The wait is not yet over, but we have pre-season to tide us over before opening puck-drop. The Calgary Flames opened at home against, oddly enough, the Florida Panthers. With a handful a vets, it was the rookies who made more of impression in tonight’s game.
Line up today:
Nolan-Lombardi-Tanguay
Primeau-Conroy-Chucko
Nystrom-Yelle-Godard
Sutter -Boyd-Moss
Defence Pairings:
Phaneuf-Ramholt
Aucoin-Regehr
Pardy-Hale
Goalies:
Keetley-Irving
Matt Keetley came up big a number of times but wasn’t able to close the door to the Panthers. He went all the way stopping over 30 shots. Of course, it would be nice if Calgary could score (0-9 on the PP). A typical pre-season game this one was, no past animosity or history between the two teams combined for a normal
Despite many power-play opportunities in the third Calgary couldn’t find the back of the net. In fact, on one of their late PP opportunities Zednik managed to turn the tables and scored a short-handed goal. Late in the third Nolan unloaded a big hit but everyone watched the hit and not a player sneaking in on the wide side who popped in another goal.
To close nobody really stood out and no rookie made an impact. Many of the vets took the night off, Yelle getting 10 minutes, but then again others getting almost 30 minutes like Aucoin and the top line with Nolan-Lombardi-Tanguay. Keetley maybe made a point to get a second-look for the back-up position but that’s about it. Next game, Saskatoon against the Panthers!
