Follow Colin on Twitter! Follow @ColinDJD If you’re reading this, chances are you express the same sentiments with respect to last night’s game as I do. Heck yes you do! Eat it Oilers!! I digress.
It’s nice to see the Calgary Flames stick it to the Edmonton Oilers in their own barn, for their home opener, when they are…wait you’ve heard this one before…expected to be a better group this season.
And let me clarify – I too feel that they (should) be a better team this year given the additions to the roster, the fact that their core is a little more aged and or experienced, and also because their goaltending is more stable than previous years may have offered.
All that being said, the Oilers didn’t look great against a rebuilding Flames franchise who is expected to be fighting for another lottery pick this year. And while I fully understand that this was the first game of the year and that the Oilers are very much likely to finish a solid few spots ahead of the Flames…I’d still like to take this time to rub it in as Calgary took a little wind out of the sails of the Oilers fan base right off the bat.
Edmonton fans already tossing their sweaters on the ice…even with a cell phone in their pocket…that’s saying something.
"That's a frustrating way to start the season," Edmonton coach Dallas Eakins said. "I thought we had a ton of good in our game. ... Our power play was excellent.
"I'm not going to walk out here and say we played (poorly), because we didn't. But we lost the game and that's unacceptable."
Moving away from the “BOA… discussion, I felt that the Flames played quite well last night and a few players in particular did very well. For starters, newly acquired Mason Raymond exceeded expectations by notching three goals in his first game as a member of the Calgary organization, and despite the fact that you shouldn’t expect anything close to this kind of production on average from this player, he is likely going to pot a respectful number of points this year. The next player who impressed me most was Joe Colborne. Ending the night with three points of his own, Colborne looked much better in his second game of the year than he did on most nights last season. He carried the puck with a little more confidence, he appeared to be much stronger on the puck, he was able to play a physical game both offensively and defensively, and created some strong chances. We’ve always been waiting for Colborne to break out because this kid has a ton of potential and when he does hit his stride, look out.
Last but not least, I can’t enough of Kari Ramo’s performance. Top, notch. When the Flames acquired Hiller this offseason, most fans and pundits alike assumed that he would be the starter and that Ramo would fall back into the backup role. Last night’s performance should say otherwise.
Both tenders are quite good. Don’t let Kari’s numbers from last year or Bruce Boudreau's confidence in Hiller fool you; they should both offer the Flames some strong goaltending. Last season and during the summer I believe I read 2-3 times too many that analysts felts the Flames would suffer in goaltending and that it would be an area of concern. If you’ve read my blogs over the past year or so, you’d know that I, for one, have never felt this way.
Goaltending will not be an area of concern for this group over the next season. Sure they will get scored on more than we’d like to see. Sure they will lose more games than fans would like to watch. But this won’t due to their “strength… between the pipes. It will, by and large, be due to the fact that they find themselves in a very difficult conference, with a rather inexperienced and “rebuilt… team.
I was very pleased with last night’s performance and I really don’t have anything to complain about. The Flames didn’t look great in their first matchup on Wednesday night, but seemingly were all on the same page last night and offered some quality hockey for us fans.
The Flames will take on the St Louis Blues on Saturday which is expected to be a tough game. I do, however, expect them to come out the gates with confidence and keep the game close.
Thanks for reading!