flames v. tom rowe's team: can't wait !!!!!!

before looking ahead, let's just glance in the rearview for a moment, shall we ?

first off, bummer about the kostopoulos hit on stuart ----for a couple of reasons:

1. i don't like seeing headshots, no matter who is giving or receiving them. awful.
2. i can't deny that the replay of last night's hit looks vindictive and purposeful.
3. the greek/the jackman were really lighting it up and that's over for a week or so.
4. it's way harder to detest brad stuart when he's bleeding.

the other interesting gamenote from last night is that the flames looked a HELLUVA lot better without kotalik in the lineup. like, stunningly better. i don't know if you can wholely point the turnaround to #26's absence, but..... wow. the team looked interested in being there, and invested in working together. too bad kippy didn't get the "let's show up tonight" memo, or the flames would've gotten that second point.

someone on twitter yesterday wrote "the flames have one bad period and lose, while the wings have one bad period and win." such is the state of affairs in the nhl these days. calgary actually shows up to play and can't effin' BUY a win ----no help, of course, that jokinen is still the league's official tester of crossbar and post structural integrity. what used to be a joke is now facepalm city... *ugh.

looking forward, the flames have the superskills competition tomorrow and i only bring it up because of something interesting mark giordano said on the fan960 between periods last night. he said he was looking forward to seeing how hard babchuk's slapper is, but he also said he thought that adam pardy might give glenX some competition in fastest skater.... ? hm. i never realized A-pardz was that fleet-footed... ;)


next game up for the flambés is in raleigh, where they'll take on one of my favorite EC teams in the carolina hurricanes. sure, i'm a fan of eric staal and cam ward, i like what jim rutherford did last trade deadline (firesale on vets to competetive teams for draft picks and prospects), and i'm curious to see what ian white is up to, but the REAL reason i heart the 'canes is cause paul maurice and tom rowe are two of the raddest dudes on the face of the planet, hands down.

without going into detail, when i was introduced to tom rowe last year i thought i heard "john." "john, was it ?" i asked "no, tom. john's my middle name, though," he grinned, trying to not make me feel like an idiot.... i might've had a couple of pints by that point, so i decided it was cool to call him TJ. :) killer, right ? he didn't seem to mind much, infact inquired and subsequently addressed me by my real-life nickname with good humour, and we had a pretty excellent and lengthy conversation about hockey; the NHL, AHL, trades, players, skills, and (of course) gio, whom he coached in lowell. it was the first time i'd held court with real hockey people and i'm confident i held my own. it was a coup, being a girl and all... ;)

[ps: i'm a girl. i thought it was obvious with all the talk of wanting a ladies cut retro jersey and being pretty much in love with forsberg and wallin, but apparently some people *coughkingjaficough* thought i was just a weird little dude... but i digress... ;) ]

suffice it to say i hope that my team kills carolina on tuesday, but if they lose at least they're losing to a nice bunch of coaches.... it WOULD, however, be slick if gio could repeat the feat of dumping pitkanen into the bench (see below), to prove his physical prowess to his former coach and my bestie-for-an-hour, TJ. i bet eric staal will mind his pretty face a little better.... ;)

i'll be mostly watching to see if TJ has his troops target the sarich side of the ice, since that's the only real note i left him with last year. ;)