flames v. kings: good job, todd

i didn't write a pre-game on this one because i was quite skeptical that the newly formed lines would last into the starting lineup and therefore didn't have a whole lot to say.

well, the game started with lombardi centering iginla and camalleri, which caught me a bit by surprise, mostly because i was told that was what to expect. the changes produced positive results, but i'm not convinced it was because the changes worked, or if it was because the kings forgot to show up for the game...

for kicks (and for the potential pleasure of blog readers out there), i attended the game with kent, which was truly a delight for all the reasons i thought it would be: he's smart, insightful and the guy comes up with some serious gems. the best one of the night followed a classic bertuzzi backhand/spinarama giveaway, whereby kent hollered dryly, "good job, todd."

i will absolutely 100% be making this into a tshirt. let me know if you want one...

adding to the bootuzzi-bashing humour was the girl behind us who was really cheering for #7 with unfounded optimism... she would blurt out "COME ON TODD !!" as bertuzzi would be aimlessly skating around "his office" (the useless mid-area ice, nowhere near the play).

i whisper to kent, pointing out the obvious, "uh.... where's bertuzzi ?"

he replies, defeated, "floating around, waiting to suck."

genius. :)

bertuzzi ended up with more reasonable minutes on this night, with just over 15. more importantly, however, he ended up seeing softer competition and responded by not looking as terrible. y'know.... the conroy effect.

glencross is proving that he can play anywhere and with anyone and be hugely effective, elevating the game of his linemates. give him a defensive grinding/checking/PK guy role and he'll shine. give him an offensive playmaking/scoring/speedy guy role and he'll reward you for it. playing with bourque and "future tsn employee craig conroy" [as they said on sportscentre] tonight, he was outrageously good. 14 minutes TOI, +3, 1 goal and 2 assists. um, WOW....

on the flipside, langkow has had a rough couple of nights and iginla ---though he's still producing points--- looked a bit lost out there. dion was sloppy [way to take out your own goalie behind the net, man] and sarich looked plain awful, albeit providing the hit of the night on "not dan" boyle. oh, and just cause bertuzzi got a point and ended a +1, don't kid yourself into believing he looked useful....

onwards and upwards. a couple of big vancouver games upcoming. curtis sanford is not roberto luongo, but he ain't half bad, and whatever it is that's keeping the vancouver canucks in the win column does not disappear with bobby lou in the pressbox.

my jersey is 3-0.
:)