Do you know what’s worse than watching a team lose six straight games?
Having to write a game story about a team that has lost six straight games. Trust me.
What more can one say? The Flames showed up, they had their work boots on and they put everything they could to the net. They had 40 shots on goal, they hit three goal posts, but in the end they were blanked yet again, this time by the St. Louis Blues in a 5-0 white washing on Thursday night.
Thing is … shots and pressure is good, it’s a great thing for a club to aim for and execute, but if said pressure is going to result in copious turnovers and immense pressure on their goaltender than it’s really not an exchange that will generally end up with a win.
So yes check mark for giving it their all, but they need to be smart as well or this thing will continue to stretch on.
Lineup Changes
With no morning skate the view of the lines tonight was anything but nailed down.
Word on scratches though had recent call ups Yelesin and Rieder watching, which should suggest the team was going with the same look they had against Colorado on Tuesday night.
Or would it?
David Rittich in goal.
Rasmus Andersson playing with Mark Giordano, Michael Stone playing with Noah Hanifin, and Oliver Kylington lining up with Brandon Davidson.
But up front it’s back to the norm, as the Sean Monahan line with Johnny Gaudreau and Elias Lindholm was put back together. So to was the 3M Line with Michael Frolik joining Mikael Backlund and Matthew Tkachuk. No change to the club’s most effective line of late as Derek Ryan continues to center Milan Lucic and Dillon Dube. Which leaves Mark Jankowski centering Zack Rinaldo and Andrew Mangiapane.
Thoughts?
Not happy to see Mangiapane demoted. He’ll certainly add some zip to the fourth line but I think his talents are being wasted that far down the lineup, and that he had a solid game against Colorado.
And the First Goal Goes to …
Not the Flames of course.
A late first period turnover partially by Johnny Gaudreau and finally by Oliver Kylington led to an odd man rush, some zone time and then finally the go ahead goal by Sanford.
Can’t really point to bad luck at this point however as the Flames gave up two or three in all alone chances to the Blues to start the period but were bailed out by their goaltender David Rittich.
Tkachuk Senior Jerseys
With Matthew Tkachuk lining up against his dad’s team in those awful jerseys I had to go look up what era Keith had in terms of silks in his St. Louis days.
As I thought, he avoided these abominations by about 2 years, as the team wore them in 1997 and 1998 and the senior Tkachuk arrived from Arizona in 2000.
Shiver.
17 and 13
With the first period goal by the Blues the Flames have now trailed in 17 of 25 games on the season, and even more frighteningly by a 2-0 score in almost half of those games at 12.
That’s not the way to get off the blocks.
Losing Streak Mantra
Steve Smith was interviewed when he was the captain of the Flames on streaks, some wisdom that I fit into a game story at least once every season.
“A losing streak ends before your last loss, and a winning streak ends before your last win”.
Hold on to that.
The Flames played a far from perfect road game; when they broke down they gave up 10 bell chances far too often, but they outplayed the Blues to a strong degree for much of the game but didn’t get the bounces or finish required to seal the deal.
Does that mean they’re on their way? So hard to say given the dichotomy over carrying the game overall, but then getting feasted upon when they made mistakes.
The effort was there, but maybe to the point where they were cheating too much to sustain pressure.
Shooting Percentage
Coming into the game the Flames were shooting at only 3% in the last five games.
Tonight didn’t help those numbers.
That’s 40 more shots and the third shut out in four games bringing the ugly totals to five goals on 198 shots for a shooting percentage of 2.5%.
To put that in perspective … the average NHL team this season is shooting at 9.5%. If the Flames scored on that average in the last six games they would have scored 19 goals instead of five, a difference of 14.
Overall on the season the Flames are now 30th in all situation shooting percentage 7.56%, the Kings are last with 7.25%.
Counting Stats
Team Stats:
Shots – Flames 40 Blues 31
Face Offs – Blues 55%
Special Teams – Flames 0/4 Blues 1/2
Player Stats:
Points – Hey easy again! Nobody had a point so no leaders.
Plus/Minus – Two players managed to escape this one at even believe it or not, take a bow Mikael Backlund and Michael Frolik!
Shots – Elias Lindholm and the offensive juggernaught Brandon Davidson shared the lead for shots on goal with six apiece.
Fancy Stats
The Flames had 56% of the five on five shot attempts on the night with period splits of 56%/59% and 52%. In terms of high danger chances though the Flames were on the wrong side of a 10-6 split, something that certainly matched the eye test. As a result the xGF% was towards the Blues with a 55% mark. Quantity doesn’t trump quality, clearly.
In all situations the Flames had 58% of the shot attempts, 44% of the high danger chances and a 50% mark in terms of xGF%.
Individually, the Flames were led again by their third line with Derek Ryan posting a 71% to match linemate Dillan Dube. Milan Lucic had 69%. Other guys in the 60s included Brandon Davidson and Oliver Kylington. At the bottom of the list was Matthew Tkachuk with 45%, with Zach Rinaldo and Michael Stone right on his heels.
