Historical Replay - Calgary Flames

[DFyvie]

Playoff Preview: Kings vs Flames
13.04.07 12:00MST

Los Angeles visits the Flames in Round One



The Opening round of the 2007 Stanley Cup playoffs begins tomorrow night between the second seeded Calgary Flames and the seventh seeded Los Angeles Kings. The story of this matchup surrounds who's missing in the lineup between these two teams.

The Flames lost their number one defenseman with a fractured cheekbone in the last Battle of Alberta, and second last game of the season. The injury has Boyle on the sidelines from at least another two weeks ensuring that the Flames will have to make do without him. In his stead, GM Fyvie has promoted prospect defenseman Matt Niskanen from Omaha to fill in. Niskanen plays on the right side and is adept at running a powerplay, but keep expectations low five on five as he is only 20 years old.

For Los Angeles, their number one centre Sidney Crosby is out indefinitely with a torn elbow ligament. The future, and present, face of the franchise has been sidelined since March 21st. The injury deeply impacts the Kings' depth down the middle and may allow the Flames to better contain Los Angeles' speedy wingers.

Calgary held an edge all season against the kings, defeating them in all 4 regular season matchups. Both teams are quite similar on paper with quick wingers up and down the lineup and a solid blueline. Both teams also have short-comings in net.

Turco has received exceptional team defence this season illustrated by his stingy Goals Against Average of 2.28 which ranks second in the league. His meagre Save Percentage of .906 tells a different story. No matter how tight the Flames have played this season, Turco continues to allow his fair share of soft goals.

On Los Angeles, Cam Talbot and Jason Bacashihua show a lot of promise but seem too overwhelmed by NHL shooters at times suggesting that both goalies are over their heads and should both be in the AHL for further seasoning.

As goaltending looks to be both teams achilles heel, this matchup could be an exciting one, but the Flames seem to have the overall edge in depth.

[DFyvie]

Flames roll over Kings in four
20.04.07 23:45MST

Flames bring out the brooms in LA



The Calgary Flames continued their dominance over the LA Kings this evening as they defeated the home-side 7-0 to cap a one-sided opening round of the playoffs. "Nobody thought it would be easy and it wasn't. The games were a bit closer than the scores indicated." Said alternate Captain Robyn Regehr (pictured). "We played hard and got a bit of time off before the next round. We'll take it."

The Flames outscored the Kings by a hefty 25 to 7 over the four games which saw various Flames taking turns being the hero. Daymond Langkow had enormous games 2 and 3 (missing game one due to a suspension from the regular season). Brad Richards dialled in a phenomenal 4 point performance in game 4 to ice the series.

"We used our depth. I decided to try something in game 2 when Langkow came back and paired up all the scorers with playmakers up and down the lineup. It worked." Said Coach Fyvie. Iginla remained with Richards and was joined by two-way winger Steen on the left side. Cammalleri, Legwand and Michalek formed the second line. Langkow, Demitra and Rene Bourque formed the 3rd line which combined for 11 points in game 2.

The Kings had little answer for the Flames depth. Coach Ed Olczyk was proud of his team however. "We were up against it. Just fighting to make the playoffs took a lot out of us. When you're missing your top centre it affects the entire team and has everyone playing out of position a bit."

The Flames now can sit back and watch the remaining teams battle it out. Every one of the remaining series sit at 2 games to 1 meaning Calgary has at least a week until they find out who they'll play next.

[DFyvie]

Flames host Blues in Round Two
27.04.07 12:00MST

Familiar face returns to Calgary as Blues take on Flames



J-S Giguere and the St.Louis Blues arrived in Calgary this morning in preparation for tomorrow night's game one in the second round of the 2007 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the host Calgary Flames. "It's all quite strange for him, I'm sure." Noted Blues Captain Chris Pronger (pictured). "He had to face former teammate Marty St.Louis last round, and now he's got to go through the rest of the team this round. He can't escape." Said Pronger with a chuckle.

The Blues and Flames faced-off 4 times this season and the teams battled it out to a 2-2 record. The Road team won all 4 games during the regular season, making this series an intriguing one.

J-S Giguere was the big free-agent acquisition for the Blues during the off-season as they pried him away from the Flames, but Giguere's numbers weren't much better than the much maligned Marty Turco this season. However, both netminders outperformed their regular season numbers thus far in the playoffs.

Chris Pronger continues to prowl the blueline in St.Louis as one of the more dominant players in the league. The 32yr old has been battling injuries as he's only played in the the Blues last two games so far this post-season.

Upfront, the Blues enjoy throwing their weight around. Handzus, Hartnell and Mike Richards feature heavily in their attack and enjoy making a lot of body contact ensuring the Flames' blueline will get its fair share of bodychecks.

The Flames enjoy an edge upfront, but it is seen as a wash on the blueline. If Turco can outperform his previous partner in net, the Flames stand a good chance in dispatching the Blues in this round.

Elsewhere in the West, Detroit will be hosting the Vancouver Canucks. In the East, Buffalo hosts the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Islanders host the Ottawa Senators.

[DFyvie]

Blues defeat Flames in Seven
10.05.07 23:47MST

Handzus send Flames packing in Overtime



The St.Louis Blues defeated the Calgary Flames in game 7 of the Western Conference Semi-finals this evening in front of a sold-out crowd at the Saddledome tonight. Michal Handzus (pictured) ended the game in overtime on a breakaway going five-hole on Marty Turco to send his team to face the Detroit Red Wings in the Conference Final.

“it was a close one.” Said Handzus. “We blew a two-goal lead and I think we thought we were going to go home empty handed at one point.”

For the Flames, the loss was devastating as the Flames were down after 2 periods by two goals. The top-line of Cammalleri, Iginla and Richards went to work and produced two goals to tie the game with just minutes to spare in the third.

“We came up short. It was a great series. They’re a big strong team, and we’ve got the speed. Ultimately we just couldn’t produce on the powerplay and I feel like that cost us in the end.” Said Coach Fyvie of his team’s effort in a tight series that saw all but one game decided by one goal.

The series was at best described as a defensive effort. Both goaltenders played well and scoring was low as no team managed to score more than 3 goals in a game.

In other news, the Flames have advised the press that there will be a press-conference in the coming days and many speculate it could mean that long-time GM and Coach Dave Fyvie will be stepping down. Fyvie is in the last year of his contract and has piloted the ship in Calgary since the 2000/01 season.