flames v. panthers: *sigh* again....

if i'm not mistaken, this will be the THIRD time i've seen the florida panthers live and in person this season alone.... and it's only mid-december.

in two pre-season games, the flames lost 3-2, and won 2-8. the latter matchup boasted goals from pretty much everyone on the roster, including fan favorites cammalleri, glencross & bourque, and "disappointments" sarich and bertuzzi...

i don't expect tonight to be as much of a blowout, but i DO imagine the flames will win. 'why?' you ask...?
well three reasons:

1. the injury-riddled panthers are coming off a big shutout win in edmonton. the flames are surely aware of how tiring back-to-back games can be, and should be able to take advantage of the situation with their current brand of hard play. while criag anderson blanked the greasers, his team was only able to put two behind mathieu garon, and will be facing a rested kiprusoff tonight at the 'dome. his majesty king panther, jay bouwmeester, must have had an off-night up north, notching a sub-par 25 minutes of icetime... the guy played 42% of the hockey game and didn't have the decency to score a point for my hockey pool.

[i hope that comment doesn't come back to haunt me...]

2. i'm gonna wear my jersey tonight and it's 4-0. on second thought, perhaps this is a reason for a flames' loss.... except that i'm actually anxious for my jersey to lose, so i gan go get it numbered/lettered (i refuse to get it done on a winning streak, cause i refuse to blame numbers and letters for bad luck...). i had planned to wear my jersey during the montreal game on tuesday, expecting an L, but absentmindedly forgot it at home. and wasn't in the mood to wear it to the pub for the sure-thing loss against detroit on wednesday....

god, i'm superstitious....

3. -20 is not a favourable outside temperature for a bunch of guys from florida...

i will not predict a score tonight, but instead predict the movement of bootuzzi's +/-. i think it's a far more interesting and amusing thing to guess... even though he'll continue to look awful, i'm gonna give him evens tonight (thinking most of the action will occur on special teams).


in other news: over at the new york times slapshot site, the 'hockey night in blogdom' writers (including yours truly sans alias) are weighing in on the sean avery situation.... have a look if you're at all interested !!



:)