Making the obvious joke about the quality of the regular Oiler team that gets iced on a nightly basis being AHL caliber, tonight’s contest was nothing short of looking like a pre-season game instead of game 81 of the regular season. With the laughable mish-mash of players the Flames have cobbled together because of the timing of injuries and the cap implications that they impose on the Flames, the division title was on the verge of disappearing.
But the worst news was yet to come. Before the puck drop, two more bodies were missing from the Flames lineup, Dion Phaneuf and Curtis Glencross. Calgary iced a squad missing an entire line, and no surprise, they lost. No won with 15 since 1986.
On The Line
In the context of things, getting through tonight and tomorrow night without any one else being maimed, scarred, stabbed, shot, saddened by the loss of a pet, burned, or had refuse thrown at. Oh.. and sort of try to win to keep pace with the Canucks.
The Flow
The first period wasn’t so much an NHL hockey game as it was a midget hockey game. The Oiler had a couple of lazy chances that Miikka Kiprusoff looked pretty good against, but the Oilers were sloppy, the Flames were slow and cautious, plays died on the sticks of supposed strong players, all in all, it was just plain ugly.
The second saw the Flames come out with much more aggressive play, but frankly neither team was looking terribly good. Edmonton took the lead at 14:21 when Ales Hemsky fed a pass over to Ales Kotalik for Kotalik’s 20th of the season. Not to be outdone by a couple of guys named Ales, Steve MacIntyre scored his second career goal a few minutes later banking a puck off of the post and behind a rather startled Kiprusoff.
Enter the third period, and with a small amount of hope still existing that the Flames could pull something off, but Shawn Horcoff erased most doubt on the Flames fate as he took advantage of some distracting stickwork from Sheldon Souray spelling the end of Miikka Kiprusoff’s night. With McElhinney in for relief, and Kiprusoff shaking his head at the sheer ridiculousness of the team in front of him, Calgary quickly responded as Micheal Cammalleri scored his team leading 37th of the season to cut the lead back to two. Unfortunately McElhinney was no better as the Oilers would score two more from Patrick O’Sullivan and Sheldon Souray. Calgary happy to just get out of the game without anyone else taking an awkward sneeze to put them on the injured list until the 3rd round.
Three Stars
1. Jeff (it’s just) Deslauriers: Made a couple of flashy saves, and had 31 on the night, but frankly looked like he did in the pre-season.
2. Sheldon Souray: A goal and an assist for the resurgent Oiler defenceman.
3. Team Doctor: No one else got hurt.
Big Save
In the second period, with the game still scoreless Olli Jokinen had a great chance to put the Flames up by one, but the glove of Deslauriers flashed up to knock the puck out of the air and into the crease where it would shortly make it’s way down the ice and into the back of the Flames net.
Big Hit
Thankfully for the Flames, the game was missing it’s usual physical factor, so not much hitting to be found, at least nothing that stood out.
The Goat
We can make comments about the power-play till the cows come home, but I can’t see past the utter desolation of the Flames bench.
Mr. Clutch
Once again, Jeff Deslauriers is the man who kept the Oilers in it when the Flames did have some pressure, and was the big reason for them not being down moments before they took the lead.
Odds and Ends
Not much to say after this one…this was one of the poorer games to have to watch. Not for the disappointment of a loss, but for the fact that it was just plain terrible hockey from both sides. When it was revealed that Dion Phaneuf hadn’t made the trip to Edmonton, and was in fact in Minnesota having some mysterious ailment examined, and then it was noticed during the warmup that Curtis Glencross was not out, it almost became comical. One couldn’t help but just sit there in stunned laughter wondering what ELSE could possibly befall the Flames before the playoffs start, let alone when they actually DO start.
Next Up
Calgary hopefully gets a body or two back to take on the same Oilers for the final regular season home game tomorrow night. Watch the game on CBC starting at 8 PM.
Group of Players Who Aren’t Dead Yet:
Cammalleri – Jokinen – Iginla
Bertuzzi – Langkow – Lundmark
Nystrom – Conroy – Moss
— – — – —
Negrin – Leopold
Vandermeer – Pardy
Aucoin – Pelech
Kiprusoff
