When the Vancouver Canucks were a chief rival of the Flames I salivated in their discomfort, I giggled in their demise, I chortled in their setbacks.
Tonight however you almost had to feel sorry for them as they were the victims of the Flames finally settling their Hockey God scores and filling the net to the tune of a 6-1 road win, not to mention yet another key Canuck going down as Brock Boesler leaves the ice on what looked like a skate lace strike by Mark Giordano in the second period.
When it rains it pours.
Fort the Flames the third line was the key as Sam Bennett scores a goal and adds three assists to halt their losing skid and nix a lot of bad voodoo.
The Bennett Push
I pointed out Sam Bennett last night for having a pretty fierce game despite not finding the score sheet. I went on to worry that his new found confidence could be tested if he didn’t continue to produce as regularly as he has in recent weeks.
Well colour that issue settled.
Sam Bennett and his linemates were the driving force in tonight’s game with Bennett ending up with a goal and three assists on the night. No points in his first 15 games and now 19 points in his last 19 games as the winger (was a center) has completely turned his season around. Despite the poor start he’s now on pace to best last season by ten points, and set a career high.
My gut says these numbers will improve.
Those that wanted to trade him, show yourselves out.
Jagr At It Again
I think it takes a tonne of talent to make a fourth line interesting at age 45, but Jagr did it again tonight.
The fourth line had all kinds of chances and set up the second Mark Giordano goal due to some hard work by Matt Stajan and some pretty sloppy goaltending by Jacob Markstrom. Bottom line, the fourth line is relevant again and you just know Mr. Jagr has a big hand in that.
The guy just has a talent to control the wall, slow things down and find options. It’s a huge learning opportunity for the greasy members of the Flames roster. You’d have to think Jagr’s presence has had something to do with Sam Bennett finding his game.
Late Powerplay Love
It took until the last powerplay of the night but the Flames finally broke the goose egg with the man advantage as they turned a 5-1 game into a 6-1 final.
Sure that’s not the impact moment you look for for a powerplay but the Flames will take it as they went 23 straight powerplays and almost six games without any success.
You have to hope that strike will break the team free and get them back to the 18-20% effective powerplay of a middling team. The Flames play well enough five on five to not need the powerplay to carry them but it can’t bury them in close games either.
The Flames Have a Backup
This David Rittich story is getting a little interesting.
The undrafted free agent signing has now won three games in three starts in his NHL career, and continues to build confidence in himself, his teammates and the guys that make decisions upstairs.
Ideally, a backup goaltender is successful enough to push for more starts and eventually turn a A/B situation into a tandem. While that may be a pretty lofty goal at this point, it’s great that it’s a discussion given the wasteland of backup goaltenders we’ve seen in this city behind Miikka Kiprusoff and beyond.
I wouldn’t write of Jon Gillies, and Tyler Parsons is a goalie to watch, but the timing of David Rittich’s ascension is ideal for the Calgary Flames.
Also interesting is how well the team plays in front of the young Czech. The Flames have historically been terrible in front of backup goaltending but in front of Rittich this season they’ve iced two solid road games (tonight and against Colorado), and game with higher shot totals but not much by way of scoring chances.
Tonight only 17 shots, but Rittich was solid kicking out 16.
Those Other Third Line AHL Guys
Mark Jankowski has cinched his permanent NHL employment a long time ago, but his three point night doesn’t hurt things at all. That’s now 11 points in 26 games putting him on a 35 point pace which is a 2nd/3rd liner pace over the course of 82 games.
Given his age and experience these numbers should improve.
The fact that the third line was playing better but not producing was a nugget of a hope a few weeks ago, but now it’s clearly a landed depth add for the Flames and a huge boost to a team trying to turn good efforts into good results.
The fact that it’s Garnet Hathaway and not Jaromir Jagr lending a hand on the third line is even more important, with Hathaway adding another point tonight to push his brief NHL season to six points in 11 games.
Is this guy here to stay? More and more it looks like yes.
Fancy Stats
The Flames had this one from beginning to end with period edges in shot attempts of 52%, 52% and 74% on the night, no evidence of score effects in this one! The Flames were 57% in 5 on 5 attempts and in overall situations on the night. In terms of scoring chances the Flames led 10-6 five on five and 16-10 in all situations on the night.
Individually it was an odd night. The 3M line got absolutely worked as the trio finished between 35 and 45% on the night at the very bottom of the totem poll. They were the only three players under the break even mark on the night. The top player was Hathaway at 73%, followed by Jankowski at 71% and both Dougie Hamilton and Matt Stajan at 70%. Bennett, Gaudreau, Brouwer, Giordano and Jagr were all above the 60% mark.
