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Well first things first, I'm beginning to like the style of hockey of the new Maple Leafs. Albeit the referee's in tonights game were horriable (yes the last penalty on Tucker was a penalty, just as all the other bogus hooks were,) Mats Sundin stole the show by scoring his natural hatrick short-handed with a blast from the point. The Leafs won another high scoring affair 5-4.
The Flames surprisingly scored 4 goals in the contest, coming from behind twice. Mark Giordano got his first NHL goal in the 2nd and then his second goal later in the period. However, it was the rookie and poor defensive play by Phaneuf that caused the Flames to loose this one.

Defence is usually the calling card of the Calgary Flames, lately it's been the weakest link. Twice, once on the game winning goal, Flames defencemen stuck their sticks out redirecting the puck beyond Kiprusoff. If you know anything about hockey then you know long shots can be handeled by the league Vezina winner. However, both re-directed the puck and caused goals each time.

The strongest defensive unit continues to be Hamrlik and Zyuzin, with Regher and Phanuef still playing far below their potential, unable to dominate the opposition's top line. The good news? The Flames are slowly but surely putting together full 60 minute effort.

The first period was hard to watch as the old lazy Flames hit the ice. Iginla had his off and on night, dominating on some shifts and lazily playing along the boards on others. Tanguay is slowly coming into form but it still taking costly penalties and making errant passes. Despite this, the second line with himself, Lombardi, and Kobasew were by far the best line in the night largely because they actually skated hard.

Lots of room for the Flames to improve, it's slowly coming, but for some reason it's the defence that are dragging their feet. The road trip is probably going better than many expected so let's just hope for continued improvement throughout the trip. Next up is Montreal Tuesday.

Jarome leads by example, by missing an open net....but luckily it was with 20 seconds left. The Flames captain continues to lead his team trying to get things going by providing offensive flare and continuing his hard work ethic. In true Flames fashion, the PP didn't clik and the defensive coverage made the game borderline boring, well not quite, but it was still low scoring.

Iginla scored mid-way through the third to provide the only offense the game saw. Two late penalties by the Flames from Hamrlik and Ference made things interesting, but Kiprusoff closed the door to collect his first shutout of the season.

The defense helped him out by playing solid for most of the game, however, why Phaneuf still leads the team in ice time is beyond me. Regher is struggling I know, but that guy needs to play more than 20 minutes a night. Tanguay, the 5 million dollar forward, played less than 12 minutes and found limited action on the second line. He needs to pick up his game but also needs get a chance. By the way, is it just me or was Lundmark the only guy who won a face off all night?
The Flames need all their fowards to get together and start scoring goals becaus eup next is the 'high potent' offense of the Toronto Maple Leafs who have scored more than 5 goals their past 2 games. Look for the same lineup to suit up for Saturday's game that starts at 5:30PM MT on CBC.

The Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights beat the Milwaukee Admirals 7-1 on Saturday night at the Bradley Center. It was the first win of the regular season for the Knights who improve to 1-0-1-0 on the season.

In the first period Tim Ramholt was whistled for a penalty just 40 seconds into the game, but it was the Ak-Sar-Ben Knights who would take advantage. Andrei Taratukhin blocked a shot at the point and raced the other way, converting the breakaway for his first North American pro goal.

The Knights followed with a PP goal (unlike the Flames) when Brad Ference sprung Dave Moss down the left wing with a sharp pass from center. Moss then slipped the puck to the slot where Dustin Boyd beat goalie Karl Goehring with a backhander for his first professional goal.

That string continued late in the period when Justin Taylor handed the puck back to the right point where Brett Palin wristed the puck through traffic and past Goehring to make it 3-0 after one.

In the second Ryan Donally scored off a rush down the right wing for his first pro goal at 9:09. Then after weathering an extended five-on-three penalty kill, the Knights converted another powerplay when Moss fed Richie Regehr for a booming slap shot that beat goalie Scott Reid who began the period in relief of Goehring.

Early in the third period, the Knights continued their barrage. David Van der Gulik notched his first pro goal, slipping the puck underneath Reid while reaching around from the side of the net. Moss then made it 7-0, converting off a netmouth scramble for his team-leading third goal of the year.

Curtis McElhinney was strong throughout, particularly when Milwaukee had the five-on-three in the second. The only goal to beat him was a powerplay tally by Alexander Radulov with less than seven minutes to go. McElhinney finished with 26 saves.

The six goal margin of victory is the largest in Ak-Sar-Ben Knights’ two-year history.

The Knights return to action next Saturday, October 14th when they visit the Grand Rapids Griffins for a 6:00 p.m, The Ak-Sar-Ben Knights host their home opener on Friday, October 20th when they welcome the Syracuse Crunch. If you complain about the NHL schedule you should see the AHL one. The  Knights have a week off this week and then two weeks later play 3 games in 3 nights.

The Calgary Flames were touted by many to win the cup, but quite frankly, they're currently one of the worst teams in the NHL. It appears the team is content with the '1 game on 1 game off'mentality as they were badly beaten by a team that is truly one of the league's best.

The Flames did make it a game, a boring one at that, for the first period, but surrendered a late goal that gave San Jose the lead. Many blown opportunities including open nets and countless powerplays contributed to a game that lacked contniuity and energy. The kind of effort exhibited was akin to game seven of last year's playoffs, a hard sight to watch for sellout crowd (albeit the lower bowl continues to be one of the quietest in the league who really aren't concerned on average about what goes on on the ice.)

For some reason the Flames lacked urgency all game and only showed intensity with 2 minutes left when Alex Tanguay got his first as a Flame. But that was far too little too late, as the Flames were embarassed at home and managed only 1 goal on 11 powerplays. Their 3 high/3 on the same wing is both by design and a sign of lack of communication--I place this one on the coaching staff.

Let's break this game down by each player.

Kiprusoff - average but one can't fault him for the 4 goals, bad defensive coverage all game attributed to the loss.

Amonte - Still banging and crashing but not doing much else, looking like the old Amonte unfortunately.

Ference - Good in his limited play, should have played more perhaps since the top 4 were terrible.

Friesen - Caused the first goal with lazy play and wasn't sharp all night. He could still use some more ice time though.

Giordano - Not bad in limited play, not much expected, not much done.

Probably the best Flames d-man, but that's not saying much today. Played 24:17 and was -1

Huselius - Set up some nice plays and nearly potted a few, was put on the top line after the second, still needs to get off the boards on the PP.

Iginla - Continues to lead by example, but honestly Iggy, I thought you trimmed down so you wouldn't have to hang out on the side boards... Drive to the net guy.

Kobasew - Do you have zero leg strength? He's looing like a 20 goal scorer but needs to play more and show some more balance.

Langkow - Pretty average night missing an open net that could have changed the game. Way more must be done if you're a top C man. Tell me, why do they put the shortest Flames in front of the net for PP? That's why we don't score.

Lombardi - Showed flahses of brilliance, still hasn't scored.

Lundmark - Hardly played, took a dumb penalty, but was playing the point for PP in the 3rd and did alright.

McCarty - We have 4 capable lines but Playfair only wants to p lay 3. As such Mccarty rarely plays only logging 4:42minutes. His first shift was horriable but at least he brings some intensity.

Nilson - Regular checking night with only 12 minutes of play.

Phaneuf - Played one of his worst games IMO. Is useless on the PP, only offers the shot, limited passing skills right now. His defensive vision is really bad, has been for a while, and he needs to paly a lot less.

Regehr - Not bad, but if he's the number 1 d man he needs to paly it. Thornton and Cheechoo manhandled him.

Tanguay - Average again despite one goal, the system needs to help this guy out cause dump and chase and shoot from the point doens't compliment his skill set.

Yelle - Typical night from sandbox, but why is he playing 17 minutes? Shows you how the rest of the offensive forwards were doing today.

Zyuzin - Had a few bad shifts giving the puck away but largely played average.

That wraps up my analysis, quite frankly the Flames will loose all their road games if they don't bring up their intensity. With a little more skating they'll be just fine. Next up is Ottawa Thursday, that game is on PPV.

I've said it from the start, the Flames will win the season series 6-2, however, with play like today, I may be wrong. The Calgary Flames got new coach Jim Playfair's first win in game two of the 2006-07 NHL season. The season opener at home was met with much fanfare (20 minute pre-game) and also produced results on the ice.

A slow shaky start made many wonder if it was going to be another long night. Once again, the power play for the Flames failed to produce any goals, albeit it looked better than the previous night. Certainly an aspect of the team that needs to improve if post-season success is to come. Lucky for Flames fans, good old Flames hockey of forechecking and crashing the net turned into success as both Flames goals came in the last minute of the 1st and 2nd periods.
One has to be proud of Jarome Iginla, despite a lacklustre performace from the top two lines, he still is coming out every shift and leading by example. You could tell the whole team, including the top two lines, were feeding off of his play as both lines started to mesh as time progressed.

Tanguay and Huselius showed spurts of why much is expected of them this season, however, it was the secondary scoring, actually the tertiary scoring, that gave the Flames the W today. Yelle had a two point night, scoring with less than a minute left in the 1st period and then assisting on Nilson's second period goal with less than a minute left.

By the way, I'm still not sold on Roloson, I still think the guy is more lucky than good, I could be wrong, but I'm not convinced he's 'great'. On the Flames front lots of improvement yet to be made but things are slowly coming together. Next up San Jose at home Monday.

A bit late on this one (3 days), but HSBC Bank Canada has signed an agreement to become the largest financial sponsor of the Calgary Flames team until the end of the 2010-2011 season. HSBC Bank Canada will receive major promotional opportunities with the Calgary Flames and substantial signage in the Pengrowth Saddledome, including two prominent in-ice logos, diagonally opposite one another, around the centre ice face-off circle. HSBC is one of only two companies that will have its logo displayed in the ice. HEre I thought MBNA was the biggest, they do giveaway the most T-shirts for credit cards than any other....

The Flames picked up their play from game seven of last season, which isn't a good thing. A lacklustre effort turned into a 3-1 opening loss again the Oilers. The Fan 960 post game talked about how the Flames ran into the 'hot goalie' and played 'pretty well', I couldn't disagree more.

I've maintained for some time Roloson is not a marquee goalie, but he does make stops. (He made one maybe two great stops in this game, that doesn't really entail HOT.) All around, I was dissapointed with the effort from the Flames in general

From the get go the forwards couldn't get anything going in the offensive zone; well I shouldn't say that. Everything after the first 5 minutes was good 'ol Flames hockey: boring, no offense, broken plays, bad passes, etc. The only Flames I could single out as playing average (not bad) was Iginla. Call me out on that sure, but there is plently of room to improve.

The defence had little continuity, for some reason Phaneuf logged almost 7 more minutes of ice time (just under 30) than any other player. I know he plays the PP (which was horrendous), but Regher and Hamrlik can eat up some of his ice time, he's only what, 21?

Hope to see the whole team pick up their game. Playfair has one game under his belt and needs to improve, calling out changes faster (not saying that too many men penalty was his fault,) and using his bench a bit better (Frisen played 8 minutes and Mccarty 2.

The good news is the Flames can rebound quickly with the second portion of the home-at-home series. The home crowd will certainly work wonders for their effort, at least we hope so.

Calgary (0-0-0) at Edmonton (0-0-0)
Preview - Box Score - Recap
Game Info: 8:00 pm MT Thu Oct 5, 2006
TV: CBC; Radio: Fan960AM

The new-look Oilers begin the 2006-07 season against the new-look Calgary Flames in Edmonton to start a home-and-home series.

Both teams have rebuilt this season, Edmonton more so, but let me be first to say that the Oilers will be a) lucky to make the post-season (only the new point system let them take 8th place last season,) and b) will win at most 2 games in the 8 game series against the Flames.

Roloson Vs Miikka Kiprusoff? No contenst, Miikka has established himself at one of the best goaltenders in Flames history. In 2004, he brought the team within a win of its second Stanley Cup. Last year, he led the league with 10 shutouts and a 2.03 goals-against average to win his first Vezina Trophy.

The Flames finished atop the Northwest Division last season, but their 218 goals scored were third-fewest in the West, ahead of only woeful Chicago and St. Louis.

Alex Tanguay, acquired from Colorado for defenseman Jordan Leopold, should be that option. Tanguay was second on the Avalanche with a career-high 29 goals and 78 points last season in only 71 games.

Entering his seventh season, the 26-year-old left wing scored two goals in Game 7 of the 2001 Stanley Cup finals against New Jersey to help the Avalanche clinch their second championship.

After two successful seasons behind the bench, Darryl Sutter relinquished coaching duties to longtime assistant Jim Playfair to concentrate solely on his responsibilities as general manager.

"I tell you what, I think we've got a great team and now we've got a great coach," Sutter said.

The Flames took five of eight meetings from Edmonton last season, limiting the Oilers to three goals or less in six games. The "Battle of Alberta" continues Saturday at the 'Dome. Chat about the game in the forum.

The 2006-2007 season is here, finally! Now I can't say there's that much excitment as a year ago when the lock out happened, but Flames fans are definately pleased that we get another kick at the can this year with what many believe is the best team we've had in years.

The Flames won't play tonight, they do a home-at-home vs. the Oilers, but you can watch Colorado or Toronto tonight....I'll watch Colorado I'm sure. Be sure to stay tuned to FlamesForum for the latest NHL happenings and unique Flames news and forum discussion. Check out our fan gallery as well for some neat pictures. GO FLAMES!

*** 2010-2011 Update. Sportcheck Zone tickets are still available this year, albeit the price has increased. Tickets are also available at different times throughout the year. They are not released at the same time as regular tickets. WE’re looking for those details but SportChek Does a lousy job updating their info. ***

The Flames will continue to have some of the lowest priced tickets in the NHL. Sportchek and the Calgary Flames announced a new three year ticketing partnership designed to support the Flames core ticketing principle of “fairest and broadest distribution.” That means 3 more years of 400 tickets (around there) for $19.99.


“Despite strong demand for tickets, it is imperative to retain a broad and fair distribution of tickets to southern Alberta,” said Flames President & CEO Ken King. “We want to remain committed to a reasonable ticket price for families. We are extremely appreciative to Sportchek for providing us with this opportunity.”

The Flames have teamed with Sport Chek since the 2001-2002 season with the initial introduction of the Sportchek Zone at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

Twelve Sport Chek stores throughout southern Alberta will participate in the initiative and will carry 600 tickets per game. Tickets will be released for purchase in four game increments over the course of the season.

Here is the ad you will find in all Sport Check stores showing the date of games and sale.