That’s three in a row for the Flames.
They’re a wagon!
Ok, maybe that’s a stretch, but the Flames had a bit of flex in Anaheim as they ran the show from coast to coast cinching a pretty straight forward road victory in a building that used to be their nightmare.
The Flames got goals from Nick DeSimone (his NHL first), Elias Lindholm and AJ Greer into the empty net, and a shut out from Jacob Markstrom.
They now sit a point out of the playoffs with other teams having games in hand.
The Lineup
Zero change for the Flames tonight.
Same forward trios, same defensive duos, same twine minder.
No change up front; Elias Lindholm with Andrew Mangiapane and Yegor Sharangovich, Nazem Kadri with Connor Zary and Martin Pospisil, Mikael Backlund with Jonathan Huberdeau and Blake Coleman, and finally Adam Ruzicka between AJ Greer and Dillon Dube.
One the blueline it’s Tanev back with Noah Hanifin, Mackenzie Weegar with Rasmus Andersson and finally Dennis Gilbert with Nick DeSimone.
Jacob Markstrom in net for the second straight game.
Line Metrics Coming In
xGF%
Mangiapane – Lindholm – Sharangovich 48.4%
Huberdeau – Backlund – Coleman 49.7%
Zary – Kadri – Pospisil 64.9%
Greer – Ruzicka – Dube 43.3%
Weegar – Andersson 48.7%
Hanifin – Tanev 58.0%
Gilbert – DeSimone 67.6%
Goals Saved + Avg
Markstrom +4.3
Vladar -4.6
Wolf -5.2
Trend Tracker
Lets talk a little PDO.
The Vancouver Canucks are still the run away leader in all the situations PDO with 104.92. The next closest is Winnipeg and Boston with 102.8 on average. That’s a pretty incredulous two point lead this late in the season.
Player PDO for the Flames …
Luckiest players?
Martin Pospisil and Connor Zary at 103.8 and 103.0. Pospisil is doing it largely on a team high goalie save percentage .9626; the next closest player is Walker Duehr at .9310. Connor Zary has a team high on ice shooting percentage of 12.3%.
Only five players are positive in PDO on the roster. Rasmus Andersson and Noah Hanifin are the other two.
Unluckiest regular is Yegor Sharangovich with a PDO of .934, or .065% below the average NHL hockey player. He’s had the team worst save percentage at .8470.
Jonathan Huberdeau is the second unluckiest regular, maybe a good sign for the struggling player?
Markstrom Start
Giving up zero is good right?
Jacob Markstrom was absolutely solid when called on in the first half of the game, but then the Flames really buttoned things down and he didn’t see a lot of action.
27 shot shut out with an expected goals of 1.82.
Calgary’s best player this season continues to be their best player.
Helps his teammates back to .500.
Zary Something Out of Nothing
I’ve said it before, but may as well say it again. Connor Zary is the Flames most creative player.
He can literally make something out of nothing, pretty much on his own.
No doubt the Duck’s goalie Dostal just flubbed the DeSimone shot, but that doesn’t take away from Zary taking the line, protecting the puck, and killing time waiting for teammates before threading a puck through to DeSimone.
So impressive.
DeSimone With His first
Speaking of Nick DeSimone, said goal was his first in his National Hockey League career.
At age 29.
Talk about sticking with it. Years in the San Jose organization without a single look. Played 4 games for the Flames last season, and now 12 this year.
Tough to keep riding those buses when things don’t look like they’re ever going to come your way.
Game Flow
Flames not playing down to their opponent (not that they’re all that far above anyway), as they come out and get to it early pushing the play up the ice and creating zone time behind the Ducks’ blueline. The Flames open the scoring when Connor Zary drags out a line change attack, waiting for teammates and then finding Nick DeSimone at the blueline who’s shot eludes Dostal. Calgary has a powerplay come up empty (no surprise there), though they had a few chances. Ducks likely the better team in the second of the period, though the Flames don’t give up much.
Quite the second period for the visitors as they took it to the Ducks early and late in running up 24 second period shots and adding to their lead. Calgary looked good both killing penalties and on the powerplay and if not for a lack of finish would have pretty much finished the game after two periods. The Flames had an expected goal split of 4.40 to 1.95 through two periods. That’s fierce.
Third period tidy as hell. The Flames with a two goal lead kept it simple … pucks in / pucks out, you know the script, but they followed it well. Not a lot towards Jacob Markstrom at all as they steer it home. Calgary puts it away with an empty netter when AJ Greer took a pass from Elias Lindholm. Solid game overall for the Flames as they get back to .500.
Odds and Sods
Such a different feeling from the “you can’t win here!” days in the Honda Center. Saw that on TV about 35 times and felt it live once as well. It was such a helpless feeling when Calgary played Anaheim. … Ducks, when they where their conventional uniforms, to me, have one of the worst kits in the National Hockey League. Just butt ugly. … Has anyone seen Adam Ruzicka? Getting worried about him, haven’t seen him in weeks. (hit the post tonight of course) … Rough first period for Mackenzie Weegar. Takes a puck in the laces and leaves the bench to go to the room. Then comes back and tries to stand up Leason in the neutral zone but gets sat down, taking the brunt of the collision. … Another penalty for getting his stick in the hands of an opponent for Andre Mangiapane. Needs to find a way to change that part of his game. You want him tenacious but he can’t take penalties. … Not sure I’ve ever seen a defense pair collide in the neutral zone with both players dropping their sticks. That’s chaos! … Hate to see that Karlsson injury in the second with Mackenzie Weegar falling on his leg. Unlucky and unfortunate.
Special Teams
Yes Virginia there is a powerplay.
Well maybe that’s a stretch, but they scored a powerplay goal, so that’s a start!
The Flames were afforded seven opportunities including a 33 second two man advantage and a double minor and only scored one goal.
It’s a start right?
Standings and Record
The Flames win their third in a row and pull to within a point of the final wildcard spot.
They’re tracking the St. Louis Blues who have two games in hand.
The Flames are three games back of the wild card spot in terms of games over .500.
Still have some work to do, but it’s getting a little more possible.
Counting Stats
Shots: Flames 44 Ducks 27
Face Offs: Flames 50% / Ducks 50%
Powerplay: Flames 1-7 / Ducks 0-4
Fancy Stats
All Calgary all the way through this one. The Flames were dominant five on five, up a man, down a man … it was men against boys. Five on five the Flames had 54% of the shot attempts with period splits of 57%/44% and 67% respectively. In terms of five on five expected goals, the Flames had 53%, and for high danger scoring chances the Flames had 54%, with a 7-6 split.
In all situations the Flames had 56% of the shot attempts, 76% of the expected goals, and 75% of the high danger splits. The all situations expected goal totals came out at 5.78 to 1.82.
Individually the Flames were led by AJ Greer posting a xGF% of 86% on the night five on five. He was joined in the 80s by Mikael Backlund and Dillon Dube. Blake Coleman, Martin Pospisil, Jonathan Huberdeau and Adam Ruzicka were in the 70s. At the bottom of the pile Yegor Sharangovich had 2% expected goals. Yikes that’s quite a night. Andrew Mangiapane was at 5%.
