Avalanche Fall to Flames

I was busy driving down the #4 when this game started and now I'm typing this while my parents incurably cute dog lies on my lap so I can't say my mind was really into this game at the start or finish. And apparently, the Avalanche players minds were somewhere else as well as they put in a mediocre effort and fell 2-1 to the struggling Flames.

Now I'm not saying this was a must-win game but it sure would have been nice. With the loss, the Avalanche remain just 4 points ahead of Nashville and 5 up on Edmonton, who lost to Vancouver last night. It also puts them 3 points out of the division lead which feels near insurmountable in the NW. But hey, as we know, Q isn't aiming for the divisional title. A playoff berth is more than enough for his "do-enough-to-get-by-and-the-rest-is-gravy" attitude.

I don't feel that the playoff berth is in serious jeopardy at the moment but if they lose tomorrow afternoon and Nashville defeats Chicago, the hand wringing will begin in earnest. Hopefully the team is fully awake when the game starts so we can avoid another afternoon defeat.

Oh, and it just wouldn't be a proper recap if I didn't point again that Simmer and Millions remain the most biased - and annoying - broadcast team in the league. They actually said that Joe Sakic has nothing on Jarome Iginla in terms of strength. Ok then.

Calgary Flames Announcers Hit New Low

I've never been a big fan of Roger Millions and Charlie Simmer as announcers. Not because I'm an Avalanche fan but because I find them to be terribly biased and annoying.

However all announcers are biased towards their home teams to a degree and most are annoying as well so I try to just shrug them off.

Tonight though, I felt more like flipping them off. The Flames were hosting the Islanders and tied at 4 with a few minutes left, I decided to tune in. What I ended up seeing was ridiculous.

Midway through a 4-minute powerplay, the Flames called a timeout and the folks in the booth decided to show the Bumper to Bumper "Bump of the Night". Now of course I'm expecting to see a hit from Phaneuf so everybody can swoon over big bad Dion.

Not this time. It turns out that the bump of the night had Cory Sarich boarding Mike Comrie head first into the boards. Comrie was slow to get up and it was obvious that it should have been a penalty.



Now, to their credit the announcers weren't too amped up about the hit and one of them even grudgingly admitted that "They might have had a penalty call on that". Of course, he finished that sentence with "But there wasn't" just to drive home that no penalty = no foul.

Then, as I was waiting for my lame video capture to be uploaded to YouTube for the world to see, I watched the rest of the game including the post-game show. And do you know who they called arrogant? Rick DiPietro.

I couldn't believe my ears. Now I haven't seen every single interview Rick's ever given but in any interview I've seen he's about as down to earth and humble as it gets. Every post-game he's thanking the fans for making it such a great game and just seems like an all around decent guy.

Considering he's a handsome multi-millionaire living in New York City, I think he could be a lot worse.