With the Flames Canadian cohorts doing the Flames no favours, though credit to Edmonton to do the best they could taking away one point from the Red Wings, Calgary has to do everything they possibly can to try and push themselves back into the playoff picture. However the picture painted by an afternoon game against Minnesota doesn’t look very pretty.
On The Line
Calgary needs all the wins they can get with the teams above them seemingly running at full steam.
The Flow
Don’t let the score fool you, this game was mostly in the pocket of the Flames except for a good burst at the start of the first period from the Wild, where Vesa Toskala was incredibly sharp. It was Calgary who opened up the scoring when Steve Staios scored his first of the season, and first as a Flame, on the power-play on a shot from the point that seemed to float over the pad of Josh Harding: that’s good! Then the Vesa Toskala that the centre of the universe knows so well came out to play on the ensuing shift when Andrew Brunette banked a softy off of the rear end of Toskala to even things up. Things would stay that way until a late period power-play for the Wild where Guillaume Latendresse used Mark Giordano as a screen to slide his 26th through the legs of Toskala and the Flames were trailing by one heading into the first intermission.
From that point on it was all Calgary territorially, but Toskala continued to struggle allowing another soft goal, this time to former Flame Chuck Kobasew after he ended up off balance making an initial save. At that point Miikka Kiprusoff took over the goaltending duties, but things took a terrible turn for the worse for Calgary when Daymond Langkow was carried off on a stretcher after taking a hit and then an Ian White shot off the back of his neck. Reports later on during the Sportsnet Broadcast indicated that Langkow was taken to hospital, but is able to move and was fully aware. As potentially tragic as that could have been it sparked the Flames a bit, because shortly after the incident, Ian White scored his first goal as a Flame off of a Jarome Iginla drop pass. The Wild would reclaim the two goal lead with Chuck Kobasew’s second goal of the game where Brent Burns took advantage of Matt Stajan’s lack of a stick to deke through the Flames defensive wall and feed the puck to Kobasew who out waited Kiprusoff.
The third was once again pretty much all Calgary, but the only goal of the Frame came midway through when Eric Nystrom may have gotten a skate on a Cory Sarich shot that allowed the puck to slide through Harding’s five hole. That was all Calgary could muster however.
Three Stars
1. Chuck Kobasew: Scored his first two goals against his former team, the second being the game winner.
2. Guillaume Latendresse: Boy is this guy ever good. Big, fast, strong, and skilled.
3. Eric Nystrom: Nystrom always seems to be in the middle of the action trying to bring the Flames back from the dead.
Big Save
Josh Harding absolutely stoned Niklas Hagman in tight when Hagman was sprung on a mini breakaway in the third period. Hagman went to the backhand, but Harding stuck the leg out to deny the forward his second goal as a Flame.
Big Hit
Guillaume Latendresse obliterated Jamal Mayers, and apparently the penalty box door, which caused a long delay that helped suck the life from the Flames.
The Goat
The obvious goat was the play of Vesa Toskala, but that kind of thing was almost expected at some point. The less obvious goat was the play of Rene Bourque, who was downright brutal this afternoon.
Mr. Clutch
I’ll go ahead and give this one to Mark Giordano, who has learned a thing or two about goaltending as was displayed when he dove to block a shot on the Flames empty net in the third.
Odds and Ends
If you tag the 8th place team requiring 97 points, then the Flames have burned up one of their three remaining losses that can possibly be tolerated. However, with each regulation losses, the chances of making the playoffs drop dramatically. The reliance on teams like Detroit, Colorado, and Los Angeles to fall apart and allow the Flames to get in is simply not happening for Calgary. It’s extremely tough to find a way for the Flames to sneak in.
It was really scary seeing Daymond Langkow lying on the ice not moving and being carried off on a stretcher. It did give a chance for the Flames to shake things up a bit in the forward lineup however, the shakeup didn’t seem to make a lot of sense. It seemed logical to slide Backlund into Langkow’s spot, but he was still languishing on a line with Dawes and Moss.
The biggest sore thumb in the Flames lineup right now has to be Ales Kotalik. He simply does nothing to help the Flames. One has to hope that he’s not here next season either by trade or by heading to another league like the KHL.
Next Up
Calgary heads home to take on the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night. Game time is 7PM and can be seen on Sportsnet West.
Lines:
Bourque – Stajan – Iginla
Hagman – Langkow – Kotalik
Moss – Conroy – Dawes
Nystrom – Mayers – Backlund
Regehr – White
Staios – Bouwmeester
Giordano – Sarich
Toskala/Kiprusoff
