Game 37 Recap: Flames at Blue Jackets

Ten Thoughts

• That game was everything the Flames are. Horrible and great.
• Thanks to a BoL post, I’m going to start calling the Terrible Flames- that is, the ones who showed up for the first 40 or so, the Calgary Flaming Horse Heads
• Kent at FN has the scoring chances for the opening forty minutes at 5-8 EV. While Columbus may have had the lead in totals there, it wouldn’t be fair to anyone to say they were streets ahead. They were nearly as bad as Calgary, but nobody out-Calgarys Calgary.

• Someone in the gamethread last night pointed out that Jay Bouwmeester had a great game- and he did. But Justin (rightly) responded that Bouwmeester hasn’t had a bad game in what seems like weeks. He’s 90% of the reason the Flames are where they are right now instead of 15th place.
• Worth noting that he played over 30 minutes last night. Nearly seven of them (6:56) were on the PK.
• Blake Comeau is becoming one of my favorite acquisitions and the Islanders were morons to let him go on waivers. 4-2 scoring chances at EV with 3:43 PK TOI.
• It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking “Iginla was good when we needed him to be”, but that’s a logical fallacy. His line were some of the worst offenders last night, and if they hadn’t been terrible for forty, they wouldn’t have needed his game tying goal. Give me a player who’s good all game long.
• That said, his game tying goal was fillllllthy.
• Fascinating to see how high Derek Smith’s stock has risen. Sure, he’s not playing the toughs, but he’s also not getting beat by bottom tier players. I’d hate to see him have to sit in favor of Babchuk at any point in the future.
• Calgary’s waffling between playoff looking team and lottery looking team is going to be the death of me.

by Arik Knapp