Flames look to do what Canadian juniors couldn't, shoot for sixth straight win in Minny

I blame Canada's loss in the gold medal game at the World Juniors on two things:

1) Nothing rhymes with six (ie: "drive for five")

2) Pepsi. Damn you and your stupid cheer.

Really, I can't whole-heartedly defend an undisciplined Canadian squad that seemed to have trouble executing their game plan and took shifts off at crucial times. They just didn't look all there too many times during this tournament, and it cost them. Perhaps something can be said of injuries to top defencemen and questionable officiating, but those are petty excuses. If anything, this loss reminds us that winning requires equal parts hard work, skill, and discipline; gold medals have to be earned, they are not simply awarded based on pedigree.

I give the Americans full marks for playing an opportunistic, well-rounded game and exposing Canada's weaknesses; they've finally banished their WJHC demons, winning their second gold medal and beating Canada en route to both tournament titles. With the loss, Canada remains tied with Russia with fifteen golds. And if you weren't already pissed about that, watch this video of the American players celebrating in their dressing room after the game. That'll do it for you.

Canada's goaltending and defence simply hasn't been up to snuff at the past two World Junior tournaments. They can't rely on their offence, specifically Jordan "The Messiah" Eberle, to bail them out every time they find themselves down by a goal or two in big games. Even in wins against Slovakia and Switzerland, Canada lacked that authoritative dominance that we've seen from them in the past, and it was certainly nowhere to be seen against the Americans, despite two inspiring two-goal comebacks.

A silver medal is nothing to be ashamed of, but in a sport and a tournament where it's gold or bust, this one stings.

Not only do we have to put up with Edmonton's Jordan Eberle and Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson, who will undoubtably suit up for the Oilers next season, but we also have Vancouver's first round pick in '09 Jordan Schroeder (who the Flames passed up on in favour of defencemen Tim Erixon, much to my chagrin) to contend with.

The Flames' prospects, on the other hand, didn't fare so well in this tournament. Greg Nemisz collected one meagre point, a goal against the Americans in a losing cause. Joni Ortio struggled on a disappointing Finnish squad that failed to earn a medal and Tim Erixon was injured after taking a hard hit early in the tournament. However, he still collected three points in five games and was a +3.

We'll let you have this one, America; you earned it. We'll be sure to show you a thing or two about hockey in Vancouver. Zach Parise could very well be eating his words in little more than a month.

For a tongue-in-cheek, unabashedly chest-thumping take on the USA's gold medal victory, check out The Two-Line Pass.

Alright, being that this is a Flames blog, I suppose I should write something on the team in question. The Flames secured a 3-1 road victory over the Nashville Predators last night, good for a season-high five game winning streak and first place in the Northwest division. They played a textbook Sutter-hockey road game, a fairly conservative attack combined with well-executed shut-down defence, and got goals from slumping forwards David Moss and Olli Jokinen before Langkow sealed the deal with an empty-netter. After nearly a month of the exact opposite, games and wins like this are a welcome sight. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love boring hockey. Defence first, smart, grind-it-out games are truly a pleasure to watch. Win or lose, if the Flames continue to play this way on a consistent basis, I'll be a happy camper. I'm not going to deny the fact that this team still needs offensive help, but if Kiprusoff and the defence continue to operate at the level they have been in recent games, the need may not be as urgent as originally thought.

If there's one team that can beat us at our own game, it's the Minnesota Wild, coincidentally Calgary's opponent tonight (6PM, Fan 960). The Wild fired fourty-five shots at Kiprusoff in a 2-1 overtime victory at the 'Dome the last time these two teams met. At the time, the Flames were mired in a near December-long slump, so it'll be interesting to see if they can resume their typical levels of dominance against a struggling Minnesota squad trying to avoid a five-game slide. Both teams played last night, and the team that proves most able to overcome fatigue throughout the game will undoubtably come away with the two points.

The Flames got Cory Sarich back from a nineteen-game stint on IR last night against the Preds, and according to the Flames' website, he won't suit up tonight. However, there is no mention of Craig Conroy's injury, so I suspect they may have confused the two. Jason Jaffray, called up from the Heat to fill Conroy's vacated skates, had two shots on goal in 5:25 of ice time. Dion Phaneuf appears to be a-okay after leaving Saturday's game with an apparent arm injury while former Flame Owen Nolan will likely sit this one out for the Wild. All signs point to Kiprusoff starting his second game in as many nights, and why not, he's 24-7-4 against the Wild all time. Line combinations appear unchanged for both teams.

Finally, never one to keep his mouth shut, Theo Fleury lets us know how he really felt about getting cut by the Flames, putting down Craig Conroy and Darryl Sutter in the process, and gives us his take on the Flames' playoff chances on his blog. He also offers up a trade proposal, sending Robyn Regehr packing in favour of some offensive help for Iginla. Pretty sure that one's been done before, but you be the judge of that.

Given the un-televised nature of tonight's game combined with the fact that I'll be at work, I will likely miss most if not all of it. Scream profanities at your computer/radio for me.

Go Flames Go.

Post-game Party: Flames 3, Thrashers 1 (plus a lengthy unrelated rant; proceed at your own risk)

First order of business: Doesn't Nigel Dawes sort of look like he could be Iggy's kid brother? So cute.

Now, onto the important stuff. Last night's affair yielded predictable if not expected results in a game that saw the return of Robyn Regehr after a one-game hiatus and the Flames' much anticipated homecoming. The Flames were a little sluggish to start the first period and found themselves on the wrong side of early 7-1 and 10-3 shot counts, but found their stride late in the period and carried that momentum into the middle frame. In the second, they outshot the visiting Thrashers 14-6 and outscored them 2-0 on goals from Dawes and Jokinen, while enjoying three straight opportunities with the man advantage. Colby Armstrong made things interesting when a shot deflected in off of his skate while he was battling with Aaron Johnson in front of the Flames net to make the score 2-1 and set up a nail-biting finish, but I think we can all agree that this was the highlight of the night:

Curtis Glencross is one badass motherf--er.

The Flames went on to win 3-1 courtesy of an empty-netter from Bourque, who stripped Kovalchuk of the puck at the Flames blueline and potted his ninth of the season into an empty cage after Kiprusoff made several key saves on Max Afinogenov from close range with the Thrashers pressing for the equalizer. While the Flames managed to translate their road successes into a home victory with the help of some spotless penalty-killing and contributions from the first line, the ineffectual powerplay, operating at a 7/74 clip over their past twenty games, is still a glaring blemish on what is otherwise a relatively well-rounded team.

The powerplay generated little offence on five opportunities, with the most dangerous chance being a glorious open net gimme on which Rene Bourque shot the puck high and wide. Give the Thrashers credit, their PK unit is ranked #1 in the league on the road, but as I've said before, the Flames have to find a way to score goals and not allow teams to get back into games that should have been well out of reach. This year's team is beginning to remind me of the 05-06 squad, one that possessed unmatched defensive prowess but lacked offensive firepower, and that worries me a little bit.

Now onto my rant of the day; stop me if you think this is unjustified:

I rarely take issue with the good folks over at Puck Daddy, but this post dissecting the intended messages of a CTV feature documenting the respective careers of Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin irked me.

As a communications major, I'm all for interpreting media messages and the notion that social reality is constructed through language, but this is pushing it. In the article, Greg Wyshynski writes that the aforementioned CTV feature is a "glorious piece of Canadian hockey propaganda" and that CTV has shaped two distinct images for Crosby and Ovechkin. Crosby is the well-behaved, quiet leader; the game is his life, and anything that goes on outside of it is none of our business. Ovechkin is the flashy, loud-mouthed foreigner with disregard for the rules; his life outside of hockey is well documented and ever expanding. I won't argue against the fact that these images have been established, but media-constructed personas projected onto athletes, more specifically hockey players, are hardly a new phenomena.

Weren't the same characteristics used to describe Crosby attributed to Grezky as a player? What about Lemieux? Yzerman? Russian players have often been portrayed as soft-spoken individuals who quietly go about their business and avoid any extra attention; Ovechkin doesn't fit that stereotype, but that's not to say he should be vilified for it. His individuality is and should be recognized and celebrated by hockey fans and media worldwide.

This is the first issue I have with this piece; CTV is not alone in shaping these images, they are simply perpetuating pre-existing personas for these two players that have been constructed by various media outlets in Canada and the United States. While Wyshynski wonders whether or not CTV producers are aware of the images they are portraying, it seems obvious that the sole purpose of the feature is a blatant attempt to generate hype for the Olympics and reignite the long-standing hockey rivalry between Canada and Russia (not that it needs it), and not to detract from the accomplishments of Alexander Ovechkin while glorifying those of Sidney Crosby. Propaganda? Perhaps, but what's wrong with drumming up a little nationalist fervor in anticipation of the Olympics, especially with the games on home soil? At the very least, I would expect an American to understand that.

Wyshynski claims that CTV portrays Ovechkin as "being the star of the Russian team" at the Olympic camp, while Crosby was simply "trying out for the team." Not to discount the talent of Russian players, but Ovechkin is clearly the most explosive, talented, and marketable of the bunch. He scored fifty-six goals and one-hundred and ten points last season, second only to Evgeni Malkin, with Datsyuk and Kovalchuk brining up the not-so-distant rear; of course he's the star.

Crosby led all Canadians in scoring with one-hundred and three points, but again, players like Ryan Getlzaf, Jarome Iginla, and Marc Savard weren't too far behind. Jeff Carter and Mike Cammalleri had breakout seasons with fourty-six and thirty-nine goals respectively, while Rick Nash also hit the fourty-goal mark in 2008-09. While Crosby may be amongst the elite of Canadian NHLers, he doesn't necessarily possess the same individual "star power" that makes him stand out amongst other skilled Canadian players as Ovechkin does.

The bottom line is that CTV is catering to an audience of Canadian hockey fans (or so they thought), and thus a feature documenting the rivalry between Crosby and Ovechkin, Canada and Russia, is going to be biased. They are telling us what they think we want to hear, showing us what they think we want to see. This is not to say that all Canadians share the sentiments about Crosby and Ovechkin so often expressed through the media or that they even view Crosby in a more favourable light. As for Wyshynski's assertion that the feature didn't answer the question of "who's better?" as implicitly promised, is that really necessary anymore? Honestly, I tired of this so-called rivalry quite some time ago; can't we just appreciate both players for what they contribute to the sport we love? I can't help but think that one Toronto media tour does not give Greg Wyshynski the right to make generalizations about Canadian hockey fans and the diverse contributions to the world of sports media that we have to offer.

If my take on the Crosby vs. Ovechkin saga doesn't do it for you, maybe this one courtesy of Bloge Salming will:

Comic gold.

Alright, now that that's over with:

Minnesota tomorrow.

The Wild appear to be back to their notoriously stingy selves after winning a 1-0 snoozer against the Avs last night, and are 11-4-3 in their last eighteen games. Minnesota is another team that doesn't have best of luck at the 'Dome, and Flames fans should hope that that trend continues as it appears their injury situation may be getting worse by the day. Adam Pardy left practice early this morning while Iginla, Nystrom, and Conroy were given the day off for "maintenance." There have been no updates on Cory Sarich, who appears to be suffering from an incurable Forsberg-esque foot ailment, which is concerning, but not dire. That being said, Sutter expects everyone but Sarich to play Friday, which probably means that they will all be sitting in the press box with emergency call-ups from Abbotsford taking their respective places in the lineup.

Game time is 7:00PM on Flames PPV.

Go Flames Go.

BOA Round 3 preview/assortment of miscellaneous thoughts

The Flames continue their five-game homestand tomorrow night in the third installment of this season's Battle of Alberta and the first on home ice. The Flames are tied for second in the Northwest with their provincial rivals at 6-2-1, and it goes without saying that this is a big game. We all hope to see a follow-up of the resilient effort we witnessed Tuesday against Columbus, and I envision this game going one of two ways:

1) The Oilers come out flying, full of energy fueled by their comeback win against the very same Blue Jackets last night and filled with a thirst for Jarome Iginla's blood. The Flames, who haven't played since Tuesday, look unprepared and lethargic, surrender two quick goals to Edmonton and are forced to play catch-up.

2) The young Oilers get carried away with their bloodlust and succumb to undisciplined play. Stortini and MacIntyre goon it up and the Flames capitalize.

The Oil are clearly still ticked about the "cheap" play that resulted in Sheldon Souray sustaining a concussion, and expressed their feelings in a segment on Sportsnet news where Pat Quinn attempted to clear his name from his media mud-slinging of Iginla a few weeks back. It's understandable, a head injury is serious business--just ask Darcy Tucker--but Iginla has made it clear that he had no intent to injure Souray, and the play was simply an unfortunate result of the fast-paced nature of the game. Whatever the Oilers need to get motivated for the game, I suppose.

Players to watch out for: Dustin Penner--no, you're not hallucinating. Penner collected five points Thursday against the Blue Jackets; Pat Quinn must have promised him a box of Krispy Kremes after the game. Penner has seven goals and seven assists for a total of fourteen points this season, and has been compared to a "young Todd Bertuzzi." Watch your necks, boys, he might snap at any moment.

Edmonton will no doubt ice an enforcer or two in tomorrow's game, so watch for McGrattan and/or Prust to go up against the likes of Stortini and MacIntyre. Jarome Iginla will no doubt have to defend himself against the Oilers' fists of fury--which we all know he's capable of, but would undoubtably rather see the captain pick up where he left off Tuesday, with three points and a +3 rating against the Blue Jackets. The Flames will have to make sure they match the Oilers' intensity to start the game, and Iginla has to be a big part of that.

Elsewhere in the league...

Sergei Gonchar is expected to be out for at least a month with a broken wrist. That's two Russian defencemen down; it appears Operation Take-Out-Potential-Russian-Olympians is nicely underway. Time to start going after the big guns--start hacking away at Ovechkin's ankles Bobby Clarke style, pay off Todd Bertuzzi to take out Pavel Datsyuk during practice and make it look like an accident...the possibilities are endless.

Speaking of Ovechkin, he was fined $1,000 today for his slew-foot on Atlanta's Rich Peverley a day after Evgeni Artyukhin was suspended for three games following a similar play. We all know that a double-standard exists in the NHL regarding punishment of star players and that repeat offenders will be punished more severely than first-timers, but this isn't the first time Ovechkin has disregarded the NHL rulebook. Remember his knee-on-knee hit on Sergei Gonchar in the playoffs? Ovechkin didn't receive so much as a slap on the wrist from the league on the play which tore the Pens blueliner's MCL, and is now being treated as if this is his first offence. I'm all for playing with an edge, but as a player you have to know where to draw the line.

Most people were of the opinion that the Minnesota Wild would struggle to implement new head coach Todd Richards' up-tempo, offence-first system, but not to this degree. Not only can the formerly stingy Wild not find the back of the net, they can't seem to keep the puck out of theirs. With Havlat injured, I wonder if Minny would be willing to take Olli Jokinen off our hands? Half-price...?

Lastly, the Phoenix Coyotes beat the Wings in overtime last night with goals from Matthew Lombardi and Adrian Aucoin. I'll let you mull that one over.