Tuesday's Hot Coals: End of the Homestand

Tonight marks the end of the Flames longest homestand of the season.  And, despite the modest two-game win streak and the slight eminence of positivity throughout Flames Nation - I'd say the only thing we really learned over the first 5 games is that the team still lacks consistency and is a major work in progress.

Some will scoff at that opinion, after all, a 3-1-1 over a 5-game stretch is pretty good.  It is.  What wasn't good was the fact that it was a different team in every game.

Oilers: Lackluster effort for the first 50 minutes before turning it on for a 6-minute stretch and hanging on to the 2-1 win.

Rangers: Flurry of goals in the 1st, followed by a return to the lackluster effort and a 3rd period/OT that saw them playing for the shootout before giving up a goal with less than 2 seconds left in OT.

Predators: A really solid effort that saw them stymied by a good goalie.

Avalanche: Excellent first period and the team jumped out to a 3-1 lead, only to coast to the finish. Miikka Kiprusoff kept this one out of reach for the Avs while the Flames were on their heels.

Blues: BORING. Snoozefest. Roman Horak scores mid-way through the 3rd only to have Kipper lose focus for half a second and, boom, back of the net.  The answer goal.  Hey, where have I seen that before? 

5 games, 5 completely different performances and not a single 60-minute effort.  Inconsistency remains the only thing consistent on this team.  All this negativity towards a team that could finish 4-1-1 in their 6 home games.  Am I asking too much, or are others seeing this as a bit of an issue as well?

Links after the jump.

The Canucks come into town in similar circumstances to the Flames.  Inconsistent play for a decent stretch of games now that saw them drop back to back games to Edmonton and St. Louis.  Unfortunately, the Canucks tend to rise to the occasion of the rivalry game against Calgary.  In yesterday's Globe and Mail, the Canucks respond to Don Cherry's barbs from Coach's Corner on Saturday night. [Canucks, Cherry - G & M]

Brent Sutter says Horak is one of the top 3 centres on the team.  While that's great for Horak and the future of the Flames, what does that say about the teams depth at the position? [Horak - Calgary Herald]

Randy Sportak lobs some softballs at the Flames in his 5 'Burning' Questions. [Five Q's - Calgary Sun]

Tyler Wotherspoon scored his first goal of the WHL season in Saturday night's loss to the Kootenay Ice.  Max Reinhart continues his solid season as he chipped in the game-winner for a 2-goal, 1 assist night. [Ice-Hawks Recap] [Box Score]