Minnesota is awful to watch, at least during road games. They hardly try to accomplish anything offensive whatsoever. Calgary wasn't much better. It looked like two teams who just didn't want to lose.
Irving played pretty well, but he's too excitable or something. No need to dive out at that guy on the goal against. The shootout moves were good, but he bites so hard. Give Macdonald a chance, maybe the team will play better in front of him.
I thought this was Cervenka's best game as a Flame. Honestly, after the Vancouver game I was beginning to think that he just didn't have NHL speed or compete level. That remains to be seen over the long term but I thought he was good tonight.
If Iginla can't play at a higher level than this consistently, then I'm basically on board with getting him to a team where he can be a great support player and I'm not sure how different the results would be.
On the other hand, I think that with the composition of the team (3 second lines), missing Cammalleri, Baertschi, and Backlund prevents the team from playing the only kind of game that gives them a chance to win. Street doesn't provide anything close to the game Backlund does and I don't understand the appeal of the guy.
On a more positive note, I thought that Bouwmeester, Wideman, and Brodie played very well today and I agree with Rob Kerr that we seem to be watching the emergence of an important player for the franchise.
With all of our streaky players, I am at least looking forward to a surge when a bunch of them catch fire at once. I'm certainly getting tired of watching one or two guys looking good per game.
Go Flames Go!
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