The St. Louis Blues have been a tough out for roughly 10 months. They rebounded a rough start to last season and just kept pouring it on through a big comeback, a cup win, and a great start to the season.
They’re a tough out.
The Flames looked to be there, but night quite there through 50 minutes in this one, playing well, but just not well enough in trailing the Blues 2-0 on the scoreboard. But then goals by Matthew Tkachuk and Travis Hamonic in four minutes of time and the Flames find a point; falling in overtime on a penalty kill when TJ Brodie was sent off for holding.
Line Up Changes
Not a one!
David Rittich back in net for the Flames of course (more on that later).
The recent changes to the blueline stick; that is Mark Giordano with Travis Hamonic, Noah Hanifin with Rasmus Andersson, and TJ Brodie with Michael Stone on the third pairing.
No change to the top line, Andrew Mangiapane continues to skate on the second line with Matthew Tkachuk and Mikael Backlund. A third line with Alan Quine helping out Derek Ryan and Sam Bennett, and a fourth line of Milan Lucic, Mark Jankowski and Tobias Rieder. Michael Frolik the healthy scratch.
David Rittich Workhorse
Some times things become a thing, you know?
David Rittich leads the league in minutes, oh and the gap is almost 100 minutes. That’s too many starts! The Flames are over working their number one goaltender!
Are they? If they are others are too.
The simple little math thing that whoever started and then continued to carry this notion kept forgetting? Games played. David Rittich plays for the team with the most games played to date on the season. His % of Calgary minutes is in and around 77.5% on the season, which is a virtual tie with Marc Andre Fleury, and just a tad ahead of Jordan Binnington and Fredrik Andersson.
Nothing to see here, or at least nothing different than several other cities.
Sam Bennett Physicality
Loved that exchange in the first period between Vince Dunn and Sam Bennett. You don’t see Bennett take the worst of a physical exchange that often, but he certainly did in the neutral zone when Dunn put him on to the top of the boards in front of the St. Louis bench.
But then seconds later Bennett evened the scales by finishing Dunn hard in the corner cleanly.
Dunn wasn’t even upset, just got up and skated back into the play. Great exchange.
But that wasn’t it on the night. Bennett basically does the same exchange again in the third period but with Mackenzie MacEachern it happens again. The Blue rubs Bennett out, Bennett hunts him down and levels him by the Blues’ bench leading to a scrum and then the four on four hockey that led to Travis Hamonic’s goal.
Shame the guy will never be that top line fourth overall pick, but man he brings the intangibles.
What’s up with Johnny?
Johnny Gaudreau had a bit of a break out game against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night with two points, and sure 17 points in 19 games is hard from a struggling hockey player, but does he look like the same player that we’ve seen in the last two or three years?
Lots of bobbled pucks, turn overs, bad bounces, passes into skates, blocked shots … he just doesn’t seem to be the creator that we’ve seen during his career.
He seems to be fighting it a bit, so given his production without “feel”, you have to assume he’s due for a real heater soon as the team gets on their feet.
Points are Points
The Flames certainly aren’t setting the world on fire this season but quietly they’re coming around and getting the job done.
With the point tonight, the team now has at least one standings upper in seven of the last nine games, including some pretty difficult travel. The recent seven in nine streak compares pretty favourably to the previous 11 games in which they only picked up points in six.
It’s not pretty, but it’s coming.
Acid Test
The St. Louis Blues are the Cup Champs and with that always a measuring stick. Additionally they’re a big team that plays a heavy game, which in principal is a great test for the Flames; a team that doesn’t have the reputation of being all that difficult to play against.
Through two and a half periods the Flames were down 2-0 but playing a pretty solid back and forth game with the Blues before finding two late goals and salvaging a point on home ice.
Overall, not a bad showing against a top opponent.
Lindholm Streak
Done at nine games.
Elias Lindholm was many pundits pick beside Mark Giordano as the most likely Flame player to slide after a career season last year.
All Lindholm did was come out and up his shooting percentage, and hit the twine ten times in the club’s first 19 games, including a recent stretch of nine games with a point.
Tonight the top line wasn’t feeling it though, generating very little, sending Lindholm’s streak to the sidelines.
CBC
You know you’re going to get some head rolling when Randorff and Debrusk are doing Flames games on a Saturday.
To be honest I thought Debrusk was pretty fair all night, but Randorff is always good for a Calgary shot or two.
My favourite was the commentary before the overtime period where he talked about how busy David Rittich has been compared to the relatively quiet but solid night had at the other end by Binnington.
The stats at that point? 27-26 Calgary in shots, and 6-5 Calgary in high danger scoring chances.
Oh and thanks CBC for all the blacked out screens through the first 40 minutes.
Counting Stats
Team Stats:
Shots – Flames 29 Blues 28
Face Offs – Flames 53%
Special Teams – Flames 0/2 Blues 2/4
Player Stats:
Points – Single points to Matthew Tkachuk, Andrew Mangiapane, Mikael Backlund, Travis Hamonic and Mark Giordano.
Plus/Minus – Matthew Tkachuk, Travis Hamonic and Mark Giordano all at +2.
Shots – Matthew Tkachuk and Elias Lindholm lead with four shots apiece.
Fancy Stats
Very well played hockey game, which could be seen by the five on five shot attempts being tied at 50%, with Calgary period splits of 45%/54% and 53%. In all situations Calgary had 52% of the shot attempts.
High danger scoring chances five on five fell to Calgary with a tight and low 6-5 edge. The Flames had four of the final six scoring chances in the game. In all situations the Flames had a 10-6 edge on the night.
The Flames were led in five on five shot attempts by Matthew Tkachuk at 69%, closely followed by his linemates with 68% and 63%. Mark Giordano, Travis Hamonic, TJ Brodie and Milan Lucic also had solid nights. Sam Bennett was at the bottom of the pile with only 24% on the night, other guys under 40% included Hanifin, Andersson, Ryan, Quine and Rider.
