Magical players can do magical things … Connor McDavid was all of that tonight in posting five points and embarrassing the Flames by a 7-1 score tonight.
Calgary had some gumption tonight, they pushed hard putting up 44 shots and carrying the play, but they just couldn’t match the individual talent of McDavid who ran over Calgary with a natural hat trick to follow two first period assists.
For the Flames that’s three straight losses, which is becoming situation critical in a very tight division. There is lots of time left in the season but they had better get this corrected soon.
Tough games coming up in Toronto (2), but they can’t afford to waste the four games against Ottawa on the schedule.
The Line Up
Change was expected given the back to back losses, and Geoff Ward going with a reduced roster for the third period. Unfortunately they are forced to go back to back without Sean Monahan which isn’t ideal. Glen Gawdin gets into the lineup with his first NHL game, anchoring the fourth line.
The Cage
With back to back games it was always the plan to bring Jacob Markstrom back into the nets for the second of the two in Edmonton. With Calgary losing two straight on home ice this week it’s good to have their MVP on the ice in what feels like an early season must win. I thought the Flames did a good job of limiting the pressure on David Rittich, and he in turn did his job to get them some points. No run support however.
Jacob Markstrom
Goals saved above average – 4.93
David Rittich
Goals saved above average – -1.78
The Blueline
One small change on the blueline with Nikita Nesterov coming in for Connor Mackey. I thought Mackey was solid in start number two, but he looked a little lost at times in last night’s game against Edmonton. So it’s Mark Giordano with Rasmus Andersson, Noah Hanifin with Chris Tanev, and Nesterov with Juuso Valimaki.
Giordano – Andersson
46% xGF in 195 minutes
Hanifin – Tanev
60% xGF in 251 minutes
Nesterov – Valimaki
56% xGF in 162 minutes
Up Front
Lines tonight make as much sense as we’ve seen given the injury to Sean Monahan. Josh Leivo joins Elias Lindholm and Johnny Gaudreau, the 3M-2 line is back together with Mikael Backlund between Matthew Tkachuk and Andrew Mangiapane. Much better third line with Sam Bennett between Milan Lucic and Dillon Dube. And finally Glen Gawdin between Buddy Robinson and Joakim Nordstrom.
Gaudreau – Lindholm – Leivo
63% xGF in 8 minutes
Tkachuk – Backlund – Mangiapane
61% xGF in 19 minutes
Lucic – Bennett – Dube
45% xGF in 19 minutes
Nordstrom – Gawdin – Robinson
New combination
McDavid Goes Off
There are only four maybe five players in the league that can pretty much beat you on their own … Connor McDavid is one of those guys.
The Flames made a lot of mistakes, but pretty much drove the play for most of the night. You’d call them unfortunate but they were not. They were victimized by a star player that was given too much room through mistakes and blown coverage and with that he ran up a five point night and buried them.
Sure the Flames carried the play for a good chunk of the game, but when they broke down they broke down large.
Is this a step forward? Could be I guess. They have had some listless play of late and tonight wasn’t listless … they stayed in it.
But the turnovers and mistakes just keep on a coming, and that has to stop if they want to get back into this season.
Classic Look … Almost
Any time I see the Flames in the classic white jerseys against traditional rivals I get so nostalgic.
Not so much tonight though with the Oilers light bright jerseys.
Hate to admit this, but I always though the original Oiler road jerseys were pretty solid, why they continue to go with either dominant orange or the snuff room jersey they wore tonight I’ll never know.
Honestly the Flames were no better for the better part of 17 years in the ugly Edge jerseys, but at least they got it right.
Edmonton should follow suite and toss the gimmicks and the orange.
Similar Start to Last Night
Not a good first few minutes, which pretty much mirrored last night’s game.
They took an early penalty again, Sam Bennett picking up an interference penalty for catching Koekkoek with an open ice hit, and of course the Oilers score.
They quickly make it 2-0 but Calgary gets on their horse and puts up 18 shots in the first period.
Down two once again though which is a frustrating habit.
Rough Night for the Bottom Pairing
If you look at all situations it was a really rough game for Calgary’s bottom pairing.
Nikita Nesterov was 0-5 in terms of goal splits and Juuso Valimaki was 0-4 pretty much burying the team with mistake after mistake … mostly on turnovers and blown coverage in their own zone.
Noah Hanifin had a rough night in terms of blatant turnovers, but overall a pretty sound game all things considered.
We’ve seen a lot of change on the bottom pairing of late and you have to wonder if the Valimaki/Giordano and Andersson with a third pairing mark was the better call rather than trying to load up against the Oilers in back to back games.
Really seemed to backfire.
Matthew Tkachuk Fired Up
Regardless of the finish, it was good to see Matthew Tkachuk more engaged and in the fabric of the game.
He was angry, involved, on the scoresheet and noticeable on most shifts.
Not sure what’s going on behind the scenes, but the Flames need Matthew Tkachuk at his best if they’re going to turn this around.
Counting Stats
Team Stats:
Shots – Flames 44 Oilers 24
Face Offs – Flames 58%
Special Teams – Flames 1/5 Oilers 3/5
Player Stats:
Points – One point each from Andrew Mangiapane, Matthew Tkachuk and Elias Lindholm … Mangiapane with the goal.
Plus/Minus – Seven different Calgary Flames actually had an even night in a 7-1 loss including Johnny Gaudreau, Joakim Nordstrom, Josh Leivo, Buddy Robinson, Chris Tanev and Noah Hanifin.
Shots – Matthew Tkachuk had 7 shots on goal to lead the Flames.
Fancy Stats
The Flames carried the game pretty much from six minutes in until the final buzzer, but were stumped by star power. Five on five the Flames had 63% of the shot attempts with period splits of 50%/71% and 75%. In terms of scoring chances the Flames had 67% of the high danger splits with a five on five mark of 16–8. Expected goals were 71% in Calgary’s favour five on five.
In all situations the Flames had 61% of the shot attempts, 70% of the high danger chances and 62% of the expected goal split.
Odd night.
Individually, the Flames were led by Dillon Dube, Glen Gawdin (limited ice time), Mikael Backlund and Noah Hanifin who all had 70%+ nights. Another eight players finished in the 60s, every player was above water. At the bottom of the list was Mark Giordano with 54%.
