Hot on the heals of a brutal showing in Vancouver, the Flames were back at home to take on the Oilers to close out the 2008 preseason. The Flames, apparently decimated by a brutal case of the flu, iced a largely veteran lineup missing a large number of key cogs while the Oilers used the game to continue to assess some of their younger talent.
The Oilers came out of the gate with a lead in play, Andrew Cogliano managed to eek out a penalty shot that he failed to score on, but it would be the Flames who ended up on the board first with a weak wrister from Jarome Iginla. The Oilers would score a weak goal of their own to tie it up and over the rest of the first and the start of the second the Flames would completely fall apart with turnovers on routine clearing attempts resulting in the puck in the back of the net.
Then the wheels fell off the Oiler bus as they entered a ridiculous series of penalties including three penalties at the same time, once of which resulted in Oiler coach Craig McTavish being banished from the game. Don’t let the shot totals fool you, the Flames spending nearly half the second period on these power-plays. The first of the Flames two-man advantages resulted in an injury to forward Todd Bertuzzi, a blessing in disguise. The second ended with a flurry of fights, something you’d expect from a typical Oilers-Flames matchup.
The Flames would tie things up as Brandon Prust threw a puck on net and Jarome Iginla sitting on the doorstep to bank the puck past Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers with his noggin. Teams traded chances going into overtime where it looked like the Oilers would try to make it to the shootout to win the game until Curtis Glencross stole the puck at the Oilers blueline and scored on the breakaway.
Whether or not the Flames are truly hurting from the flu may be up for discussion, but considering how the Flames came out tonight, and how they played for most of the game, it looks like it’s really hurting them. There was little to no energy from the Flames until the Oilers second period penalty parade and the injury to Todd Bertuzzi after which the Flames found enough life to take down the Oilers.
The Flames start the real deal on Thursday night in Vancouver on CBC but will need to trim the fat before the 8:30PM puck drop.
Making the Grade
Brandon Prust: not a stellar game, but the example of the type of player Prust is was shown tonight as he took on the much larger Dustin Penner and held his own.
Work in Progress
As mentioned before, not much showing from youth with the flu ravaging the Flames lineup.
New Kids on the Block
Curtis Glencross: Scored the overtime winner and created the Flames second goal of the game with his crease presence. Looked pretty good using his speed and size. Odd to see a number 20 in the defensive zone.
Andre Roy: Looked like he wanted to go with MacIntyre all night, but the cards just never lined up. Not the best showing from Roy, but he didn’t hurt anything.
Jamie Lundmark: Played a whale of a game, spending most of the second half of the game with Jarome Iginla, but don’t let that confuse you. He’s not here to stay.
Todd Bertuzzi: To be honest, he was brutal. He should be able to use his size and strength to muscle through players, or at least hold onto the puck and frankly he was nothing but a detriment to the team. He was slow, lazy, and if Mike Keenan tries to force chemistry between him and Jarome Iginla one more time, this writer will scream. It ain’t there, line him up with the Goodfella’s
Home Grown Assertion
Dustin Boyd: Probably playing due to sheer numbers, he wasn’t overly impressive tonight. Most telling thing was how absolutely gassed he looked at the end of the game. A very tired player.
David Moss: You’d barely know he was on the ice tonight. Little to no impact.
Rhett Warrener: I love the old Homestar Warrener, but he’s done in the NHL. He doesn’t have the wheels for it anymore. Sorry bud, your body just aged too fast.
Ponder Points
When all is said and done the Flames come out of the preseason with a good record of 5-2. So what do we take away from these seven games? If you looked into the past two games and looked at them from a pure stats perspective you wouldn’t have a good assessment of the game. With the health of the team in question, and the variance in lineups your views can be easily skewed. So you look at specifics within the way the Flames approached the games, or how individual players played in context.
Someone might look at Miikka Kiprusoff tonight and call out his play. I wouldn’t be so quick to judge. The first goal tonight was bad, plain and simple, but the others? Blame that on the guys infront of him. You could question the preparation of the team, but the lineup wasn’t indicative of how we can expect the start of the regular season to look, so take what you want from the preseason. It’s over and now the real thing begins.
