Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Gameday - Blackhawks



Friday, February 02, 2007
7:00 p.m. MST
Pengrowth SaddleDome
Chicago @ Calgary
Flames PPV



  • Chicago is back in town tonight for the first time since the Flames beat the 4-1 on November 22nd, followed by Chicago beating the Flames in 4-3 in overtime in Illinois.

  • The big news for tonights game is obviously the retiring of Mike Vernon's number 30. I used to have a Mike Vernon t-shirt that I wore all the time back in the early 90's and have always thought he was a solid goaltender, but not necessarily a great one. Of course, when you throw in the fact that he is only 5'9" and he did as well as he did, that really has to count for something. As Matt over at the BofA notes, he may not have the wins record of some goalies such as Fuhr (who was noticeably helped by the Oiler offence), but he did win two cups with two different teams. I'm sure that this is just the first in a series of Flames number retirements over the next few years, including MacInnis and Fleury.

  • I don't have too much else for this game, beyond noting that Huselius is still on his point scoring streak, the longest one in the NHL at this point.

Prediction: 4-1 for the Flames. Goals by Huselius, Iginla (2), and Moss for the Flames, Bondra for the Blackhawks...

4 comments:

walkinvisible said...

I'm sure that this is just the first in a series of Flames number retirements over the next few years, including MacInnis and Fleury.

might as well just retire the whole '89 team, non ? c'moooon.... the reason it took seventeen years to retire anything past lanny is because nobody else really deserves to be there. but... but #9 looks so LONELY !!! is macinnis more deserving than fleury ? maybe. is niewendyk more deserving than dougie ? possibly. you already know how i feel about loob. but would we have won the cup sans suter ? otto ? JOEY MULLEN ??

i say retire bearcat murray next. in another decade or so...

Steal Thunder said...

I think the main reason that there was only one retirement previously is that many of the stars of that team were relatively young when they won it. Of the key numbers that I would think to retire (and it is a finite number), all of them have retired from the game very recently...

Of course, fans of a team are always much less objective than any one else woud be about the players that they idolized as they were growing up...

walkinvisible said...

my point is that, in my opinion, lanny's #9 should have been the only one. macinnis has already hit the rafters at scottrade, and i think he's the only other candidate from the 89 team. sure mikey V was good but if he wasn't a born calgarian, i think the puck would've dropped on last night's game long before 8pm.
that's all.
the 89 flames won the cup cause it was an awesome team with a roster of awesome players. we can't retire all of the jerseys...

Steal Thunder said...

I actually wouldn't have retired Vernon's jersey, as I think a jersey retirement is something that should be done only for players that can be seen as the identity of the team...

Which is why I think MacInnis and Fleury qualify. I'm not sure which other ones I would include. Possibly Nieuwendyk, but I can't think of any beyond that right now...