Same Old Same Old

Flames Fire Blanks Once Again

November 19th, 2002
D'Arcy McGrath

AP Photo
No Go: Chuck Kobasew and the Flames come up empty once again.

Is this stuff scripted?

The Flames seem to just be reading lines from a  cue card as they follow the same pattern game in game out.

Play well for stretches, .... disappear for stretches, all the while pushing a losing streak to five games ... and a six game streak where they've managed just two goals.

The Flames actually showed game in the first period, killing off a two man advantage for the Cup champs and showing their own five on five.

However, as the period moved to a close, the Wings, on a powerplay finally got on the board when Igor Larionov busted between Jordan Leopold and Petr Buzek to put the Wings up by a score of 1-0.

The Larionov goal was all the Wings needed.

The Wings iced the game away in the second period when they popped two goals in a 41 second span (Darren McCarty, Sergei Fedorov) to put things out of reach.

The third period was pretty much of the same with the Wing adding insult to insult to injury, scoring to more to make it a rout.

The Flames have now lost six in a row including an overtime loss in Manhattan 12 days ago.

The team simply can't score.

The ebb and flow of a hockey season suggests a winning streak followed by a losing steak; it's only natural.

However, the Flames have less room to play with along these terms, being a club that missed the playoffs for six straight seasons. Any one slide could mean a season - they simply have to turn it around - and now.

Next up the Flames host their upper province rivals in the Edmonton Oilers. The matchup is simply perfect.

The Oilers could toss a fatal egg in the team's face, possibly sealing the fate of coach Greg Gilbert and sending the season down a death spiral that can't be recovered from.

Or ...

The Flames could hand the Oilers a loss, re-find their scoring prowess and never look back.

Time will tell. 

 

SCOREBOARD
Detroit  Red Wings 5
Calgary Flames 0

Niedermayer Conroy Iginla
Gelinas Drury Kobasew
Sloan Yelle Clark
Nichol Johansson Begin
 
Lydman Montador
Dupont Regehr
Buzek Leopold

1) Kirk Maltby - Plugger nets a goal and two assists 

2) Darren McCarty - Gordie Howe hat trick ... goal, assist and a fight, despite the odd Great Gatsby duke setting before the tousle. 

3) Curtis Joseph - Through up a very predictable goose egg, stopping 29 shots.

Stephane Yelle sent Kirk Maltby flying with a jabbed elbow in a mix up on the side boards. Maltby's pratt fall sent Yelle to the box for two mintus.

Jamie McLennan stoned Boyd Devereaux on a two on one set up by flashing his glove hand and coming up aces.

You know you're in trouble when the Wings top two blueliners have played a combined career total of over 2100 games, compared to the Flames rookie squad (Lydman, Regehr, a midget, two tiny-mites, and a bantam), which totals less than 500 games combined. ... The Flames took the Wings in the face off department by a count of 41 to 31. Individually the Flames were led by Craig Conroy (7 for 9) and Mattias Johansson (8 for 11). ... The ice time break down for the depleted Flames worked out with Toni Lydman, Robyn Regehr and Jordan Leopold carrying the mail (26:16, 25:19, 25:09 respectively). Steve Montador, Petr Buzek and Micki Dupont took a back seat with 8:16, 15:00 and 16:16 respectively. 

 

  Calgarypuck.com
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