Honestly you could play this exact same game ten times and the Flames would win nine of them by an average score of 4 or 5 to 1.
Seriously.
The Oilers scored three seeing eye shots, and then the game winner when an obvious interference penalty was ignored and skated to a 5-3 victory.
The HNIC panel focused on the Noah Hanifin goal as a weak goal on Mikko Koskinen, but the truth of the matter is that Koskinen was the difference both by his save volume and by some pretty good bounces as he made a few saves he didn’t know he made.
For the Flames you just move on, they were pretty damn solid tonight.
As they say … what evs.
The Lineup
Not a single lineup change for the Flames after their 5-1 win over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night.
Up front it’s Elias Lindholm between Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau, Mikael Backlund between Andrew Mangiapane and Blake Coleman, Sean Monahan between Milan Lucic and Dillon Dube, and a fourth line of Brad Richardson with Trevor Lewis and Brett Ritchie.
On the blueline Noah Hanifin with Rasmus Andersson, Oliver Kylington with Chris Tanev and Nikita Zadorov with Erik Gudbranson.
In goal Jacob Markstrom, who was very sharp on Tuesday.
Line Metrics
xGF%
Gaudreau – Lindholm – Tkachuk 62.7%
Mangiapane – Backlund – Coleman 59.1%
Lucic – Monahan – Dube 63.3%
Lewis – Richardson – Ritchie NA
Hanifin – Andersson 54.8%
Kylington – Tanev 56.1%
Zadorov – Gudbranson 57.1%
Goals Saved + Avg
Markstrom +10.5
Not the Start I Expected
Maybe watching this team builds in a sense of dread, but I honestly thought the Flames would be fine, but they’d have to weather a pretty intense storm by the Oilers off the hop.
Didn’t really happen.
The Flames didn’t dominate early by any means, but they played a steady first ten minutes without doing a lot of damage. They stayed out of the box and kept both McDavid and Draisaitl at bay.
Then the Flames go to work and score two goals in the final half of the first period, which mentally is tough on a team that has given up the first goal often and lost seven straight heading in.
In the first twenty the Flames had six five on five high danger chances to the Oilers two.
That’s the way you draw it up!
Koskinen
No one will ever confuse Koskinen with an elite starting goaltender.
But tonight’s first period is a pretty example of why you can’t lay all the Oilers problems at his feet. The Flames had 19 shots on goal and seven high danger chances in the first twenty minutes; scoring two goals.
The average NHL team gives up 11 high danger chances in all situations in 60 minutes.
You’re not doing your goaltender any favours if you give up 70% of that game total in one period.
Speaking of Goaltending
All four second period goals … three by Edmonton and then another by the Flames were seeing eye shots through layered screens that found their way into the net.
They’re not really scoring chances, but if you put pucks and traffic to the net good things can happen.
Can’t really fault the goaltenders on any of the four lamp lighters in that second period.
Penalty Trouble
Calgary was great in the first period in staying out of the box, but got burned heavily in the second period doing exactly what they can’t do.
And it didn’t have to be that way.
Oliver Kylington with a needless cross check and Elias Lindholm takes his hand off his stick and grabs McDavid and just like that Edmonton is back in the game with back to back Evan Bouchard goals.
Speaking of Kylington
What a change in the world of Oliver Kylington since his last trip to Edmonton.
In the season opener he was the Flames seventh defenseman and only saw the ice for two minutes.
Tonight he was a top four defenseman as per usual, and key in using his skating to thwart Connor McDavid rushes and is features on the first intermission of Hockey Night in Canada.
Hate Pointing Out Refs
But what in the hell where they doing not calling Jesse Puljujarvi pick on Oliver Kylington on the game winning goal.
It’s honestly incredulous.
Chris Tanev is doing his best to push Leon Draisaitl wide and swift booted Kylington would have easily met him at the net if he wasn’t knocked off his skates but the infraction is ignored.
Put that in perspective with the Mikael Backlund interference call at the end of the second on Connor McDavid and it’s a head scratcher.
Talk about being the story.
Is Sean Monahan Coming On?
Coming off a two goal game against Florida I really noticed Monahan’s game again tonight.
He was strong on the puck, good on the draws (61%), he hit a cross bar with a laser suggesting his shot is coming back, and was moving the puck really well.
Not sure I’m expecting a return to the 30 goal 65 point Monahan, but it does look like his season is coming around and he could be a factor in the second half of the season.
Bottom line he has to have linemates.
No more spins on the fourth line please.
Will Never Understand …
NHL coaches make some of the oddest decisions to me.
Listen … Darryl Sutter has my respect. He clearly knows more about hockey than I’ll ever know.
But coming off the Draisaitl go ahead goal with 5:31 on the clock why does the the fourth line, a trio getting worked at about 40% xGF% for the most part, come off the bench for the face off.
This isn’t division 6 minor hockey, why not roll your top three lines through three times each and go for the tie?
Just don’t get it.
Special Teams
Have to give the Oilers a nod for special teams on the night as they go 2/3 on the powerplay compared to Calgary’s 1/2.
The Oilers came into the game with only one powerplay goal in the last 11 games but were able to win the game against Calgary on the strength of their special teams.
And as I said above … two seeing eye powerplay goals. Not even sure if I’m upset with the penalty killing.
Standings and Record
The loss moves the Flames to 18-12-6 on the season good for 42 points in 36 games.
That’s a .583 win percentage which keeps the Flames 6th in the West for the time being.
The Oilers are 10th in the conference with a .541 win percentage.
Counting Stats
Shots: Flames 47 / Oilers 31
Face Offs: Flames 54% / Oilers 46%
Powerplay: Flames 1-2 / Oilers 2-3
Fancy Stats
The Oilers, who were outplayed pretty much coast to coast five on five had only 25% of the shot attempts in the third period, but somehow survived their terrible goaltender who made 43 saves to find a win anyway. As I said in the opening, if the Flames walked out that same game ten times they win nine times. Five on five the Flames had 58% of the shot attempts with period splits of 54%/46% and 75% respectively. In terms of five on five expected goals, the Flames had 63%, and for high danger scoring chances the Flames had 72%, with a 13-5 split.
In all situations the Flames had 58% of the shot attempts, 61% of the expected goals, and 75% of the high danger splits despite having one less chance with the man advantage.
Individually, the Flames were led by Sean Monahan and Noah Hanifin with a 67% split of five on five shot attempts on the night. Other guys in the 60s included Rasmus Andersson, Dillon Dube, Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk, Milan Lucic and Elias Lindholm. Only four players finished under water on the night; Brad Richardson with 36%, and his linemates Trevor Lewis and Brett Ritchie along with Erik Gudbranson in the 40s.
