The December to forget can now be forgotten and with a nice three win streak to halt a terrible spin for the home side.
A 2-1 win on New Year’s Eve did little to put to rest any concerns over offence, heck back to back wins by the same score actually underscore a serious problem for the Flames, but lets put that at bay for now.
The Flames did win three in a row, and gave up one goal in each of those losses, as they turn in a new year with a very focused look at the defensive side of the puck. Do they need to score more? Yes they do. But this was always a process.
On The Line
The Flames have owned the Oilers this year, so the season serious is all well and good. However the Flames do need to right a terrible month with some wins to close out the old year. Wins against the Oilers and Kings; their first back to back victories of the month would be well bookmarked with a third in a row against their rivals.
The Flow
Start to finish this game differed very little from first to second to third. The Flames carried the play, out shot the Oilers and the visitors had a heck of a time setting up and getting anything done in the Calgary zone.
If you’re an alarmist you’d notice that despite 40 shots on goal the Flames failed to generate a whole lot by way of blue chip chances.
An optimist would point out that Edmonton had nothing going on the other way at all, though you wonder how much of that is due to their lack of skill and size up front.
Three Stars
1. Craig Conroy: Came within a whisker of back to back game winners at the Dome. Too ironic that the guy goes almost a half season without a goal and then finds twine in back to back nights. Love it.
2. Jeff Deslauriers: The Flames didn’t push in a blue chip way all night, but he was forced to be the man on many occasion even if the stops were routine.
3. Mark Giordano: Scored the game winner, and was a big minute guy for Sutter once again.
The Goat
“We don’t even test their goaltender in the second period,” Oilers coach Pat Quinn said. “We didn’t even challenge anywhere because we never got in their end. That’s a sign of a dumb team.”.
Mr. Clutch
Curtis McElhinney. Not enough shots to give him a game star but the guy was solid in standing in for sixty minutes. No jitters. No Chaos. He seems to have arrived as a backup, and kudos to Sutter for giving him the start against Edmonton.
Odds and Ends
Mark Giordano … wow. The guy is no longer a 5 or 6 dman, he’s a 4, maybe even a 3. What a boost to the Flames to have a guy come along like this and add to the core and maybe make a few decisions interesting. From all reports Matt Pelech is having a pretty good season in the AHL, add him to the Regehr, Bouwmeester, Phaneuf, Giordano combo and you have a built blueline….. So offence? Puck possession game seemed to be back on against Edmonton, but they just didn’t generate enough to get you worked up. The Conroy line actually had the puck for what seemed like 3 minutes in the first period. Amazing shift. … Line change again as Sutter had Iginla with Jokinen and with Daymond Langkow through three periods. Don’t blame him. Not sure what to do myself.
Next Up
Saturday night the Leafs come to town, with HNIC putting it as game on; 5pm CBC.
Lines:
Dawes – Jokinen – Iginla
Bourque – Langkow – Moss
Conroy – Boyd – Glencross
Sjostrom – Nystrom – Prust
Regehr – Phaneuf
Giordano – Bouwmeester
Johnson – Pardy
