wednesday musings

it's been a few days since i've actually talked about the flames, as i've been sidetracked by the zed-neck affair, and commodore taking up my lucky #44....

i only really have three words to describe last night's victory against the sharks:
dion, dion, dion...

in my opinion, the game erased all doubts from any naysayers minds that six years and 39 million dollars was "too much" for the strappng blueliner. with iggy in a mini-slump, dion took the reigns of leadership and rode this one all the way to the win column... the tying goal was classic phaneuf: a bullet from the point, invisible to the 'keeper. the OT goal was a thing of beauty: though TRIPLE covered, the hulking lad muscled across the blueline, kept his stick on the puck, and delivered a buttery soft pass cross-ice to a streaking #12.

there is no question that the flames were out-worked and out-played but they were not out-hearted.... it was one of those dig-deep type efforts where the character of a team shines through in the dying minutes (at least i would like to think that this is the character of the 07/08 flames). oh, and kipper had a stellar outing to boot.

- as the trade deadline approaches, i've been doing a bit of reading... it seems that the devils are looking for a centre and a defenseman.... i'm not sure who we'd get out of them, but langkow and warrener would be a great fit for NJ.... ;)

- don't get me wrong: i love dion (see above) and regehr, and i'm perfectly content, currently, with aucoin and hale in their roles (if not their salaries). i think sarich will turn his game around (soon, preferrably). BUT i do wish we had a bit of extra dough to pull dan boyle out of tampa or tomas kaberle out of toronto. those are two invaluable, and available, defensemen that i would love to see in flaming red.

- commodore & stillman for corvo & eaves. even stevens. sens gets better now, canes gets better later. dayum are the ottawa faithful gonna love big red.... in saying so, part of me wonders if there is any way commodore might come back to cowtown in the summer... i know he lives here in the offseason, and i have to query if sutter would want him (and if he'd want to come)... not sure where he'd fit into the mix, mind you....