sunday feedback: the kid

last week's sunday feedback question, spurned by the unfortunate death of don sanderson after an on-ice fight gone terribly wrong, was regarding whether or not fighting should continue to be allowed in the NHL. 72% of you voted in favour of leaving everything as-is in that capacity (although steal thunder queried why returning to the old fighting rules ---no instigator, presumeably here--- was not an option in the poll)... a couple of people voted for the removal of fighting altogether, and another five jokers took the "only if they fight like alex semin" bait. damn, i love that highlight...

this week, the midway-point of the season, i'm fascinated by the high-end consistency (though relatively small sample size) of one player, and i wonder if his age will prevent him from winning awards at the year-end ceremony.

NOTE: this week's feedback poll allows you to select more than one answer

poll by twiigs.com

:)

Midway achievement assessments (because Achievement Awards are SO overdone)

Much was made of the Flames' 0-6 record against the San Jose Sharks, Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks before the big 5-2 dismantling of San Jose this past week. And it was fair enough — the only other Flames win over another team in the league that would be considered in the elite was a 3-2 win over Boston at home on Oct. 30.

But for all those early troubles against good teams, the Flames have, primarily, done what they've had to in compiling a 41-game record that leaves them on pace for a 108-point season, and is seemingly still improving. This is a team that's overachieved — to the expectations of most of its blogging community, anyway.

So, to the halfway point, how has each member of the team performed against my expectations?

OVERACHIEVED
• Todd Bertuzzi
• Rene Bourque
• Curtis Glencross
• Eric Nystrom
• Brandon Prust
• Andre Roy
• Adam Pardy
• Wayne Primeau
• Adrian Aucoin
• David Moss

That's a big group of players to have played better than expectations, even if only two regularly play in your Top 6 forwards, and one in your Top 4 defencemen. (And if one, Bertuzzi, is playing against expectations that for me were perhaps at an historic low.) Aucoin has been a surprise revelation paired with Robyn Regehr. While perhaps not the perfect partner for the Flames' best defenceman, he's been anything but a liability in the position for the past 20 games.

ABOUT RIGHT
• Miikka Kiprusoff
• Dustin Boyd
• Daymond Langkow
• Cory Sarich
• Mark Giordano
• Mike Cammalleri
• Curtis McElhinney
• Robyn Regehr
• Craig Conroy
• Jim Vandermeer

For all the chatting we've done about other contracts this year, Daymond Langkow's ongoing excellence — and recent hot streak — have outed his $4M/yr deal as a crazy-ass bargain. For me, I didn't expect much different after recent years — he doesn't seem like the kind of guy to "slow down." It's unfortunate that we all basically expect an average performance out of Miikka Kiprusoff now, but fortunate that the Flames can play this well with that being the case.

UNDERACHIEVED
• Jarome Iginla
• Dion Phaneuf
• Matthew Lombardi

The fact that the Flames' two highest-paid, and best, skaters are on this small list may be perhaps the biggest reason for optimism about Calgary's second half. It's hard to believe that Jarome Iginla won't start taking over games that matter. At least, I haven't seen anything in the first 41 that makes me think he's anything but in a funk with his timing and without the right linemates.

As for Phaneuf? He's still a young player, he's still being asked to do absolutely everything, he's still wearing a letter for the first time as a pro and he's still being distracted by Kim Bauer. All these things will pass, and those big-old one timers and open ice hits will return.

When it comes to Matthew Lombardi, my expectations have now been diminished. This isn't, I stress, necessarily a horrendous thing. Would we all love it if he became a 70- or 80-point scoring centre? Yes. But what he's become — a reliable, fast, defensive forward who can occasionally chip in offensively — is a valuable asset as his price point. I'll take it.

hunh ?

peverley on waivers ???

hmph.

flames v. isles: poor chucko !

kris chucko, calgary's first round draft pick in 2004 and everyone's favorite quad cities whipping boy, has got to be pissed off by this week's turn of events...

following the selection of dion phaneuf in the first round of the 2003 nhl entry draft, calgary picked up a bunch of players: mostly duds (ramholt, donnally, cunning, and a bunch of guys you've never heard of). the following year, the flames took chucko 24th overall, ahead of robbie schremp, mike green (!), david booth, david krejci, and the kid i used to babysit, logan stephenson.

guys who have cracked the flames' lineup since chucko's selection:

brandon prust (2nd round, 2004)
dustin boyd (3rd round, 2004)
adam pardy (6th round, 2004)
brett sutter (6th round, 2005)
mikael backlund (1st round, 2007).

the insertion of backlund into the fray last night seemed to be more of a series of fortunate events than anything; coming off a WJC silver medal and unsure of where to place him, darryl sutter brought the kid to cowtown. bertuzzi goes out with an injury and POOF ! you've got a rookie centering moss and glencross to start the game.

the best way to describe backlund's play last night ? nervous. after nearly potting his first shot (i'm not sure if i think he should've raised the puck, or if joey macdonald would've had it either way), he went on to totally whiff on a bouncing puck, three feet from a wide open net on a powerplay. the shift prior to the isles first goal was a defensive disaster by the third line --backlund being guilty on two occasions of not being able to clear the puck over the line. i would like to think a couple of extra practices with moss and glencross would have improved his outing, but realistically he looks exactly like he did in pre-season when he showed that he was nowhere near ready for nhl action (yet ever so full of potential)...

if i were chucko, i'd be starting to understand that i'm a career AHLer.

:)

flames v. isles: oldschool

this post will be a short one cause i don't really have time today to do a pre-game, but i'm writing it for the neighbours i grew up with; the ones i played TV tag with, had sleepovers with, drank BEEP with (at their house, my mum would never buy that stuff), and found my initial love for hockey with.

i'm not sure who invented it, but hand-hockey became the favorite passtime during the winter months when we couldn't go outside. it was played in my parents' basement and the opposing nets were the piano and the brown hide-a-bed couch. we would roll up a pair of socks, get down on our hands and knees, and use our hands as a hockey stick. it was one-on-one styles and i was the baby of the neighbourhood, so inevitably games would end when one of the bigger kids (usually mike) would pop a rolled up sock straight into my face.

because i was the youngest, i was the last to pick my team. my brother was the flames, mike (who lived across the street) was the blackhawks, and the next-door-neighbours were the sabres (grant) and the kings (monique). why i remember this, i have absolutely no idea....

i'm not sure how much i actually knew about hockey, back when i was six or seven years old, but i think i knew enough to know that i liked mike bossy, the isles had been successful in a few cup runs, and that billy smith had somehow managed to score a goal. i realize it's a travesty now that i'm a rangers fan, and that i was cheering for the blueshirts when i attended the subway series in 2005, but back in the day my hand-hockey team was always the new york islanders... and i've kindof had a soft spot for 'em ever since.

tonight the orange-and-blues roll into calgary with a far less flattering record than the one they had when i loved them oldschool hand-hockey styles. no beating around the bush, this team is abysmal. the isles have only two regulation wins in the past seventeen games, so it would be simple to say that tonight's matchup should be a fairly easy W for the flames. somehow, though, those are the toughies, and the isles are certainly due for a victory...

adding to my concern for the C's: with my GIO jersey in the shop, i'm reverting to the jrXL for tonight's game that i will be attending with my dad. he's assured me that his jersey's good fortune will take away some of my old shirt's bad juju, and that clearly the jrXL is also past due for a nice win...

duncan best be wearing the iggy model.
;P

gio trade countdown: DAY 1

my boy mark giordano came up big against the league-leading sharks last night, ending the night with a goal, the #2 star, a +3, and more time on the powerplay than anyone else in a flaming C. this, coupled with the fact that just yesterday i sent my 10-1-2 jersey off to get numbered with a "5" and lettered with "GIO," obviously means that gio's days in calgary are numbered....

i really thought the flames would come out flat last night ---historically, that's been the M.O against elite teams--- so i opted to head out to the pub where the game would be available to me but i wouldn't be forced to give a blowout my undivided attention.

well, obviously that was unnecessary. but since i was already out, i had to enlist duncan to explain the following, by text message:

- re: the backlund interview (which i could see but not hear): " Did you catch Backlund saying 'it's Darryl's choice' about Kelowna, then talking clearly that he's definitely going ? Classic."

- re: the shot of the squirrel sitting on one of the club seats: "They just spotted it in the crowd and cracked jokes." [note: i WOULD still like to know what kind of jokes....]

- re: onscreen graphics that i missed: "Graphic about how great Iginla and Thornton are. Big header: 'Smokin J's.' Classy Sportsnet !"

clearly i missed the best outing of the year.

flames v. sharks: i KNOW !!!

the ever-awesome sharks roll into the saddledome tonight to meet a faltering flames squad in a déja-vu situation. the last time these teams met, the flames had just dropped a shocking 6-1'er to the hawks and embarassed themselves in the sharktank.

well, we all know what's happened since then and there's really no point in getting into the fact that the flames are coming off a bad outing in chicago and look to redeem themselves against the winningest team in the league. likely ? probably not, but here's to hoping....

also strange was the call-up of jamie lundmark from the qc on jan4 (sunday), promptly followed by his apparent return to the farm yesterday (jan 5). this, of course, leads me to believe that someone in the flames' current starting lineup is on the bubble, either physically or personally....

but what i REALLY want to talk about today is this, and this. i mean, i'm not saying that mike fisher isn't deserving of a beautiful blonde starlet (or she of a blue-eyed hockey player), i'm just wondering where two cats like that meet ??!? i have some doubts that underwood was spending her downtime in our nation's capital, and the sens don't play the preds till mid-february... i dunno... perhaps jesus brought them together....

in other gossippy hockey "news," this page six article, about everyone's favorite "former" NHLer, put a smile on my face:

The former New York Ranger showed up at Bungalow 8 New Year's Eve on the arm of - his brother. A spy at the club said that Avery and his girlfriend of several months, Kelly Klein, have split - "They're no longer together." Avery was dumped by the Dallas Stars last month after he made a nasty comment about his ex, Elisha Cuthbert. He tried to make up for lost time at Bungalow 8, flirting with women and hanging with former teammates Scott Gomez, Chris Drury, Nigel Dawes and Marcus Nasland[sic].

i wonder if avery's brother picks up chicks with the line, "i know my brother's a douche, but i'm not...."

also, obviously huge congrats go out to the canadian junior team for pulling out a mostly-boring gold medal win... i suppose it was expecting far too much to think that last night's matchup might provide as much entertainment as the semifinal game v. russia, but without markstöm's dramatics and karlsson's moustache, this one would have been a total yawner. the results are back from CSI: backlund, and it turns out the swedish forward was directly responsible for the tre kronor loss... the winning goal was scored on a play where he lost his man AND tried the patented "warrener move," and two other key goals were scored while he was in the penalty box. all signs point to kelowna for this little guy....

see ya'z tomorrow post-bloodbath.

DON'T FORGET TO CONTINUE VOTING ON THE SUNDAY FEEDBACK POLL BELOW

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:

poll by twiigs.com

flames v. preds: liveblog

come back at 1pm MST to join in the fun !!!
:)

happy new year !!!!

now that the hangover has subsided, i would like to wish everyone out there in readerland a very happy new year and all the best for 2009. :)

the folks over at the new york times slapshot blog have given their inaugural hockey night in blogdom group (myself included) one last kick at the can before they usher in some fresh blogger blood.

Besides your team winning the Stanley Cup, what is the most heartfelt wish you have for hockey in 2009?

Well, a fifth straight gold for the Canadians at the World Juniors would sure make for a happy new year. Beyond that, I have to hope that Mats (bless ’im) turns out to be the biggest dud in Canucks history, and that the team’s disappointment drags them out of playoff contention.

you can link to all of the other answers here, if you're at all interested in what the league's other independent bloggers have to say...

the new year's tilt at the 'dome was awesome, as it always is. it's the first game i put dibs on when the tickets are released in september, and it's always a really fun time (even though this year i might have had an extra pint or two, celebrating british new years, enroute to the battle of alberta)... hats were passed around, the iggy holler got yelled, and the folks in our section were high fiving like it was going out of style... oh, and the flames kicked the pants off those pesky oilers...

my jersey is now 9-0-2 and sadly letter-less.

i'm thinking about doing a live blog for tomorrow's afternoon game (1pm local) against the predators. please feel free to comment here if you think it would be something you'd be interested in taking part in.... then i'll figure out how to use cover it live.

UPDATE: i will definitely be liveblogging the game, so swing by !!!

:P