Well that was something wasn’t it?
Calgary had a rough first period and looked to be in some trouble with penalties early in the second before taking a tight game and turning it into what Kevin Bieka called a “beat down” in a 9-5 victory over the provincial rival Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night.
The Flames gave up three powerplay goals, and scored none with the man advantage themselves … a recipe that predictably would have resulted in a multi goal loss, but posted nine even strength goals in skating the Oilers into the ice and winning both ends of a weekend back to back.
Who was the tired team?
Next up Colorado on Tuesday night at the Dome.
The Lineup
Sean Monahan sits for the second straight game, and Brett Ritchie who took a silly penalty against Arizona joins him. The other somewhat interesting note is Jacob Markstrom, who only faced 10 shots in the last 42 minutes of the game last night, starts back to back against the Oilers. Newcomer Ryan Carpenter comes in for Ritchie.
So up front it’s likely to be Elias Lindholm with Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk, Tyler Toffoli dropping back to join Dillon Dube and Mikael Backlund, Calle Jarnkrok with Andrew Mangiapane and Blake Coleman, and a new line of Trevor Lewis with Milan Lucic and Ryan Carpenter.
On the blueline it’s Noah Hanifin with Rasmus Andersson, Oliver Kylington with Chris Tanev, and Nikita Zadorov with Erik Gudbranson.
Jacob Markstrom in goal as I said.
Line Metrics
xGF%
Gaudreau – Lindholm – Toffoli 68.2%
Dube – Backlund – Tkachuk 54.2%
Mangiapane – Jarnkrok – Coleman 80.0%
Lucic – Lewis – Carpenter NA
Hanifin – Andersson 582%
Kylington – Tanev 58.9%
Zadorov – Gudbranson 56.7%
Goals Saved + Avg
Markstrom +11.1
Who They Playing?
With a good run since the coaching change the Oilers have moved into the league’s top ten in a lot of play driving metrics. They are 8th in CF%, with a 9th ranked team five on five offence, and a 9th ranked team five on five defense. When you look at quality through expected goals the Oilers are ranked further back in 12th spot due to giving up too much quality. Their xGF60 is ranked 9th, exactly like their shot attempts, but their xGA60 is ranked 21st putting a lot of pressure on their goaltenders.
They have the 16th ranked team five on five shooting percentage, and the 20th ranked team five on five save percentage.
On special teams the Oilers have a deadly powerplay, ranked 4th overall, and a weaker penalty kill ranked 21st.
Hanifin Game #500
Noah Hanifin played his 500th game … at the age of 25, which is pretty incredible.
He was pretty involved too picking up two assists and going +4 on the night.
Hanifin has been a slow burn since he joined the Flames in that blockbuster trade with Carolina. Clearly good enough to be in the teams top six to start, and then a slow evolution up the ranks to now manning the left side of the Flames top pairing.
Now that his production has picked up, he’s becoming closer to Dougie Hamilton on his own, making that a heck of a trade for the Flames.
At 500 and with a good ten years left in his career with good health he could easily reach 1300 to 1400 games when it’s all said and done. Former Flame Al MacInnis sits 10th in games played for a defenseman all time with 1416.
Gaudreau Has a Night
I mean honestly, it’s hard to put it in words.
But given the scenario; Hockey Night in Canada coast to coast in a Battle of Alberta game against two of the league’s best forwards, Johnny Gaudreau pretty much announced to the hockey world that he’s on that same stage.
Picks up five assists, four of them primary, and all at even strength as the Flames willed their way to a victory over Edmonton with a dominant turn from their top line.
He was noticeable on almost every shift, moving through the offensive zone, slipping coverage, creating mismatches, and then finding the player in open ice when the timing was right.
The fact that Matthew Tkachuk has a knack for getting into those open ice spaces makes that line literally unstoppable.
His five point night gave him 90 on the season leaping over a host of players, and into 3rd in the league behind McDavid and Draisaitl.
Not to be out done … Tkachuk moved into a tie for 5th.
Others Did Too
Mentioned Tkachuk above, he had a four point night with two goals and two assists.
But six other players (making a total of eight) had two points or more including Mikael Backlund with two goals and an assist, and Chris Tanev with a goal and two helpers.
Guys with two point nights included Elias Lindholm, Dillon Dube, Tyler Toffoli, and Noah Hanifin.
Good night for stats if you’re not a goaltender, or an Edmontonian who likes plus/minus stats!
Even Steven
Speaking of plus/minus, the Flames scored all nine goals even strength.
Think about that!
The Oilers struck for three powerplay goals, the Flames had none, but still managed to score nine goals and win going away.
On the Oilers Cody Ceci was a stellar -5 on the night, but he had friends. McDavid and Draisaitl were both -4, along with linemate Evander Kane and $9M man Darnel Nurse. Zach Hyman and the newly acquired Brett Kulak were -3.
If someone told you the stats of this game before you saw it you wouldn’t believe them. Crazy, crazy hockey game.
Turning it Around
Puckapalooza was fun, enjoyed standing up nine times and doing high fives with my daughter, but the most important thing to me if I’m Darryl Sutter is how the game changed after the first period.
The Flames were brutal in the first period giving up 18 shots and a total of 11 high danger scoring chances and were bailed out by Jacob Markstrom – despite the goaltender giving up a weak on on shot number one – and a rough start by Koskinen at the other end.
But the Flames were much better the rest of the way.
The Oilers got some life with the powerplay to tie the game up twice in the early parts of the second, but then the Flames just took the game away.
The Flames out shot the Oilers 29-13 in the final 40, and only gave up five high danger chancers in any situation the rest of the way.
The Hockey Night in Canada panel called it a beat down and it was.
Backlund Line
Mikael Backlund and his linemates Andrew Mangiapane and Blake Coleman had themselves a night in containing some of the league’s best offensive weapons.
The duo did their damage on the powerplay, but five on five when they were on the ice against Backlund et al they had a miserable time of it.
Backlund was out against both Draisaitl and McDavid for roughly six minutes apiece, didn’t give up a goal, scored twice against Draisaitl and once against McDavid and posted xGF% splits of 84% and 80% respectively.
That’s an elite shut down line folks.
Oilers Goaltending
The Oilers goaltending had themselves a night.
When the better of the two goaltenders sports a .846 save percentage things didn’t go all that well.
He had to put up with some shot quality, and the Flames found the iron section of the corners to make his life difficult, but at the end of the day you need to stop all the easy ones, a huge percentage of the medium shots, and a good chunk of the tough ones and with only seven saves on 12 shots he clearly didn’t.
Smith came in midway through the second and was better, stopping 18 of 22 shots, but all in all it wasn’t a night for Edmonton goaltending, and I’m sure the coronation of Koskinen that was saw a few weeks ago is once again on hold.
But a deeper dive showing Calgary getting 17 five on five high danger chances in the hockey game would be helpful. You can’t give up that much quality and then point to goaltending as the problem.
Special Teams
The Oilers take home the special teams battle as they got the game’s first four chances, including a lengthy two man advantage and scored three powerplay goals on five chances in the end.
The Flames came up empty on four chances, a pretty miserable night with the man advantage given the chance to put things away that sputtered.
Standings and Record
With the Kings winning last night the two teams move in lock step further up on Edmonton, with Calgary having a seven point lead on the Kings with two games in hand. Edmonton is four points back of the Kings with a game in hand, and 11 points back of the Flames with Calgary having an extra game.
Calgary moves to .677 in win percentage and bounces by the Leafs and into 4th spot in the league.
The Flames now have a 13 point lead on the Stars for the final playoff spot, but don’t bring that up to Darryl Sutter.
Counting Stats
Shots: Flames 33 Oilers 18
Face Offs: Flames 48% / Oilers 52%
Powerplay: Flames 2-4 / Oilers 0-3
Fancy Stats
Not sure how much of the turnaround after 20 minutes was on the players, or if the coaching staff made an adjustment, but it looks to have won them a hockey game. Five on five the Flames had 61% of the shot attempts with period splits of 56%/55% and 75% respectively. In terms of five on five expected goals, the Flames had 59%, and for high danger scoring chances the Flames had 57%, with a 17-13 split.
In all situations the Flames had 59% of the shot attempts, 57% of the expected goals, and 53% of the high danger splits.
Individually the Flames were led by Andrew Mangiapane and Blake Coleman with 73% of the five on five shot attempts when they were on the ice. Mikael Backlund joined them in the 70s. Eight players were in the 60s including; Chris Tanev, Oliver Kylington, Ryan Carpenter, Trevor Lewis, Noah Hanifin, Calle Jarnkrok, Rasmus Andersson and Dillon Dube. Only one player was under water, Elias Lindholm.
