Would love to tell you the Flames walked into Detroit and just handed the dreadful Detroit Red Wings a thumping, checking all the boxes when it comes to confidence and momentum for the team and Brad Treliving as the NHL Trade Deadline approaches tomorrow afternoon.
That just wouldn’t be the case.
The Flames skated away with a 4-2 victory, and they were the better team for the most part, but the win was far from secure, the team far from sending any kind of message as the Wings pushed back on two occasions and could have pushed the game to overtime if not for some good bounces (thank you Mr Mangiapane shin pad) and some solid goaltending from David Rittich.
The team is money on the road though, 14-4-1 in their last 19, something they’ll need to continue as this trip heads into much more difficult cities than Detroit.
Line Up Changes
Mark Giordano took in the pre game skate again today, looked pretty close but won’t play tonight against the Detroit Red Wings.
Which means … no changes other than David Rittich back in net for Cam Talbot after Talbot’s loss to the Bruins on Friday night. Rittich is wearing white and playing far from Calgary so he should be ok!
On the blueline it’s Noah Hanifin with Rasmus Andersson, TJ Brodie with Michael Stone, and once again Oliver Kylington with Alexander Yelesin.
Up front Sean Monahan centers Johnny Gaudreau and Elias Lindholm; a line that simple has to get going both in results and in dictating the play. Calgary’s current best line has Mikael Backlund between Matthew Tkachuk and Andrew Mangiapane. Sam Bennett back between Milan Lucic and Dillon Dube, though Derek Ryan could slide in there to start to game or at any point tonight. If he doesn’t Ryan centers a fourth line of Mark Jankowski and Tobias Rieder.
Monahan Passes Mullen
When a name is called in June you hope the home team drafted a player.
Said player makes the team and starts to contribute, but they’re still that young player, they’re not a name, a guy that either has his name retired in the city or at very least a story or two and some nice statistics recorded in the annual year book.
So it’s kind of odd when you hear about a young player passing a legendary player. You don’t really see it coming. One is now, one was then.
Tonight Sean Monahan, with his first period goal passed Joe Mullen for goals in a Flames jersey with 191. That’s amazing to me. Mullen scored like a vending machine.
The answer of course is games played as Monahan has almost 200 more games played, but it doesn’t change the fact that he passed a legend.
Second Period Lull
Such a huge goal to get that fluke one from Andrew Mangiapane to close out the second period.
The Wings had started the period strong after cutting the lead in half in the late going of the first period, and you just didn’t want this one to go down to the wire. The Flames not only needed to win this one, but they needed to win it going away to build confidence and send the team forward on this tough road trip feeling a lot better about themselves.
That killer instinct against a weak opponent just wasn’t there after the team jumped into a two goal lead in the first half of the first period. They had a chance to just bury an opposition, but instead they wilted after a first period goal and were pretty much out played on the balance the rest of the way.
If I’m trying to send a message to my general manager to add to the roster, that just doesn’t get it done.
Red Wings Are Still The Red Wings
Some teams despite their record will always have a different feel.
The Detroit Red Wings are one of those teams, for me at least.
New building … bad team … but I still think back to those 2004-2009 playoff games and that helpless feeling of the Red Wings coming at the Flames in waves and the Calgary side doing their best to just swat pucks to the side and clear shooting lanes to give Miikka Kiprusoff a look.
When the Flames first moved to Calgary, Detroit was awful, they were called the Dead Things, and Calgary had more than a few 10-0 and 11-1 wins in the first couple of seasons.
But since then they’ve been money, playoffs every year, deadly in the playoffs. Those days are long gone, but that feel just doesn’t go away.
Counting Stats
Team Stats:
Shots – Flames 31 Wings 29
Face Offs – Flames 64%
Special Teams – Flames 0/2 Wings 0/2
Player Stats:
Points – Sean Monahan, Johnny Gaudreau and Noah Hanifin each scored two points on the night, Monahan and Gaudreau with a goal and an assist each, Hanifin with two helpers.
Plus/Minus – Rasmus Andersson led all skaters with a +3 night for the Flames.
Shots – Mark Stone was the marksmen of the night with five shots on goal.
Fancy Stats
The Calgary Flames had the game in terms of shot attempts five on five with 60.5% on the night with period splits of 77% (great first period)/56% and 50%. High danger chances fell to the Flames by a larger margin with a 13-7 edge on the night, a ratio good for 65%. Expected goals for fell to Calgary by a 58.6% margin.
In all situations the Flames had 57.3% of the shot attempts, 60% of the high danger chances and 55.25% of the expected goal split.
Calgary’s top line put on a clinic five on five, as the recently newly built trio had Mikael Backlund at 87.5%, and wingers Matthew Tkachuk and Andrew Mangiapane both at 84.62%. Other guys with stellar nights included Michael Stone at 72.4%, TJ Brodie at 68%, Rasmus Andersson at 62% and Noah Hanifin at 61%. Five players finished under the break even mark for the team on the night including; Johnny Gaudreau 45%, Alex Yelesin at 45%, Sam Bennett at 47%, Dillon Dube and Oliver Kylington both at 48%.
