Last month, when the Rick Nash trade market was open for business, I basically said there was no well in hell the Flames could get him without giving up Sven Baertschi, their first-round pick in last year’s draft. Though he was tearing up the WHL with the Portland Winterhawks, I figured that the young Swiss sniper was still a few seasons away from the NHL. So much for that. With their forward lineup resembling a MASH unit–Jackman, Bouma, Cammalleri and Comeau are day-to-day, while Backlund, Jones and Stempniak are still on IR–the team made him an emergency callup on Wednesday, putting him in the lineup tonite as they play the Winnipeg Jets for the first time since 1996.
The kid’s stats in the W were nothing short of spectacular, posting 94 points in 47 games with Portland. But that was playing against teenagers. He’ll be the youngest player on the ice tonite, and he isn’t expected to generate much offense skating alongside Tom Kostopoulos and AHL call-up Greg Nemisz. On that note, Flames.NHL.com is putting Matt Fucking Stajan on the first line with Tanguay and Iggy tonite. You know you’re running low on forwards when…
Though the undermanned Flames were able to squeak out a 5-4 win against Montreal on Tuesday despite Kipper doing his best Rick Tabaracci impression, they should be in much tougher against a Jets team that’s currently tied with Washington for the last playoff spot, but only sits two back of Florida for first in the Southeast–and third in the Eastern Conference. Like the Flames, the Jets have 72 points on the season, thus both teams will have plenty to play for in this classic Canadian matchup. But with all the youth and inexperience in the Calgary lineup, I’d probably hafta go with Winnipeg.
If I had to take a stab at this one, I’d say that despite a goal and an assist from Theo Fleury, the Flames are stopped 40 times by Nikolai Khabibulin as the Jets come from behind on late goals by Mike Eastwood and Keith Tkachuk to win 4-3. Wait… Nevermind, that was the last-ever Jets national telecast on Hockey Night in Canada from Winnipeg Arena–and boy, does Tabaracci look terrible! Mind you, I’m still gonna go with the same result tonite. Iginla gets a goal and an assist, but Andrew Ladd and third-line centre Jim Slater score in the third as Calgary blows yet another lead. 4-3 Jets.
Of course, I’d be happy if I was wrong. It seemed that whenever I picked against the Flames in February, they’d find a way to win, so here’s hoping…
UPDATE 11:50 PM: Like I said, whenever I pick the Flames to lose, they come out with a win, flipping the script for a 5-3 victory. As for the kid, he had a decent chance early where he went to the net hard, and took a bad penalty late that the Flames ended up killing off. He showed some flashes of speed, but certainly isn’t an NHL goal-scorer as of yet.
