It’s a little late in the season, and the games are far too important to hang one’s hat on a moral victory.
But that doesn’t take away from the fact that the Flames played a very solid road game tonight, were the better team on the ice, and just didn’t have the puck luck or finish to get the job done in a 2-0 Dallas Stars win on Tuesday night.
The Flames out shot the Stars 38-26 and out chanced them 17-7 but between stellar play from almost Flame Ben Bishop and a lot of shots wide the Flames just couldn’t get it done on the score sheet.
Line Up Mash Up
With Chris Stewart making his Flame’s debut on the top line with Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan, Sam Bennett was returned to the third line with Garnet Hathaway and Mark Jankowski.
It didn’t last.
With the top line getting soaked (20-25% shot attempts through the first period) the Stewart experiment came to a halt late in the second and into the third period with Sam Bennett returning to his spot on the top line.
Stewart dropped to the 3M line with Frolik dropping to play with Jankowski and Hathaway.
Later in the third period Stewart was on a mix of a third and fourth line.
Bennett who was 71% on the night seemed to save the Monahan / Gaudreau combination late, dragging both players back up to 50%.
The Stewart Assessment
I don’t mind the attempt to put a natural right wing on the top line with the team’s best offensive players, but I’m glad the coaching staff put things back through two periods; it wasn’t working.
Stewart was fine.
Not overly engaged at times, but he made a nice pass to Sean Monahan in the first for a breakaway, and wasn’t to blame for his minus on the night.
Overall he was 34.5% in shot attempts, dead last on the team.
Gillies Three Straight Starts
If you had told me back in October that Jon Gillies would end up making three straight starts in February I wouldn’t have believed you.
Actually if you had told me the Flames would be running with a pair of David Rittich and Jon Gillies after the trade deadline without the presence of either starter Mike Smith or backup Eddie Lack.
Oh the twists and turns of a season.
For his part Jon Gillies has done a pretty good job. He handles the puck better the Rittich, and is almost as big as Smith, and has steadied his game from relief performances earlier this season, and a shaky start in Arizona.
Tonight more of the same. No run support, but he held the dangerous Dallas Stars to two goals on the night on 26 shots.
Another check mark for the young goaltender; glad they didn’t deal him!
Special Teams Battle
The Flames lost the game 1-0 five on five, so it would be unfair to blame the special teams for the loss.
But in the end the Flames went 0 for 6 on the powerlay while giving up a Star’s goal with six chances as well.
Truthfully the Flames had their chances, with an extended five on three in the first period, and then some pretty good looks late the Flames were somewhat unlucky with the man advantage.
Shorthanded they also had a two on one, and a three on two that could have resulted in goals.
Overall the Flames were 3-0 in scoring chances with the man advantage and 2-3 when shorthanded. Just not their night.
Discipline
One issue to look at is discipline as the Flames put themselves shorthanded five times or more for the 5th time in the last ten games; something that just can’t happen if you want to win hockey games.
Get that number down to two or three per game and the Flames win a lot of hockey games down the stretch with their improved powerplay.
Gulutzan Unglued
Glen Gulutzan got himself an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for arguing a missed call on the Star’s second goal.
On the replay he had a point.
A Dallas forward wrapped his arms around Travis Hamonic and held him in the corner as the Stars too the puck to the net and buried a powerplay goal to put the hosts up 2-0.
The Flames managed to kill off the bench minor and continued on their way dominating the proceedings but a call there keeps it 1-0 and could have made the finish a different outcome.
Standings Look
The Kings are playing the Knights again tonight; tied 1-1 after one. The Oilers are teasing Calgary again by being up on the Sharks after one, but I’m sure they’ll find away to give San Jose points.
The Flames at the moment are tied with the Kings for the final wild card spot, and one point back of the Ducks for the final spot in the Pacific Division.
Fancy Stats
The Flames had an interesting first period as they trailed the shot attempts five on five 26-21 but out chanced the Dallas Stars 7-1. Over the course of the game the Flames had a 60% edge in shot attempts with period splits of 43 / 65 / 77, quite a performance. In scoring chances five on five the Flames were 8-4 with 4-1 and 4-2 edges in the first and third period respectively.
In all situations the Flames had a 61% edge in shot attempts and a 71% edge in scoring chances.
Individually, the Flames had only three players under water including Chris Stewart at 34%, TJ Brodie at 41% and Michael Stone at 45%. Matthew Tkachuk led the way with 82%, followed by Mark Giordano at 76%, Michael Frolik at 75%, Dougie Hamilton 73%, Garnet Hathaway at 71% and Sam Benett at 71%.
