When writing a game story, you’re always looking for that theme, that hook, the angle that sort of describes that key meaning to a hockey game.
Off the hop tonight the table was set around the idea that this was a great opportunity to see where the Flames are, and how far they’ve come in this young season against last year’s top NHL club in the Washington Capitals. Piling up three straight wins is nice, but can you do it again against a top club playing at the top of their game, something that may not have been the case last week in visits to Chicago and St. Louis.
Initially the answer was a resounding no, as the Capitals piled all over the Flames and had a first period that suggested the night might be a rout with Calgary fans feeling spooky about a lot more than tomorrow night’s hijinks. The Flames pushed back though and played a solid final 45 minutes in this one, almost pulling out the come back in a respectful 3-1 loss on Sunday night.
The Flow
The Capitals came out and iced a clinic of a first period tonight, putting the Flames on their heels and fully deserving the game’s first two goals. Their first came when both Dennis Wideman and Matt Stajan failed to pick up their man in the slot and Brett Connolly made them pay when he took the pass and blasted it by a startled Brian Elliott. A few minutes later the Capitals head to the powerplay and made quick work of the Flames with Alex Ovechkin whipping a hard pass to the slot, which was deftly tipped by Marcus Johansson, 2-0 Capitals. The Flames brought the game closer when Matthew Tkachuk got in on Schmidt, forcing a cough up to Mikael Backlund who wired it past Holtby to make it 2-1. The goal had some controversy as Tkachuk knocked Schmidt off his skates while heading to the net.
The second period had zip for goals scored, but it did feature the Flames settling down and playing a much better form of hockey. Both teams exchanged chances in the period, but both Elliott and Holtby were equal to the task. Johnny Gaudreau had the most electric play of the period when he picked up the puck at his own blueline and burned through three Caps before offing the puck to Chiasson who couldn’t steer it into the cage as he went behind the net. Flames back on their feet but still trailing, 2-1 through two periods. Shots 21-14 Washington.
The Flames were the better team in the third period, or were they? Yes they carried the play, but the Capitals, a veteran bunch, threw a net over their hosts and shut things down, propelling themselves towards back to back night victories in Western Canada. The Flames had their chances though, specifically Ferland on a TJ Brodie rush, Troy Brouwer on a set up from Kris Versteeg and then with the goalie pulled back to back slappers from the point that found their way wide.
1. Braden Holtby:The man that showed a lot of class in taking a backseat in the recent World Cup for Canada wasn’t tested all that often, only facing 22 shots, but there were some high danger chances that he was equal to in picking up the win.
2. Brian Elliott: Just love this guy’s play over the past 4 games. Tonight he had zero chance on the two pucks that beat him, and was solid in making sure he gave his team a chance to pick up some points.
3. Marcus Johansson:Ok one of his two goals was an empty netter gimme, but he did score the game winner on a great tip in front of Elliott.
Big Save
The Flames needed Brian Elliott to be super strong in the first period when their visitors came ready to play and outplayed the Flames badly to kick things off. One of his best came through traffic when he fought his way to the front of the crease to rob defenseman Nate Schmidt with his trapper.
The Goat
Didn’t move Mark Giordano’s choice with the goalie pulled late, the play that led to the empty netter and the finality of a loss, but that’s a long way from calling the man a goat. Really the team showed up and played well, hard to single out any player for causing the team the loss.
Mr. Clutch
Mikael Backlund. Such a consistent player. Tonight he scores the team’s only goal while doing his every game 101 other things right that not many notice outside of the walls of the Flames dressing room. Thinking more and more they may want to start planning on finding room to re-sign him in a few years. Too valuable.
Odds and Ends
Really liked that Glen Gulutzan sat down his three biggest culprits when it comes to either dumb penalties or offensive zone penalties both in the Senators game on Friday, but also in other games in the young season. Sam Bennett has taken an iffy penalty in each of Calgary’s game this season, but Tkachuk holding the stick on Karlsson and Versteeg ripping the stick out of the hands of Ottawa’s Wideman were both silly. Sitting for those discretions certainly sets the bar. … Two calls or non calls in the game had me thinking. Has always bothered me that routine plays sometimes get called when an outcome occurs, though that same infraction would be ignored if it didn’t. The Tkachuk play for example; if Nate Schmidt doesn’t fall down there is no question there wasn’t a penalty on the play. But he does and with that you have an argument. Similarly when a player gets whacked in the stick and it either breaks or he drops it there’s a tendency to call it, like the call against Brouwer in the second. … The Flames certainly did their best to stay out of the penalty box tonight, picking up only two minors; a Derryk Engelland high stick that was a careless play, and then Matt Stajan getting his stick in a visitor’s skates earning a tripping penalty. None of the three aforementioned culprits got themselves in trouble. … Flames were better on face offs against tonight, winning 53% of the draws, led by Sean Monahan and Sam Bennett who were both 67% in the dot. … The game came down to special teams again, a battle the Flames with the exception of two road games have lost consistently this season. Both the powerplay and penalty kill units are in the bottom five of the league, something that simply has to change or this team is going nowhere. Their scoring rate is near the top, their goals against is terrible but with Elliott back to form and the Flames tightening up defensively there are certainly signs of improvement. But the special teams is an anvil that has to get rectified.
Next Up
The Flames are right back to Chicago this week, invading World Series town on Tuesday night to play the Hawks again, this time 6.30pm on Sportnet.
Lines:
Gaudreau – Monahan – Chiasson
Versteeg – Bennett – Brouwer
Tkachuk – Backlund – Frolik
Bouma – Stajan – Ferland
Giordano – Brodie
Jokipakka- Hamilton
Engelland – Wideman
Elliott
