Since Vancouver Calgary has turned around the ship in terms of defensive play (almost 100%) and offense (over 30 shots for the fourth game in a row). The folks not turning it on is the first line, in particular Jarome Iginla. Iginla has picked an inopportune time to take his worst slump of year, not scoring a point in now five games. The difference tonight was really the top lines. Pittsburgh’s scored, Calgary’s didn’t. Crosby scored, Jarome didn’t.
Secondary scoring is lacking, as usual, but in reality the team is playing good hockey. The top line, lead by Iginla, may be working hard, but they are paid to score goals, and goals are hard to come by. Maybe ‘one of these games’ they’ll break out, but valuable points are being lost and the top players are, frankly, not playing like their the top players.
Offer your thoughts below, a short post game tonight.
Notes: Craig Conroy back in the line up, along with Jamie Lundmark. Steffan Kronwall to AHL, he cleared waivers.
Unfortunate outcome since once again we out played the opposition with not the end result we deserved (in my opinion). I still worry about scoring on this team, but at the same time it baffles me why the whole team seems to be in the same scoring funk. You would think with Lanks, Glencross, Bourque, Iggy, Olly, etc we wouldn’t be having this problem. I hope this trend doesn’t last or Sutter will be forced to make some sort of trade to try and remedy this situation. Let’s get er done Friday boys, GO FLAMES GO!!!
Utterly disappointing game. Frustrations were primarily due to the back to back penalties called against the Flames. Frustrating because this is the second time that opponents have capitalized on power play when Jokinen is in the penalty box. With the exception of one goal on man advantage, the powerplay is non existent. The team generated a lot of offence in terms of shots on goal, but Fleury had been more effective than Kiprusoff. Defensive efforts were also poor because as soon as the Flames tied the score, the Penguins led by one again.