A ton of Flash and he always ‘Finish’es…
Should we really even bother with Curtis McElhinney? I mean, yes, he’s from London, Ontario, so I should probably give him some love—but given Miika Kiprusoff’s 76 games played last season, he doesn’t really need a backup goaltender.
That is, unless he gets blown out in the first period of a playoff game against the San Jose Sharks—but that hardly ever happens, right?
Maybe we should ask Curtis Joseph.
To give credit where credit is due, McElhinney is the best kind of backup goalie to give a coach like Mike Keenan. He’s a kid who’s got his head screwed on straight, with a hard-working nature and a thirst to improve and seek out his own opportunities, instead of waiting for things to get handed to him—although, with Keenan, sometimes waiting is the best option for a goalie).
He just plays behind the wrong guy—Miika Kiprusoff.
Kiprusoff finished last year with 39 wins—one away from his third-straight 40-win season—a .906 save percentage, and a 2.69 goals against average. The scary thing? That’s a bad year for this guy. Thanks, San Jose.
The only problem with Kipper is that he hasn’t been able to win in the playoffs since the Stanley Cup run of 2004, posting a 7-12 record in the playoffs the past three years.
But how about we let the Flames focus on the season before we get to ahead of ourselves, all right?
So what does this all mean?
The Flames seem to have it all in place. They have a tough defense with some puck-moving ability, they have gritty, in-your-face forwards who can score, and they have a Vezina-caliber goalie in between the pipes.
Throughout the regular season, I can’t see any team within the division giving the Flames a lot of trouble, especially seeing as they were only four points away from winning the division title from the Wild last season.
The Red Mile will be rockin’ this year.
Prediction: First in Northwest
So there you have it, the Northwest division. Hopefully, whether you agreed or disagreed, you enjoyed it, and the added input from the available Community Leaders.
As we said, next week is the Southeast division, so if you're a fan of the Panthers, Lightning, Hurricanes, Capitals, or Thrashers—keep your heads up!
Bryan Thiel is a Senior Writer and NHL Community Leader for Bleacher Report. If you want to get in contact with Bryan, you can do so through his Profile, while if you'd like to read any and all of his previous work, it can be found in his archives.
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