The growing pains that mark the start of the Flames season continued in Vancouver tonight as the team turned in the fire wagon, breakaway yielding persona of the first two games of the season, replacing them with the defending offensively anemic group we saw on Hockey Night in Canada.
All in all, a solid effort, but a shoot out loss moving the Flames to 0-2-1 on the season, creating a lot of pressure and anxiety on a fan base that saw their season end in October last year, and a new coach that needs some success to help build some faith in what’s he’s doing.
The truth of the matter has always been a learning curve. It was thought that an easy start against some playoff missing rivals would be the tonic, and clearly that wasn’t the case.
The Flow
Not sure the Flames touched the puck for the game’s first three minutes, so yeah not a great start for a team that has a goose egg for two games against their provincial rivals. The Flames gathered themselves though and started to push back, evening things out for the rest of the period. The Flames take the lead when Troy Brouwer takes a penalty deep in the Canucks zone. The Nucks pull thier goalie and with said cage empty Louie Eriksson accidentally puts the puck back towards his own zone and just like that the Flames gain revenge for that Wideman/Raymond debacle from two years ago. Flames lead 1-0 after one.
The second period was actually the Flame’s best. Gaudreau could have scored a couple of times but either got hooked, or fell down, or just missed on converting a chance in a period that had Calgary pushing for a two goal cushion. In the end 11 shots to 7 for the Flames but they come up empty sending the game to the third all tense like.
Did the Flames sit on it? It appears so. A rough third period with the Flames on their heels not getting a whole lot done. The Canucks finally get rewarded when Eriksson gets a fortuitous bounce off of Brodie’s skate to Daniel Sedin who beats Johnson and just like that we have a whole new game, with the Flames now in dry dock having to jump start their evening.
In overtime the teams go up and down the ice before the Flames get a powerplay with 90 seconds to go when Dougie Hamilton got collared for hooking. The Canucks are expertly kept to the outside and come up empty, the game going to a shoot out.
The shoot out goes through the conventional 6 shooters with the goalies besting all of them, before Brent Sutter’s kid ends it by beating Johnson through the wickets and the Canucks win their season and home opener.
1. Ryan Miller: Odd night. No goals against, a perfect save percentage, but not a shut out. Miller was solid in the Canuck’s net.
2. Chad Johnson: I’ve never been a fan of guys named Chad, always dodgy, but I may have to amend that rule. Johnson gave about the best backup performance I think we’ve seen in Calgary since Curtis Joseph toiled behind Mikka Kiprusoff. One goal in regulation and on in the shoot out in a 2-1 loss.
3. Daniel Sedin: Scored the big tying goal to send the game to overtime and a shoot out.
Big Save
Lots of saves to like in the third period from Johnson, including Daniel Sedin on a high slot drop pass with about 8 to play. But for impact I think the Miller save on the Calgary powerplay when Monahan sauced one to Dougie Hamilton takes the cake. Slides across and gets his shoulder on a puck that had top corner written all over it.
The Goat
Not really a goat game at least in the Wideman sense from last evening, so I’m going with everyone that had a shot in the shoot out. Chad Johnson tossed his life into this one, someone had to score and bail the guy out.
Mr. Clutch
Johnny Gaudreau. Sure he’s not quite there, but man did he bring it, especially in that second period. Should have had four tonight with a bounce or two.
Odds and Ends
Hockey fans don’t know everything. We think we do often, very often actually, but we don’t. However sometimes it just feels really damn good when a hockey team makes a decision that matches what the fans want to see. Tonight the Flames punted Dennis Wideman to the sidelines for Brett Kulak, a move that many of said fans would be cheering in their homes tonight when they turned on Hockey Night in Canada to watch the game. I get asset management, I do. I’d love it if the Flames turned Wideman into a 2nd round pick at the deadline this year. But not at the expense of this season. At this point a better skating Kulak was a better option. Given the fact that Kulak asserted himself well tonight you’d hope that this experiment isn’t a one off for the next week or so. … Chad Johnson. Such a great performance. The Flames have had many spotty periods of lackluster goaltending in the past. Times where they had neither a solid starter or back up, but even in the Kiprusoff era, times where they just couldn’t find a back up that could spell the legend off. Tonight Johnson did everything a back up could be expected to do; he made all the easy saves, all of the average saves, and got beat on only one of the tough ones. It was sad to see him tagged with the loss because he deserved much better. Brian Elliott will find his legs in Calgary and when he does the Flames will be in very good shape between the pipes. … Still pretty impressed with Tkachuk’s early play in the season. Sure he isn’t lighting it up but he makes a lot of solid NHL level reads on the ice. That kind of patience at 18 is pretty impressive. Hopefully he gets a point or two soon so he can calm down and enjoy the ride.
Next Up
The Flames host the Eichel-less Sabres on Tuesday night. Game time 7pm Sportsnet.
Lines:
Gaudreau – Monahan – Versteeg
Tkachuk – Bennett – Brouwer
Bouma – Backlund – Frolik
Ferland – Stajan – Chiasson
Giordano – Brodie
Jokkipakka – Hamilton
Engelland – Kulak
Johnson
