Fighting Fire With Fire

A Habs-Flames encounter from last season, with a very familiar-looking Calgary centreman.

So, this was supposed to be an update BEFORE tonight's game but the STM had other plans for your friendly neighbourhood blogger, so it's a postgame dealie instead. I also apologize in advance for any poor writing quality, but I'm fighting a cold so hard you'd think it was a Leafs fan.  

Dear readers, today you learned that ~czechtacular loves the Flames. She LOVES them. Believe me. I have yet to officially choose a backup team, but I do like Calgary. Jarome Iginla is one of my absolute favourite NHL players outside of Montreal. I've been a fan since the Olympics. (I don't remember which Olympics, because it was my pre-hockey days.) Sorry to say, but your bloggers have been looking forward to this game for a while. (We're guessing Mike Cammalleri's been looking forward to it too.)  

A quick welcome back to our boys Kyle Chipchura and Yannick Weber. We'd prefer to see them back under better circumstances (you know, not because of an epic amount of injuries), but Chip's been off the ice too long and I have lots of hope for Weber. Also good to see Halak in net: not only does this give me hope that we'll see a healthy distribution of work between our two goalies, keeping them both in great shape, but it reminds me of how brilliant he was against Calgary at the Bell Centre last December. We were at that game, obviously losing our minds, and Halak was amazing. He proved that he can handle the Flames, and that he can put in a great performance and not be overshadowed by a more experienced goalie like Miikka Kiprusoff.  

Pretty good game tonight. It would have been better if we'd won, but that goes without saying, I guess. 

Jay Bouwmeester's a much better fit for the Flames than his name is on the back of his jersey.  

You might be interested to know that ~czechtacular predicted both the Prust/Stewart fight and the Nystrom/Chipchura fight. I'm not even kidding. She called Prust/Stewart today at lunch and while it was happening said Nystrom and Chips would be next, and indeed they were.  

Speaking of Eric Nystrom, he scored the first goal of the game, a pretty decent faraway goal. Mike Cammalleri and Scott Gomez collaborated to tie the game, then a mere thirty seconds later Guillaume Latendresse turned into that Wicked Awesome Gui that shows up from time to time and scored a goal worthy of the awesome fist-pump he celebrated with. 

Then it was Pardy-time for Nystrom and the game got tied 2-2. Jarome Iginla scored a third goal on a power play (but, I mean, it's Jarome Iginla, unguarded, near a net, on a power play. We may not like it but these things are to be expected.) Welcome back, Tomas Plekanec! I think our #14 may have scored the goal of the night in the closing moments of the 2nd period. 

Third period. Third goal for Nystrom. Damn. (Some people may argue that Josh Gorges had an accidental hand in this goal, but I won't hear of it.) The game would stay at 4-3, but there were a few pretty awesome shots on goal in the second half of the last period. We didn't lose for lack of trying.  

I thought it necessary to point out that during the second period, Pierre Houde made a reference to "Dustin Prust," who isn't anyone, but as soon as I said it out loud, he corrected himself. And this is proably the only time that I'll ever get to point out Pierre Houde's mistake, since he's a gentleman and a scholar and probably the best thing about RDS. (Sorry, Dave Morisette.)  

And a shoutout to Calgary's in-house announcer. Our Michel Lacroix is unparalleled, but Mr. Saddledome's got some pipes in him. And just in case you think I'm getting just a little bit too pro-Calgary, I'll say what must be said: Montreal's throwback jerseys are MUCH nicer. I know it goes without saying but honestly. They don't even look good on the skanky ice girls. (Am I allowed to say "skanky"?)