Game 68 Recap: Flames Cool Jets

When Olli Jokinen first arrived in Calgary I remember watching him line up taking shots in warm up of one of his first handful of games at the dome. It’s his spot; draw a line diagonal from the post through the right wing faceoff dot to the edge of the circle. He parks himself there and blasts shots at the net with great accuracy. Every shot looked effortless and exactly the same.

PING. Post and out.

PING. Post and out.

PING. Post and out.

After that, I always watch him around that part of the ice and he loves to set up camp there and to no surprise, the same result as that warmup night several years ago. I can say that I've actually seen him score on that shot before, but not tonight.

PING. Post and out.

The Flames would score shortly after that to ice the game and although Miikka Kiprusoff made some brilliant saves tonight, he also gave up a couple he’d like back, allowing Winnipeg to maintain the comeback momentum and keep things interesting right up to the end.

Welcome back to the NHL, Winnipeg; you were missed. And, I especially loved the 'True North' chant during "Oh, Canada".

–Krys Kolanos is an expert at squandering scoring chances. Not to be too harsh on the guy though because he’s a serviceable extra body… but, come on guy, put the puck in the net.

-This point should have been first… oh well… Alex Tanguay was the best offensive player on the ice tonight. He was seeing the play very well and making the right choices with the puck. He’s done a great job of waiting out the goaltenders of late in order to put the puck in the net. 4 points tonight, points in five straight games and 13 points in his last eight.

–Matt Stajan has been earning his paycheck since this injury epidemic hit the team. In my preview of the upcoming offseason for the Flames I just left him off the depth chart for next season, assuming a buyout or something of the sort. However, if he can play like he has of late, I’d pencil him into the 3rd line C spot. I still expect more from him, but this is a good start. The next two seasons he’ll earn 2.5 million with a cap hit of 3.5.

–TJ Brodie is tired. Or something. When Chris Butler comes back I expect that Brodie will find himself on the bench or back in Abby for the playoff run. He’s a promising young defenseman but even with sheltered minutes he’s been exposed a little too often in recent play. I expect he’ll be replaced with Derek Smith.

-For the Jets I was most impressed with Evander Kane and Blake Wheeler. Now, maybe they just looked so damn good when they were effortlessly skating past Scott Hannan time and time again, but those guys make stuff happen. I haven’t watched much of the Jets lately and every time you turn on TSN all they talk about is Ondrej Pavelec so it was nice to see it all first hand. I didn’t think a guy with a .910 sv% was saving their season (also a ,922 EVSV%, which is around the Devan Dubnyk and Semyon Varlamov’s of the league). There’s some nice young talent on this team to build around.

THREE STARS:

1. Alex Tanguay – This is a no-brainer. 4 points and the top line had a very strong night.

2. Jarome Iginla – 3 points. Top line was great.

3. Mark Giordano – It must suck playing with Scott Hannan every night.

No Kipper. Two softies so I left him out. Just letting the other guys have a turn!

-Flames are now 1 point back of the Sharks for 8th place, although San Jose have two games in hand.

-The Coyotes would be in 8th based on points percentage. So, consider them the target. 2 points back, even in games played.

-Flames head to Minny for a tilt with the Wild before coming back home for the Sharks and Coyotes.

by Scott