Battle for the Ages: Flames host Canucks tonight

Posted on March 12th, 2011

Archived in Calgary Flames, Game Day, Northwest Division, Playoff Race, Western Conference

Tags

Game Day, Playoff Race, Saddledome, Vancouver Canucks

The league-leading Vancouver Canucks come to town tonight to play the Flames for the 2nd last time of the season. Vancouver is looking to keep their push for the President’s Trophy alive, while the Flames are looking to inch their way closer to a playoff spot. Calgary has played 70 games and sits in 8th place in the Western Conference with 81 points. Vancouver currently has 97 points in their 69 games and is first in the NHL with a 7-point lead over Philadelphia.

The game will be on CBC tonight, and puck drop is at 8pm. Look for the Flames to bounce back after a shootout loss to Phoenix earlier this week on the second of their back-to-back game nights. The Flames path will be somewhat hindered by the loss of Brendan Morrison, who found nice chemistry with Alex Tanguay and Jarome Iginla on the Flames top line before going down with a knee injury. Also out of the lineup tonight is Freddy Modin, who will be replaced by Lance Bouwma.

Expect Kipper to be in net. Bring your lasers, Canucks fans.

The Canucks will (agan) be looking to the Sedins for some offence. Daniel Sedin leads the league with 86 points and Henrik leads all skaters with 65 assists. It would be a surprise not to see Luongo in net tonight.

In case you needed any more incentive to cheer tonight, here’s a look at the situation leading into tonight’s game. I created a poll to ask where you think the Flame will end up at the end of the regular season. Have a look and vote!

A quick peek at the Calgary Flames Schedule shows that we have our work cut out if we’re going to make the post season. Yes, 5 of our last 12 games are against either the Oilers, Avalanche or Blues, but we’ll have to steamroll past the Canucks and Anaheim twice more, and we play Phoenix, San Jose and LA once more each, and they’re right in the thick with the Flames.

Calgary Flames Schedule

It would be an understatement to say that every point is critical right now. We need the two points as bad as the next team, so let’s wake up the crowd early tonight and kick some Canuck ass!

About Greg Hounslow (554 Posts)

Greg is the founder of Red Mile Blog has been following the Flames through good times and bad since they arrived in Calgary in the early 80s. He has written hundreds of articles on the Flames since 2005 and considers himself an expert on hockey inconsistency and frustration. He shoots right and usually plays defence, but has been known to jump up in the rush. He is a 2-time CAHL men's league champion and knows the sweet taste of beer from a Cup.

OldeBuffalo

IT’S THAT LITTLE BLACK THING!

As much as I hate the Vancouver Canucks, I must admit they do a lot of things right and those things are likely to carry them a lot farther than my Flames this year. How many times have we seen the Flames leave the points uncovered in their own end while our 2 wingers are back helping Mikka play goal? How many times have we seen the other team use their uncovered point men to receive a wide open pass or to shoot unobstructed from our blue line? How many times have we seen the other team’s point men pinch, in successful efforts to prevent the Flames from exiting their own end? Far too many I’m afraid!

The Canucks have (as have most other teams) obviously figured out that the Flames get more pleasure out of board crashing, glass shaking body checks (usually by two Flames forwards) than they do in having the first checker separate the Canuck defenceman from the puck and having the second forward get position of the puck. Far too often we witness two Flames players having to untangle themselves, after one of those bone-rattling checks, watch as the Canucks skate away with that little black think called a PUCK.

Gone are the days when the Flames could check most teams into submission so they didn’t want to have anything to do with the puck when it was anywhere close to the boards. Smart teams figured out a couple of seasons ago how to overcome that strategy. The Flames coaching staff hasn’t caught on to it yet.

IT’S THE PUCK STUPID!