Raffi Torres was suspended 25 games for late hit on Maran Hossa

The NHL issued this statement:
NEW YORK — Phoenix Coyotes forward Raffi Torres has been suspended for 25 games for launching himself to deliver a late hit to the head of Chicago Blackhawks forward Marian Hossa during Game 3 of the teams’ Western Conference Quarterfinal playoff series in Chicago on Tuesday, April 17, the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety announced today.

Torres already has served one game of this suspension, Game 4 of the series in Chicago on Thursday, April 19. For a full explanation of the decision, complete with video, please click on the following link: http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=60&id=173753.

It’s obvious that Torres’ past history of dirty hits came into play in this decision. I think it’s also evident that the circumstances (tight playoff series, Hossa being one of Chicago’s top players) also came into play.

This is an unprecedented suspension from the NHL for a hit to the head, and I have to admit that I totally agree. Torres is a dirty player, plain and simple. He’s in the same category as Matt Cooke in my books, and he has no place in the game.

What do you think? Was this appropriate, or is 25 games too much?

Brent Sutter is no longer the coach of the Calgary Flames

The announcement isn’t a big surprise after the Flames failed to make the playoffs for a third consecutive season, and certainly sends a message that nobody is safe, both players and coaches. In the same announcement, the Flames confirmed that they will not renew the contract of assistant coach, Dave Lowry.

“Brent Sutter and I met and discussed a number of issues regarding the hockey team and the future,” said Flames general manager Jay Feaster. “Brent and I explored many options and ultimately determined that it is best to proceed in different directions.”

Translation: “we’re not trading Iggy and blowing up the team, so Sutter’s throwing in his hand and going back to Viking, AB to wait until the Winnipeg Jets come calling.”

Here is the Jay Feaster interview following the announcement:

As diplomatic as this announcement was, it is clear that the blame for the Flames poor season lands squarely on the shoulders of the coach, who failed to lead the team into the playoffs. I’m not sure I necessarily agree with this though. The Flames have a problem in their dressing room and I’m not convinced that any other coach would have been successful in sorting them out this season. I think that the Flames’ true problem is a two-faced one.

First, previous (D. Sutter) and present (J. Feaster) Flames GMs never added anyone to replace Iggy’s scoresheet contributions as he ages. It’s clear that Jarome will not be the main offensive guy for the team in the future, so they shouldn’t expect him to bear the brunt of the opponents’ defensive focus every night. But as long as he’s the main point-producer on the team, he will be. The last time any Flames teammate had more points than Iggy was in 1999-2000 when Valeri Bure finished with 12 more points than #12.

Second, too many Flames players are much too comfortable in Calgary. This includes Iggy and all the rest of the veterans, whose lackadaisical, inconsistent attitude rubs off on the young players. As we all know, Calgary is a great place to make your home, but something about the city doesn’t encourage hockey champions. The city takes talented hockey players and miraculously transforms them into lazy players who dominate on the ice ever other game and then drift off into dreams of spending their summers by the lake while watching their opposition shoot 40+ shots on Kipper.

Let’s put it this way: trade me to a nice city and I’ll be distracted by how wonderful it is and how much I like the great restaurants, quality schools and the beauty of the surroundings. Force me to live in an ugly, uninspiring city and I’m going to do everything I can to win a Stanley Cup to make it worth spending my time there. Is it any wonder that the Red Wings have made the post season for the last 21 years? I’ve been to Detroit and it’s nothing to brag about. Calgary’s definitely no Detroit.

The Calgary Flames can tinker with their lineup as much as they want, but they need to do some serious psychological/motivational work if they hope to see any different results in the coming seasons. My belief is this: with Iggy, Kipper, Cammalleri, Giordano, Jokinen, JayBo, Glencross, and Tanguay in their lineup, Flames management believe that they have some serious talent and can make a run of it before Iggy retires. They believe that they will be able to make a few off-season changes and find some magic addition that will make a huge difference. Unfortunately, there are too many Flames fans that have heard enough of that argument and no longer believe it. And I’m one of them.

Alex Tanguay vs. Kari Lehtonen | AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jeff McIntosh

The Flames pulled off a 5-4 victory over the visiting Dallas Stars toinght, but with the exception of a few minutes in the 3rd period, it wasn’t a very convincing win.

Jaime Benn opened the scoring for the Stars just 26 seconds into the game. He also added another goal 44 seconds into the 2nd period.

The Flames powerplay was the difference-maker tonight, as they scored on 3 of 6 attempts. Olli Jokinen, Mark Giordano and Alex Tanguay all scored for the Flames with the man advantage. Blake Comeau and Mike Cammalleri rounded out the scoring for the Flames.

Mike Ribero and Phillip Larson also scored for the Stars.

So what does this mean for Flames fans? Not much, really. While the Flames are “mathematically” still in the playoff race, they are now in a position where they will need help from other teams if they hope to make a post-season appearance. Calgary is in 11th place in the Western Conference, and is the 5th of 5 teams battling for the last 2 playoff spots.

The scoreboard watching will continue for the next few games until the Flames are either eliminated for the 3rd straight season, or they make some kind of miracle push to end up in the playoffs. As much as I still cheer every time they score, and enjoy watching the Flames win, I don’t have a lot of confidence in their ability to pull it off… and I know I’m not alone.

Stasny scores on Kipper | Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

As the masters of their own destiny, the Calgary Flames don’t seem to be doing much with their opportunities. 2 days after losing in the shootout to the NHL’s worst team, they had a chance to put themselves back into the thick of the Western Conference playoff race in Colorado. Unfortunately they didn’t have what it took and ended up losing 2-1 in overtime.

Avs winger David Jones capitalized on a rebound after Paul Stastny drove to the net and banked the OT winner in off Miikka Kiprusoff’s skate. Paul Stastny also scored for Colorado midway through the first period to even the game at 1-1.

Calgary opened the scoring with an early goal from Matt Stajan. Stajan took advantage of a lucky bounce and found the puck on his stick at the side of the net. He made no mistake as he slipped the puck in under Avs goalie Simeon Varlomov to give the Flames the lead.

Of note in the game was a big hit on Cory Sarich that sent him to the dressing room. Perhaps it’s a bit of karma coming back to bite him, but it looked like Sarich suffered a bit of a concussion on the huge open-ice collision with David Jones.

The single point doesn’t really help the Flames. After the loss, here’s what the race for 7th & 8th in the west looks like:

As you can see, the Flames need to gain some ground if they hope to be present in the post season instead of missing the playoffs for the 3rd straight season. San Jose and LA are currently in the middle of a 1-1 second period tie, and one of them will end up with 84 points and 8th place in the west before the night is through.

It’s crunch time in Calgary so here’s to hoping that the Flames will show up with some goals in their back pockets in Minnesota on Thursday.

Tanguay, Iginla and Stajan celebrate Iggy's goal. / Photo: The Canadian Press, Jeff McIntosh

Baertschi’s goal was his 3rd in 4 NHL games after being brought up from the Portland Winterhawks. “The Bear” (OK, this kid needs a good nickname) has been an emergency call-up, meant to fill space on the roster due to injuries, but he has sparked excitement amongst Flames fans that hasn’t been present in a long time. Evidence of this can be seen in the fact that “SVENSATIONAL” has been on fire on Twitter for the past few games.

No player wins games on his own, and Calgary’s veterans certainly contributed tonight. Jarome Iginla, Matt Stajan and Alex Tanguay all scored, for the 2nd consecutive game, to help the Flames to the big win. The two points keeps Calgary at pace with Phoenix and Colorado in the race for the final 2 playoff spots in the Western Conference.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored the lone goal for the Coyotes in the dwindling minutes of the 2nd period.

As great as they played, the Flames may not have won without Mark Giordano tonight. Gio was all over the ice, blocking shots, keeping control of the puck and stopping guys like Shane Doan from turning the game around for the opposition. Gio blocked a shot late in the 3rd, and momentarily left the bench for the dressing room, but he was back on the ice in minutes and closed out the game for the Flames.

The Flames head down the road to Edmonton tomorrow night, looking to extend their season-high win streak to 6 games.

Brodie and Perry in front of Irving | Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images

The loss was Calgary’s 15th straight at the Honda Centre, dating back to a time when Anaheim’s team was still called the “Mighty Ducks” and had a logo that looked like Donald Duck.

The Flames came out to play in the first period, and got on the scoreboard early. On their 2nd powerplay to start the game, Curtis Glencross was in the corner and took a pass from Olli Jokinen, who was out at the point. Glencross fired it along the goal line towards the net and banked it in off Jonas Hiller for his 21st goal of the season.

About three minutes later Teemu Selanne and Bobby Ryan hooked up for a beautiful 2-on-1 goal to tie the game.

The game was very physical and the first 10 minutes of the game featured two fights. Tom Kostopolous took on Luca Sbisa after he delivered a head-shot hit on Tim Jackman and Jarome Iginla fought Francois Beauchemin a few minutes later. The fights didn’t really swing momentum either way.

The second twenty minutes continued to be the bane of the Calgary Flames existence and they barely showed up on the ice in the 2nd period for the 11th consecutive game. Anaheim took the lead at 7:41 when Cory Perry converted on a nice feed from Getzlaf and tipped in his 31st goal of the season.

The only thing that kept the Flames in the game for the rest of the period was their goalie. Instead of the usual acrobatics by Miikka Kiprusoff, Calgary was backstopped by a very solid Leland Irving, who did his best to keep it close. Irving was the star of the game for the Flames made a very strong case to replace Henrik Karlsson as the team’s #2 goalie.

The third period started with a lot of play in Anaheim’s end, and Calgary ended up capitalizing about 4 minutes in. Mike Cammalleri drove to the net and shot a back-hander on Hiller. His shot was stopped, but Alex Tanguay was right on the doorstep and pulled the rebound around the Ducks’ goalie and put it in the net.

Just when Flames fans thought we had another overtime coming, Scott Hannan found himself way out of position while defending a 2-on-2 and let Getzlaf wind up with a monster of a slap shot that beat Irving.

The win moves Anaheim up into 12th place in the west, with 66 points. Calgary remains stagnant at #11, with 69 points. The Dallas Stars, who currently hold down 8th in the west, got an easy 2-0 win over a weak Edmonton Oilers team tonight. Dallas now has a 4-point lead over the Flames with 17 games remaining.

Jackman vs Alberts | Photo by Mike Ridewood/Getty Images

A short time after calling out his players publicly, Jay Feaster only made one contract-related move before the NHL trade deadline. Feaster re-signed tough guy, Tim Jackman, to a 2-year contract extension worth $612,500 per year.

I’m happy with this signing as it’s not a lot of money for a guy who gives 100% every game. This type of thing is is something that the team needs more of and I believe in rewarding guys who work hard, contribute and complete their roles on the team. Jackman isn’t a one-dimensional goon either. He is aggressive on the forecheck, responsible on defence and puts the puck in the opposition’s net every now and then.

As is usually the case, there were a handful of Flames fans who became whiny (yes, you were… don’t deny it) because we didn’t make any major moves. I don’t think this is a big deal though. While I’m not 100% happy with our current lineup and don’t think it’s a championship team, I don’t believe that there is much value in making big splash trades on deadline day.

We’ve been burned a lot more than we’ve been successful during the Darryl Sutter era and we’ve also been saddled with too many expensive contracts by being overly aggressive on trade deadline day. The salary cap situation is becoming increasingly important for the Calgary Flames, and we can’t afford to make stupid moves just for the sake of making some fans happy.

There is one thing that I would have done if I were in Feaster’s seat: I’d have claimed Grant Clitsome off waivers. Clitsome is a solid D-man and to get him via waivers would have been a steal. If we needed to free up some cap space, there’s always Butler and Sarich that I could do without. Send ‘em to the minors, trade them for a bag of pucks… whatever you need to do.

What did you think of this deadline? Leave a comment.

Stajan is dumped by Briere | AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jeff McIntosh

In the 5th round of the shootout, Matt Read’s goal was the difference for the Philadelphia Flyers who walked out of the ‘Dome with a stolen 2 points.

The Flames got off to a great start, scoring two goals in the first 5 minutes. Mark “don’t mess with my Italian family” Giordano scored a powerplay goal 3:45 into the game with a slap shot from the point. Matt Stajan really got into the “retro night” theme as he scored a goal that was reminiscent of his time in Toronto, when he actually contributed to the score sheet. Granted, Stajan has been injured for much of this season, but this one was only his 3rd goal in 41 games.

The Flames, and their fans, must have been feeling pretty good about themselves as they entered the 1st intermission with a 2-goal lead. Despite the horrendous officiating, it looked like everything would work out and that the 2-goal buffer would be enough to hold off the Flyers.

Midway through the 2nd period the unthinkable happened: the Flames actually scored a short-handed goal. This was the Flames first short-handed goal of the season, and it sent the Saddledome crowd into a frenzy. Even more unbelievable was the fact that this shortie was scored by Tom Kostopoulos, who isn’t known for his gifted hands on the breakaway. Alex Tanguay, who was the only top-line Flames player to make an impact tonight, set up Kostopoulos for the short-handed breakaway and the Greek didn’t disappoint.

Cue the comeback. Philadelphia got on the board shortly afterward when Jakub Voracek wristed a shot past Miikka Kiprusoff. Then the Flames collapsed late in the 2nd period and allowed Braydon Coburn to score his 3rd goal of the season with just 34 seconds remaining. After 35 minutes of solid, urgent hockey, the Flames 4-minute lapse caused them to wake up and find themselves with only a 1-goal lead in the 2nd intermission.

I was fairly surprised to read that Pat Steinberg gave Matt Stajan his “Red Warrior” of the night in his post-game write-up. The reason? As good as Stajan played, he made a rookie error by taking an unnecessary boarding penalty while the Flames were already killing a penalty. That put his team down 5-on-3 for almost 90 seconds, and it only took Philadelphia 40 seconds to tie the game. Scott Hartnell’s 29th goal of the season tied the game and took all the wind out of Calgary’s sails.

It really looked like this would be the end for the Flames, but Tanguay had one last trick up his sleeve.

Tanguay was hooked from behind while on a breakaway and was awarded a penalty shot. He skated in on Ilya Bryzgalov, deked and faded towards the left side of the net. With Bryzgalov on the ice, Tanguay roofed it into the Flyers net to put the Flames ahead again.

But it wasn’t enough. Hartnell bagged his 30th of the season with 7:39 to play, and despite their best efforts, neither team could break the 4-4 deadlock before the end of regulation. Overtime solved nothing and it took 5 rounds of the shootout to choose a winner.

The single point is a fair result for the Flames, but it doesn’t help them gain any ground against the other teams they’re in the playof race with. Colorado won back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday and LA, Dallas and Phoenix all won their weekend games so Calgary now finds themselves in 11th place in the Western Conference. With 20 games remaining, the Flames need about 30 points to hope to make the playoffs. I’m always hopeful, but never confident that they have it in them.

Here are the game highlights:

Photo: Gerry Thomas / Getty Images

An 8th place Calgary Flames lose the much needed two points, as the youngsters from Oil-town dominate the 2nd — scoring four unanswered goals during a complete 2nd period breakdown by the Flames.

The Flames did manage to open up the scoring, as Hannan nailed a shot down the slot minutes in, giving Kolanos his first point as a Calgary Flame’ and producing his second goal of the year.

The Flames are 19-6-2 when scoring first, but a persistent, top Oiler’ line was difficult for Kiprusoff to manage alone. Eberle beat the Flames net-minder on a backhand, in the last few minutes of the 1st, leaving a blank slate going into the 2nd.

But the 2nd was all but pretty. The Flames spent more time fumbling for the puck, while the youngsters flexed their energy. The Flames managed a total of 4 shots through out the 2nd, and the Oilers took full advantage. Butler blocked a Hemsky shot, and paid the price as he left with a lower body injury. He didn’t return.

The first unanswered goal was off a defensive scramble in front of Kipper, that gave Hemsky and the Oilers a 2-1 lead half-way through the 2nd.

A flat Calgary Flames seemed to sit back as the Oilers spent most of the period in on the offensive push. Not long after the Hemsky goal, Belanger and Gagner both scored a mere 20 seconds apart to boost the lead. Karlsson made his home debut in the 3rd period as Kipprusoff was pulled from the wreckage after Smyth’s birthday goal and the final of the 2nd. A quick power play goal by Hall would end the painful game at 6-1.

“We were flat physically, mentally, emotionally… We didn’t have any push tonight,” said Sutter in the post-game.

Saying they now need to respond the right way after such a loss, and the right way to respond is to win the next one.

“It is important that we have everyone playing to their potential,” he said, as he hung the 17 odd offencemen to dry.

The Captain chimed in post-game saying to the media scrum, “All the way around, it was just a terrible game… We were extremely flat, were weren’t sharp at all,” adding, “it was our second worst game of the year.”

Fans are well aware that without the scoring the Flames can’t win games. And to rely on our Vezna net-minder night in and night out only complicates the problem.

To make every game just as important as the last is extremely important for team morale, and if the Flames need a little reminder, they should examine the previous year when the Oilers beat out the Flames for a final playoff spot — all in the last game of the season.

Expect to see Glencross and Smith within the next week playing — a true boost to our roster especially with our loss of Butler tonight.

Calgary Flames set to host Phoenix Coyotes Thursday Feb 23 — an extremely important game — as we chase them for one of the few remaining play off slots.

Miikka Kiprusoff makes one of his 28 stops tonight. Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images

More importantly, the win moves the Flames into the playoff picture for the first time this season. Though they are technically tied with the Kings, each team having 65 points, the Flames 28-22-9 record is one win better than LA’s 27-21-11 record. The Flames have also won 2 more games in regulation and OT than the Kings.

Mike Cammalleri scored the lone goal in the game, about 4 minutes into the 3rd period. Cammalleri’s 14th goal of the season can be credited to the hard work of Tom Kostopoulos, who has recently moved from the 4th line to the 2nd line. After a very solid game, Kostopoulos chipped the puck into the Kings end and chased it down to the goal line. He shot the puck towards the net and it bounced off Kings goalie Jonathan Quick right onto the stick of Cammalleri who fired a quick shot into the Kings’ net.

Though the Kings pressed late in the game, their goal scoring woes continued and they were shutout for the 2nd straight game. The Kings, who up until tonight had held down the 8th spot in the Western Conference, have scored the fewest number of goals of any team in the NHL. They have found the back of the net only 124 times this season.

The Flames definitely can’t get complacent now that they find themselves in a playoff spot for the first time since March 2011. They still have a long road ahead to make the post-season and need to win a lot of key games against teams they are competing with in the Western Conference playoff race. On Tuesday, Calgary returns home for a 4-game home stand starting with a game against Edmonton. Then they round-out February with matches against Phoenix, Philadelphia and St. Louis.

March madness will feature 8 of 17 games against the teams the Flames are battling with for a playoff spot. The Flames will play Dallas 3 times, Phoenix and Colorado twice each, and Los Angeles once more. In the 6 seasons since the lockout, it has taken an average of 95 points to make the post season. The Flames currently have 65 points so they will need to win at least 15 of their remaining 23 games to give themselves a chance.

Back in December I had officially given up on the Flames this season. I didn’t think they had what it takes to make the post season. Now, I’m still not sure, but at least there’s hope. What do you think? Will the Flames make the post-season?

Michael Ryder is stopped by Miikka Kiprusoff. Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

All-in-all, Ribero played a great game, as did many of his teammates, whose hard forechecking gave the Flames trouble all night. Calgary put in a good effort, but it was ultimately not enough to earn two points.

Dallas opened the scoring halfway through the first period when Adam Burish took a pass from behind the net and lofted it over Miikka Kiprusoff. It was a real floater of a goal, but it counted.

Jarome Iginla evened the score as time wound down in the period by fighting off two Stars players, putting his stick on the ice and going to the net. Alex Tanguay fired the puck onto his stick from the side boards and Iggy tapped it into the Dallas net to make it 1-1.

Dallas out-shot Calgary 12-5 in the second period and ended up eventually getting the go-ahead goal with just over 2 minutes left. Ribero passed the puck to veteran, Steve Ott, who slapped the puck through a screen and past Kipper into the net. Alex Tanguay had a nice chance to tie the game with about 4 minutes to go in the 2nd, but fired his slap shot off the crossbar.

In the third, the Flames had 4 minutes of powerplay after two Dallas players, Trevor Daly and Ott, took near-consecutive penalties. Unfortunately, the Flames couldn’t find the back of the net, but just after the second penalty expired, Mike Cammalleri scored his 13th goal of the season to tie the game again. After several minutes of disjointed play from his teammates, Cammalleri received a beautiful pass from Jay Bouwmeester while skating to the side of the net and roofed the puck behind Kari Lehtonen.

The Calgary Flames were very lucky to get out of this game with one point. It was definitely a bonus because they were out-worked and out-hustled all night. The good news is that the Flames top players keep scoring. Iggy and Cammalleri both scored goals while Jokinen and Tanguay added assists. Jay Bo also added his 19th assist of the season so, while they may not have put in an great team effort, the Flames big guns are still hot. That will continue to be necessary if they hope to make the post-season.

Here are the highlights.

Photo by Mike Ridewood/Getty Images

Every time the Toronto Maple Leafs and Calgary Flames play some Leafs fan pipes up about how the Leafs “won” the Phaneuf trade. Every time I read this I laugh as it seems that Leafs Nation has not come to fully appreciate the defensive liability that is their Captain… the honourable Dion Phaneuf.

Phaneuf was only minus one in their 5-1 loss to the Flames tonight, but he was instrumental in two of the goals that the Flames scored, which, incidentally enough, is one more than the total number of goals the Leafs scored tonight. Dion was on the ice for the Flames first goal, and didn’t do much to stop Olli Jokinen from feeding the puck to Alex Tanguay in the slot. He was also out of position on the play that allowed Paul Byron to go in on the breakaway, get hauled down, take the penalty shot and score to put the Flames up 3-1.

As any sane Flames fan, who watched the team from 2006 onwards, will tell you that getting rid of Dion is enough to consider any trade a win. Heck, I would have been happy to trade Dion for a bag of pucks and a couple rolls of hockey tape. Not only did we take $6M off our payroll, we got rid of a player that is consistently out of position, is a detriment to the dressing room and is the furthest thing I’d ever think of when I think of “captain” in the NHL.

Can you tell I don’t like the man?

Enough about my Dion prejudice. Besides the fact that Dion sucks, the Flames absolutely dismantled the Maple Leafs tonight. Calgary’s top line was on fire and tallied a total of 8 points on the 3 goals they scored. Olli Jokinen, Alex Tanguay and Jarome Iginla all scored for the Flames, and Blake Comeay and Byron added a goal apiece in Calgary’s 5-goal outburst.

As always, Miikka Kiprusoff played awesome and gave his team a chance to win. He stopped 41 of 42 shots and ended up with a 0.976 save percentage.

Tyler Bozak had the lone goal for the Leafs, who have now lost 7 straight games against the Flames, dating back to Dec 27, 2002.

It was a fun game to watch, and in case you missed it, here are the highlights: