You have to tip your hat to the Calgary Flames, that was one heck of an effort form a tired hockey club.
The Flames playing game number five in the last seven days on a back to back with travel may have lost the game 3-0 but they had 46 shots on goal and didn’t quit as they threw the kitchen sink at the Avalanche in the third period.
Daniel Vladar was solid in net for the Flames, but Darcy Kuemper was excellent in earning the shut out in a busy night.
That’s back to back nights with a lot of pucks on net, only to be foiled by some solid goaltending.
The Lineup
Back to back games, travel and a time change, so yeah you knew there would be some changes tonight. Yeah think again … just a change in goal from last night’s game.
Up front its Elias Lindholm between Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk, Mikael Backlund between Blake Coleman and Trevor Lewis, Adam Ruzicka with Andrew Mangiapane and Tyler Toffoli, and finally Sean “Rage” Monahan between Milan Lucic and Brett Dillon Dube.
On the blueline Oliver Kylington is still out so the same pairings from last night; Noah Hanifin with Rasmus Andersson, Michael Stone with Chris Tanev and Nikita Zadorov with Erik Gudbranson.
Daniel Vladar returns to the scene of the crime to take on Colorado again.
Line Metrics
xGF%
Gaudreau – Lindholm – Tkachuk 62.6%
Lewis – Backlund – Coleman 63.8%
Mangiapane – Ruzicka – Toffoli 63.2%
Lucic – Monahan – Dube 59.3%
Hanifin – Andersson 58.1%
Stone – Tanev 54.9%
Zadorov – Gudbranson 57.6%
Goals Saved + Avg
Vladar -5.5
Who They Playing?
The Avalanche are the league’s 7th best CF% club, on the strength of the 5th best offence, and the 12th ranked defense. They’re 9th in expected goals splits five on five.
They are ranked 8th both in five on five shooting percentage, and in five on five save percentage.
They have somewhat average special teams with the 12th ranked powerplay, and the 21st ranked penalty kill.
Last Second Changes?
Bit of a slight of hand for this writer as Rick Ball said no changes tonight, and then just like that it’s Dube to the third line for Adam Ruzicka and Ritchie taking Dube’s spot on the fourth line with Lucic and Monahan.
Adam Ruzicka with the healthy scratch, unless there was a late injury.
Zadorov With Another Minor
What a run!
He’s a big physical guy, but his penchant for taking penalties is on a bit of a ripper.
Six minutes against the Lightning, two more against Detroit, and another two minutes tonight against the Colorado Avalanche.
Darryl Sutter doesn’t like players taking penalties so you have to assume this is going to become an issue at some point.
His play is solid, the third pairing is a revelation, but he has to get his stick down!
Vladar Does His Thing
I thought Daniel Vladar was excellent tonight.
He had a tired team in front of him but he was ready and able to keep his team in the game, especially in the first half of the second period when the Avalanche ran things for the most part.
I think he’s like to have that first one back against Mackinnon, but he was money the rest of the way including some serious saves with the game 1-0.
Great backup effort.
Special Teams
The Flames lose the special teams battle in this one, going 0-3 on the powerplay and giving up a powerplay goal in the first period.
The game wasn’t lost on special teams with the 3-0 score but both groups have been on a heater, and what a difference a powerplay goal would have made in this one.
Bottom line … tired team, great run with and very condensed schedule.
Standings and Record
I’m so used to adding points to the Flames total in each game, almost seems strange to write up a game where they didn’t push things further upward.
But bottom line … the Flames may have come out ok.
The Vegas Golden Knights lost again in Columbus, the Kings are losing, the Canucks are losing.
No problem! Enjoy the two days off!
Counting Stats
Shots: Flames 46 Avalanche32
Face Offs: Flames45% / Avalanche 55%
Powerplay: Flames 0-3 / Avalanche 1-2
Fancy Stats
The Flames had a rough second period, but their start and finish was rock solid for a tired team playing five games in seven nights. Five on five the Flames had 50% of the shot attempts with period splits of 58%/38% and 58% respectively. In terms of five on five expected goals, the Flames had 55%, and for high danger scoring chances the Flames had 71%, with a 12-5 split.
In all situations the Flames had 52% of the shot attempts, 50% of the expected goals, and 63% of the high danger splits. This could easily have been a win.
The Flames were lead individually by Brett Ritchie who had 65% of the five on five shot attempts when he was on the ice. Nikita Zadorov and Milan Lucic were also in the 60s. Four players were under 40% on the night including; Trevor Lewis, Blake Coleman, Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin.
