At what point is a start no longer a start, but a just is?
I think Peter Maher used to say 20 games. Others point to American Thanksgiving.
Well the Flames have played 19 games, and American Thanksgiving kicks off this week on Thursday … so yeah the for real thing is soon upon us.
The Flames completing a seven game road trip in Boston tonight found a goal in each of the first two periods by Boston College natives, and then settled things in the third in what came close to two shorthanded goals on the same powerplay to put the Bruins away 4-0 on Sunday night.
The win gives the Flames a 4-1-2 record on the seven gamer which is pretty astounding since they went 5-0-0 on their last junket.
They just keep on rolling and rolling.
Next up a rather cruel game on Tuesday with little time between with travel against the Blackhawks on Saddledome ice. I’d suggest they come out flat after the travel and adjusting to home, but I’m dong betting against this team.
The Lineup
Change!
Actual change in the Flames roster.
First the less newsy one … Daniel Vladar makes the start spelling off Jacob Markstrom who started and won last night in Long Island (Queens). Vladar looks to keep his consecutive game with points to start his Calgary career going. He’s currently 3-0-1.
No change up front as Elias Lindholm centers Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau, and Mikael Backlund centering Blake Coleman and the red hot Andrew Mangiapane, giving the Flames their best top six that we’ve seen in years? All depends on where you put the old Monahan line and the old 3M line I suppose. The third line is Sean Monahan between Dillon Dube and Tyler Pitlick, they had a strong third period last night defensively. And a fourth line that was productive in New York with Brad Richardson centering Milan Lucic and Trevor Lewis.
The bigger deal is on the blueline where Juuso Valimaki returns in place of Nikita Zadorov after sitting out 11 straight games. Valimaki lines up with Erik Gudbranson, and you hope it goes well, I think the Flames are better with Valimaki making strides and being in the lineup. Noah Hanifin with Rasmus Andersson and Oliver Kylington with Chris Tanev.
Line Metrics
xGF%
Gaudreau – Lindholm – Tkachuk 60.0%
Coleman – Backlund – Mangiapane 72.2%
Dube – Monahan – Pitlick 38.5%
Lucic – Richardson – Lewis 70%
Hanifin – Andersson 53.2%
Kylington – Tanev 63.1%
Valimaki – Gudbranson 52.1%
Goals Saved + Avg
Vladar +3.0
Vladar Start
Man what can you say about this kid.
He’s heroic in Toronto in getting the team a point, shuts out the Senators, and then shuts out his former team the Bruins to give the Flames three quality starts on a seven game road trip.
He’s for real.
Has to be entering the future number one projection along with Dustin Wolf.
Good to have goaltending depth.
Valimaki’s Return
Pretty much everyone was hoping to see Juuso Valimaki back in the lineup, and that isn’t coming from a person that sees only mistakes in Nikita Zadorov.
He’s a first round pick, he has oodles of talent, and looked to have the poise to play a top four role in his brief appearance in the 2018-19 playoffs before essentially losing two full seasons of development.
An investment in the player could really pay off in the second half of the season.
So you almost held your breath when he was on the ice didn’t you? Luckily he started well getting an assist on Johnny Gaudreau’s first period rebound goal, had a gaff at the blueline in the second period, and then took a penalty in the third.
Overall he puts in almost 17 minutes of ice time, picks up an assist and is +1 with a 42% CF% night.
Certainly not a face plant, will be interesting to see where Sutter goes next.
Road Trip As A Whole
Pretty incredible trip for the Flames.
A disappointing third period in Montreal leads to a regulation loss. Then out played in Toronto but lead late before giving up the lead and losing in overtime.
The trip had the look of a sputter at that point didn’t it?
Easy bingo card win in Ottawa, a game in Philly where they lacked details and relied on their goaltender. A huge performance in Buffalo, some solid goaltending and special teams in New York, and then a master class performance in Boston in back to backs and the third game in four nights to conclude the trip.
As I said above … why bet against this team? They’re not going to run the table, but they seem to show up each and every night.
Hanifin On A Roll
Going into the game on Long Island, Noah Hanifin had one assist on the season of 16 games (he missed one with injury).
He’s a skating defenseman, so not the offensive juggernaught, but still one paltry assist wasn’t the best start offensively to his season.
Against the Islanders he has three assists, and tonight on home turf he posts and goal and an assist to give him five points in two games and now six points on the season.
Given his off season surgery, a slow start was somewhat expected, hopefully this means he’s starting to pop offensively. Having Hanifin, Kylington and Andersson all as guys looking to have 35-45 point seasons would really change the complexion of the Flames blueline.
Special Teams
Had the look of another night on this trip where the Flames don’t get much on the powerplay compared to their opponents as the Bruins had chance number three to Calgary’s zero early in the third period.
The Flames got two late chances though, evening things out on the night to some degreer.
They came up empty on both shots, but scored a short handed goal and erased all four Bruin chances to win the battle of special teams again tonight; a staple on their season.
Standings and Record
Well if you don’t care about games in hand the Flames are now the best team in the Western Conference with 27 points in 19 games to pace all clubs to start the season.
The Oilers are a point back but now have two games in hand.
The Flames however also have three home games in hand on the Oilers.
Most seasons have the bubble for a playoff position in and around the 92 point level. The Flames are now eight games over .500 and only need to go two games over that mark the rest of the way to get to that 92 point target.
Guessing their target, however, is higher.
Counting Stats
Shots: Flames 31/ Bruins 27
Face Offs: Flames 47% / Bruins 53%
Powerplay: Flames 0-2 / Bruins 0-3
Fancy Stats
Both teams on back to backs, but the Flames playing three in four nights against a Bruins team that had a five day break before their weekend schedule, so it was pretty impressive how little the Flames gave the Bruins tonight. Five on five they had 49% of the shot attempts with period splits of 57%/54% and 32% respectively. In terms of five on five expected goals, the Flames only had 53%, and for high danger scoring chances the team actually had 50%, with a 5-5 split.
In all situations the Flames had 51% of the shot attempts, 60% of the expected goals, and 64% of the high danger splits.
Individually the Flames were led by the top line with Matthew Tkachuk, Johnny Gaudreau and Elias Lindholm all posting 60%+ of the five on five shot splits. Chris Tanev, Mikael Backlund, and Noah Hanifin had solid nights with numbers in the mid 50% area. Trevor Lewis and Milan Lucic were at the bottom of the pile with numbers under 40%.
