flames v. bolts: bits n' bobs

i had a superfun time at the game last night with my boss & our cordial host from f&d scenechanges, a staple in the calgary film & tv industry for decades and setbuilders extraordinaire. he plied us with booze (and more booze, and more booze) and snacks, and the flames didn't stink out the joint and made the firespitters go off four whole times, so it all made for a pretty fun night.

with kotalik back in the lineup, it's conroy+1 in the pressbox every night and last night it was david moss's turn (much to my surprise). alot of people see the value in sending mickis back to the farm but if the guest's seat beside conny is gonna be a rotating door of players, i don't necessarily see the value in it. and let's be honest: young backlund had a pretty solid game last night. not only did he make a crucial non-play on the game winner, but he seems to be playing with massive confidence at both even strength and on the PK. even after the beauty drop-pass to glenX, he drove the net and took away the man infront, allowing bourque a clear shot. that's some mature play, in my opinion. at this point, i'm not sure a demotion would help his game, so long as he's not eating popcorn upstairs with #24 every night...

before puckdrop there was some talk that the lucky player getting the night off would be olli jokinen. oh, how many flames fans that would have pleased !!! further rumour has it that david moss was feeling under the weather, but it may also have to do with his ill-timed double minor the previous game. either way, i think the lineup looked pretty solid without him, even though the hagman-jokinen-kotalik line did a whole lotta nuthin.

not much else to report; kippy looked in fine form, and it was nice to see gio's face without a bunch of metal cage in the way. also ? you don't realize how small martin st.louis is until he's getting absolutely CRUSHED in the tunnel of doom. i looked for a highlight of this but couldn't find it in the tsn or sporstnet summary packages.

lastly, i just want to point out that darryl sutter is paying the flames' third line nine million dollars. NINE MILLION !!! that's three each for kotalik, jokinen and hagman.... how do i know they're the third line? well, bourquey tells us so when asked about him and iggy both getting goals for the first time since october, "if we're both scoring that means that both lines are playing well & the top six forwards are getting the job done."

that's 6,175,000 for your second line, people. and i guarantee mickis would be happy to know that makes him a second line centreman.