CBC-Sports

This week's work: Flames at Leafs

November 13, 2009 11:29 AM | Posted by   Jim Hughson  

Read up on the latest tidbits and trends as Hockey Night in Canada’s play-by-play voice Jim Hughson takes you behind the scenes and into the game.

This week's work: Calgary Flames at Toronto Maple Leafs | Saturday, Nov. 14, 7 pm ET/5 pm MT (CBC, CBCSports.ca)

The script:

The presence and leadership of forward Jarome Iginla masks the real identity of the Calgary Flames. They are now a team built on defence and goaltending and in the last week, those two areas have been prominent.

Ironically, Iginla was named the NHL’s first star of the week when he awoke from an early-season scoring slumber, but the biggest reason the Flames have won four straight - heading to Buffalo Friday night - has been the brilliant play of goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff and the stingy work of quite probably the best six-man group of defencemen in the league.

The Flames gave up just five goals in the four straight wins. In a couple of them - in particular against the Rangers (a 3-1 win) - they were outplayed, but Kiprusoff was great. He was named first star in three of the games.

In front of him, Dion Phaneuf and Robyn Regehr form a defensive pair that could go straight to the Olympic team. Regehr is, for my money, the best shut down D-man in the league while Phaneuf is scoring and punishing again. He looks like the kid who took the NHL by storm three years ago.

After that, the Flames come with Jay Bouwmeester and Cory Sarich (who else has a second pair like that?) and Mark Giordano and Adam Pardy make for an unheralded but solid third pair.

The Flames have been excellent on the road, a sign they are beginning to thrive under the structure of coach Brent Sutter.

At the other end of the ice, the Leafs just don’t have room for error.

Their start to the season is a hole that will take ages to climb out of, especially with hiccups like Tuesday’s loss to Minnesota. But they are a much tighter, hardworking group than they were a few weeks ago and they trust their goaltender, especially when it’s Jonas Gustavsson.

Last season, Toronto beat the Flames 8-6 at the ACC. If they win this time it will probably have to be 2-1 or 3-2.

On the hot stove:

The Flames paid a considerable sum (Matthew Lombardi, Brandon Prust and a first-round pick) to acquire Olli Jokinen at the deadline last season. He hasn’t made anyone forget Joe Nieuwendyk and his start this season has been underwhelming. Jokinen is a centre who’s a better shooter than passer and it looks like he’s playing with the captain for his sake, not Iginla’s.

Right or wrong, the reputation Jokinen arrived with in Calgary hasn’t been erased.

ISO camera on:

The Leafs have recalled defenceman Carl Gunnarsson and there’s a chance he’ll make his debut against the Flames. The 23-year-old has only two assists in 12 games in the AHL, but more intriguing is how well he played with the big club in the pre-season. Gunnarsson was an eye-catcher because he’s a good skater who can make a pass. I thought he’d be a nice fit with Luke Schenn. His best pre-season game, though, was 28 minutes playing with Ian White in a Leafs win at Detroit. But didn’t they win most of those exhibition games?

Tape-room topics:

The Flames second line of Daymond Langkow, Rene Bourque and Nigel Dawes has been stellar and when Sutter figures out whom to play on the left side with Iginla and Jokinen - lately it’s been Fredrik Sjostrom - the Flames should have two good scoring lines.

Trading a second-round pick in 2010 for Rene Bourque is looking like a great swap, especially if the Flames can sign him to a reasonable deal. Better get him soon though because Bourque is a UFA after this season.

The Leafs' attempt to shore up a wonky penalty-killing unit has taken a hit with the injury to Mike Komisarek who usually leads the team in minutes on the kill and in blocked shots. Francois Beauchemin already gets a ton of PK minutes so Luke Schenn might have to eat up some more or the Leafs will have to start using Tomas Kaberle more when short-handed.

From the stat pack:

The sample size is small but Miikka Kiprusoff can’t have any fond memories of playing in the Air Canada Centre. Kipper has never won in Toronto (0-2-1) has a goals-against average of 5.62 and a save percentage of .846. Based on that would you give the start to Curtis McElhinney?

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