Flames stink the joint Plus practice Notes 7-1 hawks.

Practice report:

Good morning, we are here live from the Dome today.  No changes, everybody is out, nobody is speaking.

There was a brawl yesterday, and it involved more than just Dion.  The incident was between Dion, Brent Sutter, and another player, I don’t know who it was.  Flames have also said it never came to blows, it was only yelling.  They won’t even confirm it was Dion, but apparently it was.

Mental note: Chicago Blackhawks coaching staff are right below me watching and scouting out the game.

Practice is under way.  Line combos so far, it looks like Boyd is with Nystrom and Moss.  Jbo and Sarich are together on defense.  Jokinen, Iggy, and Glencross.  It looks like Lankow, Dawes, with Bourque as usual.  I’m not sure who is getting the starting. Conroy, Shuestrom and McGrattin are the fourth line, it looks like.

Hard passing drills getting out.  Patrick Kane made a showing, watching the practice at this moment.

Fourth line: Sordstrom with Conroy and Nystrom were together this time. Not sure about the third and fourth lines.  We do know the first two lines as I said earlier were right.  Olli Yokinen looks like he is struggling.  Keep that in mind for tonight’s game, he’s not looking good.

Hard practice for being a game day today.  Ryan McGill’s in charge.  They are really concentrating on trying to get the puck out of the zone.  The Flames are really working on defense; getting the puck up to centre ice to the forwards.  They are really trying to work on the passing.  The defenseman skates a back circle and then passes the puck.  Grabbing the puck, passing ahead to the zone to the offensive zone.

The Chicago Blackhawks coaching staff are leaving, must be because it it getting near the end of their practice.  One of the hardest game day practices I’ve seen.  They don’t usually work through the drills this much, but they are really, really, very hard working.  Same drill over and over again.

No powerplay time worked on in the morning practice. There’s been no laughing this morning, it has been all business.  Everybody is really talking, speaking loudly, but no fun.   The media is still trying to find out what happened Wednesday night. The Flames will not confirm anything about the fight with Dion and Sutter.  The Flames still won’t say a word.  I’m not sure who got the sixth spot tonight.  I suspect Pardy. Sutter is meeting with three centres in the middle of the ice, working out on the face offs.  Meanwhile, Dave Lowry is talking to the forwards in the bottom, and the four defensemen are being talked to by McGill.  Interesting note, though, it’s those final four positions.  The defensemen are working on trying to keep the puck in the zone.  The defense is passing to each other, taking slap shots from the point.  Constantly skating around and making communications.  The forwards, meanwhile, are working with keeping the puck together within the offensive zone.    Expect Kipper to be starting, because McElhinney is getting the harder workout.  Forwards are really working hard, and Sutter is on them.  Interesting to note, Olli Jokinen is with Sutter, Sutter is speaking to him constantly.  I can’t tell what they are talking about.  One defenseman left, I think Johnston, staying late, he is not out of the final four.  They are really working on Olli Jokinen in the offensive zone.  Passing the puck and working on his shot.  It is 10:50 and 90% of the team is gone, and Olli Jokinen is getting worked extremely hard in the offensive zone.  Making him do skates, working on his shot.  Olli is last player on the ice except for Johnston, he is getting worked hard on defense.  My guess is that Johnston is not playing today.  Olli left, and he was definitely in discomfort when he left.  He was obviously worked hard.  None of the media stuck around, most of them left as soon as Dion walked off.

Chicago Blackhawks news: Marion Hossa is on the ice skating.  Skating very hard today.  They said he is going to be on the lineup on about November 25.

Game Report:

The Flames get blown out by the Hawks. There is not much to say except that they were terrible pretty much from the defense out. The Flame gave up goal after goal the Hawks get goals from Brouwer, Versteeg, Byfuglien, Ladd, and Kane. Verrsteeg scored his second goal of the game in the second. Eager scored late in the third for the seventh goal.

The Flames are really having trouble playing in the defensive and offensive zone. Whatever could wrong did go wrong  Defense is terrible, standing around panicking, forwards forgetting their positions, leaving forwards wide open, this is by far the most embarrassing loss of the season.  They have to learn to play better in their defensive zone. Giving up 5 goals in the second period was totally because of incompetence in every part of the game.

The powerplay might have scored tonight, but in reality, it was terrible most of the night. They have to  improve their team play. I could spend the next 5 hours explaining what went wrong but I won’t, because I have gone over this all season.  I don’t mean to be negative, but in reality, the issues have not been dealt with all year. They might have been winning earlier, but they shouldn’t have been.  This team needed this kind of beating to wake up. Will a blow-out shape this team up? Maybe they will finally listen to their coach. They better, because they’re about to head out on a major road trip, which takes them to LA, ANA, DET, Nash, and CLB; not a easy trip.

What do I think Sutter will do? Nothing. That’s right, not a thing. Simply throw this one out in the garbage, and forget it. Well, I think he will do a bag skate for a week. Seriously, I suspect there will a major war. Do I agree? No.  The players know that there was a problem, and they will be kicking themselves all on their own.   Final score 7-1.

Until next time.

Randy