As hockey fans you have to try and remember seasons like this.
Seasons where you win 60+% of your games. Seasons where you have players doing things that you didn’t think was possible in the modern era. Seasons where you tune in to see the Flames win all three games in California in just four nights.
But that’s exactly what we saw last night as the road weary and depleted Calgary Flames put in the work with Dan Vladar in net, and skated away with a 4-2 victory.
The win moves the road trip to 3-0-0 with the last stop Saturday in Seattle. Things were getting a little tighter in the Pacific with the club’s three game winless streak before the trip, but with three straight wins they’ve kept pace with the streaking Oilers and still have a comfortable lead.
The Lineup
Some minor changes to the lineup tonight …
Yeah right. Lots and lots of change. We have a new goalie, basically three new defensemen and the team is still missing a forward.
So it’s Elias Lindholm with Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau, Mikael Backlund with Andrew Mangiapane and Tyler Toffoli, Trevor Lewis moving up to center Dillon Dube and Blake Coleman and Brett Ritchie taking Trevor Lewis’ spot on the fourth line with Ryan Carpenter and Milan Lucic. Calle Jarncrock is still out, and Adam Ruzicak the healthy scratch.
On the blueline Noah Hanifin with Rasmus Andersson are still a pair, but that’s pretty much the only thing recognizable. The second pairing has Connor Mackey with Chris Tanev, and the third pairing Juuso Valimaki with Michael Stone as both Nikita Zadorov and Erik Gudbranson come out after last night’s game.
No clue as to injury or performance.
Dan Vladar in goal.
Line Metrics
xGF%
Gaudreau – Lindholm – Tkachuk 63.1%
Mangiapane – Backlund – Toffoli 50.8%
Dube – Ruzicka – Coleman 37.5%
Lucic – Carpenter – Lewis NA
Hanifin – Andersson 58.0%
Mackey – Tanev NA
Valimaki – Stone NA
Goals Saved + Avg
Vladar -5.3
Sharks & Flames: Last 10 games
The Sharks are ranked 28th in terms of points percentage in their last ten games. In that time period they have the 22nd ranked five on five CF%, and the 18th ranked xGF%. They have the 14th ranked team five on five shooting percentage and the 17th ranked save percentage.
Calgary in the last ten games … 12th in points percentage, 3rd in CF%, 5th in xGF%, 6th in team shooting percentage and 10th in save percentage.
Maki & Valimaki
I thought both Jusso Valimaki and Connor Mackey did fine with the last second dress and play after long periods for both without NHL action.
Mackey, with the defense whisperer as a defense partner had the better numbers and looked less panicky for the most part, while Valimaki was more aggressive offensively and noticeable on the attack from the line.
Bottom line they’re both good options should the team run into injury troubles down the stretch or in the playoffs. I’m glad the Flames didn’t expend large assets on adding more defensive depth; they already have it.
Thrown Out
I wish there was a place to look up full face off stats in the NHL.
You can see the percentage, on game reports you can see the splits for all players against all players in the specific game.
But never have I seen a stat that records the number of times a player gets tossed.
If there was, you’d have to think Mikael Backlund would be way up there. He’s on the outs at least once in every single game.
Stick Retrieval
Thought Matthew Tkachuk played the Connor Mackey stick in the boards perfectly.
Mackey … and this is so unfortunate in a return to the NHL … gets his stick stuck behind the net in the crack between the two doors and almost rips his arm off before falling on the net. Tkachuk instantly gives him his stick and then bolts to the bench to get a new one without hesitation.
I’d rather have that six seconds with the team short than forty seconds of a stickless defender doing the flamingo at the line trying to stop passes and shots.
Vladar’s Game
Thought Dan Vladar had a solid game for the Flames in San Jose.
He was unlucky on the first one to beat him off a skate, and probably a little lucky himself a few other times when pucks glanced off the post or sat near the net.
Statistically the Flames had a 2.43 xGA night in all situations, so giving up only two was certainly doing his part, and helping the team to victory.
Bob the Builder
What a shot in the arm Ryan Carpenter has provided to the fourth line.
Literally “he can fix it!” or at least he has so far in his brief six game sampling with the Flames.
In this one I probably shouldn’t over look Brett Ritchie being back in the lineup as well, as he’s had the puck in the offensive zone for most of his shifts all season, but Carpenter just seems to add some flow to a line that often got stuck in their own zone.
I thought he was just added healthy scratch depth when they picked him up, but I think he’s going to play an important role in stabilizing the bottom of the roster.
Tkachuk Settling Down
Elite Matthew Tkachuk game.
From his steal at the line and top corner goal in the first period to a great assist dropping the puck to Elias Lindholm in the second he was on all night.
The big thing for me was his hands though. He was mishandling the puck often in the last couple of weeks, which was leading to the top line losing flow and with it chances.
Tonight though back to the Tkachuk we saw for most of February and March creating offense on every shift.
Advertising Empty
Can someone tell me why the Sharks would want to advertise the fact that their building is half full by lighting up the empty seats?
I thought Carolina was brilliant a few years ago when they moved every one up to the lower bowl in games where they had no fans, it’s a better look.
But maybe it’s best not to create a light show to highlight no one is there.
3 in 4
The Flames were in full control midway through the second period.
It looked like one of those games that would finish with a 5-1 win and 50+ shots on goal.
Then the wheels came off. They battled and steered it home, but you could tell the three games in four nights hit them and with that the third period was tenser than they would have liked.
+54
When you match a +51 franchise record with 12 games to play there’s a decent chance the player finds one more plus than negative the rest of the way to beat the record out right.
A bad string of games could take the number down though, so you never really know.
And we still don’t … those bad games could still be coming.
But with Gaudreau’s +3 night last night it seems more likely as he sits at +54.
Linemate Elias Lindholm moved into a tie with Mullen at +51 as well.
Special Teams
Both teams had three chances on the powerplay.
Both teams came up empty.
I’ll give the Flames the nod though because the Sharks didn’t get a single high danger chance when on the man advantage, and split scoring chances 1-1 with Calgary.
That’s giving up nothing.
Standings and Record
The Oilers beat the Kings, but at least they did it in regulation to keep the Kings from keeping pace.
The Flames maintain their six point lead over Edmonton with a game in hand. They now are up on Los Angeles by nine points and have two games in hand. If the Flames play their final 11 games at .500 they’ll finish with 106 points. For Edmonton to get to 106 they’ll need to go 8-1-1.
League wide the Flames broke a three way tie with Tampa and Boston for 6th in win percentage to hold it out right.
Counting Stats
Shots: Flames 41 Sharks 33
Face Offs: Flames 53% / Sharks 47%
Powerplay: Flames 0-3 / Sharks 0-3
Fancy Stats
Very solid road game for the Flames, as they came out strong and held the play convincingly until they ran out of gas at the end of the second. Five on five the Flames had 56% of the shot attempts with period splits of 67%/55% and 52% respectively. In terms of five on five expected goals, the Flames had 68%, and for high danger scoring chances the Flames had 47%, with a 8-9 split.
In all situations the Flames had 60% of the shot attempts, 69% of the expected goals, and 50% of the high danger splits.
Individually the Flames were led by the fourth line with Milan Lucic, Brett Ritchie and Ryan Carpenter registering 77%, 77% and 72% of the five on five shot attempts when on the ice respectively. Five players were in the 60s on the night including; Rasmus Andersson, Noah Hanifin, Matthew Tkachuk, Elias Lindholm and Connor Mackey. Tyler Toffoli had a rough night with only 25% of the shot attempts.
