It’s a quote I’ve brought up a good dozen times over the years. Steve Smith when he was captain of the Flames talked about how a streak ends before it ends.
If a team is losing they tend to play better and deserve to win before they notch that first victory. Similarly a team on a roll like the Flames is often gifted a win or two near the end of a long string before finally coming up short on the scoreboard.
The Flames had a solid, if not spectacular game against Seattle, but won. Then they had a terrible finish against Winnipeg, but found a way to win.
Tonight there was no finding a way, as they gave up five goals in the second period, turning a 0-0 game into a laugher in dropping a 7-1 contest to the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night.
The win streak is snapped at ten, equaling a franchise record that has now been tied ten times.
The Lineup
No change at all for the Flames going for win number 11.
They made a slight change to lines three and four in the last game against Winnipeg, a shift that I felt destroyed more chemistry than it created, but they’ll go with those lines again.
So up front it’s Elias Lindholm going for the Flames consecutive goal streak, between Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau. Mikael Backlund between Andrew Mangiapane and Blake Coleman, Sean Monahan between Milan Lucic and Tyler Toffoli, and finally Adam Ruzicka between Dillon Dube and Trevor Lewis. Hopefully the bottom half of the roster starts to gel.
Defensively it’s Noah Hanifin with Rasmus Andersson, Oliver Kylington with Chris Tanev, and Nikita Zadorov with Erik Gudbranson.
In goal once again, Jacob Markstrom starting against his old team.
Line Metrics
xGF%
Gaudreau – Lindholm – Tkachuk 62.8%
Mangiapane – Backlund – Coleman 65.8%
Lucic – Monahan – Toffoli 50.0%
Dube – Ruzicka- Lewis 37.2
Hanifin – Andersson 58.4%
Kylington – Tanev 58.9%
Zadorov – Gudbranson 59.6%
Goals Saved + Avg
Markstrom +12.6
Who They Playing?
The Vancouver Canucks have certainly tightened up defensively under Bruce Boudreau, moving from near the bottom in flow splits to middle of the pack. In terms of CF% they rank 16th with a 14th ranked team offence five on five, and a 21st ranked team defence. Their expected goal splits are a little worse at 18th overall, and 23rd and 15th respectively.
They struggle scoring goals with the 31st ranked shooting percentage five on five, while they have the 1st overall ranked save percentage with Demko saving their bacon.
The Canucks have the 16th ranked powerplay, and the 32nd ranked penalty kill.
The Flames have the edge in terms of five on five and special teams. And with Markstrom in goal the Canuck’s greatest strength is somewhat nullified.
The biggest issue for the Flames is the law of averages and a 10 game win streak coming in.
Lindholm’s Streak
It’s not like he didn’t get his chances.
A rebound through Demko and out the other side, a one timer that Demko got a pad on, and a few other near misses, but Elias Lindholm won’t take sole possession of the Flames all time goal streak record.
Instead he’ll stay tied with Kent Nilsson and Gary Roberts, and likely for a long time.
The Ex Canucks
Not a great night for the ex Canucks in the Flames lineup.
Chris Tanev had to leave the game in the second with an undisclosed issue, but returned. Jacob Markstrom had a skate blade come out of his skate and they couldn’t fix it, forcing him to leave the game late in the second. A happenstance that created the roof caving in for the Flames with poor Dan Vladar in net.
Tyler Toffoli was pointless with a -2.
Markstrom finished the night with a .857 save percentage.
Chris Tanev managed to somehow stay even in a 7-1 game, a feat in itself!
Penalty Kill Goes Belly Up
I was honestly getting used to relaxing when the Flames were down a man. Between solid penalty killing and Jacob Markstrom you just didn’t have to be all that tense.
We all had PTSD flashbacks to different times with the Canucks scoring three powerplay goals and adding another on a penalty shot to take the game away despite the Flames being the clear better team five on five.
They were due for a rough one.
They’re not any more.
Had to Feel For Vladar
What a crappy situation for Daniel Vladar to come into a game; 1:14 left in the period and Jacob Markstrom having a faulty skate blade that they couldn’t fix.
An even crappier result.
Poor guy gives up a quick powerplay goal on a lucky bounce for the Canucks where a pass hits a Canuck skate and then slides across for a gimme into the empty net.
The Flames take it down the ice and get some chances before the Canucks come up the ice, get a chance resulting in a covered puck in the crease by Rasmus Andersson and a penalty shot goal by TJ Miller.
With two more in the third Vladar finishes the night giving up four goals on just 17 shots for a .765 save percentage.
Who cares right? I just hope it didn’t shake his confidence, what a wild set of circumstances.
Special Teams
Pretty interesting night from the officials with the Canucks getting seven powerplays and Calgary a late single chance with the game out of reach.
Darryl Sutter wasn’t impressed, especially when they missed a high stick into Johnny Gaudreau’s face in the third period as well.
I wouldn’t say the calls were bad, honestly, there were just a lot of them.
In the end they were likely the difference too, with Vancouver scoring three times, and then adding a penalty shot goal to throw some salt in the wounds.
Standings and Record
The Flames remain first in the Pacific Division, four points up on the Knights, but now with only one game in hand.
They are still seven points up on the Oilers with a game in hand, with Edmonton having a tough back to back this weekend.
Counting Stats
Shots: Flames 30 Canucks 38
Face Offs: Flames 53% / Canucks 47%
Powerplay: Flames 0-1 / Canucks 3-7
Fancy Stats
If you could find a way to just ignore the powerplays in the game, the Flames were just fine. They couldn’t solve Thatcher Demko, but they carried the play when they weren’t in the penalty box; something sadly that happened quite often. Five on five the Flames had 60% of the shot attempts with period splits of 61%/64% and 52% respectively. In terms of five on five expected goals, the Flames had 61%, and for high danger scoring chances the Flames had 63%, with a 10-6 split.
In all situations the Flames had 52% of the shot attempts, 49% of the expected goals, and 50% of the high danger splits. With a 7-1 split in powerplays it’s pretty incredible that the overall game metrics finished even.
Individually the Flames were led by their top line that pretty much ran over the Canucks every time they were out there, but couldn’t finish. The trio had between 73 and 74% of the five on five shot attempts when on the ice. Rasmus Andersson was also in the 70s. Noah Hanifin, Andrew Mangiapane and Erik Gudbranson were in the 60s. Only two players were under water; Dillon Dube and Chris Tanev.
