Some Calgary Flames thoughts following a blowout loss to the Buffalo Sabres:
1) There weren't many positives in this game, obviously, so I'll focus on a few things that stood out.
Once again the goaltending was bad as Jonas Hiller allowed five goals and posted a .853 save percentage in the loss.
He was pretty good last year but this season has been an absolute disaster; especially of late. In Hiller's last seven starts he has posted a .900SV% or better just once. The only thing that's good for is tanking.
And another thing: Joe Colborne and Lance Bouma should not be playing more than Sam Bennett, and Deryk Engelland playing more than Dougie Hamilton on a now routine basis is just insane.
The Flames gave up a lot to bring Hamilton into the fold - and they paid him a lot, too - so they may as well use him. What makes Hamilton's lack of ice even more alarming from a Flames' perspective is that he's actually been playing well.
I would suggest it's a stealth tank move but T.J. Brodie and Mark Giordano continue to log 25+ minutes in meaningless games so that's certainly not the case. I don't get it.
2) Sticking with Hamilton, I think he should have been named to Team North America's blue line rather than Ryan Murray. The latter is a pretty good player but since the start of last season Hamilton has posted better possession numbers, better scoring chance numbers and has averaged 1.0 point per 60 of 5 v 5 while Murray has averaged .5.
3) It seems likely that at least one of T.J. Brodie and/or Mark Giordano will be snubbed from Team Canada's World Cup team. Personally I think both are among the top-7 Canadian blue liners and should make the squad. I mean, they're both elite players and the familiarity they have with each other certainly couldn't hurt. This isn't a Sidney Crosby/Chris Kunitz thing. Based on
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