2:00PM afternoon start, weird for hockey in this town, but people will take it, plus it was Iginla bobblehead day for the first 2500 fans in the Dome. Matinée games are brutal to watch cause they seem so much slower, the fans even have less edge. When you can hear the players talking on the ice you know the fans are quiet.

Nashville wasted no time to get off to a quick start. Thank Dion Phaneuf for yet again arrive first in the corner, slowing up so he wouldn’t get hit, lost the puck, then chilled out with one hand on the stick losing his man in the slot who quickly scored. The Flames go down 1-0.

Hate him or Love him?



Couple Dion’s play with a lackluster crowd and before you know it the Flames saw themselves down 2-0. Both penalties against Regher and Moss were questionable to say the least….but reality is Calgary is lost on lines 3-4. Goal droughts are killing the team slowly.

Phaneuf scored on the PP thanks to a deflection. To bad he doesn’t score more goals than he causes; consistency seems to be the need in his game.

In the second period Calgary found their legs sparked by Brian McGrattan’s beat down on Wade Belak. Jarome Iginla started the comeback with a sweet snapshot for his second point of the game and 18th goal. Seven minutes later Iginla struck again banking a pass off a sprawled out Nashville defender to take the lead.

Calgary seemed to forget the gameplan with the lead in the second and started to loose battles down low. Nashville scored two more unanswered goals late in the second and early in the third to re-take the lead 4-3.

The Flames didn’t seem to have any legs in the third period barely registering hits and having trouble generating scoring chances.

The top line managed big points, Iginla with three this afternoon. The rest of the team? Dragging their feet. Bouwmeester is a seven million dollar bust with nothing producing–he won’t even make team Canada because he’s fallen off the map in the past 10 games. Phanuef is a 6.5 million dollar bust-sometimes, another no invite for team Canada. The entire lines of 2-4 on offence are non-existent.

Calgary is suffering from a simple thing that hopefully santa will fix soon: inconsistencies. They do not show up as a team for games. Only half of players are on page at any given moment. At this rate they’ll drop like a rock and become the NHL’s biggest salary laughing stock bust.