Beating the Boston Bruins in Boston on the second half of a back to back with your back up goalie in net and having been on the road for almost 14 days is pretty impressive.
The stuff of legends.
But mucking your way through a trap game, an encounter against a lesser opponent on home ice, jet lagged, after a long trip and with your brains usually somewhere else is almost as impressive.
The Flames were exactly that on Tuesday night in turning back the Chicago Blackhawks by a 5-2 score despite not having “it” to the degree the team likes to display on a night in night out basis.
Two leads blown, but a third period late tally by Matthew Tkachuk on a fortunate bounce and two empty netters and just like that the Flames have won four in a row, and get rewarded with four days between games.
The Lineup
Darryl Sutter likely has himself one tired, tired crew on his hands, but even so he’s pretty much going with the exact same lineup and not inserting much in the way of fresh legs.
Jacob Markstrom returns to the net so we’ll have to wait on that Daniel Vladar shut out string sitting at 120 minutes. Markstrom was great on the trip losing in Montreal, dropping an overtime game in Philly and shutting out the Sabres and beating the Islanders. His starts in Philly and Long Island certainly helped the team garner points that an average goalender may have lost.
On the blueline Nikita Zadorov comes back in to play against his former teammates the Hawks. He lines up with Erik Gudbranson on the third pairing. The other two pairings stay the same; Noah Hanifin with Rasmus Andersson and Oliver Kylington with Chris Tanev.
Up front no change at all; Elias Lindholm with Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau, Mikael Backlund between Blake Coleman and Andrew Mangiapane, Sean Monahan with Dillon Dube and Tyler Pitlick, and the dependable fourth line of Brad Richardson between Milan Lucic and Trevor Lewis.
Line Metrics
xGF%
Gaudreau – Lindholm – Tkachuk 62.7%
Coleman – Backlund – Mangiapane 71.4%
Dube – Monahan – Pitlick 50.0%
Lucic – Richardson – Lewis 44.4%
Hanifin – Andersson 55.1%
Kylington – Tanev 61.8%
Zadorov – Gudbranson 50.0%
Goals Saved + Avg
Markstrom +11.9
Valimaki vs Zadorov
Good discussion on the web site today about the decision making around the 6th defenseman on a night in night out basis.
Valimaki is a former first round pick, has missed a lot of hockey, is better offensively, and is certainly the fan’s choice to get the job on a nightly basis. Can’t really blame them, as the upside and development of a player like Valimaki likely pays off with the better player down the road.
Sutter I would assume, sees it differently, though we’ll know more on Saturday if he sticks with Zadorov, and the swap for tonight isn’t about giving him the start against his former team.
I would surmise that Sutter sees the third pairing as a shut down pair, and while Zadorov lacks the offensive chops he does a better job of preventing, so he’s been the choice more often than not.
If Valimaki can reduce his mistakes and get his defensive metrics down he may get a good run.
Trap Game
As I said in the opening, the very definition of a trap game, but somehow Calgary soldiered through it.
The didn’t give up much, and were able to over come two blown leads to find a way to finish things out with a somewhat dominant third period.
Like we’ve said often to start this season, they can’t take these points away from them. A 20 point start given their schedule would have been something to work with, but now with 29 in the books they have a chance to set the bar higher and get out of that bubble region that has basically defined this team for most of the last decade.
Flames Top Four
A lot has been made about Oliver Kylington’s surge up the roster, giving the Flames a somewhat unexpected solid top four early in the season.
Tonight all six defensemen were excellent, but I really noticed the play of Rasmus Andersson and Noah Hanifin, as all four top defensemen put in 21 minutes of work.
All three of Kylington, Hanifin and Andersson are starting to create more by keeping the puck and beating defenders with speed and smarts creating odd man rushes and a big bump to the offence.
Andersson always saw the ice very well, but didn’t have the boots. Kylington had the boots but sometimes froze when he got the puck. Hanifin kept it simple and didn’t carry the puck all that often.
All three have taken steps and have been a huge part of the team’s early success.
Special Teams
No special team goals.
In fact only one minor penalty called all night, a cross checking penalty to Sean Monahan in the first period.
The Flames are perfect on the penalty kill so they win the night, but they aren’t afforded a chance on the powerplay themselves.
That continues a pretty healthy run of games where the Flames have had less chances.
Dirty bastards.
Standings and Record
The win coupled with the Oilers regulation loss has the Flames in first place in the Western Conference both by points and by win percentage.
Across the entire league they are in a three way tie for first overall, though Florida and Carolina have games in hand.
The Flames at 12-3-5 are on a 119 point pace, which would eclipse the Flames all time record of 117.
Not counting on that, but this start is becoming something isn’t it?
Counting Stats
Shots: Flames 39/ Hawks 21
Face Offs: Flames 54% / Hawks 46%
Powerplay: Flames 0-0 / Hawks 0-1
Fancy Stats
The Flames never got in trouble in this one, pretty much controlling play from the drop of the puck. Some dicey moments around Markstrom as you’d expect in a 60 minute game, but they never really took their foot of the gas. No lags, but certainly a lack of sharpness at times kept the game closer than it should have been. Five on five they had 61% of the shot attempts with period splits of 63%/53% and 70% respectively. In terms of five on five expected goals, the Flames only had 68%, and for high danger scoring chances the team actually had 65%, with a 11-6 split.
In all situations the Flames had 62% of the shot attempts, 74% of the expected goals, and 67% of the high danger splits.
Individually the Flames were led by Rasmus Andersson posting 74% of the five on five shot splits on the night. Dillon Dube, Tyler Pitlick and Matthew Tkachuk also had 70%+ nights. Elias Lindholm, Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, Noah Hanifin and Nikita Zadorov had solid nights with numbers in the mid 60% area. Only two players finished under water, as Brad Richardson and Trevor Lewis were both at 48%.
