flames v. ducks: will it end ?

okay, so i took the wrong tack on the whole 44 thing last night. the notable four that stood out was the flames' fourth LINE, not a score, or a jersey number (though jim vandermeer's high-end effort, ending in a zillion penalty minutes and an assist on a pinball-style goal, made him the busiest #4 of the night). my eye was caught by an article on the flames insider called "a four-midable presence" discussing nystrom, primeau, and prust, who were definitely solid last night. so solid, infact, the cbc marc/ks were calling it "the energy line," a title historically reserved for the third line... but i digress....

what i was HOPING to find over on cruikshank & lefebvre's blog is information on whether or not curtis mcelhinney will be making his first start of the year later this afternoon. but appparently keenan's gonna keep that on the down-lo till gametime. i can't decide whether i think he-who-must-not-be-nicknamed should get the nod or not. i would imagine that keenan would leave it up to his franchise netminder; if kipper wants to play, kipper will play. he's got a six-game streak on the line going into a rink where he's got an unfavorable record.... i'd say let the kid play and kippy can take HIS streak back to the 'dome to meet the dingos on tuesday...

we'll see i guess.

there are a couple of other things i'm taking away from last night's matchup. iggy's starting to look snakebitten and i'm not sure how much longer we can blame bertuzzi and conroy. bertuzzi is horribly lazy, without a doubt, and mostly unaware on the ice, but the foresight and no-look pass on last night's winning goal were outstanding.
conroy's last saving grace (faceoff%) plummetted and his on-ice minutes were reflected by keenan's awareness of it. i would imagine he might get some nights off when lombardi returns... moss/boyd/glenX didn't see nearly as much ice as i would've expected.... and dion's minutes really need to come back down to earth sooner rather than later....

most things trending towards positive, though.

finally, and on a completely unrelated subject, i woke from sleep this morning in the midst of a dream where i was roadtripping with robyn regehr somewhere in south america. he was talking on a cb radio. very strange, indeed....

;)