They got a point.
The Flames didn’t generate a whole lot offensively, leaned on Dan Vladar, but still got a point in Detroit with a late Connor Zary goal before dropping the game shorthanded in overtime.
They repeated their discipline issue early, taking three first period penalties and almost lost the game on a 1-0 first period powerplay goal.
The Flames take an overtime penalty for too many men on the ice, and drop the game moving their record on this four game road trip to 0-1-1 through two games.
Next up an emotional game in Columbus against Sean Monahan and the Blue Jackets.
The Lineup
The Flames dropped a game in Ottawa so you’d expect some change. So I’m somewhat surprised that the only change is in goal. With the way the fourth line got filled in in Ottawa I thought we’d see a Adam Klapka appearance certainly. Not the case.
Connor Zary up the middle between Jonathan Huberdeau and Blake Coleman, Nazem Kadri with Andrei Kuzmenko and Martin Pospisil, Mikael Backlund between Yegor Sharangovich and Matt Coronato, and Kevin Rooney with Justin Kirkland and Ryan Lomberg.
One the blueline we see Rasmus Andersson and Kevin Bahl. Mackenzie Weegar with Daniil Miromanov. And Joel Hanley gets back to back games, lining up with Brayden Pachal on the third pairing.
Dan Vladar gets the start, coming off a victory at home against the Minnesota Wild.
Pre Game Stats
Only five forward lines have been together for 50 or more minutes this year, which really speaks to the blender is you take into account that the top nine likely gets 12-14 minutes a night of five on five time.
Of the five trios four are above the break even mark, led by the current fourth line of Kevin Rooney, Justin Kirkland and Ryan Lomberg at 57.1% according to Moneypuck (quite a bit lower if you look at Natural Stat Trick).
If you look at those three players without the other two it’s interesting.
Ryan Lomberg without Rooney and Kirkland is at 41.7%.
Kevin Rooney without Lomberg and Kirkland is at 53.9%.
Justin Kirkland without Lomberg and Rooney is at 26.6%.
Interesting that three players can get it done together, but clearly for 2 of the 3 not with anyone else.
Wranglers Beat
Back to back losses?
That’s exactly what we saw on the weekend as the Wranglers dropped back to back road games in Tucson, moving their record to 13-5-1, and moving into 6th spot in the AHL with a .711 win percentage. They are second in their conference (behind Grand Rapids), and first in their division ahead of Coachella.
They are a very pedestrian 5-4-1 in their last ten.
Hot start levels off, or minor blip in a great AHL season?
We will start to find out when the road trip continues in Manitoba on Friday night.
Vladar’s Start
Simply a great game by Dan Vladar.
Good enough that they may give him the start again in Columbus on Friday afternoon.
Gave up two goals in the game against 2.47 in expected, and was by far the busier of the two goaltenders on the night.
Calgary continues to get A-1 goaltending this season.
Overtime Call
This won’t be popular, but I think it was the right call.
Was it called too tightly against the average cheating line change? Maybe.
But it was pretty flagrant, as Mackenzie Weegar was about 30 feet from the bench when his replacement was on the ice.
I’m good with it.
Odds and Sods
This fixation from the media on face offs for centers is incredulous to me. That’s the last thing I was worried about coaching hockey. Don’t get me wrong, winning draws is a great way to keep control and all that, but I put it well down the list of the parameters in finding someone who can play the center ice position in hockey. It’s almost impossible to teach the own zone reads required to play the position. And then up the ice, can the center catch up and be a part of it after being the deepest forward on the breakout. … The third most frequent face off man on the Flames takes 5-7 draws a game. 40% of those gives you a 2.4 wins game. 50% gives you 3. That’s a half face off. Who cares? [Rant over] …. Huska couldn’t be happy with back to back to back first period penalties by Calgary again. The Coronato call and Huberdeau’s second infraction were no brainers, but that interference call on Huberdeau was a brutal call. He was just standing there when a Red Wing backed into him. … Wasn’t this precisely the type of game you expected from the 2023-24 Calgary Flames before the season began? Work hard, no offensive flow, low scoring. I don’t think the Flames had a single scoring chance off the rush in the game, unless you count that Miromanov partial break that wasn’t really part of a traditional break out. … Love me some Kevin Bahl. Game to game he just keeps getting better. He’s top four in Calgary probably a 5 now across the league, which is a step in itself. But the way he’s developing I don’t think it’s a huge reach to suggest he’s on the cusp of being a league wide 4 soon. … Dan Vladar did nothing to hurt his trade value nor his trade importance in tonight’s game. Such a great bounce back season for the guy. A lot of fans gave up on him. They shouldn’t have. … They showed Weegar taking a shot off his instep which had me thinking; those goofy clear shot blockers that players used to have over their skates seems to be a thing of the past. Now it looks like inserts to the outside of the skate that are less obtrusive, and clearly less easy to break off. … Bit of a tough night for Matt Coronato, and by that I don’t mean he was the worse player on the ice, but not a lot went his way. First period penalty, and then a lot of touches that just didn’t go his way. Pucks not getting out. Turnovers. A lot of shots into the chest.
Fancy Stats
The Flames didn’t generate a whole lot in this one. They were honestly lucky to get a point. Detroit had the higher quality chances and more zone time five on five. The Flames, five on five, had 47% (63%/41%/42%) of the shot attempts, 36% of the high danger chances, and 30% of the expected goals. In all situations they had 51% of the shot attempts, 44% of the high danger chances and 42% of the expected goals.
Individually, the Flames were led by Connor Zary with a xGF% of 68; he might have been the best player on the ice. Only two other players above the break even mark, his linemates; Jonathan Huberdeau and Blake Coleman. The Backlund line was at the back of the bus as all of Mikael Backlund, Matt Coronato and Yegor Sharangovich were under 20%.
