Gameday - Blue Jackets

Thursday, February 08, 2007

5:00 p.m. MST

Nationwide Arena

Calgary @ Columbus

Sportsnet West

• The Flames are in Columbus tonight in the first of a 3 game roadtrip, during which they will also face Buffalo and Detroit.
• In the matchup in Calgary on the 2nd of this month, Calgary seemed to dominate the Blue Jackets for most of the game, which saw the return of captain Jarome Iginla from a sprained knee.
• In the three games played so far in this series, the home team has won, with Columbus winning the first in a shootout (5-4), and Calgary winning the last two (2-1, 6-2). The Flames are 3-7-1 alltime at Nationwide Arena.
• Frederik Norenna will most likely get the start against Miikka Kiprusoff after returning recently from a pulled groin.
• Everyone knows that Calgary has been brutal on the road this season and they are currently tied with the Kings for the fewest road wins in the Western Conference, so this first game against a less than stellar opponent will be vital for them to get a good jump before going up against two of the strongest teams in the league in their own barns.
• In an effort to get to know the other teams better, the leading pointgetter for Columbus is David Vyborny (11-33-44, -2), both Rick Nash and Sergie Federov hold the lead for goals with 14, Dan Fritsche has 4 game winners, and Alexander Svitov has 90 PIMs. Jason Chimera and Anders Eriksson lead the team with a +3.
• The major note for Calgary is obviously Kristian Huselius' 13 game point streak (9-10-19, +9), which he has kept up despite a drop in minutes since the re-acquisition of Craig Conroy and the return of Iginla. A point tonight would give him the outright lead for longest the longest such streak this season, for which his is currently tied with Alex Ovechkin.

I'm thinking the boys come out hard tonight, a little embarrassed by their much less than lacklustre finish to Tuesday's game. I say 3-1 Flames (since it is a road game I don't expect oo much more than that) with goals coming from Alex Tanguay, Daymond Langkow and Jeff Friesen for our boys and Nash answering back for the union.


Yes, I did just pick Friesen to score his second goal in as many games. Hey, I never get these things right anyway, so why not be as off base as possible on this one... Open the floodgates!