Hmmm, something seems to be amiss. The Calgary Flames don’t win games in October. After all, Iginla always has a slow start. Maybe that guy was dragging the whole team down because early in the 2013 season Calgary has been a pleasant surprise. Admittedly, the sky will come crashing down, or at least that’s what fans expect, but in the meantime, there’s exciting hockey to take in, even if it’s a bit of river hockey action from time to time.

Defensive zone lapses are the achilles heal. The team gets scored on when you expect them to get scored on, not the random times of years past. But they’re also putting up points. Team point leader? Sean Monahan. Is he going to stay up? Well he can’t win a draw to save his life but he’s learning quickly and contributing in big ways.



In goal, Joey MacDonald again, no kari Ramo it seems. MacDonald is steady, but you can’t quite call him a bonafide #1. Every shot fans have the thought in the back of their mind that something bad is about to happen, but maybe that’s just me. For his part, timely awesome saves seem to transpire once or twice a game, tonight no exception as he stoned Markov with the classic double pad stack.

Calgary is finding ways to get points even without some vets like Cammalleri (out for the rest of October it seems) and Matt Stajan. In their place some players trying to prove themselves and getting big minutes (Ben Street), or very small minutes (Colborne), neither are factoring heavily into the Flames recent success mind you.

Monahan, Baertschi with his first, and Glencross all scored for the Flames. Fans are relishing the early success, and wonder if this is what a rebuild looks like, then we’re happy to tag along for the ride.

Next up NJ on Friday, things aren’t getting any easier, mind you, that’s going to be every game this year….