Matt Cooke Cheapshot – Langkow Lost on Cheap Hit

There are only a couple of teams that have flourished since the NHL changed their instigator rules to permit smaller agitator players room to take liberties. matt cooke, byron ritche, jeff cowan, and alexandre burrows. Tonight Cooke took three strides and planted Langkow straight from behind into the glass. Cooke got two minutes. Phanuef beat on Ohlund (wasn’t Ohlund that hit him, duh,) and the Flames didn’t even get a PP. Langkow would not return.

It will be surprisingly to see if the league even reviews the hit as they encourage this type of aggressive play.

You’d think the hit in the second period would spur the Flames on, but in reality it only compounded an already terrible game by the home game who were down 0-3.

Calgary Fans Give Another Poor Showing



Home is no longer home. Although it would make sense if the Flames actually played hard and gave the crowd a reason to cheer, lately the crowd has been as lazy and quiet. Some sustained momentum would be nice to help them along though.

Calgary has played poor and without heart for at least 5 games now. You would think Iron Mike would get things rolling but nothing yet. Maybe play Godard some more? (Too bad he can only skate marginally better than Oliwa, but then again we made the Stanley Cup playoffs with Oliwa….)

Calgary did wake up, they did show up to play, for about 7 minutes in the third. They scored twice, both Eriksson and Nolan getting their first goals of the season. But seven minutes a game is not enough to win NHL hockey games. Vancouver came our ready to play, got lucky with a few posts, and capitalized on their chances. Calgary did not.

Craig Conroy continues is mediocre and damaging play. He hasn’t been a number one C since 2004 and now he’s 38. In the very least the man needs to stop taking his 1-2 minors a game hurting the team in the process. All the vets, Tanguay, Nolan, and Conroy take lousy and lazy penalties daily. A shake up is needed.

Best Flame of the night was clearly Robyn Regher by far. Worst Flame? Conroy and Hale. Vets Yelle and Nilson could benefit the team with some more ice-time IMO. They, along with Sarich were benched. Warrener was out again with a throat infection. Langkow left the game with a concussion.