Sometimes a point is good enough.
The Flames travelled 2700 km on Tuesday last week.
On Wednesday they travelled 505 km to Montreal in the wee hours.
On Thursday they flew 3024 km to Calgary.
On Monday they jetted again, this time to Minnesota 1683 km.
Tonight they will travel again, another 1683 km back to Calgary.
That’s almost 10,000 km in a week to play four games. Tonight they jumped all over the Minnesota Wild in the first period, but came out down a goal. In the second they tied things up, played a solid third period and could have easily won the game in overtime or the shoot out before settling for a single point in a 2-1 loss in the Twin Cities.
Good enough.
Organizational Philosophy
Funny how close the Flame’s lineup is to the ones many a fan were pining for before the season began. Up front Mark Jankowski and Garnet Hathaway have been recalled, Tanner Glass has been sent to the AHL and Freddie Hamilton is now the healthy scratch ahead of two promoted AHL players.
On the blueline Brett Kulak will be starting his 19th game of the past 20 with veteran Matt Bartkowski clearly now relegated to the 7th defenseman role, and not likely to see the ice without either injury or a big regression to Kulak.
In goal veteran Eddie Lack stumbled and David Rittich has been recalled and has won both of his starts as a Calgary Flame.
All in all the goaltending, third pairing, and bottom six have been upgraded making the Flames a much more difficult team to handle on a nightly basis.
So why the wait?
If I was to guess I’d say it’s an organizational philosophy to put a veteran in every role and make a younger player beat them. It drives fans nuts as they don’t get what they want when they want it, but is it such a bad idea? I think too many teams (cough ~Oilers~ cough) roster plan around young players and create either a) blown prospects or b) a sense of entitlement that stunts the dressing room.
Hard to make the case that the Flames have hurt themselves in any way with Lack and Glass in the AHL, and Bartkowski eating popcorn.
Hemmed but No Break
Thought it was a big moment in the second period when the Jankowski line got caught in the second period late, iced it and then got caught in their zone again. They didn’t march out of their own zone in a fierce fashion, but they also didn’t run around and give up blue chip chance after blue chip chance.
Would think a big moment in a young player’s career is the ability to bend but not break. Chase the play a bit but not to the extent where they give up that huge chance and with it a potentially a back breaking goal.
Wild and Bold
Have to hand it to the Wild organization for showing some stones and doing a radical but amazing boost to their jerseys with the Adidas advent.
The Flames made a subtle change or two, but like many teams changed very little when the opportunity was right there. Calgary is essentially still proliferating the radical Reebok move from 8 years ago, when every other team has abandoned that mess and moved on.
Side bar on the issue, Calgary classics. Someone our the site mentioned teams staying away from having pants that match jerseys because you can never get the colours to match up right. The Wild are proof of that. Their helmets and pants don’t match their jerseys and socks. Pretty noticeable.
2nd Pairing
Another great night for the Flames befuddled second pairing as TJ Brodie put up 63% and Travis Hamonic had 57% of the shot attempts. Lately even in games where they finish under water they seem more under control, more on the same page, and more what we expected them to be when the Flames made the big splash at the draft in acquiring the former Islander.
Glen Gulutzan had a lot of criticism for not breaking them up, but sometimes you have to see things through in a plan and not abandon it when things don’t work out in a relatively small sample size.
Gulutzanisms
I’m pretty pro Glen Gulutzan, I think he has the team playing a better style in a sustainable way; they drive the play. However I do question some of his utilization decisions.
Tonight he started the fourth line at the opening face off, came back with the fourth line after the Wild opened the scoring and then through the fourth line out with just 30 seconds to play in a tie game. None of those make sense to me.
I get rolling lines. I get trying to rest good players. I get rewarding good play. I don’t get not taking the pulse of the game and equipping your team accordingly.
Monahan
Man will this man have this game in his mind’s eye as he shuts eye on the air plane tonight. He missed the net not once but three times in the overtime period, and then was stoned by Stalock in the shoot out. Mr. Finish has a lot of cache in the bank as he’s been depositing good will for four years, but tonight you’d have to think he’s kicking himself.
Shoot Out Roster
Interesting to watch the Flames shoot out roster with a young roster evolve.
Johnny Gaudreau was a given two years ago, but struggled and found his way out of the mix for the most part. Sean Monahan proved to be money and has been a constant. The addition of Kris Versteeg made him a staple for the last year and a half, and then recently Matthew Tkachuk has proven really effective with his Pee Wee wrister to the top corner.
When a shoot out goes deep you get to look at other players, potentially shaping future rosters in tie games. Tonight I thought Sam Bennett had a very good move but was beaten by a good save, while Micheal Ferland looked pretty feeble in his attempted short side Beliveau shot side backhander.
I’d vote Bennett to spell off Gaudreau going forward, though I’d like to see Jankowski given a shot.
Fancy Stats
Hard to imagine having a better first period on the road, but still coming out down then tonight’s effort. Shots were 10-4 Calgary and shot attempts 19-8 for 70% in the first period. But as we’ve seen this season it’s all about finish, something that’s killing the Flames at times. At the end of the game the Flames had a 59% edge in all situations as well as 59% five on five.
Scoring chances were extremely low though, making you wonder if the Minny statistician crew were especially stingy. Final tally was 3-2 Calgary five on five and 7-5 overall, very low totals by NHL standards.
Every single Calgary Flame had a positive night when it came to shot attempts. Curtis Lazar led the way (yes you read that right) with 74% in 11 minutes of ice time. He was the only player over the 70% mark. Flames in the 60s included; Stajan, Brodie, Brouwer, Hamilton, Tkachuk and Frolik. At the bottom of the pile was Ferland with 52%, followed by Backlund, Giordano and Gaudreau.
