Welcome folks to my 3rd go 'round here on the score. Tonight, the Flames will try to beat the Blackhawks for the first time this season.
Chicago has twice humiliated Calgary in Chicago and narrowly defeated them in OT during their most recent encounter.
The Flames are coming off two tough road losses to Colorado and Dallas. After another winless back-to-back series, Darryl Sutter took to the dressing room to deliver a closed-door stare down of his troops. Team Captain Jarome Iginla held a team meeting the same night to address this issue of the Flames lackluster road record.
INJURY REPORT: Flames are still without 4th liners Brandon Prust, Wayne Primeau and depth defenseman Jim Vandermeer. The 'Hawks are almost completely healthy, excepting LTIR-lump Brent Sopel.
In net for Chicago tonight will be Flames-killer Nikolai Khabibulin. The ex-Lightning goalie beat the Flames in the '04 play-offs and has seemingly had their number ever since.
For the Flames will be Miika Kiprusoff, of course. No goalie in the league has played more than the ex-Vezina winner, further proving that back-ups are anathema to Mike Keenan.
Primary match-up to look out for: Martin Havlat versus Jarome Iginla. Joel Quenneville has been matching Havlat and his linemates (typically Bolland and Ladd) against the opposition's best players on most nights lately. Chances are that will be the forward match-up again tonight, unless Keenan goes to lengths to avoid it.
Ducan Keith will also see a lot of the Flames captain this evening.
TSN - my portal to viewing the Flames/Hawks contest - is currently showing the Bruins/Sens overtime. There's a chance we'll miss the opening few minutes of the Calgary contest as a result.
I expect the Flames to come out like their butts are on fire here. Not only were they treated to a Sutter glare after the Dallas loss, but Keenan lost his temper today at the morning skate. Im guessing the "message was sent".
The Senators game is 20 seconds away from going to the shoot-out - all but guaranteeing we'll miss the opening face-off of the Flames game.
I suppose I could start sharing what I HOPE is happening in the Flames game: perhaps a two-goal opening shift by Iginla et al?
Usually the puck is dropping around now, so I dont think we're too far along.
Now we just have to hope that someone scores in this shoot-out here.
Well..I know the Blackhawks managed the first shot on net. Thanks NHL.com/scores!
The Score contacted me about joining their network this summer. They recently offered me this bonus opportunity...
This is getting ridiculous.
Havlat's line scores on Jarome on the first shift, apparently.
Tune in Thursday night at 9:00 PM EST as the Chicago Blackhawks take on the Calgary Flames. Kent Wilson from Five Hole Fanatics will be liveblogging for your enjoyment.
