You can tell teams struggle with the Flames' team speed. That's an asset for us as we're not a very big team.
This was clearly a very important game for the Flames. Chance to lose two games in quick succession and perhaps lose confidence and start tumbling. Instead, successful in breaking the bad habit of, as Russell put it, easing into games and falling behind.
__________________
Trust the snake.
The Following User Says Thank You to Bunk For This Useful Post:
Great that Baertschi ( sp) doesnt need to be the saviour of the team anymore - you can see him starting to play the system - smart plays - hard aggressive forecheck and some talent too what a move to come out of the corner to the front of the net and the backhand off the crossbar - he is developing
The Following 8 Users Say Thank You to Burner For This Useful Post:
4 out of the last 5 games have been against clubs the critics of our early success would have pointed to as teams that were good who we hadn't played enough against or at all which was inflating our record.
In those games, we are 2-2. Regardless of record, not sure how anyone can't be happy with how the team looked. In both losses we were at minimum equal with our opponent and simply didn't get the luck or maybe got some weak ones past the goalie. Vs Anahiem in game one, a huge character win in third great push, tonight, reasonable effort and some good goaltending for the win.
I don't think you can leave this set of games thinking we are a better team than Anahiem and Chicago, maybe two of the conferences best, but I think its safe to say the boys proved they can compete with those teams and threaten to win each night. Not sure we could have hoped for more than that. This team keeps putting up more and more check marks that suggest they could be for real.
What a stark contrast between the way we played the 3rd period tonight with a 1 goal lead and the way we played under Brent Sutter with a 1 goal lead.
It's American Thanksgiving tomorrow. Many wise hockey people have stated that if you're in the playoff picture on this date - there's a very good chance you're a playoff team.
