Flames off on the right foor, the one timer from his patented position put the final boot into the Blue Jackets spirit in the later part of the second period. 3 points in total.
- Miikka Kiprusoff: As tepid and stale as the Blue Jackets looked in the second half of the game, some skilled plays by Columbus’ tricky forwards Rick Nash and Kristian Huselius had the Flames on the ropes early. For a team that needs confidence to play well, Kiprusoff did what he needed to do to frustrate Columbus early, who then folded in frustration and allowed the Flames to counter with their offensive firepower. However, 1 or 2 goals go in on the multiple chances early on, and a different Columbus, Ken Hitchcock coached team, would’ve likely appeared.
Big Save
Miikka Kiprusoff once again, nothing of the highlight criery, but many of the solid, if not subtle variety. Clearly, this man is on his game mentally and confidence wise, allowing him to be just as sharp physically.
Big Hit
Very little of the smash mouth variety. Robyn Regher ended up getting double teamed by a pair of Columbus players in the second period, but really, nowhere near the chippiness encountered the last time Columbus visited Calgary.
The Goat
Tough to pick a goat in such a odd style of game, although the puck seemed to sense that Steve Mason was getting over mono and thus wanted to distance itself from the netminder’s potential germs. As likely reason as any how this young star goalie could give up such a rebound out so inexplicably far off a routine Craig Conroy shot. That allowed the space for Cammalleri to slide it over to a wide open net. Considering how shaky the Flames played the rest of that period and into the second, that somewhat of a gift goal, which allowed the score to be knotted even after all the Columbus pressure, was a big factor in deflating the Jackets this evening.
Mr. Clutch
Jarome Iginla puts it into overdrive tonight. Knows where to be on the ice to be in the best scoring chances are, Knows where the teammates that are most likely to score, are on the ice. A great game which looked to give him the confidence needed to take on this last 20 games. Almost as important, moves with in sudden striking distance of taking over the Flames all time scoring lead. One hopes he can pull that off in the next 2 games, and give the fans of this city who have watched him grow up over the past 13 years, the chance to properly honor him, before the Flames hit the long eastern road swing.
Odds and Ends
Great game all around. Iginla’s back on track. Cammalleri’s back on track. Kiprusoff’s there as always. No injuries to report. The Canucks lose, putting the Flames a hefty 10 points up with 22 games remaining. The return of former Flame Kristian Huselius was as expected. Some boos, otherwise general apathy. Considering him racking up only 23 points in the last 40+ games of last year, understandable how some fans weren’t blinded by his impressive deking abilities out there. Todd Bertuzzi with a tough game. Unsure if this was caught on the Pay Per View, but he gave a pretty good jolt in the first period to a Columbus defender who was shooting the puck into the zone, but Bertuzzi came up wincing. He continued to play a fairly regular shift, but he didn’t seem to have that same jump after the knock and ended up playing 3rd and 4th line duty. Eric Nystrom’s 100th NHL game..that seems fast. Columbus didn’t look to have much past the first line. As mentioned, its a team that’s in unfamiliar territory, and thus probably used this game as a measuring stick to chart their progress and confidence, rather then play their own game and let things shake out where they may after. That team certainly have some things to work on if they want to be playoff bound. Kyle Greentree played only 5 minutes, and the majority of that time game in the final 10 minutes of the game with 3 or 4 shifts, this writer seemed to see him out there only a handful of times in the first 2 periods…likely back to QC for Mr. Greentree, where hopefully he can continue to light it up down there. Will be interesting to see who Darryl Sutter decides to replace the QC’s 2nd top scorer with on the big club. Daymond Langkow could well be back by Friday, however one would think these 2 days off will have the Flames GM manning the phones vigorously, looking to see who’s out there at this point, before he has the added pressure about worry about the clock next Wednesday to get any deals done. Plus, the ability to have the player(s) he plans on adding for the journey into the post season come into the city and experience the energy and excitement of the Saddledome, would be probably be beneficial to ramping up any new acquisition’s intensity, if such deals can be consummated before the pair of games this weekend. Very odd crowd, fairly quiet tonight at the Saddledome…a Tuesday night, poor weather, a team not high on the “must see factor”, all likely contributors….will the next time we see the Blue Jackets enter Calgary, be mid April?
Next Up
Next up, the Flames try to continue their streak of points in 7 games, and their undefeated string against the Wild from Minnesota so far this year, on Friday night, as February already comes to an end.
Lines (To Start):
Cammalleri – Iginla – Conroy
Glencross – Boyd – Bertuzzi
Nystrom – Lombardi- Moss
Greentree – Lundmark – Prust
Phaneuf – Vandermeer
Pardy – Aucoin
Sarich – Regher
