Wednesday's Hot Coals

Some notes from last night. Links after the Jump.

-Taking a brief glance at the Corsi from last night, it's safe to say the top line had a much better game. To my eye, they were mostly on the ice with Ryan Smyth's line, but saw some major time against the line of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Yes, it is only the Oilers, but going up against a team's top two lines and having the wingers go +18 is definitely a good sign. I'm not really thinking score effects either-EDM's goal was on the PP and even before that the Flames controlled the pace of the game.

-Saying that, it looks like Brendan Morrison's line was in a little over their heads. For the majority of the game, they were hovering around -15 in Corsi as a line and were negatives in scoring chances, but a last period surge left them just under water. Not totally sure what that means, but it's just an observation.

-Man, Scott Hannan really gave Ryan Smyth some guff on that last shift, eh? Ha.

-Thus far, 2 out of 4 starts for Miikka Kiprusoff have been "quality" starts. What's a quality start? In my opinion, at least 20 saves at EV and a .925 EVSV% in the game. If he has about 25 of those, I'd say the Flames make the playoffs.

-I've been impressed with Matt Stajan thus far (blasphemy, I know), espically on the defensive end. Last night he had a play where he dove for a puck on a 2-on-1 and blocked a pass from Shawn Horcoff to Ryan Smyth that for sure would've been a goal.

Links

-Rene Bourque was mentioned as a trade target on Darren Dreger's "Insider Trading" segment yesterday. I wouldn't mind if he got moved. Not that I don't like Bork, but that contract is likely to get ugly quick. [TSN]

-James Neal is scoring at a high rate, yes. Too bad it's 6% above his career rate. Look for him to regress. [NHL]

-Man, it's depressing to watch Jason Spezza waste his career in Ottawa. That and the seeming determination of Bryan Murray to waste the first year of Mika Zibanejad's ELC is quite infuriating. Thus, comedy is to be expected from Sens fans. [Silver Seven Sens]

-Hilarious. Edmonton sucks. (Kidding, Bruce! Kinda.) [Edmonton Journal]

-Jamie Benn, man.

-Roberto Luongo's problem is poker. Seriously. Some people think that. [Puck Daddy]

-Does less butts in the seats equal more losses? [Hockey Prospectus]

I Got You a Song

Portugal, The Man-Mornings.

(via Portugalthemanband on YouTube)

Have a good day, everyone.