Flames and Iginla Struggle To Reach 500
By Cait Platt
The Calgary Flames finally finish their 7 game road trip, wrapping it up in Boston against the Bruins who are currently beating up the New Jersey Devils. On this road trip, we’ve watched them defeat teams that far out rank them (Minnesota Wild, Vancouver Canucks), struggle to beat teams that are an easy win (Columbus Blue Jackets), completely fail against teams that should have been an easy two points (Ottawa Senators, New York Islanders), and try their darnedest against a team that could skate circles around the Road Runner (Washington Capitals). With tomorrow’s game, being the last until Sunday, the Flames need to power through this game.
In the last ten games the Bruins are 8-2-0, the Flames are 4-4-2. Clearly the Flames are outmatched by the current Stanley Cup Champions, hopefully the team decides to play up to their opponent, much like those games against the Canucks and the Wild.
As the Flames chase a win to bump them over .500 for this road trip, another 500 is still being pursued. The legend known as Jarome Iginla seems to be stuck at 499 and honestly I don’t see 500 showing up against Tim Thomas tomorrow night. With a 1.90 GAA, Iginla’ most recent drop off in SOG will not perform well against Thomas.
Another problem the Flames will face is a large age discrepancy. The Bruins are filled with youthful guys: on their entire roster, 8 guys are over 26. 8 guys out of 24 on the roster. For the Flames? 21! Do you know how insane that is? And yes, I know that 26 isn’t that old in hockey, but seriously, the Bruins have 16 guys on their team that are between the ages of 18 and 26, that’s a huge advantage when playing against a team with guys pushing 40. The Flames aren’t the Detroit Red Wings, they aren’t going to pull off this miracle AARP supported victory run. It’s not going to happen.
The Bruins will skate circles around the Flames if they aren’t careful. Between their youth and Thomas in goal, I see the Bruins having another blow out of a game tomorrow; which means the team will not be at .500 when the road trip ends and Iginla will not reach his 500th goal.
Go Flames Go