5 THINGS TO WATCH
1. DROUGHT CONTINUES ... Calgary RW Jarome Iginla, with 517 career tallies, can score any way you want. Just not lately. The face of the franchise has collected two goals in his last 21 outings. “Do we need him to score? Sure we do,” said GM Jay Feaster. “Yes, we want him to be productive and we want him to score ... but we don’t want that to come (by) sacrificing being a responsible two-way guy.” Iginla’s favourite ways to tally — at home (263), in wins (326), on Saturdays (115), in March (104), against Colorado and Minnesota (35 apiece), in third periods (185), at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis (18).
2. LELAND’S SHOW NOW ... With G Miikka Kiprusoff unavailable, G Leland Irving makes his fifth straight appearance. From his 206 minutes so far — 1-1-1, 2.62 GAA, .900. “The fact that the No. 1 goaltender is out,” said Feaster, “that ought to cause every guy in that room to raise their level that much higher. They ought to look at a kid like Leland Irving and say, ‘This guy’s busting his backside, giving us a chance to win every game, how about if we step up and do our part?’ That’s the collective ‘we’ — that’s every guy looking in the mirror. That’s what we expect. That’s what we want as a team.” Added skipper Bob Hartley: “We’re going to keep riding Leland.”
3. OUTSIDE THE LINES ... Hartley, according to his boss, has total control of the nightly lineup. “That’s why I pay him all that money of Murray’s (Flames owner Edwards), so he can make those tough decisions,” said Feaster. “There are two ways you can do it. You can work with your coach and let your coach have input or you can dictate and mandate. I don’t think the dictate/mandate thing is the way to go.” Hartley hasn’t hesitated to shuffle. Through 10 dates, these are his most popular units (according to the sharp-pencilled folks at leftwinglock.com) * Glencross-Tanguay-Iginla (18.91 per cent) * Hudler-Stajan-Cervenka (10.26) Twenty-three other combinations have been used less than six per cent of the time.
4. ROMAN ON THE WING? Roman Cervenka was advertised, in the off-season, as a centre. Monday, he drew a number of shifts in the middle. However, his transition to everyday pivot is not complete (although he does win 54.2 per cent of his draws). “I’m trying to figure out if he can play at this level at centre,” said Hartley. “Right now, he seems more comfortable at the wing. He was playing that funny system in Russia and he never played down low (in his own zone). Right now, we want to experiment, but this is not a lab. This is the NHL.”
5. INS, OUTS, WHAT-HAVE-YOUS Last season, the Flames went 1-1-2 against the Texans. LW Michael Cammalleri produced a series-high six points ... Dallas is stable defensively — eighth overall in goals against, 10th best penalty kill, third in take-aways. Calgary, less so — 24th in goals against, 25th in penalty killing, 10th in take-aways.