Well that sucks!
Well the result anyway. The effort for the second straight road game was on point as the Flames likely deserved better in losing 2-1 and 3-2 leads including the last one with 1/10 of a second left on the clock before bowing in overtime.
A positive spin is the point earned and a 2-0-1 record through the first three games of the five game road trip, and the fact that Nashville was likely yearning for the regulation win on the night with the home side advantage and recent run.
The Flames avoided a Noah Hanifin injury, welcomed Mark Giordano back, and saw yet another explosive game from Mikael Backlund as the team takes the road trip to Florida for their final two games.
Line Up Changes
It was pretty evident in the team’s game in Boston that the two deadline additions, defenseman Derek Forbort and Erik Gustafsson provided an upgrade to the team’s blueline; especially with both Mark Giordano and Travis Hamonic out with injuries. Tonight that bolstered blueline gets another lift, a huge one, with the return of captain Mark Giordano after missing ten games with a ham string injury.
The pairings certainly look more formidable.
Mark Giordano on the top pair with his usual battery mate TJ Brodie, the newly formed second pairing that was actually the club’s top pairing with injuries in Noah Hanifin and Rasmus Andersson. The third pairing the Forbort / Gustafsson pairing.
Up front no change at all. Sean Monahan between Johnny Gaudreau and Elias Lindholm, the red hot Mikael Backlund between Matthew Tkachuk and Andrew Mangiapane, Derek Ryan between Milan Lucic and Dillon Dube, and finally Mark Jankowski between Sam Bennett and Tobias Rieder.
David Rittich gets his third straight start in goal.
Less Holes
Bennett in the Box
Two more Bennett penalties, both in the offensive zone.
That simply has to stop. The guy is playing an impactful game of late, he’s making a difference and producing. But all that gets taken away if he’s bone headed in the penalty department.
The first one was iffy, the Predator went down pretty easy. The second one was a retaliation for a cross check that was missed. Honestly neither gets called in the playoffs, which has always been the Bennett thing. But he has to make sure this isn’t his shtick.
He’s gaining some traction, but he has a leash.
Playoff Implications
The point is big.
The Flames hold on to wild card spot one, and move within a point of both Vancouver (who lost) and Edmonton. The Canucks still have two games in hand and the Oilers one, but the Flames have made the race that much tighter.
The Flames are now three points up on the Coyotes with a game in hand, and a point up on the Jets with a game in hand.
Matt Stajan Comments
Sure can’t say Matt Stajan is mailing it in with his new gig on Sportsnet 960.
This week alone he’s had three pretty interesting kernels of information, from his time behind closed doors in the Flames room.
One, was the fact that Mark Giordano prefers to play with TJ Brodie over Dougie Hamilton as a pairing, and that he had to cover for Hamilton. The heat maps and metrics from that time period certainly suggest more issues came off the right wall than the left, and that certainly passed the eye test.
Number two was that he doesn’t think TJ Brodie will be back next year. That makes a certain degree of sense given the fact that he’s still here and wasn’t moved, but you just never know.
I was at a road game in Columbus and met a lot of Brodie family members and to a person they felt he wanted to stay. Does that mean extension? You never know, but maybe some intent.
Number three was the Gaudreau effort issue, with Stajan saying Gaudreau wants to win as much as anybody, which may dispel an exit strategy being worked by many.
Either way, that’s a great way to provide some quality radio, well done Mr. Stajan.
Giordano Ice Time
Noah Hanifin’s first period injury pretty much dashed the team’s plans to work Mark Giordano back into the mix slowly.
As a result Giordano played 21.5 minutes, good for second on the blueline behind partner TJ Brodie.
Without the Hanifin Hiccup I’d assume he would have been kept under the 2o minute mark and not be pushed.
The Flames never had a powerplay so we didn’t see Giordano sit for Gustafsson. He did lead the defense core in penalty kill time with almost 2.5 minutes of work.
Lucic Intermissions
Interesting to see back to back intermission interviews with Swedish Flame players, both with Milan Lucic in the background working on sticks.
No one else.
Just Lucic firing away on his sticks in the background.
Does it matter? Not in the lest, but interesting nonetheless.
Ramping Up
Interesting to see the Flames find maybe their high point for consistency on the season in back to back games, and perhaps over the last few weeks if you ignore the odd misstep.
Last year things went very flat for the team after the all star break, as they listed into the post season seeming very “un” ready for the ramp up that was set to come.
This year it seems like a good third of the team is finding their mojo in the final quarter of the season with Backlund, Tkachuk, Mangiapane, maybe the top line Andersson, Brodie and others playing some of their best hockey of the season.
Counting Stats
Team Stats:
Shots – Flames 39 Predators 38
Face Offs – Flames 48%
Special Teams – Flames 0/0 Predators 0/2
Player Stats:
Points – Mikael Backlund takes the hat tip again with yet another three point night, this time with a goal and two assists to pace the team.
Plus/Minus – Andrew Mangiapane and Rasmus Andersson led the way with +2 nights.
Shots – Rasmus Andersson was the man in terms of shots with five.
Fancy Stats
The Flames played a solid road game, which could be said with a 52% five on five shot attempt record with period splits of 57%/43% and 59%. In terms of high danger scoring chances the Flames were lights out with a 17-9 edge (64%), and an expected goal split of 60%.
In all situations the Flames had 53% of the shot attempts, 59% of the high danger scoring chances, and an expected goals split of 53%.
The wrong team won.
Individually, the Flames were led by Matthew Tkachuk at 73%, his linemates Andrew Mangiapane and Mikael Backlund following up with 69% each. Other players that had great nights included Derek Ryan, Rasmus Andersson, Noah Hanifin, Milan Lucic and TJ Broide, all between 55% and 60%. Johnny Gaudreau, Toby Rieder and Mark Jankkowski were all under 40%.
