A thing I genuinely respect about the Calgary Flames is that when they’re going to lose a game, they sure let you know it. On Sunday, I watched my beloved Liverpool FC fight tooth and nail to earn a win over Wolverhampton, doing their part to sit atop the table of the English Premier League, only for it to be deemed moot at the exact same time after Manchester City came down from two goals to win their game at Aston Villa, and also the entire league. Heartbreaking.
This dovetailed into the next thing I consumed, which was the Seattle Mariners, the pride of both myself and the entire Pacific Northwest unless the Seahawks are playing, mired in a stretch of just horrendous baseball, fight back to tie the Boston Red Sox in a game they needed to win to avoid a sweep. Trailing through most of the contest, a Eugenio Suarez dinger tied the game, and an Adam Frazier hit secured the lead in the top of the 10th inning, only to see the bullpen blow it literally in the next half inning. Frustrating.
The Flames lost Game 3 of their second round matchup against the Edmonton Oilers later that night. What was great about it was that from very early on you could tell they weren’t in the game, and once the ball started rolling, there was no hope they were going to slow it down. They were telling me I didn’t need to be invested in this one, and that they’ll hit me back up with a better effort for Game 4. I took their advice, and it felt good.
I respect them a lot for that. Thanks guys!
The Week of: May 16th-22nd
Results From Past Week:
Three games! The first Battle of Alberta in over 30 years is only three games deep, but oh doctor, it’s felt like a lot more than that. Game 1 was somehow both an exasperating and cathartic experience, with Mike Smith treating us to some vintage Himself, but also featured the Flames blowing two four-goal leads, but also kinda winning convincingly? A 9-6 victory on the strength of a Matthew Tkachuk hat trick and Brady Tkachuk Budweiser sponsorship.
I will be honest, I barely saw any of Games 2 and 3, due to real world scheduling conflicts, and well, maybe that’s just fine, as the Oilers sparked their own come from behind victory in Game 2, and had a strong showing from a broke domestic violence perpetrator in Game 3. Not ideal!
In worse news, Milan Lucic didn’t get suspended for a dirty hit. This team can’t catch a break right now!
Flames Overall Playoff Record: 5-5 (you love to see .500 hockey in the playoffs)
Standings: Still irrelevant
Soundtrack: The Heart Part 5 - Kendrick Lamar
For some reason, one that I can’t seem to figure out, there was no Big Monday Thing last week, so since the last one came out two weeks ago, we were treated with a new Kendrick album. It has, to put it lightly, NOT DISAPPOINTED.
What We Liked:
This team is built on offense, so it’s encouraging to see the team at that end of the ice, mostly, clicking the way it’s supposed to. What was so face-coveringly dire about the the 1st round against Dallas was the way the scoring seemed to dry up. Naturally, there was a maybe Top 1 of all time goaltending performance that contributed to that a great deal, but if the team was suddenly going to pick the month of May to stop producing, we might as well all get on with our sprummers right now (you are right to be furious with me over sprummers)
While we can’t expect nine goals every game, when Mike Smith is in net, you can expect nine goals in a lot of them, and in the meantime, if you can chip in just enough here and there to neutralize the crosstown rivals, hey, thumbs up. The Flames are good at both scoring goals and preventing them, but if the former is gone, the latter doesn’t make that much of a difference. Give me those goals!
What We Would Prefer Not To See:
Especially because the whole scoring prevention thing does not appear to be working right now. Jacob Markström was certainly unreliable in Games 1 and 2, but he righted the ship in Game 3, but it don’t make a hill of beans if you’re going to hemorrhage chances against a very potent offense in its own right.
Part of it is penalties. The Flames are making a beeline for the box far too often. The Oilers are always going to make hay on the power play, it sparked their entire season. The Flames in the past have been particularly adept at shutting Edmonton down at 5v5, so ideally, that’s where you’d like to keep them. The penalty killing has mostly been fine! But obviously you don’t want to keep your goal scorers off the ice for extended periods of times while theirs are running you ragged. That hasn’t happened so far, and if they don’t want to make this TOO hard on themselves, they need to get disciplined in a big way.
Enemy of the Week:
Oh you absolute bitch.
Can’t help but notice the Flames have always gone deeper in the playoffs in years Mark Giordano wasn’t playing. Probably not very good after all.
What Comes Next:
/gestures vaguely at all this
It’s more Oilers. The Battle of Alberta. Everyone loves it. The neutral crowd loves it. Okay it’s mostly the neutral crowd who loves it. So happy for all of them that they get to see more of it.
I’m off to refill my medication.
Pedro Pascal on Calgary Public Radio Of The Week:
CJSW will always be the radio station that gifted me tickets to see The Walkmen at the very first Sled Island festival because I happened to be listening to them while stuck in gridlock 5 p.m. traffic in downtown Calgary. “This is live radio,” they exclaimed after I said “oh shit, I won!’ over their airwaves.
The University of Calgary’s home on the FM dial just had actor Pedro Pascal on their Breaking Techniques show this past weekend. I haven’t listened to the episode yet (lmao, yet), so I have no idea why he was on the show, or even in Calgary (ed. note: filming The Last of Us), but The Mandalorian star did the show in a Calgary Flames shirt, and that’s dandy by me. I kinda dig his playlist too.
Incidentally, he is the supporting star in Nic Cage’s The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent, and he’s so good that he just about steals the show from the known psychopath Nic Cage. Hard to do. Incredible movie. Go see it.
Unrelated Fact:
I had a clean sheet playing soccer on Monday and hit two RBIs on Friday at softball. I rule.
See You Next Week:
The Stockton Heat are coming to Calgary! This has been rumoured for some time, but as of today it is official, the team will be leaving their California abode for sunny Calgary. This comes as huge news to a bunch of dorks around here who are clamouring to see worse hockey and a less polished game day product than the one they already get from the better team that already plays here.
Catch the fever!