saneopinion

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Canada, AB • Canada •

Battle of Alberta Round... UN

Yeah my title was a tribute to Talladega nights Jean Girard and his "formula UN" and my clever segue (or not so clever as obvious) is that tonight's game is going to be a speed race with a lot of collisions...just like the real Talladega. Everyone was aware coming into this game that the Oilers has youth, speed and skill on at their side, if you haven't seen Lubomir Visnovsky skate he is incredibly slick and a treat to watch (unless you're a flames fan). Souray is back and grumpy which bodes well for their blueline as well but in the new N.H.L. (or is it the normal N.H.L. now?) speed kills.

Flames management recognized this, maybe a year or two late, and set about getting players in the lineup who could skate with faster teams, all of a sudden Glencross, Borque, Lombardi, Cammalleri and Nystrom give the Flames a much needed injection of speed and enough skill to score as well.

As I write this blog I can't help but wonder if Keenan is going to be so blind as to play Roy and Primeau tonight. Players like Nystrom and Prust need to be in this game to keep up with the speed of the Oilers, if the Oilers decide to play players like MacItyre then the Flames might actually have a speed and skill advantage. If Keenan plays his big slow lumbering 4th liners again then the fore-check is lost and I see this going the Oilers way. That is how close I think these teams are.

Kipper... look, in Calgary we have heard it all from Phaneuf sucks to Tanguay sucks to Iginla sucks and every year in recent times we have been playoff bound so please don't tell me Kipper sucks too. Kipper makes saves that other goalies say, "HOLY F*&K...HOW DID HE DO THAT!??" and everyone who knows anything knows at worst he is above average. His stats are below average but as Flamstr wrote this is a team game and the team has let him down so far. I am actually less worried this year about him than I was last year.

Garon... he's unproven in terms of work load and wins but I'm a believer that at worst he's a good goalie! This years games between the two clubs are going to be extremely exciting and I for one hope both make the payoffs so Calgary can beat the Oilers in the playoffs to make it that much more painful!! (I know let the trash talking begin!!) So regardless of the outcome I'm of the opinion we're in for some incredible hockey!!

S>O>

UPDATE: Oiler egde flames 4-3, biggest story of the night was the officiating and Sheldon Souray not returning to the game.