November 20, 2009
Calgary got stampeded
The game was tied early in the second period, but by the end of the middle stanza, Chicago had thoroughly humiliated the host Flames.
Calgary got stampeded
The game was tied early in the second period, but by the end of the middle stanza, Chicago had thoroughly humiliated the host Flames.
In yesterday’s Daily Drop, I talked about the way the certain teams seem to have other clubs’ number. That’s certainly the case with the Chicago Blackhawks and Calgary Flames, especially when the Flames are playing on their home rink. Heading into last night’s game at the Saddledome, Chicago had won five won consecutive regular-season games in Calgary. Last season, of course, Chicago downed Calgary in the first round of the playoffs, winning the deciding game at the Saddledome.
That mastery continued in a big way last night, as the Blackhawks began a grueling road trip in spectacular fashion. Chicago crushed Calgary by a 7-1 count on the strength of scoring first and then tallying five unanswered goals in the second period after Olli Jokinen had tied the game in the stanza’s opening seconds.
The Flames killed their own momentum by taking a penalty less than a minute after the Jokinen goal. On the play, Nigel Dawes attempted to defend teammate Rene Bourque after he was crunched on the boards by Niklas Hjalmarsson (incidentally, “hjalm” is the Swedish word for “helmet”). Those are often the types of penalties where the penalized team needs to kill off the penalty on behalf of their comrade who was sent off. It didn’t happen. Kris Versteeg scored the first of his two power play goals on the night, and the Hawks were off and running.
Calgary simply came unglued as the second period progressed, and Chicago took it to them. The Flames accepted the thrashing rather meekly, which is something you don’t expect from a Calgary club – much less one coach by Brent Sutter. Chicago soon had time and space to make plays, and their potent attack was too much for Miikka Kiprusoff to stave off. At the other end of the ice, Cristobal Huet looked sharp.
The third period was uneventful, apart from Ben Eager tacking on an extra goal for Chicago. In the old days, a game like this would likely have seen a series of fights in the third period, as Calgary would have tried to “send a message” to Chicago for future meetings. As much as I think fighting has its place in hockey, I never went in very much for the gratuitous stuff late in blowout games – largely because it rarely worked. The only real message it sent was that the vanquished team was frustrated. On the other hand, no one wants to see a club go through the motions until the final buzzer.
Meltzer's game of the night: Philadelphia (12-5-1) at San Jose (14-5-4). The Sharks are 9-1-3 in their last 13 games and convincingly defeated the Flyers at the Wachovia Center in October. Since then, the Flyers have played much better hockey and come into this tilt as winners of seven of their last eight games. It should be an intriguing goalie matchup as well. Both Ray Emery (2.22 GAA, .923 save percentage) and Evgeni Nabokov (2.16 GAA, .927 save percentage) have been sharp this season. Philadelphia is coming off a game in Los Angeles in which backup Brian Boucher got just his second start of the season (the other was the loss to San Jose). The Flyers got outplayed in LA, but scratched out a 3-2 win. Philadelphia cannot afford to give up any soft goals tonight against the second highest-scoring team in the NHL.
