Game Day: Flames Take On The Avalanche

UPDATE: So I’m sure as you noticed watching the game last night, Varly was not in goal as I had previously mentioned. I’m now working on finding a new site to give me goalie updates. Sorry if this confused any one.

In just a few short hours, the puck will drop at the Dome as the Flames take on the Colorado Avalanche, leaders in the Northwest Division and third in the Western Conference.  The Flames are coming off shut out loss against the Predators on Saturday as the Avs come off a shoot out victory against the Chicago Blackhawks.  What does this mean for the Flames?  A long game a head of them.  While the Avs are not a a winning streak by any means, they are a force capable of blowing the Flames out (pun possibly intended there).

The Flames do have a chance though. While the Flames are stacked heavily in their second and third lines, the Avalanche are having a hard time getting results from their number two center, Matt Duchene, who has been fairly unproductive these past few games.  While I’m not implying that he alone will sabotage the Avalanche’s chances against the Flames, the Flames will succeed if their later lines can step it up. Which is really a problem.  A team should be solid through and through.  There is no big play making first liner any more, and the team is going to continue to struggle until this is corrected.  Iginla is not the player he was a few years ago, yes he is still above average, but it’s unfair to expect the man to continue to produce at this high level.

I seem to have lost the point of this post, which is this, until the team is reworked, expect to see many more losses pile up.  The team cannot come together for the first and last ten minutes of the game and expect to see 2 points added to their standings at the end of the night.  Will I sit with bated breath, hoping against hope that the trend against Semyon Varlamov continues (That trend would be a victorious one, although the Flames have only faced him once)?  Of course, but I will not shake the idea in the back of my head that the Flames are better than this, because they should be.

And yeah, this is all been beaten to death.  Every one knows it, but the frustration gets to me and I’m sure it does to you too.  It’s going to be a long hard season if the Flames are 7 games in and have accrued only 5 points.  What a season to join a blog about the Flame.

Check out the potential lines for the Avalanche:

Screenshots of the lines courtesy of: DailyFaceoff

Go Flames Go!