thatguy4

After playing a good hard and physical game against the Dallas Stars we need to fine tune our effort and try to make something similar against the Buffs. The Buffs will be down their leading goal scorer and we are coming off of a big win against the division leaders. Did I say win against the division leaders? For a team that struggles against the rest we sure like to show up and play against teams that have a good chance of coasting into the playoffs. I applaud the efforts of the Flames in their last game against the Stars. I was a full 60 minute game but we had something my last blog went on about. The game had a physical aspect we haven't shown in quite some time. And I am not talking about the fights. I am talking about the way we came out and hit people, the way we had GOOD CLEAN hits and avoided the penalty box to the best of our ability. So it leads to my next blog which may or may not be taken as good advice. Who knows maybe you guys will get this a game or two later as well. Use this game tonight to keep and maintain the physical aspect of your game. Keep up with the hitting but also see how you can take advantage of the physical game with the finesse we have had all season. Hopefully with the more physical game we can come up with more goals. On a side note let’s help out Kipper and Karl by moving people out from right in front of them. Let’s not clutter up the boards leaving guys by themselves in front of the goal keeper to recite soliloquies from Shakespeare plays. Good luck tonight against Buffalo let’s get a great win at home.

Or should I say Dear Flames, I really do love you guys. I think that you guys are doing a great job and I love the effort. The one thing I want more than anything else this Christmas (or the rest of the season) is not for goals, not for wins, not for a miracle. What I want more than anything is for you guys to start hitting. I don't want fights. I want you to be aggressive against the other team. Every time I have seen a great game played by you guys I have seen you as aggressive. I see you racing after the puck I see great presence in front of the opponent’s goal and great clearing from ours. I also noticed something else though. I noticed that we hit people for trying to get in our zone. I noticed we hit people for trying to take our puck. I noticed we hit people who are causing us problems. I noticed good clean hard HITTING hockey. Not slashing after the fact, stepping on sticks, drawing stupid penalties ect. Again let me state that I am not interested in you guys winning and/or scoring goals. I am interested in watching a hardnosed hockey game where we get after it at all costs, where we do not worry about the feelings of the other team and playing on their level. I assure you if you guys start playing like this the rest will fall into place. It is time for teams to start being afraid to see the C of Red and the Jerseys that follow. Other team’s players should sigh in relief after not being hit and inhale quickly knowing that someone else is going to finish the check that was just avoided. Best of luck to you tonight against the Wild. As always I will be rooting for you and expecting the best. I can tell you that even if you lose I will still be happy with the team, MY team, OUR team, no matter what. I will be even happier if you get after these guys. I will feel better about a loss if you guys are aggressive and hitting. I doubt I will be happy about a loss though, I think if you play aggressively I will be happy about the win! Go get em guys!