Game 10 Recap: You Ain’t Got No Alibi

First off, I had an awesome time regardless of the score. Everyone was super nice and helpful and I didn’t feel out of place at all. Even for all of the (mostly warranted) shit we give them, a huge thank you to the Flames for letting a weird kid from the internet go and sit in the press box. Special thanks to Pat Steinberg for being “super nice”.

Ten Thoughts

–Miikka Kiprusoff didn’t have a bad game-in fact, this game easily could’ve been 8 or 9 to 1. No joke. The mock cheering was way out of line.

-Remember when Brendan Morrison was good between Iginla and Tanguay? Wait, he’s never been good between Iginla and Tanguay. So…no.

-Speaking of those two, I got nothing. The good "plays" they made can be counted on one finger. Iginla sat the last 5 or 6 minutes.

-Karlsson made like 4 saves so good for him.

-The fans were still chanting Go Flames Go with 8 minutes left in the third. Kudos to them for sitting though that farce. There were a lot of Canucks fans there but the Flames faithful outnumbered them at the end.

–Olli Jokinen hit the post on a quality chance. Some things never change.

-I feel like I should criticize Sutter for something, but I can't really think for what. I mean, when your team is outscored 5-0 for 59:28 the coach has to get some blame, right?

-I really shouldn't be feeling as bad as I do about this game because it was between a bubble playoff team and a Stanley Cup favourite. But I just cannot accept the fact that there was zero pushback from the Flames. Even though Vancouver was up by 5 goals, the Flames still essentially played them to a draw in shots and scoring chances. Finishing +7 in Corsi when you're needing to make up 3-5 goals is absolutely unacceptable.

-I'd still say the home stand was pretty sucessfull. They did have some good effort and at times dominated other teams. Point wise, they got 7 out of 12, which is defintely solid.

-The team is 10 games in. Sure, this effort wasn't so good, but I don't think it's indicative of the team and season as a whole. I'd wait at least another 10 or 15 games until we start wanting to burn it to the ground.

Reverse Three Stars

1. Rene Bourque-Terrible penalty led to a goal. He looked extremely lazy out there.
2. Jarome Iginla-Just ugly all around. Hit a crossbar…and that was pretty much it.
3. Mark Giordano-Maybe the first purely bad game I've seen from him in years.

Finally…

Realistically, the only person who didn't suck tonight was Karlsson-and the only reason for that is because he didn't have enough time to. I'm angry about the game, sure. I'm still not worried though (yet). The Flames next game is Thursday against Detroit.

by Richard Hammond