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.
The Flow
The Flames carried on where they left of last night taking penalty after penalty after penalty in the first period, I should actually add one more after penalty. They killed off the first one with some good saves from Mike Smith, and then got themselves down two men but were very strong in keeping the Canucks to the outside. Towards the end of the two man advantage Mark Giordano broke the puck out on a three on one, joined by Freddie Hamilton coming out of the box with Giordano finishing it off for a 1-0 Calgary short handed goal. Right afterwards the Flames take another penalty this one to Johnny Gaudreau for covering the puck with his hand after he inexplicably fell down twice on a breakaway. They kill that one off as well, but then take another when Sam Bennett takes down a Canuck in the crease looking for a rebound. On this one they don’t wiggle free as a rebound deflects off of Dougie Hamilton and past Smith to tie the game late in the first; 1-1 after one.
Much better second period by the Flames as they at least slow the rush to the penalty box and get back to playing a solid five on five game. The Flames did get tagged with their second straight face off violation penalty early in the period, negating what would have been the team’s first powerplay. The Flames get another penalty creating a four on three where the Canucks fail to generate a shot. The Flames go ahead 2-1 when Travis Hamonic pounces on a loose puck coming out of a melee to the side of Markstrom where Gaudreau had lost his stick. Towards the end of the period Sean Monahan wins a face off back to Dougie Hamilton who has his shot bounce off of Monahan and past Markstrom though the goal was later changed to Hamilton, his first of two on the night. Either way with the goal it’s 3-1 Flames through two periods.
The Flames did a great job of putting the game on ice in the third period, scoring two more times to skate away with a 5-2 victory, avenging a nasty loss last night to the Senators. The Flames make it 4-1 when Johnny Gaudreau and Jaromir Jagr play give and go (how cool does that look?) resulting in a Gaudreau goal off of a Vancouver skate. Nine seconds later the Flames get caught on a nasty change leaving Brock Boesler with a wrister past Smith to make it a two goal game again. The Flames round things out when Dougie Hamilton beats Markstrom to make it 5-2 essentially putting the game away.
Possession Stats
1st Period – Vancouver had the edge in five on five shot attempts in the first period with a 18-8 margin, scoring chances at 6-0 which I guess assumes that Mark Giordano’s goal came on something less than a scoring chance.
2nd Period – The Flames bounced back in the second and held a 14-6 edge in shot attempts, scoring chances at 6-2 for the Flames.
3rd Period – The Canucks had a 17-4 edge five on five in shot attempts, but a closer 21-15 in all situations in the third. Scoring chances were 2-2.
Players – Lose 6-0 and have only two players under 50% in corsi events, win 5-2 and have only two players over 50% in corsi events; logical weekend. The fun news of the stat was Jagr at the top at 59% as the wily vet controlled the boards and avoided trouble in his own zone. A total of ten Flames players finished under 40% led by Curtis Lazar at 22%.
Three Stars
1. Dougie Hamilton: Two goals to pace the Flames, though I still think his first goal hit Sean Monahan.
2. Mark Giordano : Scores his 100th career NHL goal shorthanded and was a beast on the penalty kill all night.
3. Mike Smith: Great bounce back game for the Flames goaltender, continues to prove Brad Treliving may no what he’s doing.
Big Save
In the second period Mikael Backlund turned the puck over in the neutral zone sending the puck the other way and giving Vancouver rookie Brock Boesler a great chance in on Mike Smith. Smith flashed his glove hand and snared the labelled shot though, keeping the Flames up by one.
The Heel
Jacob Markstom was brutal tonight. He posted a .815 save percentage and was beaten by iffy shots on at least two occasions. Rebuilding teams can’t go far on average goaltending, and that was below average.
Mr. Clutch
Travis Hamonic scored his first goal in Flames colours tonight, and continued his strong play in freeing up TJ Brodie, completely changing the Flames attack from teh back end. Really looking forward to the chemistry evolving even further between these two.
Odds and Ends
The Flames made some changes to the bottom half of their roster with Tanner Glass coming in for Micheal Ferland who is day to day with a lower body injury, and Freddie Hamilton centering the fourth line in place of Matt Stajan. Mike Smith was back in the cage to start the game despite getting pulled the night before giving up 5 goals on 22 shots.
Great to see both Travis Hamonic’s first goal and Jaromir Jagr’s first point in Flames colours. Jagr is now within 54 games of the NHL all time list for games played, but better to get that odometer rolling with some production as well.
The biggest thing tonight however was clearly the two points, as a back to back loss this weekend would have certainly wiped out the SoCal sweep earlier this week. Instead you will wake to a 4-2 Flames club looking good in an environment that has the Oilers losing three straight games and sitting at 1-3. Streaks to the positive are great, but you have to limit the losing streaks to avoid a late season battle for a playoff spot.
Loved the move of Glen Gulutzan to go back to Mike Smith tonight. He may have given up five goals to Ottawa last night, but other than maybe the 5th goal I wouldn’t fault him on any of them. Showing some confidence in giving him the net was the right thing to do early in a pretty big season.
Don’t know what to say on this new face off rule, and the number of guys being thrown out. I wonder how long it will take to see NHL coaches trying to scheme this thing into an advantage. With the Flames taking face off penalties in back to back games it’s starting to look like there may be an advantage to delaying getting set and letting the opponent take the toss out, giving you a huge advantage when their second guy comes in worried about taking a penalty.
Next Up
The Flames get four straight days without games after tonight’s game. Not playing again on Thursday night at the Dome against Carolina at 7pm on SPortsnet.
Lines:
Tkachuk – Backlund – Frolik
Versteeg – Monahan – Lazar
Gaudreau – Bennett – Jagr
Glass – Hamilton – Brouwer
Giordano – Hamilton
Brodie – Hamonic
Bartkowski – Stone
Smith
