There is no shame in losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
They’ve won back to back Stanley Cups and have been the class of the league for the past four seasons or more.
But if you saw this road trip as an acid test for the largely successful Calgary Flames it was a very cold shower, as the team and their fans certainly learned the difference between pretty good in the West, and being a beast in the East as the Lightning pretty much ran the Flames out of the building with a flattering 4-1 score.
Backup Dan Vladar was working on a masterpiece through most of the second period with the score tied at 0-0 and the impossible looking more and more possible.
In the end, however, talent won out, as the damn finally burst.
The loss moves the Flames five gamer to 2-2-0 through four games with the final game of the trip tomorrow night in Carolina.
The Lineup
A good old fashioned whooping in Florida may have been the enabler for some pretty interesting change up front in the Flames line up.
Tyler Pitlick is a healthy scratch, replaced by Brad Richardson. The lines in the warmup looked like the following; Elias Lindholm with Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk, a return to early in the season with Sean Monahan with Dillon Dube and Andrew Mangiapane, Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman get a new winger in Brett Ritchie, and a new fourth line of Milan Lucic with Richardson and Trevor Lewis.
The Flames simply need to get the secondary scoring going, and the Monahan (with Dube and Mangiapane) line was really effective in just 17 minutes of ice time, and hopefully could be the catalyst towards getting an entire second line going. Monahan has looked good on the powerplay but has been ineffective on the fourth line with limited linemates. A welcome opportunity to put up or shut up.
On the blueline no change once again with Noah Hanifin with Rasmus Andersson, Oliver Kylington with Chris Tanev, and Nikita Zadorov with Erik Gudbranson.
Daniel Vladar is back in with the back to back nature of tonight and tomorrow night’s games.
Line Metrics
xGF%
Gaudreau – Lindholm – Tkachuk 63.2%
Dube – Monahan – Mangiapane 73.7%
Coleman – Backlund – Ritchie NA
Lucic – Richardson – Lewis 34.2%
Hanifin – Andersson 57.0%
Kylington – Tanev 56.6%
Zadorov – Gudbranson 57.4%
Goals Saved + Avg
Vladar +2.6
Richardson Match Penalty
First off that wouldn’t have been a penalty two years ago.
And I’m not complaining, I think it’s great that the NHL is making contact to the head a huge issue, and penalizing every time they get a chance.
There are head shots and then there incidental and situational contact, and I think that was the case with Richardson’s hit on Joseph. Joseph was tangled with another player and his head slipped forward at the last second. Add in there wasn’t a lot of force or speed from Richardson and it was pretty minor.
But as I say I think it’s great that they called a match penalty on it, they have to make it safe.
Bottom line though is be consistent, because brush offs like that happen more often than the match penalties that could come with them.
Boys Against Men
I thought the Flames had a lot going right in Florida.
But tonight reminded me more of the Flames game in Vegas earlier this year where they honestly seemed to be a step behind the entire night. Tired? Maybe, they’ve been on the road a lot, and more recently right after a long lay off.
However I’m guessing it’s just another class of hockey team that has speed, size, and experience.
The Flames will out work teams that are near them in talent. They have better systems and a coach that knows what he’s doing. But when they come up against teams with equal coaching and work ethic the talent slip might be the difference.
Felt for Vladar
Had to feel bad for Dan Vladar and his third period.
He literally stood on his head, had some goal post help, but was full marks for keeping his team in a game, down 1-0 heading to the third period when it easily could have been 4-0.
The Point goal he had no chance on, the third and fourth ones maybe he could have, but it doesn’t matter.
Just feel bad for the guy and the stat line when he almost carried his team to a stolen win.
Was interesting after two to hear Anthony Stewart compare him to a young Ben Bishop … not a bad comparison.
Gaudreau Gumption
You’re always at the mercy of the camera crew when it comes to stuff that happens behind the play, so it took the crew a while to find the reason there was a scrum behind the Flames net after the fourth Tampa goal.
With Tkachuk in there it seemed pretty obvious, but when they got the replay lo and behold it’s Johnny Gaudreau attacking Steven Stamkos very late after the puck went in.
Further replays show Stamkos hooking/high sticking Gaudreau in the Tampa zone causing a turnover that led to the goal.
The game was over anyway, but it was great to see an angry Gaudreau sticking his nose in there.
Special Teams
Officially the game was sawed off in special teams with both teams posting an 0-3 night, and all the goals coming five on five.
You could give the Flames an edge for time shorthanded, as the Lightning had an extra 33 seconds of extra man time.
But honestly Tampa gets the nod because their powerplay created momentum, which was used to turn a sleepy 0-0 game into one that could have been far worse than 4-1.
Standings and Record
The loss moves the Flames to 17-9-6 for 40 points in 32 games, and a 625 win percentage.
They still hold down third spot in the Pacific Division with games in hand on the Ducks (4), and only three points back.
Counting Stats
Shots: Flames 27 / Bolts 433
Face Offs: Flames 43% / Bolts 57%
Powerplay: Flames 0-3 / Bolts 0-3
Fancy Stats
If your eye balls told you the Tampa Bay Lightning were the better team tonight you’ll be happy to find out the underlying stats nod their head in full agreement. It wasn’t even close. At all. Period. Five on five the Flames had 38% of the shot attempts with period splits of 31%/35% and 50% respectively. In terms of five on five expected goals, the Flames had 33%, and for high danger scoring chances the Flames had 29%, with a 5-12 split. It could have been much worse, as the Flames actually gained some ground on score effects in the third period.
In all situations the Flames had 42% of the shot attempts, 38% of the expected goals, and 36% of the high danger splits.
Only three Calgary Flames were over the 50% mark on the night led by Brett Ritchie at 53%, and Dillon Dube and Andrew Mangiapane at 52%. Sean Monahan their center was next on the board at 48%. The fourth line of Brad Richardson, Milan Lucic and Trevor Lewis were all at 20% or worse, and got completely filled in as the team’s fourth line woes continue.
