If I had told you the Flames would have a 4-3 lead heading into the third period and end up out shooting the Tampa Bay Lightning by a 19-9 edge I assume you’d assume a walk away victory.
Guess again.
The Bolts score four unanswered third period goals despite the Flames play turning a 50-0-2 leading after 40 record into a 50-2-2 record in just three nights as the run of back breaks and bounces seems to continue.
Tonight Mike Smith wasn’t at his best, but he was due, you move on.
Calgary has been playing solid hockey for two months, I’ve been suggesting the stats suggest all will be well in the end, but maybe just maybe I’m wrong.
This may just be the anti-season to the Hartley 14-15 season where the Flames turned every bounce into good luck and could do no wrong despite getting out played.
Hockey God rears his head.
Emotional Hurdle
Missing the Target
The Flames have had 718 missed shot opportunities in 50 games coming into tonight which includes; goal posts, cross bars, shooting high and shooting wide. It doesn’t count saves, goals, or blocked shots.
That’s a rate of 14.4 wide shots per game.
On average the team generates 50 shot attempts per game meaning they miss the net or hit iron 29% of the time.
Does this matter? Big time, that number has to come down if they are to bring up their shooting percentage and wins more consistently. It’s something I’ll be keeping an eye on in up coming game stories.
So tonight in a disappointing loss with lots and lots of shots on net? The Flames missed the net 17 times adding to their average, but the shot attempts were also up at 70 tonight, or a ratio of 24.2% (I’m assuming the Dougie Hamilton goal post is included in the 17).
Improvement!
Powerplay Goal
The Flames second unit scored a powerplay goal on their first opportunity, from the second unit. In all fairness the first unit had their chances in the other powerplay as well so baby steps.
What I liked was Johnny Gaudreau on the right side, inside sticks Mr. Cameron, inside sticks!
Mr Smith Goes To Sieveville
When you’re playing the best team in the league you need your best players to be your best players.
All of Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, Micheal Ferland, Mikael Backlund, Matthew Tkachuk and Dougie Hamilton had points.
Mike Smith however … had a rough one.
The Lightning scored 6 goals on him on 27 shots for a .778 save percentage. The first goal was a fluke, the second an unstoppable rebound, but goals three, four and five were all cringe worthy as the Flames watched a 4-2 lead evaporate into a 5-4 Lightning lead.
Steven Stamkos’ 6th goal wasn’t Smith’s fault but enough was enough.
With that said the guy has been solid all season, and he was due for a mistake.
Giordano Tone Setter
Was fun to see Mark Giordano going after Stamkos from the drop of the puck. The two captains had more than a few run ins including an odd play where Giordano caught Stamkos from the side sending him cartwheeling to the ice and holding his shoulder or forearm on the bench. Seemed clean to me.
When coming off a rough ending like the Vegas game you have to have your captain engaged.
Ferland 20 Goal Club
Ferland’s one timer in the slot on a first period powerplay moves him into the 20 goal club for the first time in his career.
I’ve always had an issue with a guy that does it once being called a 20 goal scorer, but you can’t have multiple 20 goal seasons without the first, so it’s good to see Ferland on his way.
Two years ago he was the poster child for break out with a terrible shooting percentage with third and fourth line duty. This year he struggled early, then dominated, but now has settled in as a pretty consistent first line force.
Lazar Possession
Another recently typical night for Curtis Lazar.
Fourth line minutes but two scoring chances, the first hits a skate, the second he shoots wide … bottom line the goalless streak continues.
Another streak of late however is his possession metrics as he continues to climb up the Flame leaderboard. In Lazar’s last five games he’s been 63/70/55/50/68 in shot attempts five on five which is 60.2% over a five game stretch.
The poor kid can’t bury a puck to save himself but he’s getting it done in the trenches.
Simple Stats Don’t Show the Tale
Sean Monahan scores a five on five goal and Micheal Ferland adds a powerplay marker, but the top line didn’t generate a single scoring chance on the night going 0/3 against their Tampa counterparts.
Oddly enough the fourth line was blazing posting a 9-4 split tonight in five on five play.
Was great to see Matt Stajan pop his second of the season after one of their dominant shifts.
Hathaway Scrap
Hathaway had a good up and down night, and provided a spark physically by going to the edge, but not over. For the most part he’s a smart player, but has taken too many high sticking penalties this season for being careless.
His toppling of Tampa defenseman Anton Stralman resulted in a smallish player Yanni Gourde insisting on a scrap, and you could see Hathaway was reluctant given his chance of mopping the kid up.
Finally he relinquishes and feeds him a couple and they head to the penalty box. A few seconds later they show a replay of Hathaway acting scared by hiding in his jersey. Can only assume Gourde was chirping him from the other bench.
Have to give the kid credit for stones, but not sure he thought that through.
This May Not Happen
I’m a big proponent of teams that do the right things game in and game out eventually get the results, and that panicking when statistics say things are going better than the standings reflect will always prove to be the wrong course.
At some point however you start to wonder if that karma train isn’t going to pull up at the station and take you away.
The Flames have been playing solid hockey for a long long time, but other than a seven game win streak they continue to find away not to get the results that most analysis would suggest they deserve.
This could be the anti-Hartley season as I said above.
Still lots of time though.
Fancy Stats
The Flames were solid five on five with splits of 47/61/63 for an overall game split of 57%, one of their better results of the season. Scoring chances five on five were 12-11 Calgary.
In all situations the Flames had a 55% edge and a 17-14 edge in scoring chances.
They lost 7-4.
Only four players were under water on the night; Sam Bennett, Michael Stone, Mark Jankowski and Brett Kulak. For the third pairing that’s back to back games where they’ve struggled. On the plus side the fourth line lead the way with 66-70%, Matthew Tkachuk and Dougie Hamilton were also in the 60s.
