For the most part in this brilliant second half by the Flames they’ve avoided the pitfalls of the trap game, showing up and getting the job done against the league’s lesser lights; the teams they should beat going away.
Last night for whatever reason, that wasn’t the script as the Flames bobbled and fuddled their way to a 1-0 overtime loss to the visiting Buffalo Sabres in a game where every player but the goaltender just didn’t look ready to go.
Jacob Markstrom was able to get the game to overtime with his heroics, and then ironically gave the game away himself on a whiffed puck in the extra frame, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that he got his team a point.
The Flames don’t have to stew on this one very long, as they head to Vancouver tonight, to play the Vancouver Canucks tomorrow night on Hockey Night in Canada.
They’d better iron out the malaise.
The Lineup
Always exciting to see a newly acquired player in team silks. Tough to forget Tyler Toffoli’s first night with the slalom skier goal and the crowd chanting his name.
Tonight we get our first look at the team’s 6th Swede, Calle Jarnkrok.
So yeah the lines are going to change. Brett Ritchie comes out, and of course Adam Ruzicka is back in the AHL, so with that we see a change to both bottom six lines. Elias Lindholm (or cuz) centers the top line with Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk, Mikael Backlund continues to center Blake Coleman and Trevor Lewis, Jarnkrock centers what could become the new 2nd line with Andrew Mangiapane and Tyler Toffoli, and finally it’s Sean Monahan with Milan Lucic and Dillon Dube.
On the blueline no change with Noah Hanifin lined up with Rasmus Andersson, Oliver Kylington with Chris Tanev, and Nikita Zadorov with Erik Gudbranson.
I thought we’d see Dan Vladar tonight with the team playing Jacob Markstrom’s old club tomorrow night, but it sounds like they’re going with Markstrom.
Line Metrics
xGF%
Gaudreau – Lindholm – Tkachuk 62.57%
Lewis – Backlund – Coleman 57.4%
Mangiapane – Jarnkrok – Toffoli NA
Lucic – Monahan – Dube 57.5%
Hanifin – Andersson 58.0%
Kylington – Tanev 58.6%
Zadorov – Gudbranson 57.6%
Goals Saved + Avg
Markstrom +11.0
Who They Playing?
It won’t come as a shock to anyone that the Sabres find themselves near the bottom of the league in most play driving statistics, they have however had a degree of success of late. They are ranked 24th in the league in CF% with the 28th ranked team five on five offence, and the 19th ranked defense.
They sink a little further when you look at quality as they are 31st in xGF%. That number is driven by the 29th ranked expected goals for, and the 26th ranked expected goals against.
They have the 20th ranked team shooting percentage five on five, and the 21st ranked team save percentage.
On special teams, the Sabres have the 21st ranked powerplay and the 22nd ranked penalty kill.
Markstrom Strong
A sleepy game for most of the Flame’s skaters, as they didn’t have their structure or really heads in the game for the most part. I’d say the forwards especially were on their heels and not getting in on the forecheck or forcing things the way we see on most nights.
With that they relied pretty heavily on their goaltender to get them a point, and Markstrom was ready for that challenge taking a doughnut all the way to overtime before ironically a gaff of his own ended the game and his chance to tie Miikka Kiprusoff for the all time shut out record.
He’ll be hard on himself for the “whiff” but the Flames don’t get a point in this one if Markstrom doesn’t carry them as far as he did.
At the other end Tokarski was excellent as well, making two huge saves … one on Jarnkrok and another on Tanev, but he didn’t see the same volume of work.
Jarnkrok Debut
I thought Calle Jarnkrok was pretty much as advertised.
A plucky slightly undersized forward who was in firmly in the fabric of the game. I noticed him in on the forecheck and finishing every check. Looked like that could be a pretty good line once he gets acclimatized both to the system, and to his linemates.
He came a whisker from scoring the game winner when he was set up by Andrew Mangiapane in the second period. Often when a goaltender makes a save like that you bemoan the fact that the player only had to get the puck up to score the goal, but in this case Jarnkrok played it perfectly, but the goaltender played it even better.
Time to Stop the Lewis Experiment?
Creating a shut down line with Trevor Lewis is a thing. He’s a decorated veteran and a guy that is important to the head coach on a nightly basis.
But do Blake Coleman and Mikael Backlund really need Lewis to shut things down? And is Trevor Lewis helping those two players generate offence?
Seems to me it’s effectively neutralizing a line that could generate more offence, especially now that they can use three strong lines to create waves off pressure five on five.
Only the players and the coaches know the need inside the dressing room for experience and leadership; what it does before games in the room, and during games on the bench.
But it’s pretty clear what it’s doing on the ice; and that’s effectively handicapping the second line.
Special Teams
The Flames got their only powerplay right off the hop, and didn’t do a thing with it.
The Sabres got three chances, but ran firmly into what’s becoming the best penalty kill in the NHL as they were kept to the outside, or chasing pucks back to their own end.
Edge to the Flames on special teams.
Standings and Record
The Flames pick up a point and now have 82 points in 61 games to pace the Pacific Division. They have an eight point lead on the Kings with two games in hand, and ten points on the Oilers with even games.
Calgary has a 13 point lead over the first team on the outside looking in.
If the Flames finish the season at .500 they’ll have 103 points on the year, meaning the Kings would have to go 14-5-0 to best them.
Counting Stats
Shots: Flames 24 Sabres 34
Face Offs: Flames 51% / Sabres 49%
Powerplay: Flames 0-1 / Sabres 0-3
Fancy Stats
Despite clearly not bringing their A game on the night, the Flames did compete, and with that were seen in the underlying numbers on the night. Five on five the Flames had 55% of the shot attempts with period splits of 55%/52% and 55% respectively. In terms of five on five expected goals, the Flames had 56%, and for high danger scoring chances the Flames had 41%, with a 7-10 split. As I said earlier, Jacob Markstrom had to be really good.
In all situations the Flames had 50% of the shot attempts, 52% of the expected goals, and 40% of the high danger splits, with the Sabres having three times the powerplay time.
The Flames were lead individually by Oliver Kylington who had 70% of the five on five shot attempts when he was on the ice. Three players were in the 60s; Chris Tanev, Milan Lucic and Sean Monahan. Seven players were under water and in the 40s; Nah Hanifin, Blake Coleman, Mikael Backlund, Trevor Lewis, Erik Gudbranson, Nikita Zadorov and Rasmus Andersson.
