Whenever we get back to a normal NHL schedule it will be interesting to see where the last three games sits against the season as a whole.
With Calgary getting soundly beat for the third straight game by Eastern beasts, this time by a 6-3 score in Carolina, one has to wonder …
Is Calgary sputtering? Is it the degree of difficulty, and they’ll be fine against lesser opponents on most nights? Has the league figured out Sutter’s system?
With a trade deadline coming up the answers to some of those questions are key. Just how far away are the Flames from truly being a contender if they couldn’t stand with three of the best teams in the East?
The Lineup
Lots of intrigue with the lineup tonight with surprises up front and in goal.
First off what’s with Daniel Vladar starting in back to back nights? He’s young and wiry, and he had a lot of time off, but that’s not the normal thing to do with your starter in today’s NHL let alone your backup. Has to mean that Jacob Markstrom is nursing some sort of an injury I would assume.
Up front all kinds of change past the first line, as Sutter goes blender to try and find a spark in his ailing crew. So it’s Elias Lindholm between Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk, Blake Coleman moves up to play with Sean Monahan and Andrew Mangiapane … forming what I think many of us had as the starting top six this season. Dillon Dube with Mikael Backlund and Brett Ritchie, and finally Adam Ruzicka in for Brad Richardson and centers Milan Lucic and Trevor Lewis.
Lots and lots of change, and once again a chance for Monahan to prove he should stick in the top six.
On the blueline no change at all; Noah Hanifin with Rasmus Andersson, Oliver Kylington with Chris Tanev, and Nikita Zadorov with Erik Gudbranson.
Line Metrics
xGF%
Gaudreau – Lindholm – Tkachuk
Coleman – Monahan – Mangiapane
Dube – Backlund – Ritchie
Lucic – Ruzicka – Lewis
Hanifin – Andersson
Kylington – Tanev
Zadorov – Gudbranson
Goals Saved + Avg
Vladar
Blender Worked
At least at first …
The Flames with a fresh new look on all four lines simply ran over the Hurricanes in the first period tonight.
They scored the first goal, had 21 shots on goal, and if not for a late push and a deflection goal by their hosts could have been up two or three through 20 minutes.
They needed to be.
The Canes found their footing in the second period and from there it was a combination of being out played, and to some degree out goaltended towards the loss.
Adam Ruzicka’s Night
Honestly not great.
He had some glimmers of good puck possession and passing, had a scoring chance or two, but was beaten out of the corner on the wrong side of the puck on the go ahead goal which I’m guessing will drive Sutter crazy.
Overall he doesn’t seem to play with the same pace as his veteran teammates.
There is some offensive upside there, but a lot of work on details to be done.
Vladar Start
He’s been such a great story so you don’t want to dump on the guy, but he didn’t have the best of nights.
His numbers were made worse by two late goals however, including a seeing eye shot on a late powerplay that was afforded after the Flames lost a challenge for goalie interference.
I wouldn’t call the game his fault, but he certainly got out goaltended in this one.
Now we wonder what’s up with Markstrom.
Special Teams
Calgary comes up empty on the powerplay again, making them ouch for nine in their last three games. This time they failed on four attempts, while the Hurricanes scored once on three attempts to take the edge.
Calgary scored three five on five goals, which should get you a win more often than not, but they need to get their special teams straightened out.
Standings and Record
Despite losing three straight things haven’t really gotten all that tighter for the Flames in the Pacific or West with game cancellations and teams around them sputtering.
They still sit third in the Pacific with 40 points of a record of 17-10-6, and still have that two point lead over the Oilers. They only have one game in hand now however.
They’ve dropped to sixth in the West in points percentage.
Counting Stats
Shots: Flames 39 / Canes 37
Face Offs: Flames 38% / Canes 62%
Powerplay: Flames 0-4 / Canes 1-3
Fancy Stats
The Flames looked to have had a pretty good night in the summary until you dig down a little deeper and see it was a tale of two games; an electric first period that should have had them up a handful, and then the rest of the game where things completely slipped away. Five on five the Flames had 51% of the shot attempts with period splits of 68%/30% and 58% respectively. In terms of five on five expected goals, the Flames had 49%, and for high danger scoring chances the Flames had 60%, with a 12-8 split.
In all situations the Flames had 51% of the shot attempts, 53% of the expected goals, and 59% of the high danger splits.
Brett Ritchie led the way for the Flames individually with a 70% split of five on five shot attempts on the night. Other guys in the 60s included Blake Coleman, Mikael Backlund, Oliver Kylington, and Chris Tanev. Elias Lindholm, Johnny Gaudreau, Dillon Dube, Matthew Tkachuk and Andrew Mangiapane also had solid nights in the mid 50s. The fourth line sputtered again despite the changes to the roster, and the top pairing had a rough one as all of Adam Ruzicka, Trevor Lewis, Milan Lucic, Noah Hanifin and Rasmus Andersson were all under 40%.
