flames v. kings: systems

after a potentially devastating run of horrible losses back in november, punctuated by what i like to refer to as "the bay-area blowout," coach mike keenan corrected the team's system which led to a couple of months of winning play.

the early season's game-plan was defined by a hard, aggressive forecheck that was being exploited by superior teams; calgary was winning the man-on-man battles, often forsaking the puck. this, obviously, led to too many turnovers which led to too many goals against...

the current system is a far more defensive-minded one. instead of going in for the huge hit, you now see flames players backing off in order to put themselves in a more effective defensive position. for two months this was working, for the most part, against the elite teams (ex: the sharks) as well as the basement-dwellers (ex: the isles).

the players' efforts have been questionned a lot in the past weeks, during the unfortunate four-game losing skid that seemed to have ended with the 6-2 stomping of a slumping habs squad on monday. jarome is clearly having a terrible year, and tertiary scorers like glencross and bourque are suffering from red-hot to ice-cold swings. i have to wonder if coaching might play a larger part...

if the opposition is analyzing our system, then it is feasible (if not likely) that they're creating game plans to break it down. while the current defensive-aggressive style was working for the favorable xmas/new years schedule, perhaps it needs to (once again) be adjusted.... ?

i'm just musing here.

game notes from last night's tilt v. the ducks:

- there is something seriously wrong with jarome. like i said last night in the comments at flamesnation, i'm about 99% sure that he's been hexxed. there is honestly no other rational explanation for our captain to miss a wide open net from two feet out like he did on the first powerplay in anaheim...

- gio gio gio... bless'im. he's still only playing +/-15 minutes a night, but showed up with two ENORMOUS hits and got an assist to boot. i called into the fan960 after the montreal game to point out how effective he's been, of late, and rob kerr (in all his know-it-all wisdom) insisted that when vandermeer is 100%, we'll still see a battle between him, gio & pardy for that 6th spot... i beg to differ.

- lombardi, while on an absolute TEAR offensively, of late, is struggling with his backcheck. twice last night he lost his man, ending both times in anaheim tallies. kent noted that playing him vs. getzlaf is probably not the smartest coaching decision, and i tend to agree... notch one there for randy carlyle and his last change....

kings tonight.
fingers crossed...