Expectations are a funny thing. Without them, last night’s game against the Jets becomes an exciting and hard fought battle that the boys just ended up on the wrong side of. With expectations last night’s game becomes an unacceptable loss from a team struggling to find their game.
Ever since I was a kid my Dad has told me that you can’t tell what a team is until 20 games into the season. The first 20 games can be chaos as teams get their new players integrated and systems locked down. In those first 20 games a team who could be picking in the top 5 at the end of the year can look like a world beater. After the first 20 games the true contenders start to show up, and the bottom feeders start to fall off.
The key is to not fall too far out of it before you start to find your game.
The Flames have been inconsistent this year to say the least, but have shown flashes of what made the successful last year. Tonight they play the second game of a back to back, against their provincial rival Edmonton Oilers, who themselves have trying to find their game and their first win of the season. Can the Flames finally put it all together and play a full 60 minutes?
The Flow
The answer is no. No they couldn’t.
There was some sloppy play by the boys in red to start the game. They seemed to have issues corralling the bouncing puck which lead to some turnovers and gave the Oilers a couple odd man rushes, but Hiller stood tall, giving the Flames a chance to find their game. After exchanging some end to end rushes the Oilers would start to control the play and get some sustained pressure in the Flames zone, but not a whole lot came from it before the game degraded back to sloppy turn overs. Half way through the period Nugent-Hopkins stepped off the boards and into the face-off circle and wired a wicked snap shot off the post. The Flames recovered the puck and turned it up the ice for an odd man chance. As Frolik stepped over the blue-line he was tripped, drawing the games first power-play. The Flames had solid puck movement on the power play and were able to pressure the Oilers but the Flames were unable to capitalize. At the 7 minute mark the Oilers would draw first blood as Hiller kicked a Eric Gryba shot right into the slot and onto the stick of Nugent-Hopkins, who had no issues putting the puck into the back of the wide open net, giving the Oilers a 1-0 lead. From this point on the action basically died, as the shots in the period would end 8-5 in the favour of the Flames. Before the period ended Michael Backlund would draw a slashing penalty.
The second period started with the Flames on a power play for 1:43, and while they didn’t generate a whole lot from it you could see they were making less “one too many passes” and trying to shoot the puck more. This mentality would result in the Flames first goal as 5 minutes into the period Dennis Wideman stepped into a shot from the blueline that deflected off David Jones stick, then off of Cam Talbot’s skate and and into the back of the net. I imagine it was exactly how the Flames coaching staff drew it up in the dressing room. That goal would actually give the Oilers some life as they started turning on the pressure, leaving the scrambling Flames defenders and goaltender diving to keep the puck out of the net. With 12 minutes on the clock Ferland got caught being a little too aggressive in the offensive zone as he took a holding penalty. The Oilers applied a ton of pressure on the power play but the Flames penalty killers were able to kill it off. Not long after, Dougie Hamilton gave the Flames penalty killers another workout as he was escorted to the penalty box for high sticking. The Oilers had some good looks but Hiller made a couple solid saves and the penalty killers held onto their butts long enough to kill off another penalty. With 3:25 left in the period Connor McDavid gave the Oilers back their lead when he skated over the blueline and took a shot from the face-off dot that beat Hiller clean. It was pretty stinky by Hiller and had the unfortunate consequence of forcing me to to listen to Sportsnet flaunt over McDavid even more than before.
Right off the opening face-off to start the final frame Taylor Hall fired a puck right off the post. This was a little bit of foreshadowing as 15 seconds later Hall went hard to the net and deflected a shot that would squeak past Hiller and into the net, giving the Oilers a 3-1 lead. From here the Oilers took over as another one of their first overall picks would get on the board as Beniot Pouliot fed a wide open Nail Yakupov in front of the Flames net and he would make no mistake, giving the Oilers a 3 goal lead. It was at this point I decided drinking was a good idea and I went into the kitchen and grabbed a couple beers. The Flames tried to battle back, with Jones getting his second goal of the night but it was too little too late. Connor McDavid restored the Oilers 3 goal lead with a late goal off a nice feed from Taylor Hall with just under 4 minutes left to play, and that’s how the game would end, with the Oilers taking a 5-2 win over the Flames.
Three Stars
1.Taylor Hall: Pretty good game tonight from Hall. He was a catalyst on offense for the Oilers and battled hard all over the ice, drawing penalties and being a thorn in the side of the Flames defenders. He finished the night with a goal and 2 assists.
2.Ryan Nugent-Hopkins: The kid is probably Edmonton’s most polished player. He got the visitors off to a good start with his goal and made several strong defensive plays through out the night.
3.Connor McDavid: I’m not going to say why he gets the 3rd star as I’m sure Sportsnet will tell you all about it over the next week.
Big Save
With the game seemingly out of reach another breakdown would lead to Connor McDavid undressing a Flames defender and dekeing Hiller out of his jock strap, finding himself alone with a wide open Flames net to shoot at, only to have Jonas Hiller make a tremendous save with the paddle as he sprawled backwards.
The Goat
Can I just say anyone wearing red? Because the Flames just absolutely stunk up the joint tonight and it truly was a team effort.
Mr. Clutch
I am going to go with Taylor Hall. He was the best player on the ice tonight and at the beginning of the third was a real force for the Oilers, getting them an insurance goal early in the period.
Odds and Ends
Sam Bennett was a late scratch for the Flames tonight. He is listed as day-to-day with an upper body injury… Unfortunately tonight’s game didn’t have the ’80’s battle of Alberta’ feel have been waiting the better part of a decade for. Just a bunch of sloppy play from both teams for the most part… Goaltending has been one of many issues for the Flames to start the year. It doesn’t seem to matter who is in net or how well they are playing, the veterans in the Flames crease are letting some really stinky goals in. Frankly it’s getting a little tiring and I would love to see Ortio in net. Ortio may let some bad goals in but at least he is developing. Ramo and Hiller are a finished product… The Flames coaches and management can not be happy right now. It isn’t that they’re 1-4 that’s alarming, it’s how they are 1-4. Last year they were a high energy team that never gave up and got some timely goaltending. This year we have yet to see the same resilience that made them successful last year. As I said early, it’s still early and teams are finding their games, but their next 6 games are all against good Eastern Conference teams (Capitals, Red Wings, Rangers, Islanders, Senators and the Habs) and if they can’t start finding ways to win games they’ll put themselves out of it before the first month is over… The Flames also lost their first 3 home games for the first time since 2000-2001…
Next Up
The Flames continue their home stand by welcoming high flying forward Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals to town, Tuesday at 7pm, and can be seen on Sportsnet360.
Lines
Gaudreau – Monahan – Hudler
Raymond – Backlund – Frolik
Ferland – Stajan – Jones
Bollig – Granlund – Jooris
Giordano – Hamilton
Russell – Wideman
Kulak – Engellend
Hiller
