You can forgive Calgary fans for being a little skeptical, perhaps not holding their breath.
In these parts we’re not used to good starts to the season, certainly not used to five game sweep road trips but even with success like that you have that feeling that people are waiting for that shoe to drop.
So the team comes home after the trip and it’s almost expected that they’d come out a little flat and chase a game. But no … the Flames roll out an air tight defensive effort, get some special teams help and then cruise to a 4-0 victory to run their win streak to six.
Coaching matters. Darryl Sutter has the team dialed in. With each consistent effort we see, it just may be that they are as good as they look.
Pffffffffffffffffffff (exhaling).
The Lineup
With the team winning five in a row you wouldn’t expect much in the way of change when it comes to the roster, but despite that fact Darryl Sutter made some changes to his bottom pairing.
In goal Jacob Markstrom, who has two shut outs and only one goal against in his last three starts … only two regulation time goals in his last four appearances. He’s been red hot and a huge part of the team’s success.
No change up front as Elias Lindholm centers Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau, Mikael Backlund between Blake Coleman and Tyler Pitlick, Dillon Dube between Andrew Mangiapane and Brett Ritchie, and finally Sean Monahan centering Milan Lucic and Trevor Lewis.
The change as I said, comes on the blueline with Noah Hanifin returning to line up with Rasmus Andersson, Oliver Kylington back with Chris Tanev, and then Juuso Valimaki coming out for Nikita Zadorov who plays with Erik Gudbranson.
Great Start
No they didn’t pile up two, three or four first period goals like we saw in Detroit, Washington and New Jersey, but the Flames had a solid start on Hockey Night in Canada giving up only four first period shots in a well played 20 minutes.
Coming off a wildly successful but long Eastern five game road trip, quite often the team adjusting to home cooking comes out flat as a pancake in the first period and then ends up chasing the game all night long.
Instead the Flames put 20 minutes to bed in good order, letting them get their legs for the game as a whole.
Oliver Kylington Entrenched?
For now at least right?
I’m sure there will be a few more ups and downs as their is with any young player, but with the move to get Nikita Zadorov back in tonight it wasn’t Kylington, who scored two points in the road finale against Jersey, coming out.
For now at least, it looks like Darryl Sutter is not only happy with him in the lineup, but firmly in the top four.
Have to wonder where this is going too. Kylington reads the ice well offensively, but sometimes he mishandles the puck within the chances he creates. With more ice time you’d have to think that settles down and he starts contributing more offensively.
Will be interesting to watch.
Monahan Off the Snide
Great to see Monahan tip in a Rasmus Andersson powerplay goal in the second period, notching his first of the season.
His role has been limited … he’s playing with two wingers that are somewhat stunted offensively, and certainly not what he’s used to.
But he’s looked quicker, better on the backcheck and more physical down low as he grinds with his fourth line buddies.
Would be great to see him bounce back to at least 70% of what he used to be, and become a solid presence of second tier scoring for the Flames.
Lighting the lamp is a start.
Provorov Play
Really thought Cassie missed the whole point of the third period exchange between Provorov and Tkachuk.
It doesn’t have to be a leg sticking out, it’s interference.
The puck was long gone and Provorov knew he was beat and hit a player that didn’t have the puck.
I cringed every time Mark Giordano did that over the years … because … well it’s a penalty.
Can’t believe Calgary ended up down a man out of that mess.
Silly.
Jacob “the Wall” Markstrom
Sure the guy didn’t get a lot of work, but honestly that made the third shut out in four starts even more impressive.
Honestly I get the feeling that Jacob Markstrom is much more comfortable when he’s facing a large volume of shots (Vancouver Canucks style!) so to have four shots on goal through 30 minutes of play had to be tough in keeping sharp.
But again and again the big goaltender would make the easy save, and the medium save, and the tough save even if they were few and far between.
Coming into the game he had moved up the list in most metrics, sitting third or fourth league wide in most categories.
Guessing he’s nearing the top now. Three shut outs in four games will do that for you.
Counting Stats
Shots: Flames 36 / Flyers 20
Face Offs: Flames 47% / Flyers 53%
Powerplay: Flames 2-5 / Flayers 0-3
Fancy Stats
Another dominant game for the Flames form the drop of the puck as they really never gave the Flyers much in terms of momentum. Five on five they had 60% of the shot attempts with period splits of 63%/71% and 45% respectively. In terms of five on five expected goals, the Flames had 62%, and for high danger scoring chances the team had 77%, with a dominant 10-3 split.
In all situations the Flames had 59% of the shot attempts, 66% of the expected goals, and 78% of the high danger splits. Honestly not what I would have expected in the first game back after a long and successful road trip. Sutter has them playing text book hockey through the lineup and in all situations.
Individually the Flames were led by the defense pairing of Chris Tanev and Oliver Kylington who both posted 80+% nights to pace the team. Dillon Dube, Andrew Mangiapane and Elias Lindholm were all over 70%. Johnny Gaudreau, Brett Ritchie, Matthew Tkachuk, Trevor Lewis and Rasmus Andersson were all over 60%. At the bottom of the pile was Erik Gudbranson and Blake Coleman with nights under 40% suprisingly.
