Calgary Puck

Hockey is such a game of inches, margins and razor thin differences between wins and losses; modern parity in the NHL.

Before the game, Minny coach Bruce Boudreau remarked there isn’t much difference between a rut and a groove, which is both smart and witty.

The Flames have found some wins this season in games where they haven’t necessarily been deserving, but tonight they turned the tables on themselves and found a way to lose a game that they likely deserved a better fate in dropping a 4-2 decision to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night.

So mark one down for the process tonight without the result, likely a positive step towards where this team wants to be when the season winds down in 6 months.
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Rest is great. You get to nurse minor injuries, work on details, polish up special teams, get your old guy into shape, and pretty much refine every nuance of a club’s game.

But then you have to play again.

The Flames took a long time to find their legs tonight as the Hurricanes dominated in what was a flattering 2-1 final score at the Saddledome on Thursday night, sweeping Alberta much like the Senators did last week, though in less spectacular fashion.
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Would be pretty hard to blame a 16 penalty weekend on Dennis Wideman, as the former defenseman is either retired or still looking for gainful employment.

But what a weekend it was for a Calgary team either very late to the adjustment phase of some new call protocols, or very unlucky to be on the wrong side of a lot of subjective views on modern NHL penalties.

Take your hats off to the penalty kill tonight in Vancouver however, as the Flames weathered a first period storm to eventually pull away on the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night, winning by a 5-2 margin and running their season record to 4-2-0.
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Well they got that out of their system, didn’t they?

The Flames, off to a 3-1-0 start have certainly had their share of bounces or at very least Houdini like escapes from danger on the backs of goaltender Mike Smith. Tonight they got fed a very healthy dose of payback as the club was largely the better of the two teams through 30 minutes bu trailed 1-0 before running off five straight minor penalties and falling by a score of 6-0 to the visiting Ottawa Senators.

Luck, both good and bad tends to even out over the course of an 82 game season, perhaps they made a deposit or six in the old bank account for future use. One can only hope.
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One of the turning points late last season was the Drew Doughty / Matthew Tkachuk conflict in the teams 3rd and 2nd last meetings.

The elbow of Matthew Tkachuk made headlines, garnered him a two games suspension, and sort of sapped the life out of him for the rest of the regular season and playoffs; he just was never the same.

And so it was fitting that Tkachuk scored twice to pace the Flames in Doughty’s barn early in the 2017-18 season to help pace the Flames to a come from behind 4-3 overtime victory in Los Angeles on Wednesday night. The win allowed the Flames to sweep Southern California on a brief two game road trip, but also hand the Kings their first loss of the young season as the Flames run their streak to three straight games as they lay aim at Vegas? at the top of the Pacific standings.

Oh and a legend suited up for the Flames, and looked pretty damn good on some board cycle shifts with his new linemates Sam Bennett and Kris Versteeg. More on that later.
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