Game 53 Recap: The Hockey Gods Just Weren't on the Flames Side
I just watched the CBC TV movie Don Cherry: Keep Your Head Up, Kid - hence the terrible headline. Obviously Cherry has a great story, but at the end of this one my only thought was that it was awful and one-sided storytelling, like it had been written by his son.
Ding Ding Ding! Tim Cherry penned it. Yikes. Anyway, for any of you who haven't seen the movie - every time something doesn't go his way, he says the Hockey Gods just weren't on his side, or if it does go his way, the hockey gods were on his side. Which, of course, is totally laughable. I'm a big Coach's Corner fan even though I don't agree with a lot of Cherry's antics and enjoyed the movie nonetheless.
And, let's be honest - the hockey gods may not have helped the Flames with the end result, but the disallowed goal in the first had the hockey gods smiling down on the Flames as Jay Bouwmeester pushed Corey Perry right into Miikka Kiprusoff, keeping it a scoreless game and preventing the first from being a total runaway. To be fair, Perry was absolutely on his way right through the crease, but he surely wouldn't have knocked Kipper over.
Bottom line in this one: any time you have 4 chances in a shootout to end it - you've got to end it. The Flames had no shortage of chances to get the extra point but couldn't beat Jonas Hiller when it counted.
Those damn hockey gods made Hiller play so well in the SO. Damn you, hockey gods!
Game 53 Thread: Flames-Ducks
I just thought maybe we could find new ways to fall apart.
Lines after the jump.
Game 53 Preview: It Took Me 4 Tries To Spell Peking Duck
The Anaheim Ducks are two teams.
Notice that I didn't say a "tale of two teams", because that's a horrible cliche and I try not to sink to those depths-no, the Ducks are 2 teams in the sense that they are 3 players away from being a very good team, yet they are 3 players away from being one of the worst teams of the decade.
Of course, you probably know the guys I'm talking about-Ryan Getzlaf, Francois Beauchemin and Corey Perry. To illustrate just how good these guys are, I'll direct you to the BtN page for the Ducks. If you poke around, you'll find that respectively they have the 3rd, 4th and 5th lowest zone starts on the team while playing against top-line opponents (CRQC's of 0.959, 1.425 and 0.970). Despite this and some bad luck (30, 23 and 5 points below the average) they all maintain quality relative Corsi rates. Just unreal.
The Ducks are 9-3-2 since the New Year, which definitely is in line with a correction of sorts. Just as Jonas Hiller was playing above his actual skill level last year with a 940 EVSV% pre-vertigo, he was playing below it with a 903 EVSV% earlier on this year. While I do believe Bruce Boudreau is an excellent coach, I can't honestly say it's because of him that the Ducks have turned it around-the underlying numbers have been pretty consistent the whole year on the top 8, but looking at the numbers those bottom 10 players on the roster sport makes me want to vomit.
For the Flames, I don't think anything's changed since Friday. Although, in case you haven't heard, Lee Stempniak is speculated to be out long-term. Quite the blow for the team, one of many this year. Pay no attention to the Flames' record at the Honda Center lately, because stats like that are idiotic and anyone who puts stock into them is an idiot.
Let us all hope for a game more exciting then the last time these two teams played, where the highlight of the game wasn't even part of the game at all. Although Blair Jones somehow scored in overtime, and that made Justin happy.
The Jeff Carter Market (Which Teams make Sense)
Jeff Carter is one of the best players available at this years deadline, but who are the teams that will target him?
The rare appearance of a #1 C on the market will have a number of GMs kicking his tires, evaluating a potential fit. The fact that it has been publicly announced is a sign that the usual behind the scenes phone calls did not get the Blue Jackets a satisfactory offer.
So what is the realistic size of the Carter market? Given his contract, his role and long-term planning what is the short list of potential teams that will be willing to pay the highest return to the Jackets?
Read on for a team by team evaluation from the "No-Chance" to the "Probable" for Jeff Carter.
Latest Dive: Olli Jokinen, the Promotional Trailblazer
After the Flames ended up beating the Blackhawks again on Friday night, many celebrated the win. Others, celebrated Olli Jokinen's ringing endorsement for McDonalds signature burger.
Sure, he wasn't paid for it, but I'm sure that there were, and probably will be, more Big Mac's consumed before hockey beer league games from now on. If McDonald's had any sense, they'd sign Olli up for a promotion contract for the next month. We don't know if Olli will be around for any time after the 27th.
Lots of other Flames players have had promotions thrown their way, and most are still debating money, or creative control. Here's what I've uncovered...
This Week Last Decade: You Guys Never Helped Me Create A Better Name For This
Good afternoon, Sundayers! It's that time again (for the first time in a few weeks as I had a tragic extreme sports injury or something where I lost the use of my hands and fingers and eyes and rational thought that prevented me from making it be that time again. I'm sure at least none of you noticed the lack of this column, and I appreciate your concern during this difficult time)
So unfortunately, I've spent the better part of the week in Montreal, and getting access to Flames games is a bit limited, so I have less to work with in determining who the Flame of the week is (like less than usual, which is already pretty much nothing, for I'm a simpleton without much analytical ability. As an example, most days when I leave the house, I think "Yeah I look pretty good". Society disagrees)
So I had to think outside the box a little bit, but i think you'll agree with my choice this go around. To get outside the box, this week's player is...
Game 52 Recap: Flames burn Hawks
The Flames gave one of their best performances of the season in the 2nd and 3rd periods. The first period was a typical Flames period, out chanced (10 - 2) but hanging on.
Olli Jokinen did not start the game ideally with a few errant passes and a couple edges caught until the 12:24 mark when he opened the scoring with a perfect snipe, on the Flames first scoring chance of the game. It was the goal no one saw live, except him, as it rang off the inside padded cross-bar and came out. Play continued as Jokinen skated to the Refs and insisted it was a goal. Play was whistled down and the goal confirmed.
Brent Seabrook answered back for the Blackhawks on a perfect thread of a pass from Patrick Kane and the Flames were again in very familiar territory. Out-chanced for the period and with a long 40 minutes ahead of them, there was no indication that anything had changed from previous games against the Red Wings and Sharks.


by 
by 


by 
by 

























