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Coyotes stomp out Flames – Game 61 Recap

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Simply not good enough. This is a disappointing loss against a direct playoff competitor and it isn’t even one you can say the Flames deserved to win, once again they were the ones stealing a single point. The Coyotes put in a noticeably better effort.

Alex Tanguay had a lucky goal go off a defenseman while Yotes goaltender Mike Smith was picking daisies in the corner of the rink. Matt Stajan put a solid snipe in from a nice pass from Tanguay and the Flames by the end of the first looked to be in good shape. Time to close the door right? Wrong.

On a rush 4 Flames were caught up ice. Giordano was in deep, the Glencross shot hit Matt Stajan and the Yotes scooped it up for a 2 on 1. The pass was fed from Ray Whitney to Daymond Langkow as the trailer no one picked up. Kipper and the posts kept the Flames in it until finally Blake Comeau totally crapped the bed in the final seconds of the Yotes PP, essentially passing the puck perfectly to Keith Yandle on the point who passed it off to Ekman-Larsson who made the point shot that was deflected by Shane Doan.

There were some tough moments in this game. Scott Hannan on a typical pass in the D zone with lots of time caught an edge on the blue line and fell, Ray Whitney scooped up the loose puck and went in to beat Kipper one on one.

The unsung hero of the game is Tom Kostopoulos who must have conference called from the bench Sean Penn, Russell Crowe and Daniel Day-Lewis for one of the most blatant dives I’ve seen in awhile from a Flames player to get the PP.

On the ensuing PP Olli Jokinen put in the goal to tie the game and send it to OT but the Flames didn’t deserve it, when you are diving for points now it is time to admit this team is a mirage. The Calgary Flames Kippers could not score one for him in the shoot-out but walked away with a single point from a Kosto dive and a Joker PP goal that resulted. You can’t feel all that good about it.

The effort simply wasn't there but the real story of tonight was the strong words from GM Jay Feaster between periods and the strong comments from coach Sutter after the game. Both linked after the jump.

Jay Feaster visited Roger Millions between periods and laid into his team's Vets in a tongue lashing that is rare to see just before the deadline. Watch for yourself and decide if it was a pep talk from the GM or a true announcement the Flames will sell at the deadline…

It is the first strong message from management that they may be finally adjusting their mantra of going for the playoffs, no matter what the cost.

Jay Feaster Interview

This team has had an overblown ego for a long time now. The Calgary Flames Kippers are a one man show that has ridden their star goalie all season. Something we have discussed here at M&G for many years now, this team simply isn't that good anymore after D Sutter finished his drunk dialing trade bender as GM of this team.

Last night I asked our own Justin Azevedo and Kent Wilson of Flames Nation, our stats inclined voices, approximately how many less wins the Flames would have this season right now, if they did not have Kipper but a replacement level goalie. The conservative number is 5 less wins, 10 less points at the very min.

That means the Flames would sit today in the absolute basement of the NHL with 56 points, two points ahead of the Oilers. Now that is the best you could hope for without Kipper, Justin was even more liberal with his estimation basically putting the Flames neck and neck with the Blue Jackets for dead last and the #1 pick.

This team has serious issues that have been completely camouflaged by Miikka Kiprusoff this year. No where was it more evident than the game against the Oilers and the lack luster effort against the Coyotes last night. Jay Feaster admits that this team fooled him last season but states that is on them, they will not fool him this season and Flames fans may expect some moves on Monday.

Brent Sutter is also coming out with tough words on the team with a much franker post-game than usual. He rarely, if ever singles out single players in the negative sense but he didn't hesitate last night in naming Blake Comeau. Just as Feaster didn't hesitate in calling out the Flames veterans


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Brent Sutter Post Game

by M Smith