after one period of hockey at the flames' home opener last night, i had decided to hate keenan. why ? for the same reason i detested playfair by the end of last season (and i'm not talking about the suits): certain line combinations are never gonna produce.
in 2003, craig conroy centred jarome iginla, leading to a very productive year for both. well, this is not 2003 and iginla should be playing with langkow or lombardi. conroy is one of the best 3rd line centres in the league, but he is no first liner. seeing him out there with iggy and tangs on every shift in the first made me want to throw things (and by 'things' i am referring specifically to the stupid microphone-shaped BLUE fibreoptic flashlight, that would have been much more appropriate for the season opener at REXALL... last time i checked, my team's colours were RED and black).
it is decidedly possible that lombardi is still nursing a sore wrist, but then i would have rather him in the pressbox than on a line with nilson and yelle. i mean, seriously... this REEKED of 07/08's classic misuse/benching of lombardi, and with ol' jimmy canaryshirt still holding a place on the coaching staff, i can't help but pin blame on him for this combination. lombardi is not a grinder and should never be played as such (except for the PK, of course). it's really simple: flank the guy with a couple of equally speedy/creative wingers and there will be goals. in the 5-or-so minutes he played with huselius, you could see some scoring opportunites present themselves, and if he hadn't been wasted the entire first period, then i would presume there would have been more.
oh, and 20 minutes of icetime does not scream "injury" to me...
eric godard played less than two minutes. sure, he beat the crap outta jesse boulerice, but our problem is SCORING. pardon my language, but fuck eric godard. bring up a rookie or trade for a vet who can put the damn puck into the back of the net. i'd rather see two minutes of boyd/peters than godard.
mark smith looks like primeau: he skates fast and has some decent puck control but is a defensive liability (ending a -1). not sure he belongs on the PK but kudos to keenan (ie: playfair) for flogging that horse....
kipper made a couple of good stops but is ultimately looking totally octoberish....
and, finally, i knew eriksson was bad. but i didn't think he'd be personally responsible for the first loss of the year. aucoin was just as bad (actually, probably worse, truth be told) and was on the ice for all three flyer goals. by the second period, keenan (ie: playfair) had reunited regehr with warrener as the "shut down" pair, leaving our new two worst defensemen (aucoin and eriksson) to absolutely shit the bed together.
[sarich and phaneuf looked really really good. JUST sarich and phaneuf....]
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3 comments:
Gotta disagree with you about Keenan. The combo's that started the night were terrible, but he changed them up pretty rapidly when it was clear they weren't getting the job done. Aucoin was dropped, so was Conroy and Lombardi elevated.
I think we'll see some different trios on Saturday.
I agree on everything else though.
i disagree about you disagreeing. :)
if keenan wanted to try conroy on the first line, he should've done it in the preseason. aucoin got dropped fairly early, sure, but he kept his forward lines until the first intermission, at which time he moved conroy to the third and lombardi to the second, appropriately.
too bad about the first period.
Hey, Aucoin wasn't on the ice for all three goals, thats unfair...
I thought for one he was in the penalty box...
And I'll also disagree about the Conroy thing (philosophically only) because I think Iggy and Tanguay will produce points whoever the center is, as long as they get the ice time.
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