flames v. wings postgame: is it any wonder....

so i have to ask myself:

is it at all curious that jim vandermeer's first game on the flames' blueline coincided with kipper's first shutout ?? i was only able to watch the first period, so i could be overestimating, but it seems to me that adding the former red deer rebel (i'm sure we'll hear this stat for the entirety of vandermeer's tenure) has definitely solidified calgary's defense. i base this purely and entirely on the fact that dion only played 25 minutes, david hale only played 13, and the middle five defenders all averaged around 20 minutes...

oh, and kipper had an alright night, too..... ;)


iron mike apparently tore a strip off the boys before the game in phoenix. three wins later and it would seem that the decibel level of that speech has allowed it to reverberate in the collective ears of the team. if the flames respond so positively to getting reamed (having notched wins following sutter's dressing room speech, as well as regehr's 'calling out' of his teammates), then i should think keenan is definitely the right guy for the job. until now i had remained undecided on the coaching subject...

the flames played a classic sutter-style match last night. phaneuf took out kopecky with a massive hit in the corner. hale snuck a high stick into dallas drake's mouth. chelios took a bullet of his left leg. osgood looked like a tender 'tender. add those bruises to the list of injured (lidstrom, rafalski, kronwall, cleary), plus the loss of matt ellis on waivers, and i'd think the canucks will hand the wings another loss tonight. which is sortof too bad....

kudos to the calgary flames for continuing to wear #18 on their helmets for the untimely and devastating passing of mickey renaud. i presume the reason for detroit also sporting the decal is the team's geographic proximity to the windsor spitfires. classy.

the flames are into the land of 10,000 lakes today for a midday tilt tomorrow with the hometown wild. it would be redundant to call this game important. they all are. the flames have been on a decent roll, of late, and i like their chances against one of the best teams in the NHL. let's call it a regulation draw, just to pain vancouverites, with the wild notching the W in OT/SO.