The assumption of the 2017-18 Calgary Flames was defence. They added a veteran goaltender, they bolstered their top four defense with a deal with the Islanders. The concern was goal scoring past the first handful of forwards.
Early this season that was the case as the Flames wallowed near the bottom of the pile when it came to putting numbers on the board, as they were largely held in by Mike Smith.
Lately however the Flames are quite prolific when it comes to putting the puck in the net, but they continue to struggle mightily in keeping the puck out of their own net due to turnovers, and brain cramps, and the same was the case in a hugely entertaining 6-4 loss in Dallas tonight.
The loss puts the Flames at 2-2-1 on the six game road trip with one more to go in Denver tomorrow night.
The Goalie Swap
The Flames made the right call in sending Eddie Lack down, and recalling David Rittich. They didn’t have a lot of fear of losing the player on waivers, in that if he was lost it wouldn’t be the end of the world, nor was there a huge chance that he would be claimed.
The key now is the intent. Is this simply to get Eddie Lack some AHL starts with a concrete plan to return the veteran to Calgary in a week to ten days? Or is the group looking to move on and are promoting an AHL goaltender with the hopes that he shows he shouldn’t ever go back down?
Clearly the best case scenario is the latter, as it certainly starts to shape things for next season.
The element pushing this to temporary is the choice of David Rittich however. As well as he’s played in the past year and change in Stockton, I would be surprised to see the Flames permanently promote Rittich and not Calgary draft pick Jon Gillies.
Final thought on Rittich, how bad did you feel for the kid that his first “real” call up, and I say real because his call last year came in a nothing game, came in a building where the backup goaltender has to sit by himself awkwardly in a tunnel between Dallas fans and a rink maintenance guy. Fun!
The Game
The Flame didn’t deserve a point in Columbus, but tonight they deserved a better fate than to come up empty.
A great road game by the Flames at least offensively, sure they turned the puck over too many times and asked Smith to do too much again, but they had all kinds of chances and were very much in the fabric of the game.
Overall I like where this team is going. They are more dangerous offensively than expected, and once they clean up some of the simple mental errors they could and should be dangerous.
Sportsnet
I’m not one to rag on Sportsnet, I like Rick Ball, I like Kelly Hrudey, I think they do a pretty good job. But man oh man did they screw up tonight when minutes three and four of the first period ticked by with their telecast inexplicably on an odd commercial break.
I can understand a mistake that sends them away to a commercial, but you just go with it and roll three straight commercials anyway?
Off the Mesh
Cassy Campbell informed me of a rule change tonight. I guess the referees have the discretion to not blow the play dead when the puck hits the mesh behind the goaltenders this season, as we saw in the second period of tonight’s game. That opens things up to a lot of questions however, as what is the discretion? A deflection? A quick bounce off the mesh? A coin toss? That has the potential for a lot of yolk on the face in a playoff game doesn’t it?
Brouwer
The Troy Brouwer signing was never going to be a good contract. The July 1st day it was signed had me cringing, it seemed a year long, it seemed a million high. Since then a rough first year probably adjusts those thoughts to the worse as Brouwer now finds himself on the fourth line and is goalless in year two through the first quarter of the season.
The guy is playing well though. He’s above average skilled for a fourth liner and a penalty killing forward. That doesn’t even begin to speak to the $4.5M contract but at least he’s found a role and isn’t doing damage to the roster.
Small blessings I guess.
The Trials and Tribulations of TJ Brodie
The guy just can’t catch a break these days. A quick pass from goaltender Mike Smith is bobbled and then just like that it’s in the net, and another minus for TJ Brodie.
He plays well in stretches but every minor gaff he makes seems to backfire monstrously.
He’s a good player and he’ll dig his way out of it, but quite the stretch for the Flames puck rushing defenseman.
3M = 3 “M”inus
The Flames dependable unit, the 3M line got shredded tonight by the Stars.
Mikael Backlund was a -3 on the night and Michael Frolik was a -4, not something you see every day from one of the league’s top lines. Their linemate Matthew Tkachuk escaped with a -1, minimal damage compared to his buddies.
Overall I thought they played a decent game, the stats coming down to bounces.
Fancy Stats
Five on five the Flames were the better team tonight with a 53.7% shot advantage and a 52.4% scoring chance edge when neither team had a guy in the box. Overall the numbers were more even, tilting slightly to the Dallas side with the Stars having more powerplays and a five on three advantage.
Individually the Flames first line ran the show with a Micheal Ferland (71%), Johnny Gaudreau (66%) and Sean Monahan (61%) putting up stout numbers. Mark Giordano, Sam Bennett, Jaromir Jagr, and Mark Jankowski also had great nights. The fourth line plus Backlund and Frolik had rough numbers in terms of shot attempts.
