AHL- Apolyton Hockey League 09/10 (II): We're very perverse

[Flubber]

On the plus side, Kiprusoff's stats help me greatly vs Flubber...

True but his only giving up two goals while facing a bunch of shots against Columbus improved his numbers

Oh and I see you have ZERO goalie games so far ?? Thats a little weird when you have two starters but you should be just fine I guess. Mason likely goes Thur-Sat while Luongo has Fri-Sat. A road back to back might be natural for the Nucks to sit Luongo in Minny although they might ride him in an attempt to ensure he is back on track. St Louis ? who knows? Odds are you might even get 4 starts . . .

All I know is the Friday night game should be huge for our contest. If the Flames rock the Nucks bad, I'll take the bulk of the goalie categories regardless. Unfortunately the way the Flames have been playing, I am not counting on it-- in fact I fear the oppoiste

[Asher]

The NHL schedule is kind of screwing me for goalie games this week. I didn't want to drop a skater for another ****ty goalie either.

BTW, new Flames top line: Glencross - Conroy - Iginla

[Flubber]

The NHL schedule is kind of screwing me for goalie games this week. I didn't want to drop a skater for another ****ty goalie either.

I can understand that -- Its not like there are oodles of starters hanging about-- The only ones I see are Ellis or the NYI tandem

I'm sure it will work out though. Its probably 50/50 on the Canucks playing Luongo in both halves of this "divisional" back to back and its probably 95% chance that St Louis would ride Mason in both games. Since you only need one of those things to happen you should be just fine

BTW, new Flames top line: Glencross - Conroy - Iginla

Is that a top line or an Iggy demotion --- Sutter is known for trying to keep his lines together but the experience of last year and this seems to show that Jokkinen and Iggy are not a match. So I am not surprised by this change. Conroy is nowhere near being a top line centre but he and Iggy have some history so maybe they are hoping that will ignite him


So far though, Scoring hasn't been the Flames problem-- its defensive play. Even with Iggy and Jokkinen being quiet on the scorsheet, the Flames have been scoring reasonably well. The probably want a bit more from Langkow, and Moss getting hurt wasn't great, but Bourque, Phaneuf (and all the d for that matter), Nystrom etc have scored around as well as the team was hoping



But despite their HUGE investment on the blue line, they are just not playing well enough on defensive side of things. I think they wanted the Flames to be like the Flames I remember from about 4 years ago when they would just stifle teams


Asher you probably saw this but the rest of the lines are


Dawes-Langkow-Bourque-- really no big change there except Bourque sometimes went up with Iggy-- Dawes has been ok--Lankow seems like he is sleepwalking this year
Sjostrom-Jokinen-Nystrom; This line could be good. Nystrom is dogged and Sjostrom has been good as well. Its just weird to see Nystrom back on the wing after excelling at centre

McGrattan-Boyd-Prust. Poor Boyd-- I still think he could be something but he gets incosistent and then gets relegated to 4th line duty



Bouwmeester-Sarich; This should be a good shutdown pair
Regehr-Phaneuf; Dion has been good on offense and poor on d-- I have delusional moments when I think they should try him on the wing

Pardy-Giordano -- I think this pairing can be very solid. Both have looked very good on offense this year and pardy has the best plus minus among d

Overall, plus minus tells you a LOT

Langkow minus 9 (awful for a supposed 2-way guy)
Regehr minus 7 (this is SUPPOSED to be your shut down gut LOL)
Phaneuf minus 5

[snoopy369]

Which of those line is the heavy hitter [ie, goon-ish] line? Or are they all scoring lines, and Calgary doesn't throw a hard-hitter line at opponents' first lines?

[Ben Kenobi]

The Iggy line.

[Flubber]

Which of those line is the heavy hitter [ie, goon-ish] line? Or are they all scoring lines, and Calgary doesn't throw a hard-hitter line at opponents' first lines?

Mcgratten is the goon on the 4th line and Prust on that line will fight most middle-weights as well

Since these lines are new I don't know how they will line match but the line of Jokkinen, Nystrom and Sjostrom is one that will mix it up a fair but. No real 'heavy" hitetrs but guys that can mix it up for sure. Nystrom and Sjostrom are both pretty quick-- they both serve on the PK. neither will kill you with the big hit but they can annoy the heck out of you

Actually the Flames as whole are a team that will hit-- There are no Huselius or Tanguay style players (well Boyd(4th line) is that way a little)


For heavy hitters look to the d-- All of Pardy, Phaneuf, Regehr and Sarich have had huge highlight reel type hits in the last year. If you put your head down any of these can punish you.

But these lines do seem more "balanced"

[Asher]

Which of those line is the heavy hitter [ie, goon-ish] line? Or are they all scoring lines, and Calgary doesn't throw a hard-hitter line at opponents' first lines?

As the Flubman says, there's no real goon line. The 4th line is closest as McGrattan is a goon, but the other guys on the line are good hockey players (some of the most effective for the Flames in the early goings of the season).

The new lines are interesting in that they're very, very evenly distributed. The top line isn't heavily stacked, but all the top 3 lines have a dangerous scoring player on them (Iginla, Bourque/Langkow, and Jokinen). Might be hard to match up against.

[notyoueither]

Apparently, Zack Stortini's nickname in the locker-room is Geico.

I wonder if that was before or after the NHL 10 art.

[Asher]

Can I just stay that Luongo is a terrible ****ing goaltender this season?

What a tool.

[Asher]

Flames have a 5-0 lead...again.

Here's hoping it sticks this time.

[Asher]

The Flames have chased Luongo from the net twice this season already. I wonder why Ben isn't posting much these days?

[Flubber]

Flames have a 5-0 lead...again.

Here's hoping it sticks this time.

Well they had TWO good periods this time. They seemed to go to sleep a little bit in the third but it wasn't a collapse or anything.

The funny thing is AGAIN very little contribution from Joker or Iggy yet the Flames score 5. Coming in, people/pundits thought "great d" but a question mark about secondary scoring. So far the "secondary" scoring has been great- its the d and the supposed scorers that have been lacking

BUt the Flames did dominate for most of the first two periods

Oh and Asher . .. I know Luongo got 'chased" but he wasn't bad at all-- a breakaway, two close in redirections, McGratton on a bang bang play eyc-- Only Phaneufs goal was even the slightest bit questionable and I seem to recall a pretty good scrteen even on that one

[Flubber]

Mcgratten is the goon on the 4th line and Prust on that line will fight most middle-weights as well

McGratton had the Gorduie How hat trick LOL-- it eas his first multi-point game EVER

Oh and Prust fought twice

But the guy that impressed me most was probably Glencross== He seemed like a man possess as he chased the puck

[Flubber]

Hey asher-- It looks like we will end up with a draw at 3-3-2 although I could get a 4-3-1 if either Sedin or Kariya can score or a 3-2-3 if they get another PPA. I believe the only only player you still have going is a goaltender and barring a 40 shot barrage in the 3rd, I think those categoeies are safe for me

[Flubber]

I'm actually pleased with this tie given

1. how Iggy has been playing-- Asher thougt my drafting of him was premature
2. that Vanek was hurt and did not play their two games on the weekend

I count of those two as my primary goalscorers so with them doing so bad I was happy with the overall result