Game 35 Recap: Chicken Bones

Ten Thoughts

-I know I've mentioned this before, but Curtis Glencross is making my pre-season prediction look absolutely stupid. Ah well, at least it's in a positive way. Although to be fair his SH% is even higher then it was last year-which was his career high.

-Some people may use the back-to-back that Detroit was on as an excuse, but it's the same thing I talked about yesterday with injuries-every team has to deal with them. It's not a unique occurrence.

-The fourth line had an amazing night out there. We're used to Jackman's Corsi Rel dominance, but I was pleasantly surprised with Morrison and TKO's game last night. They didn't have a offensive zone start the whole game but all three of them finished positive in Corsi and EV scoring chances.

-The first line had another great game last night. Even though they finished -14 in Corsi, they were +8 in EV scoring chances. That Corsi figure is a bit misleading, though-I remember checking the figures at the end of the second and they were +9 combined. Score effects, what what.

-Can we start calling "The Shell" the "Personification of Risk Aversion"?

-It may be a bit reductive and or obvious, but I don't see this team anywhere near a playoff spot if their goal differential is still negative in late January.

-The "Kid Line" that the MSM was so excited to see stayed positive in Corsi, but that was likely to the very limited ice time they got in the third. They took a total of 12 shifts combined in the third and had less ice time combined then Jay Bouwmeester had by himself.

-Speaking of Jay Bouwmeester, what the hell else could he do to make this team better? We're watching one of the top-15 defensemen in the game here. He had a couple of shifts last night in the first where he spent a minute on the ice-on the PK and against Datsyuk-and after a 25 second rest went back out there against Zetterberg for 45 seconds...and then the Flames scored. Insane.

-The PP's regression is almost complete. It's up to 17.2% now, from approximately 13% a couple of weeks ago.

-The first and second period was as good as it gets for the Flames this year. Absolute domination against a elite opponent. I think that team that played last night was what Feaster was expecting coming out of free agency this summer.

Three Stars

1. Curtis Glencross-2/3rds of the team's output.
2. Jay Bouwmeester-Almost 28 minutes on ice, +2 in EV chances.
3. Tim Jackman-Like I mentioned above, great night for the fourth line led by Jackman.

Lastly...

Solid win against a good team. The Flames play the Canucks tonight.