Oddly enough, that was better. Seriously.
Not a lot went right in Calgary tonight with the Flames hosting the Pittsburgh Penguins. They gave up too many odd man chances, they didn’t get NHL calibre goaltending, they had next to zero finish, they didn’t solve their powerplay woes, and they got blown out on home ice to the tune of 9-1.
Yet it was almost easier to watch than either of the club’s last two games where they were stuck in neutral or on their heels and relying on their goaltender to earn them a split.
The effort at least was there tonight despite the debacle.
Maybe a good old fashioned ass kicking is an easier basis for improvement than the lacklustre efforts we’ve seen.
Top Lines and Sketchy Defense
The Flames are having a tough time preventing goals, something that isn’t hard to explain with the alarming rate that they’re giving up high danger chances against.
The Monahan line is especially guilty of bleeding chances, something that makes one wonder about year to year performance and top lines in general.
The 2017-18 Bad: Out of 44 lines that played 300 minutes together last year, the Monahan line (17-18 edition) was 26th in expected goals differential at +2.16. That doesn’t sound like a top line.
The 2017-18 Good: Out of the 44 lines the Monahan line finished 6th in goal differential at +17.
So they got away with murder? They’re excellent at finishing? Or a combination of both?
Either way, they’ve been terrible this season, though they’re not alone …
Chances Per 60 Minutes
A good NHL team gives up 10 high danger chances per 60 minutes of five on five hockey. That would suggest that a team needs to get the average of their players into that 10 range as well if they want to be successful.
The Flames last year, a team with good underlying numbers were giving up 9.9 per game and were ranked 8th in the league in that category. They only had three players with more than 11 per game against.
This season the team has every player average over 11, as well as 12 players averaging over 15 and 5 over 20. That’s insane.
Is it a new coach? Many new players? The obvious adjustment period? Or did they just start thinking they were a good team and they wouldn’t have to turn it on for a full 60 minutes to get results?
So it comes as a bit of a surprise that in a 9-1 loss they actually gave up only 12 high danger chances, good for a tie for their second best effort of the season. Now a pessimist might suggest being down five early in the second may make for an opposition that is pretty much mailing it in from that point on, but why be mean on a night like this?
Tkachuk Talk
Matthew Tkachuk was quick to throw himself under the bus in almost all his quotes after the Montreal game, though some TSN editing certainly made it look like he condemning everyone but himself.
One of the things he hit on was shift length and getting stuck on the ice tired and the team being victimised.
It’s good thing he included himself in that.
Tkachuk is 2nd on the team in average shift length at 51 so far this season (behind Johnny Gaudreau), and he was third after Monahan and Gaudreau in the Montreal game at 54 seconds.
Lineup Changes
Once again Bill Peters proves just about no one is safe when it comes to roster moves as the Saddledome was a busy place this morning.
Truth be known any coach worth his salt would look to send a message after the team mailed in two straight games on the most recent road trip, but Peters has pretty much had an eye to change game in and game out season regardless of result.
Tonight Travis Hamonic was activated and inserted which meant Anthony Peluso was off to the AHL to make room on the roster. Inside the lineup Hamonic dressing resulted in Jusso Valimaki coming out and changes to all three pairings.
Up front Derek Ryan takes a seat for the first time with Dillon Dube moving over to the middle to play center and Austin Czarnik making a return after sitting for three straight.
Jusso Gate
Are the Flames considering a Jusso Valimaki demotion?
On one hand you have the contract slide and future economics, that while unsexy are important. If the Flames don’t let him play another NHL game this year his entry level contract would slide to next season.
On the other you have icing the best team, and while Valimaki is young and makes mistakes it’s hard to argue that he hasn’t made the adjustment to NHL hockey and isn’t a liability at all. The big question though is what will he be by Christmas with 35 games under his belt, and do you want that on this roster this season?
Could very well be a mix, and they park him in the AHL until they come up with a plan to move out a veteran defenseman to make a permanent spot.
Mike Smith
I’ve been a defender of Mike Smith this season for two reasons.
One sample size, and two the team has played simply brutal in front of him.
Tonight though the type and timing of that first goal really set the tone for the evening; the exact kind of thing you don’t need from your number one goaltender.
With the Flames tied at no score and carrying the play a brutal angle backhander from Sidney Crosby beat him short side high. It may have hit something, but that doesn’t change the fact that a 6’5″ goaltender has to seal that post and not give that up.
All told 15 saves on 21 shots giving up six goals. David Rittich didn’t do a whole lot better giving up three on 15 shots in the clean up.
Ramus 1st Pairing Defender?
A lot was made about the defense pairings and the promotion of Rasmus Andersson to the top pairing with Mark Giordano.
He only played 16 minutes and change however as he was only on for even strength minutes (odd to me because I thought he looked good in Montreal on the second unit), in a game that was clearly pretty hard to judge as a measuring stick.
One number that can’t look good however was the high danger split for the newly formed pairing, as Andersson was 1-6 and Giordano was 1-5, both towards the bottom of the list for skaters.
There’s no question that Andersson has a bright future. He thinks the game offensively better than most already and he’s only going to get better on the transition and helping move the Flames up the ice. If I’m Peters I give him another look in another game as his partner, the captain himself wasn’t very good in this one, but for now he may not be ready to take on the responsibility of a top pairing defenseman.
Some Silver Linings!
The Flames got their butts kicked, nobody needs me to extract a bloody autopsy. Instead some silver linings …
- James Neal scored, that gives him two on the season and two in 10 games is a lot closer to two in eight games then one in ten games. Two in eight gives him 20 and that’s the whole point.
- Dillon Dube was +1 and Garnet Hathaway was even. Amazing huh? Every other player was negative, and some as much as -4 (Matthew Tkachuk), but two fourth line wingers made it out unscathed.
- The Flames won 57% of the face offs tonight. 57%! That’s a pretty high number. Mikael Backlund was 82% while Elias Lindholm was 64%.
- The Penguins gave the puck away more often than the Flames by a margin of 11-9.
- After days talking about the top line getting dominated Johnny Gaudreau goes 67% in shot attempts, and Sean Monahan comes in at 60%
Fancy Stats
Being down all night and a veteran team with a big lead mailing it in can do some funny things to the final numbers. The Flames five on five had 55% of the shot attempts with period splits of 55% (when it mattered) / 56% and 63%. Scoring chances were 28-23 Flames (55%) and high danger chances were 41% Calgary (the trend continues).
Individually, the whole team pushed above the water mark with only the third line left behind, as all of Sam Bennett, James Neal and Mark Jankowski were in the mid 40s.
