Burned!

Wow, I’m pretty surprised at tonight’s *15* goal result between Calgary and Tampa, but definitely impressed that the Flames were able to light it up on their first trip back to the accursed TB.

Twin hat tricks don’t happen very often, but Iggy and Juice had the Midas touch, and Phaneuf chipped in with a career-best 5 helpers.

Kipper has been taking a lot of flak lately, and this last game probably won’t dull that criticism. I guess that’s the weird dichotomy of the Flames – for a few seasons we had our “identity” as gritty-if-goal-challenged stonewallers, a group of defensively-minded hard-hitters backstopped by the best goalie in the game, the kind of team who would gladly take a payout of 2-1 victories straight to the playoff bank. Then we had the whole crazy road team / home team thing going on, a mystery that still defies modern scientific explanation. And now, as of tonight, we have the 4th best goals-for in the West but also the 3rd worst goals-against. So… we’re suddenly an offensively strong team.

I guess the ever-changing names both on the ice and behind the bench are largely responsible for the fluctuating team dynamics. But really, I don’t care how the Flames win (as long as they don’t turn into something like the dirty Flyers or the Devils-of-old) so long as they can win. We got a 3 road game winning streak going right now, which is pretty good (even if Chicago and Florida were involved). And hey, the NW race is a super-close 5 point spread from first to worst. So if the Flames can have a better December than we did November, maybe we’ll actually head into 2008 above the playoff cutoff line.

Looking at the rest of our monthly schedule, I think Calgary can pull at least 2 wins in our remaining 3 games on this current roadtrip (‘Canes, Blues, Jackets), then best at least one of Dallas and NJ at home. Wrap up the year with a home-and-home sweep sandwich over the ‘Nucks (with a solid Saddledome thrashing of Anaheim in the middle), and Flames fans will definitely have a cheerful ringing in of the New Year.

turn the light out say goodnight