The ‘New’ Flames started their first game on a brief Eastern road trip visiting the sunny skies of Florida. In fact, the Flames won’t leave until after their game tomorrow against Tampa Bay.
Most fans are still uneasy with the new look, many haven’t seen the likes of Higgins or Kotalik closely. Jury’s still out on Stajan and Hagman too.
This evening, all goals came on special teams where Calgary looked surprisingly in control.
The PP looked solid, and looked, well it looked like something I’ve never seen on the Flames.
Other positives include solid faceoff presence dominating tonight. The new C’s are paying dividends in this area.
The PP capitalized twice, once by Kotalik and the other a GWG by Giordano who’s quickly making us forget about that Dion guy.
Although the shots were 13-40 for the Flames, the visiting squad didn’t have that many quality scoring chances. Although limiting the home team to just 13 may mean Kiprusoff plays again tomorrow.
The game isn’t quite as tight as you’d like to see, but that’s to be expected given the magnitude of the changes.
They had a lot more hustle than I have seen for some time. Looks like Nystrom is having his ice time reduced somewhat but the new guys are filling in nicely.
I’m starting to be impressed with Backlund. He looks intelligent and is a smooth skater….
I think the Flames are showing their resilience and effectiveness now.. They are scoring on man advantages and hanging on to their one goal lead., which demonstrates their winning apptitude ….That is definitely a plus..Go Flames Go!!!