Good teams find way to win games when they don’t roll out their best work, and/or don’t have their best players show up.
The Flames have earned a lot of standings points on the backs of their top line this season, but tonight with the trio having an off night the Flames rolled over the Seattle Kraken by a 4-1 score with their depth and Jacob Markstrom carrying them to victory.
Noah Hanifin had four assists, Dillon Dube two helpers, and goals from Tyler Toffoli, Trevor Lewis and Blake Coleman. Michael Stone added another goal on the trip as well.
The win puts the icing on a 4-0-0 trip that had the Flames sweep California for the first time in team history. They return home to play the Kraken again on Tuesday night.
The Lineup
Two relatively minor and expected changes from the last game in San Jose.
Erik Gudbranson is still sidelined, but Nikita Zadorov is back. Juuso Valimaki is out after a shaky first game back to make room for Zadorov. For the second straight game it was expected to see Calle Jarnkrok but once again he’s out. That’s getting a little odd.
So up front it’s Elias Lindholm with Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau, Mikael Backlund with Andrew Mangiapane and Tyler Toffoli, Trevor Lewis with Dillon Dube and Blake Coleman, and Ryan Carpenter with Milan Lucic and Brett Ritchie.
On the blueline it’s Noah Hanifin with Rasmus Andersson, the only regular pairing still together. Connor Mackey is in again after a solid first game this season, paired up with Chris Tanev. Nikita Zadorov forms a new pairing with Michael Stone.
In goal, the Flames go back to Jacob Markstrom.
Line Metrics
xGF%
Gaudreau – Lindholm – Tkachuk 63.3%
Mangiapane – Backlund – Toffoli 48.5%
Dube – Lewis – Coleman 42.9%
Lucic – Carpenter – Ritchie 67.7%
Hanifin – Andersson 58.4%
Mackey – Tanev 44.4%
Zadorov – Stone NA
Goals Saved + Avg
Markstrom +11.7
Kraken & Flames: Last 10 games
The Seattle Kraken have always been a decent possession team but with spotty goaltending. They are ranked 11th in CF% five on five and have the 13th best CF60 and 9th best CA60. They don’t generate as much when you bring quality into the conversation, registering 49.32% of the expected goals, which puts them 19th league wide. They are ranked 20th in xGA60 so they do give up a lot and put pressure on their goaltending. The Kraken have the 20th ranked team five on five shooting percentage and the 2nd best team save percentage, as their goaltending is somewhat hot.
Calgary in the last ten games have the third best CF% with the 2nd best CF60 and the 5th best CA60. They’re playing well. They have the 4th best xGF% with the 3rd best xGF60 and the 12th best xGA60 … defense is getting a bit leaky. They are 4th in shooting percentage and 12th in team save percentage.
Tkachuk Hands Again
Matthew Tkachuk was great in San Jose but was fighting the puck in the contests previous to their trip to Northern California.
Tonight it was back, lots of puck fumbles, pucks getting away from him.
Not to pick on the guy though because neither of his other two linemates had particularly good games as well. The trio was the last three on the board for expected goal splits for the club.
They deserved a night off.
Powerplay Struggles
Ugly night in particular for the top powerplay unit as well, as they carried their struggles five on five into the man advantage.
The second unit had some looks though, which resulted in another Michael Stone clapper and a powerplay goal.
The top unit had an expected goal result of 0.11 goals in 4.5 minutes of powerplay time, the second unit 0.45 with forty seconds left of play.
Flames Carried by Depth
So how the hell did they win this game?
Well one … it was the Seattle Kraken. But two they got a huge contribution from their depth, something that has been a concern for some time.
Trevor Lewis and Michael Stone scored again, that’s not expected.
Dillon Dube set up two goals, and Noah Hanifin had a huge night with four assists … which seems pretty good with only four goals scored.
Blake Coleman got off the snide with a first period goal, and Tyler Toffoli got that scoring feeling again on the trip with an empty net goal on a hugely unselfish play by Dillon Dube. The goal gave Toffoli 20 on the season for the third straight season, and his 6th 20 goal campaign of his career.
Don’t Over Look Markstrom
Jacob Markstrom finished the night with a .964 save percentage giving up the lone goal on 28 shots.
His play with the Flames down a man, and in the third with the team up 3-1 and Seattle putting a lot of pucks to the net.
That’s 60 more minutes off the docket towards Darryl Sutter’s target ice time.
Sutter in Tune
Trying to steer home a fourth straight road win and the team’s elite struggling both five on five and with the man advantage, Darryl Sutter adjusted his minutes accordingly and leaned heavily on the middle six.
The team had some serious time killing penalties too, which contributed but Gaudreau’s line only got 12 minutes of five on five time the whole game, and a total of 16 and change.
The fourth line only got between eight and nine minutes in all situations all night.
Special Teams
Woke up this morning to see Michael Stone with a powerplay goal, which was deemed just as the penalty expired last night.
That gave the Flames a 1/4 night and the only powerplay goal in the game, as the Kraken went 0/5 including a full minute with a five on three opportunity.
With the game 3-1 Calgary in the second, the Flames took three straight penalties. Without a great effort from their PK it’s a very different hockey game.
Flames take the special teams battle on the night.
Standings and Record
The win for the Flames is a big one.
It gives them a perfect sweep in regulation against the lesser teams in their division on a four game road trip, and also puts them seven points ahead of the Oilers who lost to the Avalanche 2-1 in overtime. The Flames still have a game in hand. If Calgary goes .500 the Oilers have to be perfect, 9-0-0.
The Kings are now four points back of the Oilers and in danger of being caught by the Knights.
Calgary has 10 games left on their schedule.
Counting Stats
Shots: Flames 29 Kraken 28
Face Offs: Flames 48% / Kraken 52%
Powerplay: Flames 1-4 / Kraken 0-5
Fancy Stats
It wasn’t the most demonstrative example of a Flames road game that we’ve seen this season, but it was efficient against a team that they had a talent edge on. The Flames only gave up 5 high danger chances against five on five the whole night, which is usually a solid recipe for a road win. Five on five the Flames had 51% of the shot attempts with period splits of 39%/76% and 44% respectively. In terms of five on five expected goals, the Flames had 61%, and for high danger scoring chances the Flames had 64%, with a 9-5 split.
In all situations the Flames had 50% of the shot attempts, 64% of the expected goals, and 60% of the high danger splits.
Individually the Flames were led by Andrew Mangiapane with an xGF% of 92% five on five on the night. That’s pretty good! Dillon Dube, Tyler Tofffoli, Noah Hanifin, Rasmus Andersson and Mikael Backlund were all the 70s in terms of xGF% as well. Elias Lindholm was at the bottom of the stack with a 35% xGF% night, and was joined by four other players in the 40s; Johnny Gaudreau, Chris Tanev, Ryan Carpenter and Matthew Tkachuk.
