Sunday, January 4, 2009

sunday feedback: clutch

two games.
two buzzer-beaters.

is it fair to put bertuzzi's game-winner with 30 seconds left in the same category as eberle's tying goal with 5 seconds remaining ? comparing a meaningless regular season matchup between non-rivals versus an elimination semi-final between elite hockey countries ?? probably not. but those were two clutch plays... two beautiful dying-seconds markers.

so bertuzzi proves his worth once again (any more of this kindof play and we'll have to find adjectives other than "useless" to describe it), and eberle makes a strong campaign for MVP of the entire tournament. amazing.

the flames play again tonight in chicago, and that will be a hard win to earn. if there is any resemblence to the team that notched W's in minnesota and nashville, this will be an easy outing for the 'hawks. it's interesting that duncan theorized that elite teams, though outplayed in matches such as those, are still able to find a way to win. kent, on the other hand, views these types of games as precursors to a slump. i think the next couple of games (chicago, san jose) will go a long way in proving one theory or the other....

the canadian junior team has a day of rest today before the big gold medal round tomorrow, and it's decidedly tough to predict a winner. the canadians beat the swedes in pre-tournament play 4-2, but the swedes man-handled the russians (who gave the canadians such a hard game yesterday) 5-0. it should be an amazing matchup...

flames fans should relish in the thought of two top prospects facing off against each other, as backlund and aulie both appear to be at the top of their games.

on a totally unrelated topic, if you haven't already seen the replay of alexander semin's "fight" with marc staal, i implore you to click here. not only does he fight like a wuss, he's not smart enough to tie down.... it's a good thing, too, cause it really took alot of the bad press off of sidney crosby, who mugged brett mclean last night....

as for the sunday feedback, last week's poll shows that nobody really agrees upon who will sit when vandermeer returns to the flames' lineup. pardy, vandermeer, and "a rotation of healthy scratches" were the most popular responses, and giordano got zero votes ---surprising in that he currently plays the least minutes....

speaking of fighting, here's this week's poll:

7 comments:

Kent W. said...

I think you might be onto something with Giordano. I can see Keenan preferring Pardy and Vandermeer to Gio and thus he might be the odd-man out.

That will really annoy me if it happens.

duncan said...

I think Gio might end up as trade bait. The Flames allegedly have two other "puck-moving defencemen" in Phaneuf and Aucoin, and Gio is young and cheap, which could net an OK return.

walkinvisible said...

i don't see how gio can be trade bait, but that's why i'm a blogger and not a GM.

in my opinion, with the current and upcoming cap situations, any roster player that's exceeding his value and on a multi-year deal MUST be kept. this is why i see lombardi and gio staying, why sarich is moveable, and why PARDY is more likely tradebait.

duncan said...

On any other team, I'd agree with you. But we're talking Sutter here. (Remember Ference?)

walkinvisible said...

fair enough...

how long after i get his name on my jersey will he be traded ? THAT's the big question...

x

Steal Thunder said...

In regards to your fighting question, where is the option to put it back to where it used to be? Just curious...

walkinvisible said...

where is the option to put it back to where it used to be

well, in my haste to get more votes for fishslap mcnonuts, i guess i forgot... :P