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I looked closely and I'm pretty sure I'm right--Hamrlik still uses a wood stick. And with that woodstick comes an enormous shot (why he doesn't shoot more often is beyond me (why Tanguay doesn't shoot more often is also beyond me)).

Hamrlik took a one timer off a Huselius pass at the end of the 1st period that hit three posts and back out again. The refs conferenced and the goal was deemed legit. Replay showed the puck was hit so hard it banked off the post, then the inside cross bar, then the inside middle bar, then out again.
Get this, for once the Flames actually started the game with a tank of energy. 28 seconds into the game Iginla worked hard down low to set up a quick Langkow shot. Before, the Canes failed to clear the zone and with Iginla parked in front, the Flames scored to make it 1-0 on netminder Grahame.
On the final play of the game Iginla netted an empty netter but looked over to Frisen thinkin, "maybe he'd like to score 1 this season?". Friesen courageously shook his head giving Iggy the all-ok to score. Iginla needs one more goal for 300.

Ritchie Regher was called up, and Giordano was sent down. Basically a chance for Ritchie to get some exposure up North and Girodano gets some playing time. Kiprusoff once again played solid, racking up another shutout.

Next up, the Wild on Thursday.

All we needed was a horn, lights, a bounce off the goalie's mask, and a crossbar. That was the sequence of events for Kobasew who finally scored a funny goal to give Calgary a 2-1 win over Columbus.Calgary was down coming into the third, but Jarome Iginla scored early to give the Flames some life. Trailing 1-0 entering the third, Iginla scored his 13th goal at 4:10. Robyn Regehr's shot from the blue-line hit Iginla in the leg as he screened Leclaire. The puck dropped down at his feet and he knocked it past Leclaire to tie the game.

Leclaire had kept the Flames offence at bay with some sensational goaltending. In one stretch in the second period, he came across the net to denyMarcus Nilson's shot from close in. Shortly after, Leclaire jabbed out his blocker to deflect away a dangerous slapshot from Kristian Huselius.

Luckily, the Flames didn't stop working, outshooting Columbus 31-19 and doing some solid penalty kill work. A good character win against a team they should beat anyways. Next up Carolina at home Tuesday.

The Calgary Flames will honour one of the greatest players in team history by retiring goaltender Mike Vernon’s number 30. Does he deserver it? I'd say so, '89 was the best year for the Flames and fans.

Vernon spent 13 seasons of his 20 year NHL career in Calgary. The Flames will pay tribute to Mike Vernon by raising his number 30 jersey to the rafters of the Pengrowth Saddledome in a pre-game ceremony when the Flames host the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday, February 6, 2007.

The only other player to have their number retired is Lanny. The next player will likely be Iginla if he retires a Flame. The rest of the 'Flames' greats will be retired by other teams no doubt.

What's this? Almost 40 shots, a powerplay that works, a penalty kill that still sucks (5 on 3), yep, two steps forward today. The Flames took advantage of their powerplays today scoring three times.

Iginla started things off in the 1st period tipping in a Phanuef 'this is how you pronounce my name--Dion' point shot. Kiprusoff was off to his old self keeping the Flames ahead for the rest of the period. 1-0 at th end of 1.

The floodgates opened in the second as somehow the Flames started scoring on the powerplay. Nothing really change other than some hard work. Same point shot, same down low game. Albeit Colorado wasn't playing their best, but hey, we'll take it. 3 goals from Hamrlik, Lombardi, and Phanuef made it a 4-0 game.

Fast forward to the third and the Flames found themselves down 2 men. The obvious happened and Miikka's shut out was snapped. The Flames didn't let up and five minutes later Tanguay scored (wow, he actually shot the puck) to make it a 5-1 game. Colorado would later get 1 more but that was as close as they'd get.

Great forecheck all night long, the lines were clicking cause they were moving their feet. The Dome wasn't full (if you don't want to go to the game cause you're cold then send them to me,) but the Flames were still energetic sensing the urgency to win this game.

Ice Chips: Props to MCcarty, not sure why he didn't pound Laperierre when he had him tangled up, ended up taking a few shots. Nice to see Ritchie getting some good ice time too, he has wheels at least....Anybody catch the elbow against Friesen in the 1st period that blanked him out. Anyways, next up, Columbus comes to town. Another easy win we need to take.

Apparently the Flames just wanted a nice vacation. Right when the weather got tough the Flames went soft and hid in California. How else can you describe their weekend work? They didn't win, so they have nothing to show but a nice tan. It's also apparent that the Flames wanted to take two nights off, sleeping through games hardly mustering sustained offense. If this is really Jim Playfair's new offense let's see some change from the dump and chase that's barely working as is.

It's also apparent the coaching staff has little idea how to run a PP or PK. It's surprising since the PK was a strong suit last year with Playfair around. With 'Mumbles' Preston still around (we didn't have a bad PP last yaer) why aren't things working? Well for starters the effort is non-existent. For millions of dollars it's too much for smart and hard working hockey. Too often the Flames found themselves out worked on the man advantage. They managed a garbage goal with 40 seconds left on the PP, but that's too little too late.

What's even sadder is the defensive play that was supposedly turning around. For some reason it's a good idea to play shotty defence taking two steps backwards instead one forward. All night the Flames were outworked in their own zone, giving up over 6 breakaways, 4 to Selanne, two of which he scored. Yes Mclennan could have done something better than stupid poke checks but hey, somebody adjust to the Ducks offence....Oh right, the Flames can't do that these days.

Selanne and Ryan Getzlaf scored on power plays and Samuel Pahlsson also scored for the Ducks, who are off to the best start in franchise history at 17-2-6 and are tied with Buffalo for the most points in the league. Pronger and Francois Beauchemin each had two assists and Todd Marchant scored an empty-net goal.

Kristian Huselius had two goals and Daymond Langkow scored on a power play in the final minute for the Flames, whose 3-0 win over the Ducks on Nov. 10 in Calgary was Anaheim's first loss in regulation after an NHL-record 12-0-4 start.

Jamie McLennan made 34 saves for Calgary. But the Flames had another tough night on the power play, and have only two goals in 21 chances over the last four games.

BTW, check out the forum we're we'll put up a 'bash Selanne' thread up. That guy shows how to play the game folks. You dive when you have the chance, whine to the refs, play hard, whine to the refs, make some good deaks, cheap shot, complaining to the media about players cheap shoting you, dive, whine to the refs, score some goals. It's the way the game should be played, Ducks hockey.

The Calgary Flames managed to beat a struggling Chicago team in the second of back to back games that saw the Flames lose yesterday in Edmonton. Tonight, Calgary repeated their hard nosed forechecking to slowly grind away the opposition.

I was at this game and in all honestly it was just as boring as the Edmonton game the night before. The only difference was this time the Flames a) scored on the PP, Iginla finally did something out of the ordinary and sat in the slot, b) scored on their chances. This isn't to say the Flames scored on all their chances, but they managed 3 goals and 1 empty netter against the Bulin-wall.

Lombardi scored off a nice feed from Huselius, much needed second line scoring is picking up, and Amonte potted a goal off a nice feed from Ritchie. Hardest working Flames would have to go to Ritchie, he was buzzing all night long. Nice to see that guy work hard and get some playing time.

Defensively the Flames are slowly returning to their true form. The 6 were solid all night and boring up front. The game was pretty much error free from a defensive standpoint. Iginla had two goals, Tanguay two assists, and the Flames push into 8th spot in the West. Not bad for a night's work.

Some pictures of the game including a Harvey the Hound dance are located in the gallery. The last minute is also on tape where Iginla scores the empty netter. Next up, Saturday against LA and Sunday against Anaheim. The Flames get away just when the bad weather rolls around. Look for Mclennan to get in for LA.

The battle of Alberta finally got on track with the same old same old. Actually this time, it was pretty boring. For almost the entire game the Oilers had trouble answering to the Flames consistent forecheck, but in this league you actually have to score occasionally.

All it takes is one break down in coverage, one bad save, to lose a game. That's what happened late in the third period when Sykora picked up a bad rebound all alone to put the Oilers ahead.

One would think the battle of Alberta would be a hard hitting affair. Nope, not this time though. The only penalties were for hooking, 7 of them, for Calgary. How many powerplay goals? None? You'd think the coaches would put together a package that involves more than dump and chase and point shot. It's been the same since 2004. Any team with half a coach would design something to take advantage of cheating forwards on the powerplay.

Anyways, blown opportunities (there weren't many) and inability to score dealt the Flames a blow today. The good news? 7 straight at home coming up which means a chance to get back on track in a hurry. Unfortunately, this was a 4 point game as the Oilers are now 5 points ahead of the Flames but we have 2 games in hand.

Next up, Chicago. I'll be at this game so look for some pics tomorrow. Giordano was called up as well, look for him to get into the lineup as Zyuzin took a puck to the foot in the 2nd and never came back.