The Flames may have dropped their last two games on Thanksgiving weekend, but from most accounts they were coming off their most complete effort of the season in Sunday’s 3-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks.
Tonight they continued that consistency into another night in beating the Philadelphia Flyers 3-1 at the Saddledome no Tuesday night.
Calgary had a goal in each of the three periods, and out shot the Flyers 38-22 in protecting David Rittich and moving their record back to .500 on the season.
Next up the Detroit Red Wings as the Flames concluded this mini home stand with a game on Thursday night.
Line Up Changes
With back to back losses it comes as no surprise that there would be some changes, though with a 22 man roster there isn’t a lot of full scale adaptations that Bill Peters can make.
David Rittich is back in goal, resuming the starter role from Cam Talbot.
Mark Jankowski returns to the lineup after a one game sit and watch hiatus, with Tobias Reider coming out of the lineup. The lines have a tweak or two as well. No change to the top two lines (Frolik with the 3M Line), but from there it’s an attempt at a return to what works.
Derek Ryan centering one line with Andrew Mangiapane and Milan Lucic (Lucic pretending he’s Garnet Hathaway). Mark Jankowski centering Sam Bennett and Austin Czarnik a line that performed well last year when James Neal was moved off the line.
An exert from a Kent Wilson article this season … Link
Austin Czarnik
Worked best with: Sam Bennett (62.4 CF%, 63.0 xGF%), Jankowski (57.9 CF%, 61.7 xGF%)
Worked worst with: Derek Ryan (51.7 CF%)
Neutral: Backlund, Tkachuk, Frolik
Bottom Six Impact
The Flames aren’t playing all that well, but the crux of the problem is a thin offence led by the fact that they are literally getting no production from 7 of 13 forwards this year, and another two with only an assist apiece coming into tonight’s game.
So yeah good sign tonight to see goals from Michael Frolik and Andrew Mangiapane, the two snipes that beat Elliott before Elias Lindholm hit the empty net. Derek Ryan picked up an assist as well.
Now 9 of 13 forwards have points. Baby steps.
Chance Generation
This season is coming down to the interpretation of Calgary’s production this year.
The numbers from last season suggest nothing they accomplished was a fluke. Their underlying numbers all suggest a top team, and they did it with average to below average goaltending and suspect special teams.
The start offensively this season suggests one of two things; it’s early, or they scored beyond their talent for a full season last year. Lingering in the doubt side of the equation was the top line’s terrible finish to the season, both after the all star break and into the playoffs.
So what are they? According to the game sheet, not much further ahead as the Flames were only credited with two high danger chances on the night, a head scratcher from my standpoint.
Good number or not, it does continue the idea that the Flames have to create more early in the season.
Speaking of Career Seasons …
The career season suggestion involves many players including young players like Sean Monahan, Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk who are bound to get better.
Two guys that are the easy targets for regression by many pundits are Mark Giordano and Elias Lindholm.
Mark Giordano at the age of 36 is certainly unlikely to register 70+ points once again, but there he is picking up an assist tonight to give him four in seven games to start the season (an early 47 point pace). He’s off but certainly heading for a productive season.
The other target has been Elias Lindholm, a winger that scored 27 goals last year on a 14% shooting percentage after having averaged only 10% in his previous four seasons in Carolina. Tonight his empty net goal gives him four on the season putting him on a 47 goal pace and a 19% shooting percentage start to his season.
Will be interesting to watch their progress.
Starting Quick
The Flames had been scored first on in five of the games this season, and in four of those five contests the opposition goal came quickly.
So it was a nice change to see Michael Frolik gobble up a turn over just under two minutes into the game and fire one by former Flame goaltender Brian Elliott for a quick 1-0 lead.
You just can’t be playing catch up all the time.
Penalty Trouble
Bill Peters mentioned before the game tonight that it wasn’t just one thing that the Flames had to improve, it was a myriad of things that all needed to be 15% better.
One is certainly discipline.
Coming into the night the Flames were the league’s sixth most penalized team, and they did nothing to help that stat with three first period penalties (Frolik, Bennett, Tkachuk), and all for stick fouls. Move your feet and you don’t take those lazy penalties.
Things slowed down the rest of the way however as the Flames only took one more minor (Gaudreau), but in the end it’s four Flyer powerplays to Calgary’s two yet again.
Counting Stats
Team Stats:
Shots – Flames 383 Flyers 22
Face Offs – Flames 38%
Special Teams – Flames 0/2 Flyers 0/4
Player Stats:
Points – Not a lot of points with two unassisted goals, as five players share the lead with one apiece (Lindholm, Frolik, Mangiapane, Ryan and Mark Giordano).
Plus/Minus – Mark Giordano led the way with +2 on the night.
Shots – Elias Lindholm with seven shots to set the pace on the evening.
Fancy Stats
A solid night in pretty much every underlying stat as the Flames were the better team pretty much whistle to whistle. In terms of five on five shot attempts the Flames led with 62% on consistent period splits of 60%/63% and 63%. A stat that didn’t match my eye test was the Flyers with a 5-2 edge in high danger shot attempts. Giving up five is a great game, only getting two is a head scratcher on almost 40 shots.
In all situations the Flames had 58% of the shot attempts and 18% of the high danger chances (2-9).
Individually, only TJ Brodie was under the 50% mark at 46%. At the top of the pile was Mark Jankowski only only nine minutes of ice time with an impressive 89%. Sample size has to be considered but not a bad bounce back game for the healthy scratch. Austin Czarnik, Oliver Kylington and Rasmus Andersson were all at 75%.
