Calgary Flames
Game 27 Recap: Wascally Wabbits & Wednesday’s Hot Coals
Ten Thoughts
-Holy crap. What an absolute gongshow. 13 goals? Unreal night for the forwards, not so much for the defence and goalies.
-I’m sure you’ve seen this already, but Mike Murphy is the first goaltender in history to lose a game without allowing a goal. Jarome Iginla’s empty net marker was the winner.
-Speaking of Iginla, whatta game from the top line. 10 points between the 3 of them, including 4 for old man Morrison in his first game back from being scratched.
-There's no way Morrison gets scratched next game. I haven't been a fan of his play this season but to sit a guy after a 4 point performance is totally insane.
-A total of 10 different Flames had points tonight. Other then the top line, Lee Stempniak was the only one to have a multiple-point performance.
-Doesn't look like there were scoring chances from last night's game, but the team was +7 in Corsi. I'm sure they drove the play a little better then that indicates, though.
-This game dropped Miikka Kiprusoff’s EVSV% from .929 to .922. One game! Absurd.
-Calgary's PP went 1/2 on the night, bringing their home PP conversion rate from 4.4% all the way up to 6.4%. Whee!
-The team went 30/69 on faceoffs last night. I don't think faceoffs as a whole are a great indicator of anything, so it doesn't surprise me the team wins the game and is 43% at the dot on the night.
-For all intents and purposes, this was a 7-4 game. You're expected to be scored on when down a man-that why the NHL doesn't hand out plus/minus stats on special teams. Both of the last goals were garbage time goals and really don't reflect how the game actually went. We've bitched enough about bad hockey this year that we don't really have any right to complain about wins.
Three Stars
1. Brendan Morrison-4 points and 3 shots in his return.
2. Jarome Iginla-3 points, 8 shots and 17 minutes in ice time.
3. Jay Bouwmeester-1 point, +4 in Corsi and 27 minutes in ice time.
Links
Last night’s recap from SBN’s Hurricanes site. [Canes Country]
One of my favourite MSM dudes, Eric Duhatschek, makes his return with a column on realignment. [Globe and Mail]
Apparently one of the Flames from the 1989 team lost his ring. What? [Toronto Star]
Should Visors be mandatory? I'm of the opinion they should be. [Puck Daddy]
The NHL All-Star Jerseys look…similar to last years. [SensTown]
I Got You a Song
Transit-Calgary (via transithiphop on YouTube)
Lastly…
A win is a win. The Flames' next game is Thursday against Colorado.
by Richard Hammond