[browna]

Observations after sitting in great seats behind the benches for the first time in a long long time, so pretty easy to get distracted by the goings on on the benches, as its almost within line of sight to the play often....and from our usual seats for the past 15 years, a total different perspective, so can't help but get distracted by those differences.

Tortorella and his assistant (for the forwards - Larsen?) very chatty back and forth, lot of pats on the back and leaning in to talk to guys every few shifts. Whole bench, including Torts and said assistant whooped it up after goals.

Compare that to the Flames bench where didn't see Gulutzan, Gerard, or Cameron, lean in to say anything to any of the guys. The lone Flames goal Gulutzan immediately did his infamous look down at the monitor, and the most amount of talking he did was to the refs. From what I saw, never said anything to any of his assistants all game, and as I said, its pretty easy to see that as I saw it alot on the CBJ side.

CBj very loose and jabbering on the bench while the play going on. Flames bench was like a library with guys just looking straight ahead.

Tortorella and Hartnell shared a lot of laughs through out the game, and most of the CBJ forwards were gravitating around Hartnell during whistles and breaks. After 1 PP in the third, where Brouwer was in front of the net battling with Hartnell most of the shift, Hartnell was off first and then Brouwer 5 seconds behind, and as Hartnell was just getting off the ice, reached back over the boards to give Brouwer a high five as he was arriving at the Flames bench, Brouwer with a head nod. Torts is a pretty active guy behind the bench, rarely looked down at the screen (GG was always looking at it), watched the jumbotron instead for replays. When the Flames got that cheap interference call near the end of that one period, Tortorella looked over at the refs, down at the screen, and shook his head.

Just interesting to watch all that right in front of one's eyes, stuff that you never see on TV while the play is on, or during whistles.

No judging in particular, but certainly watching the Flames players eyes when coming off, they looked a bit lost, almost wanting some direction.

Of course the score, the way that CBJ shut down the Flames for just shots and chances, and the way CBJ is on a roll is indicative of that, but certainly the coaching staffs have different personalities and approach their players differently on the bench, and that would be the same basic thought if CBJ had lost 9 in a row I'm guessing too.