The number five seed Calgary Flames opened the 2008-09 Stanley Cup playoff’s on the road against the number four seeded Chicago Blackhawks. All bloggers and sports pundits have chosen Chicago as the overwhelming victors in this playoff series, much to the chagrin of Flames fans (most of whom picked Chicago too.)
The wild card pundits didn’t expect, the return of a healthy Calgary lineup. In comes Glencross, Phaneuf, Roy, Bourque, and Eriksson (folks, he played solid, imagine if we could have brought more players up, we’d be playing St. Louis right now….)
What the sports writers don’t know is gain for Flames fans because the team had one thing, a great team coupled with experience. These things combined to give Calgary the edge in game 1, a surprise to most.
Calgary resumed their bread and butter intense forecheck and added extra body crunching hits and
relentless puck pursuit. The one thing the Flames could only solve once in the first period was the Bulin Wall.
David Moss scored for the Flames parking himself in front of the net. The Flames also benefited from a four minute powerplay but you know what powerplay do–nothing much.
Calgary put one goal past the Chicago netminder, but had chances to go up at least four times. Chicago had 5 first period shots, Calgary double that.
Things started to change in the second period as Chicago managed to sustain some pressure against the fourth line of Calgary. Cam barker had two cracks on net, the first blocked by Nystrom, the second a short side goal against Kipper who should have made the save.
Fast forward to the third, Cammalleri collected a nice pass from Langkow who was sent on a 2v1 thanks to Bertuzzi. The lead lasted until 5 minutes left when Martin Havlat tied the game after the second defensive breakdown.
The good news Calgary had only two defensive breakdowns, the bad news, Chicago scored on both.
Refs Blow Three Calls Late in Third
In the playoffs part of the run is watching hard hitting in your face hockey without the stupid penalties. Of course, blatant calls need to be taken care of. Instead three penalties were overlooked: one against Kipper who was tripped behind the play (dangerous play); another a trip in the offensive zone (stick stuck in the skates); and the final one running the goalie again.
Alas, it wouldn’t be playoff hockey if the NHL didn’t send a memo to favour American teams (just a shot at Bettman and his US agenda :P)
Overtime would be the name of the game, the first of this year’s playoffs.
Not 10 seconds into the overtime the THIRD goaltender interference infraction was made against Kiprusoff and again no call. A tiny bump by Leopold sent a Chicago player flying into the crease and instead of an easy save, Kipper was thrown off his skates and the puck went in. The top line got a minus yet again, but the point on the play was the non-call YET AGAIN for running the goalie.
Good news for the Flames, they dominated for 55 minutes and have shown Chicago how they can and will win this series. Let the fans jump back on the bandwagon.
Notes: The talk in the media was Cammalleri’s suppsed elbow to Havlat. HAVLAT IS A EUROPEAN. He embelishes everything. Cammalleri barely touched him, attributing that to Carcillo’s elbow is an example of how stupid you are and how little you know about hockey and using your eyes.
Chicago ran Kipper all night and won the game because they bumped and tripped Kiprusoff. The only solution, run Khabibulin and run him hard. If the refs only call Calgary then you know there is a conspiracy for American teams to win.
You know, I’m ok with this loss because it was so clearly referee aided. Calgary dominated except for a few minutes. I expect a pissed off Calgary to knock out Chicago in six. It won’t even be close. By the way, the top line needs to pick it up, did they even register a shot?
You know, we are misisng the #2 and #4 defenceman, Chicago is missing nobody, we’re doing really good. I’m encouraged, GO FLAMES! Don’t let the paid off refs skew the game!
By the way, scoring on the PP would help.
LET THE SCREW JOB OFFS BEGIN………. oh.. sorry, the flames playoffs. Never fails, the refs do not want the flames to advance
Why wasn’t Iginla played more?
How many minuses was Phaneuf? Somebody tell that boy stay on the blueline or stay home!
Did Defense mean skew or screw??
How disappointing to see Calgary lose the way they did. They were the better team for most of the game, but I feel Calgary took the foot off the gas too much and let them back into the game. Hopefully Calgary can regroup and win the next one. Go Flames Go!!!
Flaming Moe You’re right, the FLames dropped into a 1 man forecheck in the third, too early IMO.
Calgary is looking good folks. Flames in six!
Khabibulin > Kiprusoff will continue to be the story of this series, just like the last time they went head to head. Chicago in 6.
It was interference cause there was no stoping motion from Ladd, but behond that we played a good game, and hopefully we bounce back in game # 2, i would like to see Phaneuf and Iginla play more. Good game in the end, can’t wait for Sarich & Regher to return, hopefully we’ll still be alive.
If the breeze from a Flame sweater even brushes against Habibulin (don’t care if it’s spelled wrong) you can count on a penalty being called…
Flames in six, maybe even five
I am not sure why the intereference and the other two penalty were overlooked and sometimes you wonder what’s happening. You are right about the memo though.
The main thing that problem that was lacking was the number of shots on goal. Flames should start hitting on the target as much as possible. That was not apparent last night with the 25-28 in favor of the Hawks..
Cammelleri had been penalized for his mistake…. no need to pursue this matter further after the three overlooked penalties and the goal in overtime. That was enough punishment for the Flames.
I’m still pretty damn encouraged by what I saw last night. To win…we’re going to have to pay a physical price…but that’s the cost, and that means hitting and getting traffic on Khabibulin (hey…if they’re getting away with it, why can’t we). Keep banging…and then keep banging some more. We can intimidate this Chicago team…did you see Kane on the bench after getting levelled by Bourque.
My guess…Bourque has a better, and bigger game in Game 2, finding his hands…and Iggy shows up as well. Flames win 4-2, series back to Calgary tied up.
Agreed, but the problem is that Flames will be unjustly crucified if the bang hard. Of course, Chicago could get away with everything, but touch Khabibulin and you within seconds the Flames will be two men short…..Trust me…
All the Flames need is defensive forechecking, shot on goal over 25 and stay out of the penalty box. Target, target and target will be the key to game 2
Just play your game as you did in the first period…. and no pushing and shoving…..you are in enemy territory folks.
WE BEILIEVE!.
I beilieve you Colin. The refs never fail because they do not want the Flames to advance
I don’t think the refs will throw the game, and Calgary was in the face of Khabibulin at times. I just hope that the basic and blatant calls are correctly made, that’s all you should expect in the playoffs.