With the final game before the all-star break facing them at the start of the night, and a pissed off, tired, sick of losing, and very dangerous San Jose Sharks team staring them down, the Calgary Flames might have been guilty of a little bit of looking beyond the game. In the outright war between 5 teams for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference, the Flames have done well to be a part of that ongoing battle, but injuries taking their toll, a weary Flames team might have been looking just a little too forward to some rest and relaxation time.
Given the tight quarters the Flames find themselves in as they hunt down teams above them, wins against the Pacific division are particularly important, so dropping this game was something that simply isn’t acceptable.
On The Line
Oh look at that carrot in front of me! Ooh ohh, it’s just out of reach. Why oh why can I not have that carrot! The Flames “mantra” of the season being “Every Game Matters” sure does resonate these days. If, and it’s still a pretty big if, the Flames are able to squeeze into a playoff spot, every freaking game does matter. Copy-paste for the rest of the season as long as the Flames remain competitive.
The Flow
Having gone to overtime the night before up the road in Edmonton, the Sharks were expectedly sluggish to start the contest. Calgary had a tonne of great chances in the opening couple of minutes. Antti Niemi made a couple of unreal saves off of Lee Stempniak and later Mike Cammalleri, but the Flames saw too many passes hop over sticks, or shots fly wide. The Sharks came close to scoring themselves when Miikka Kiprusoff kicked a shot up in the air, that Scott Hannan then corralled to flutter beside the net rather than into the back of it. San Jose ended the period with a lengthy power play prime to start the second.
That power play gave a lot of life to the road team, and the Sharks outright dominated the Flames in the second. Calgary didn’t manage a single shot on goal until a power play of their own midway through the period. Calgary was completely outclassed in the second, as we’ve come to expect throughout the season, but managed to escape unscathed.
When the third period began it was appearing as though the puck was magnetized to the North end of the building, as once again the Flames came out with a great deal of urgency and took the play to the Sharks generating a number of solid scoring chances, but still failing to find a way through the Sharks netminder. The third period was starting to look like a playoff overtime period in that it was becoming pretty apparent that the first team to score was going to take the win. So it was disheartening when Logan Couture threw the puck at the net, and the rebound flew up in the air to a waiting Benn Ferriero who gloved the puck down and put it in the net before Kiprusoff or a defenceman could get back into the play. Calgary threw a flurry of shots in the final moments of the third with Kiprusoff on the bench, and a 4 on 4 situation with Blair Jones and Torrey Mitchell in the box for diving and interference respectively. Iginla came close to pulling the home side even, as did Mark Giordano, and Olli Jokinen, but none managed to convert, and a comical 7 players on the ice put the home side down a man to end the game.
Three Stars
1. Antii Niemi: Wasn’t called upon to make a lot of tough saves, but when he had to, they were of the highlight reel variety.
2. Miikka Kiprusoff: Had a relatively easy first period, and it went downhill from there on. He was spectacular through most of the game.
3. Logan Couture: A heads up play to just throw the puck on net, over and over again leading to the game winning goal.
Big Save
As mentioned above, the shot Logan Couture put on Kiprusoff in the first period was probably the best of the bunch that either goaltender made.
Big Hit
It seemed that without Ryan Clowe in the lineup this was a relatively timid affair outside of Tim Jackman steamrolling Jason Demers in the first period.
The Goat
I think this one has to sit atop the head of the Flames captain. He’s suffering from the same problem that everyone other than Mike Cammalleri suffers from when they play with Iginla, they develop tunnel vision. Iginla had so many plays die on his stick because he was only looking for one target.
Mr. Clutch
Blair Jones deserves some credit for his performance tonight. While he definitely needs to work on his shot mechanics, and timing, he was really working hard, and generating opportunities, which must have been the reason he was getting some shifts with the top line duo of Cammalleri and Iginla. Probably and effort to try and get them moving.
Odds and Ends
Another chance to get closer to a playoff spot, and another opportunity lost. The Flames started out with the right attitude and enthusiasm to this game and really seemed to take the play to the Sharks in the first period, but failing to connect, they gave the road team some much needed life, and that seemed to sink them.
All negativity aside at the bitterness that embodies many Flames fans these days, this was one of those games where I think you can look back at a lot of what happened and chalk a lot of this loss up to some bad luck and bounces. We saw many occasions where the puck seemed to hop over a defenceman’s stick, or take a bounce just outside the reach of a waiting Flames player, or in the case of Blair Jones, the timing just wasn’t quite right. A lot of good work from much of the Flames lineup, outside of the top line, and at times the second line.
Brent Sutter called out the performance of his top two lines, but the second line actually had some fantastic scoring chances in the first period. It was in the second where they completely fell apart, but so did the entire team at that point, so it seems a bit unfair to single them out like that.
Next Up
Because of the all-star break, the Flames won’t see action again until Tuesday January 31st when the Detroit Red Wings come to town to tango with the Flames. Game time is 7:00PM and will feature a special presentation remembering former Flames and Red Wings defenceman Brad McCrimmon who passed away in the Lokomotiv tragedy earlier this fall. Fans are encouraged to be at the game a little early for the presentation.
Lines:
Cammalleri – Backlund – Iginla
Comeau – Jokinen – Stempniak
Tanguay – Jones – Kostopolous
Jackman – Horak – Morrison
Butler – Bouwmeester
Giordano – Hannan
Brodie – Sarich
Kiprusoff
