[troutman]

Results Thursday March 20:

BUFF 3 @ OTT 4

OTT 1 @ CGY 2

SJ 6 @ DET 4

DET 0 @ CGY 1

Mikka Kiprusoff is the early season favorite for the Hart trophy with a sparkling 0.50 GAA. The suffocating defence of the Flames frustrated the high-flying Senators and Red Wings, while the bruising Calgarians have intimidated opponents away from the goal crease. The Flames rope-a-dope offence is a style of play that will be emulated by other teams in the league. CGY was able to defeat OTT with only 12 shots on goal. Tanguay and Yelle with the winner scored vs. OTT, while Moss provided all the offence CGY would need against DET.

GM troutman on the early season:

Hey, we're a good hockey team, quite honest. We're battling for the league lead - how much better can you realistically expect to do? You guys wonder why I don't deal with media very often -- it's because I say one negative thing and they blow it up while I say a whole bunch of positive things and they ignore it. So what's the point? There are no bad teams anymore. The playoffs don't start tomorrow. To be quite honest, regular season and playoffs are two completely different things. Take a poll during the season of who people think is the best team and compare it to which team actually wins the Cup. There's a big difference there.

Standings:

GP W L O/TL GF GA PTS
CGY 2 2 0 0 3 1 4
BUF 2 1 1 0 8 6 2
OTT 2 1 1 0 5 5 2
SJ 1 1 0 0 6 4 2
ANA 1 0 1 0 2 5 0
DET 2 0 2 0 4 7 0
PIT 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
VAN 0 0 0 0 0 0 0