That one wasn’t pretty.
The Flames got the start they wanted, and honestly the finish, but in the middle there was a lot of sloppy, unforced errors and breakdowns, turning a 2-0 lead into a 4-2 deficit as the Jets finally ended their five game losing streak.
For the Flames it brought an end to a four game winning streak, and seven games getting at least one point, as they try and start a new streak when the Penguins come to town on Monday.
The Lineup
No changes whatsoever from the Flames 5-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night.
In goal Jacob Markstrom looking for his 9th victory of the season, as the Flames continue to be stingy regardless of who is in goal on the evening.
On the blueline the sob story for Juuso Valimaki continues with yet another healthy scratch. So it’s Noah Hanifin with Rasmus Andersson, Oliver Kylington with Chris Tanev, and Nikita Zadorov with Erik Gudbranson.
Up front no change as well, so Elias Lindholm between Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau, Mikael Backlund with Blake Coleman and Andrew Mangiapane, Sean Monahan with Dillon Dube and Tyler Pitlick, and finally Brad Richardson with Milan Lucic and Trevor Lewis.
Very consistent lineups this season, clearly.
Line Metrics
xGF%
Gaudreau – Lindholm – Tkachuk 63.3%
Coleman – Backlund – Mangiapane 70.4%
Dube – Monahan – Pitlick 54.5%
Lucic – Richardson – Lewis 41.7%
Hanifin – Andersson 56.5%
Kylington – Tanev 61.4%
Zadorov – Gudbranson 50.5%
Goals Saved + Avg
Markstrom +11.1
Jump on The Down Team
The Flames have just been money in their starts this season, and tonight was clearly more of the same.
Less than 30 seconds into the game it’s 1-0 as Tkachuk converts a Johnny Gaudreau pass, but that wasn’t even the start … the first shift had two shots and a golden scoring chance by Mikael Backlund that could have opened the game as well.
Soon after a quick powerplay goal by Elias Lindholm and the Flames are out to a 2-0 lead on the struggling Jets team.
Markstrom Mask
New mask for Jacob Markstrom tonight, or at least new this season.
It looked a bit like last year’s in terms of colour, but it had the same Tanev chompers so guessing it’s new as well.
Personally I like it better than the other mask as it has more red and matches the home jersey much better.
Lucic Call
Interesting to have a game with two pretty similar hits.
Oliver Kylington is hit from behind in the first period by Evgeny Svechnikov and then Milan Lucic drills Dylann Demelo in the second.
Both dangerous as hell, but honestly wasn’t the hit on Kylington worse? He literally went head first into the boards on a complete hit from behind, with Svechnikov getting two minutes.
Lucic’s hit drew blood as Demelo’s head hit the dasher and that resulted in the five minute call?
Both ugly hits and nots good to see, but I honestly think the five minutes should go to the greater chance of spinal chord injury, not blood loss.
Certainly not defending the Lucic hit in any way.
Sloppy Second
That second period tonight just had that feeling that it wouldn’t go well.
The Flames started the second with one of the sloppiest powerplays we’ve seen all season, adding to that old suggestion that there’s nothing worse than a powerplay to start a period.
They settled down and had a lot of good chances themselves, but the attention to detail was completely lost in the last chunk of the first period, and most of the second.
Special Teams
Special team’s weren’t the problem in this one, as the Flames scored the only powerplay goal going 1/4 on the powerplay, while blanking the Jets on their three chances including a five minute major.
Two of the four Calgary powerplays came at the start of a period though, and didn’t really get untracked. Their last powerplay was dangerous but didn’t find that go ahead goal that could have really changed the outcome of this game.
Standings and Record
The loss moves the Flames to 12-4-5 on the season, good for 29 points, which is one point back of the Oilers who have a game in hand. The Oilers won in Vegas earlier tonight.
As the season starts to chug along we’re starting to see a little more normalcy in records, as the 9th place team in the West is now six points behind the Flames. For a period of time it seemed like 10 West teams were off to good starts creating very little breathing room.
Counting Stats
Shots: Flames 36/ Jets 28
Face Offs: Flames 53% / Jets 47%
Powerplay: Flames 1-4 / Jets 0-3
Fancy Stats
The Flames, as I said, played a pretty sloppy hockey game overall, but that didn’t take away from the fact that they pretty much dominated things five on five. Five on five they had 65% of the shot attempts with period splits of 63%/67% and 67% respectively. In terms of five on five expected goals, the Flames only had 63%, and for high danger scoring chances the team actually had 67%, with a 12-6 split.
In all situations the Flames had 61% of the shot attempts, 63% of the expected goals, and 63% of the high danger splits.
Individually the Flames were led by their top line as Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk and Elias Lindholm had huge nights five on five with 79%, 79% and 77% respectively. Blake Coleman, Mikael Backlund, Noah Hanifin and Tyler Pitlick also had 70%+ nights. Eight other players were above the 50% mark including seven over 60%. Only three players finished under water, as Milan Lucic, Brad Richardson and Trevor Lewis had rough nights.
