Maximum Suck

We've got to hand it to the Calgary Flames, at least they're consistent. Not only are they consistently bad on the road anyway, but in the last several games of the season and the first two playoff games against the Dead Wings, they've been consistently horrible. As in, really, really bad.

Detroit beat them easily again in Game 2, taking a 2-0 series lead. At the start of the game, it looked like the Flames were some kind of ECHL team out on the ice, all out of position, making horrible turnovers and taking ridiculous and undisciplined penalties, especially in the first six minutes.

What amazes me is how lenient the refs actually were, as Robin Regehr took some serious liberties with little Jiri Hudler after the latter fell down near the Flames goal in the first period. Regehr just started punching him in the head the second Hudler hit the ice, and for mostly no reason at all---and the refs did nothing.

A little roughing around the crease is to be expected in the playoffs, but remember that Hudler is just 5'9" and 178 pounds. Regehr is 6'3", 225. A bit of a mismatch, we'd say.

At any rate, the Flames continued their suckage and proved once again that the Avalanche deserved the final playoff spot far more than them. It's difficult to imagine the Avs, coming off of a successful late-season run, playing with the same incompetence and resignation that Calgary has these past two games.

But, as the late, great Kurt Vonnegut was fond of saying, "so it goes."