Calgary Flames

We are in mid-November, and it is time for my look at the Canucks this month thus far. The 'Nucks have played 7 games up till now (1 home, 6 road), and have managed to get 8 of 14 points. Brian Raiger takes a look at what the Canucks have done correctly and what they need to do for their remaining 6 games of the month and season ahead.

NOV. 1 - CANUCKS @ FLAMES - SCORE: 5-1 W

The key to any game is to have a successful first 20 minutes, come out hard hitting, get the puck deep, draw a penalty, and convert. This is what happened for the Canucks, scoring 3 goals in the first 20 minutes (2 of them with the extra man, and one of these PP goals coming with 19 seconds left in th...

First the Calgary Flames can’t score a goal to save their own lives in Chicago and make NHL cast-off Ray Emery look like the next coming of Jacques Plante. Then they look like the Edmonton Oilers of the high flyin’ 80s putting up four goals in a period and half in Colorado tonight. And in the end of this mini two game road trip the Flames looked like the Flames – white-knuckling the steering wheel and hovering the brake trying to desperately hold onto a four goal lead.

It has been said it’s the worst lead in hockey.

To give them credit, they registered the ‘W’ on the back half of back-to-back games – now 1-1 in that situat...

Well, that was an exciting Saturday afternoon of hockey at the Saddledome.

Anyone who actually paid for tickets should be forming a line at the box office demanding their money back for that snoozefest.

Now, to be fair, this was in the cards from the beginning given the odd time of the game (2pm), which usually means players rhythms are thrown off forcing them to come out either slow, disjointed, lethargic, or all of the above.

Also, the Flames were playing the Nashville Predators, who possess no enigmatic scorers on their team and work as a team defensively to lull you into a dreary slumber and subsequently taken advantage of a lucky bounce – the firs...

The much anticipated home opener for the Montreal Canadiens was this evening at the Bell Centre. The opening ceremonies were a lack-luster affair, with the highlight being the names of the players showing up on the ice. The team was introduced by the public address announcer, the Habs came out and acknowledged the capacity crowd. The Anthem was performed by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra - with the crowd singing. There was no ceremonial face off - then the game started. 

The Habs started with a lot of energy and pep with Andrei Kostitsyn scoring on a beautiful set up by Max Pacioretty on a two-on-one. It was a nice start for the home town heroes. Then the Habs starte...