flames v. wild: scattered randoms

i was gonna write most of this last night as a flames v. blues post-game, but it all seemed so random and disconnected and i thought at some point there might be a thread to tie them all together.

there isn't.

so here's some scattered tidbits that have been occupying my mind:

1. what was darryl sutter doing in the lou ?
the telecast from last night's game in st. louis showed daz in the pressbox cozying up to blues' president of hockey operations, john davidson. i have no idea what larry pleau looks like but i'm presuming that he was one of the other dudes kickin' it in the immediate vicinity... i smell trade talk. some of the biggest flames deals have historically involved the blues (brett hull, doug gilmour), and while i'd be surprised to find any 'difference makers' from either team on the table, guys like lombardi, sarich, and crombeen certainly proved their worth in last night's match.

2. THERE he is....
we've all wondered were the hell the jarome iginla we all know and love has been this season, and last night we finally got what were were looking for. the pundits have been overly kind to the struggling captain, taking his counting numbers at face value and arguing he's on par (when most of his offense has come in the form of PP and EN tallies). last night, he was the flames' personal king midas ---everything he touched turned the scoreboard flaming red. he even scored his first goal doggystyle. a single game like that is hardly fodder for "hart trophy candidate" talk, but apparently the boys at TSN don't agree...

cory sarich, often found on my "goat" list in the past year and a half, also had a great game. he was defensively sound for the entire game (save for a single shift), offensively hot, and a pugilist to boot. even though he lost his first tilt against brad winchester, he came out victorious agaisnt cam janssen ---who appears to model his game-play around former bigleaguer, steve downie.


3. bring on the babies !
i'm absolutely ecstatic about the play of gio, of late, and in the last five-or-so games i've thought adam pardy has really stepped it up. sure, they both still make mistakes (pardy needs to seriously watch his stick) but they are pleasantly sound in their own end and perfectly sharp in the other. pardy's even started pinching, which i think could prove worthwhile --the dude is a monster and parking him right in front of the net seems to make some sense. is calgary the only team that gets their blueliners right in deep (especially on the PP) ???

while i agree with kent that dustin boyd's spot in the lineup should not be ursurped by a fly-by-night callup (lundmark), i can't disagree with keenan's decision to line up #45 with bootuzzi ---mostly based on the fact that #7 was having, arguably, his best game in months. lundmark also had a pretty stellar match.

4. chronic traumatic encephalopathy
interesting segment on TSN about concussions today. i remember watching dateline or 20/20 or W5 awhile ago about chris benoit (the WWE wrestler) and how affected his brain was from recurring concussions --and that this, not steroids, was most likely the cause of his untimely end. really kindof fascinating stuff and apparently guys like keith primeau and pat lafontaine are going to donate their grey matter to the further study... no point, really. just random.

5. gabby's back
will marian gaborik's return to the wild lineup make them better TONIGHT ?? or will it just cause confusion to a team (read: mikko koivu) that's done fairly well without him....

6. the jersey
i've all-but-retired the 03/04 era jr.XL due to bad luck, but the current super-high-tech, technically crafted current reebok women's jersey (the one that will be numbered 5 and lettered GIO as soon as it starts losing) is going into tonight's tilt at 5-0-1. sortof like ST's PVR last year....

GO FLAMES !!