bloodbath at the shark tank

as my brother likes to say:
so, uhhh.... THAT happened.

i did not go out to a bar to watch this game, and i elected not to order it; the flames have trouble with PPV games, it seems, and one against SJ seemed like a really bad omen. oh, how right i was...

listening to the first period sounded like peter maher was calling a game between the san josé sharks and a bucketful of chum. it was a veritable feeding frenzy in front of miikka kiprusoff that ended in twenty (TWENTY !!!!!) SJ shots on goal, with four of those making it across the red line and onto the scoresheet. yes, i AM still only referring to the first frame.

U. G. L. Y...

[note: if you google-image "shark attack," there are some rather interesting --yet disturbing-- 'after' photos.... i was gonna post one but i didn't know if any of you was the queezy type]

from analyzing the shift chart, and what i know about the game, i can extrapolate that the keenan line blender started early last night. after the first period, however, it became clear that he began employing some kind of chaos theory or straw-drawing method in sending guys onto the ice. and fair enough --the damage was done.

DEFENSE
TWO shifts into the game, gio and dion were split up, putting dion with pardy and gio with aucoin. the VERY NEXT SHIFT, pardy (presumeably) gets a step behind, and takes a hooking penalty. regehr and sarich take the PK time, all seven seconds of it, before SJ scores. following the goal, keenan sends out (wait for it) phaneuf and aucoin for a single shift, who also promptly get scored on. phaneuf is back with pardy one shift later..... gio, meanwhile, takes a nice four-minute rest....

the gio/dion pairing was reunited in the second, following the first (!!!) flames' powerplay, which signalled the start of some SERIOUSLY long shifts for #3. he played the entire PP, in that instance, and then played a near-four minute shift at the end of the second period. hey, i'm not suggesting the shift chart is 100% accurate, i'm suggesting that if it is, dion is getting OVERWORKED.

FORWARDS
the re-insertion of cammalleri into the lineup certainly posed a problem for keenan, and i will absolutely acknowledge that. coming off a solid outing by the glenX-boyd-iggy line against toronto, and the +/- staying at evens that game by the bertuzzi-langkow-bourque line, keenan decided that cammo's best fit would be with moss and conroy.... well, at first. keenan tried ol' cammo pretty much everywhere last night, except special teams (which, obviously, kept him off the ice for enormous stretches of time).

still, keeping andre roy in, in lieu of prust, seems like a step backwards to me. prust has proven himself a valuable fourth line guy, who takes a regular shift with primeau and nystrom and is effective as such. he's shown he's not afraid to get physical with some of the league's tougher opponents and has come out even in dust-ups most nights. roy, on the other hand, played a smattering of shifts, was benched for long stretches all night, and ended up a jaw-droppingly low five minutes TOI --pulling nystrom (and moss ??)'s icetime down with him.

i'm not even gonna start with goaltending. sure, kipps let in four goals in the first, and he-who-must-not-be-nicknamed did a fairly solid job in the latter two periods, the shot totals in the early-going were OUTRAGEOUS.

all-in-all, i'm happy for a weekend break and look forward to a healthier and more settled squad on tuesday back at the dome. but keenan ? dude ? get it together (please !)....