[Caged Great]

I wrote an article over at fireside chat

Borrowing some symbolism from the great Robert Johnson, the Flames have finally arrived at the crossroads.


With their starting goaltender sidelined with a long term injury, their star forward only scoring twice in his last twenty six games, along with their number two defenseman making more mental mistakes than most rookies, and the rest of the team being wildly inconsistent, it is not difficult to imagine why the Flames are having some serious difficulties. Only twice this season the Flames have been able to hold the opposition to two goals or less. In those games, the opposition has started their backup goalies more so than not and yet they have still only managed five wins. Four of those came against teams that are not currently in a playoff spot, and the other win was against the team currently in eighth. It would be more reassuring if we were heading into an easy stretch of games, but of the next 18 games only 6 games are against teams that they have either defeated this year or have had an easier time with in the past (Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, and Colorado).


That's not to say it's all doom and gloom. We have seen some decent stats put up by several of our players. Alex Tanguay has 12 points in 15 games, Mike Cammalleri has 11 in 12. Even Jarome, who has started off slowly, has 10 in 15 games, which has been matched exactly by Lee Stempniak. The much maligned Jay Boumeester is surprisingly on pace for 15 goals in a normal season, after seeing his offense vanish under Brent Sutter. Therein lies the rub. We do have solid players, attractive players. If I were a contending team, I would be looking at the Flames because there are several players that you could conceivably fold into your own team and see them contributing towards the goal of winning the cup.


Herein lies the crossroads.

The link to the full article is here

http://www.firesidechat.ca/2013/02/2...o-their-knees/