The Flames have been offensively challenged all season.
That won’t come as a surprise to anyone.
But man are things drying up now.
Back to back shut out losses in the state of Florida, and only three goals through three games on this six game road trip is putting a heck of a lot of pressure on the team’s goaltenders.
Today wasn’t close.
It wasn’t a lack of finish. They had nothing from start to finish in a game that should have been 6-0 if not for Dan Vladar’s heroics in the nets.
On to Carolina for another afternoon game tomorrow.
The Lineup
Only one change, and that’s a swap out in the middle six up front.
On the blueline it’s Kevin Bahl with Rasmus Andersson, Joel Hanley with Mackenzie Weegar and a third pairing of Illya Solovyov with Brayden Pachal.
Forward lines ; Matt Coronato up on the top line playing with Nazem Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau, a third line with Mikael Backlund between Connor Zary and now Yegor Sharangovich. The Philly guys; Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee with Connor Zary, and then a fourth line with Martin Pospisil with Kevin Rooney and Adam Lomberg.
Dan Vladar with the start, marking a first this season with the backup getting game one of the back to backs.
Zayne Beat
Prior to Thursday night I set a 6 points in 3 games weekend (including) Thursday as being key towards him eclipsing that OHL defenseman scoring (modern era) record of 103 points.
On Thursday he had two points.
Yesterday he had three points.
Tomorrow he needs one point to match that weekend aim, and as it stands he now only needs 10 points in the remaining nine games on the Saginaw schedule.
Feels like kind of a no brainer now doesn’t it?
And who had February being a more productive month than January, where he won player of the month awards and posted 2.1 points per game?
Get excited Calgary!
| Month | GP | Goals | Assts | Points | G/G | P/G |
| 9/1/2024 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| 10/1/2024 | 10 | 3 | 9 | 12 | 0.3 | 1.2 |
| 11/1/2024 | 10 | 5 | 12 | 17 | 0.5 | 1.7 |
| 12/1/2024 | 9 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 0.3 | 1.2 |
| 1/1/2025 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 21 | 1.1 | 2.1 |
| 2/1/2025 | 10 | 5 | 17 | 22 | 0.5 | 2.2 |
Vladar’s Start
What can you say about Dan Vladar this afternoon against the Panthers?
Maybe the best goaltending performance of the season? Certainly through two 39 minutes anyway as he was completely under siege and kep his team in it down 1-0 until a late 2nd period goal.
In the end the Panthers had 3.56 in expected goals in all situations and a late Florida goal gives the Panthers three on Vladar, stealing a bit of the story of a great goalie performance.
Odds and Sods
Not the same start in Fort Lauderdale that we saw in Tampa Bay. The Flames were on their heels for the first four shifts of the game, giving the Panthers too much zone time, but managed to get through it unscathed. Three different shots through traffic found the tight space between Dan Vladar’s legs, but didn’t get through. … It really didn’t get much better from there. Probably one of the worst periods the Flames have played this season. Just kept thinking “if they could just get to the room scoreless and make adjustments”. They’d need to. Without Dan Vladar that’s a 3-0 Florida lead after 20. … Wouldn’t think it possible, but the Flames were even worse in the second period. It was quite literally the Dan Vladar show for pretty much the entire period. … Controversial goal puts the Panthers up as they reviewed it for goalie interference. The play had the Panther swinging at the puck in the air three times, twice hitting Vladar’s glove, and the last one pushing it into the net. I never know on these things, but I was pretty sure this one was coming back. … Just kept thinking “if they could just get to the room down one and make adjustments”. … I’m 0/2 on goalie interference calls, as I didn’t think the second one was interference, but it was called back. I never have a clue. … Impossible game to assess the middle six winger swap as neither group (nor any group) put enough passes together to generate much of anything. … A slightly better third period with score affects in full force. Ryan Huska blenders the lines to try and create some jump and it worked to some degree (once again taking score affects into account). …
Fancy Stats
This might be the ugliest game of the season. The Flames had nothing, especially in periods one and two as they couldn’t even get out of their own zone. The Flames, five on five, had 41% (29%/30%/66%) of the shot attempts, 44% of the high danger chances, and 37% of the expected goals. In all situations they had 36% of the shot attempts, 38% of the high danger chances and 32% of the expected goals.
Individually, the Flames were led by Mikael Backlund with an xGF% of 67% on the night. That’s pretty incredible when you think about how this game rolled out. Only four other players were above water; Connor Zary, Yegor Sharangovich, Morgan Frost and Blake Coleman. Ryan Lomberg at the bottom with a 5% night. Kevin Rooney with 10%.
