With a devastating loss a couple days ago to the Islanders in New York, the Flames playoff chances were all but squashed in what was to be a possible Stanley Cup caliber season. It would be no surprise if the Flames from this point on started to fold their collective tents and look forward to an off-season filled with questions and self doubt. Today’s opposition, the Boston Bruins, need this game to keep them aloft their nearest chasers in the NHL’s Eastern conference final playoff spot. Combine those things with this being an afternoon game (11 Am Calgary body time) and this one looks like a slam dunk for the spoked B’s.
On The Line
Everything and nothing really. In my humble opinion the Flames needed to win every game on their schedule except for maybe one to get into the final playoff spot, and in reality there was no way that was going to happen anyhow, so these games the rest of the way mean don’t mean much of anything.
on the line text.
The Flow
Both teams exhibited early on why they are among the top defensive teams in the entire NHL, and kept a tight leash on one another. All that changed when the Bruins went on a PP in the latter stages of the period and promptly popped one in to go to the intermission up a goal.
The second period started much like the first, but this time the Flames took 2 early penalties which allowed the Bruins to score twice and in reality put an exclamation mark on the Calgary Flames most disappointing season since the early 1990’s.
The third period saw the very much expected fold of a team realizing it’s playoff fate is over and out. A couple bad bounces and 2 goals in the first 6 minutes and you could hear Rita McNeil loosening up in the hallway.
Three Stars
1. Zdeno Chara: Just a dominant NHL defenseman and stifled the big line for the Flames all day long.
2. Tim Thomas: 30 saves and a shutout for last years Vezina winner, who looks to be regaining form just in time for the post season.
3. David Krejci: What a good young player this guy is. A goal and an assist on the day marks him as a star in this one.
Big Save
Early on when the game was still scoreless Miikka Kiprusoff absolutely robbed Mark Stuart from 15 feet out with a very flashy glove save to at least keep the hope alive a bit longer.
Big Hit
This is one of those “hits” that the NHL has not addressed like I believe they need too. With all the focus on head shots, the type of hit that Steve Begin put on Matt Stajan gets overlooked. Stajan is at least 40 feet away from the puck and heading to the bench when he gets smoked by Begin with absolutely no warning nor reason for it to happen. Guys get injured on hits like this just as often as head shots, yet they get little attention like the other incidents. Hate them. Cheap and illegal, yet always only spawn a 2 minute minor.
The Goat
Simple. The Calgary penalty kill was atrocious in this game. Granted they hadn’t had a lot of work of late, but they truly cost the team any chance in this game, and not because of the goaltending. Screened shots, guys wide open between the circles, and no physicality in front of the net. Awful.
Mr. Clutch
Zdeno Chara is a beast of a player both physically and mentally. the guy has the reach of a Cessna and thinks the game so well on top of it. he plays large minutes and rarely gets caught making poor plays even when looking like he is running out of gas.
Odds and Ends
Whatever hope some of the Flame faithful had for post season hopes going into this one, you can now safely say it’s all over but the crying. The fat lady is singing. Turn out the lights, the party’s over. Or any of a number of other cliches………Really odd and quite revealing statement from Darryl Sutter during a 2nd intermission interview with Rob Kerr and Charlie Simmer. When asked if he was ” a mad GM or a frustrated GM when watching his team”, he answered by saying “it’s not about the team, its about the individual players and assigning the right dollar amounts to them”. This being said right after he had intimated that the top line players were not playing to the level he expected. Look for some major changes over the summer with this club…and I mean major. Bouwmeester, Regehr, Iginla can all assume they could be part of a large purge IMO…..Good to see Rene Bourque come back after a stiff elbow from Johnny Boychuk in the 3rd period….Bruins are 12-14-6 without injured Marc Savard….Flames were horrible on the dot again today going at a 42% clip….Craig Conroy on the top line. Seriously?
Next Up
Right back at it tomorrow afternoon against the Washington Capitals. Game time is 1:00 PM MDT.
Lines:
Bourque-Conroy-Iginla
Hagman-Stajan-Moss
Dawes-Backlund-Kotalik
Nystrom-Mayers-Sutter
Regehr-White
Giordano-Sarich
Staois-Bouwmeester
Kiprusoff
Toskala
