All in all not a bad effort.
The Flames stole one last night so you knew the Leafs were going to come hard tonight, and after a rough start the Flames actually had a decent gut check game and made it interesting to the finish in a 2-0 loss in Toronto.
The game was the most active to date for coach Darryl Sutter who had his first benchings and line blenders of the season.
The team moves to Ottawa to complete the four game road trip with two in the Nation’s capital. Two wins against the Senator and back to back 3-1 segments would sure do wonders for the team’s playoff hopes.
Though we know how things have gone against Ottawa to date.
The Line Up
Other than the obvious change, the need to go with David Rittich in goal on back to back nights, the Flames go with the same roster as they did last night in Toronto. I’m not surprised to see the roster stability, as that’s a Darryl Sutter staple, but a little surprised there were no fresh legs added or lines changed given how the Leafs pretty much owned the team throughout Calgary’s
4-3 win.
The Cage
Not a shocker to see David Rittich starting for the Flames tonight given a) back to back games b) Markstrom has started seven straight and c) Markstrom was pretty taxed in steering home the win last night. For Rittich it’s certainly an opponent that he feels comfortable with as he’s stopped 71 of 73 shots against the Leafs this year.
Jacob Markstrom
Save percentage above average -0.006
David Rittich
Save percentage above average -0.005
The Blueline
So no changes on the blueline. Mark Giordano, coming off what could be one of his best games of the season (wouldn’t show in underlying numbers, but five blocked shots and the game winner) with Rasmus Andersson, Noah Hanifin with Chris Tanev, and Nikita “gimme your stick!” Nesterov with Juuso Valimaki.
Giordano – Andersson
42% xGF in 394 minutes
Hanifin – Tanev
62% xGF in 474 minutes
Nesterov – Valimaki
56% xGF in 251 minutes
Up Front
The Flames trot out the same four lines as well. So Elias Lindholm with the very topical Matthew Tkachuk and Dillon Dube, Sean Monahan between Johnny Gaudreau and Brett Ritchie, something that surprises me a bit given how badly that line is getting filled in. The Ritchie to the second line certainly makes the fourth line better, but that’s quite a price to pay; destroying the second line. The third line is the same; Mikael Backlund between Milan Lucic and Andrew Mangiapane. And finally a fourth line of Derek Ryan between Sam Bennett and Josh Leivo.
Tkachuk – Lindholm – Dube
46% xGF in 188 minutes
Gaudreau – Monahan – Ritchie
36% xGF in 65 minutes
Lucic – Backlund – Mangiapane
62% xGF in 133 minutes
Bennett – Ryan – Leivo
55% xGF in 45 minutes
Digging into Jacob Markstrom
There was little doubt that Jacob Markstrom’s second half of last night’s game stole two points for the Calgary Flames and guaranteed a split with Toronto coming into tonight’s game.
But when you look up his stats on the season he’s still way down the list for a goaltender that was supposed to be in the conversation for the Vezina.
Part of the problem was an injury, guessing on that Tanner Pearson collision against Vancouver, but others have suggested it was from over use early in the season. Additionally, the goaltender has been injury prone in his career as well.
What’s interesting however is how he’s been beaten.
If you look at goaltenders that have played at least 750 minutes (there are 39) Markstrom seems to be sliding in categories that he wasn’t in previous seasons; that is the ability to be consistent on weak and average shots.
His ranking in the goalie set for high danger chances is 14th; not great but certainly in the upper half of the league (barely) for starters. However his medium danger save percentage is ranked 32nd and his low danger save percentage is 23rd.
Hard to put a lot of colour on just vaguely named categories, but the goaltender hasn’t been as advertised to this point in the season.
Hopefully last night was a sign of better things to come.
The Start
Pretty fugly to be honest.
But also expected, also to be honest.
The Leafs came out ready and pushed the play, the Flames on their heels and hanging on for dear life for most of the first twenty minutes.
Some good play by David Rittich and some bounces kept them in it and with a fighting chance.
Rittich’s Play
Overall really solid in my opinion.
He had a few rough moments; a blocker save that was going wide that he put off his own post, and I didn’t super love the Leaf’s second goal. He certainly had some help from the iron.
But he gave his team a chance and had a solid backup start, which is all you can ask of him.
Line Blender
For the first time since he took over Darryl Sutter went full on blender on the forward lines to start the second period.
For the most part the big victims were Josh Leivo, and Dillon Dube who both found themselves out of the regular rotation more often than not. What’s interesting about Leivo and Dube in particular is the fact that they were constant Geoff Ward targets, usually to the chagrin of the fan base that seemed to think the coach was making some silly mistakes.
For Dube it comes down to a one handed effort near the end of the first; a turnover that resulted in the Leaf’s first goal late in the premier period, the game winner.
It will be interesting to see if he changes any lines up Monday in Ottawa.
Powerplay Blender
The powerplay wasn’t safe from the blender either as we saw Sam Bennett get some powerplay time, as well as appearances from Nikita Nesterov as a surprise.
The Flames top unit has been struggling of late, so it’s not a big shock to see some change.
I thought the second unit was a little better in generating chances of late, so a bit surprised to see some changes on that unit, including Backlund being dropped for a spin or two.
Tough Night Elias Lindholm
Wouldn’t fault him for the loss by any stretch of the imagination, but he really had himself an off night for a pretty consistent hockey player.
Lots of turnovers, flubbed pucks, poor reads, and then at times slow boots as he appeared to be on his heels and not ready to play. Could be tired from a big role in back to back games, but it was noticeable.
He finished the night under 40% in possession stats, and was visibly struggling.
More Tanev Love
I just had no idea how consistent a hockey player Chris Tanev was when watching him in enemy colours for years.
Tonight without Tanev, the Flames are down three after the first period and the game is simply over.
He was the only guy in white on their toes in the first period and was instrumental in breaking up blue chip Maple Leaf chances and keeping the game respectable to the end.
What a pick up.
Guessing he won’t be money for his full contract, but it sure turns out he has a lot further to fall than many of us first expected.
Team Stats:
Shots – Flames 31 Leafs 33
Face Offs – Flames 54%
Powerplay – Flames 0/3 Leafs 0/4
Player Stats:
Points – Take a guess! That’s right not a single player had a point in this one!
Plus/Minus – 11 different players managed an even night in the 2-0 loss.
Shots – Mark Giordano led all skaters with four shots on goal.
Fancy Stats
The Flames finished the night better than it started, after a rough first period. Overall their five on five shot attempts finished at 46% on period splits of 36%/53% and 50%. In terms of high danger chances the Flames had only four five on five, but also only gave up seven, three of those in the first period. Expected goal split was 60% Toronto.
In all situations the Flames had 46% of the shot attempts, 26% of the high danger chances and 33% of the expected goal splits.
Once again the right team won, clearly.
Individually, the Flames were led by Derek Ryan and Sam Bennett for the second night in a row in five on five shot attempts with 61% and 60% respectively. Their linemate Josh Leivo was next up but with limited ice time. Rasmus Andersson, Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk and Sean Monahan also finished above the 50% mark, a big step up from the chaos the night before for Gaudreau and Monahan. At the other end Dillon Dube with 21%.
