It’s amazing just how much can change in just four days.
Four days ago the Flames were heading into a matinee game (never a good sign) with the stink of a 9-1 shellacking by the Pittsburgh Penguins heavy on the team’s psyche. It felt like things were falling apart.
Fast forward to tonight and it’s a comeback point against the Capitals, a convincing win in Toronto and a late tying come from behind win in Buffalo to give the Flames points in three straight games, and move the club two games over .500.
A game tying goal by Matthew Tkachuk with less than a minute to play got the Flames a point, his late penalty looked to almost assure that they’d only get the one before the Flames overtime trio went to work and Gaudreau finished things on a two on one.
Phew.
Line Up Changes
Unless you count the goaltender, the Flames went with the exact same lineup in Buffalo tonight as they did last night in their game against Toronto.
This is somewhat surprising, not due to results with the Leaf win being probably the club’s most complete of the season, but in terms of back to back games. Usually NHL coaches will bring in two guys that didn’t play the night before to add some “legs” to the roster. Not this time.
Also somewhat surprising that there wasn’t a change on the blueline. Michael Stone sitting out three straight games is somewhat unexpected, the veteran has played well this year. Additionally, last night was one of Jusso Valimaki’s more difficult skates of the season and perhaps a night to watch would have been warranted; the catch of course being Valimaki shooting left and Stone shooting right.
The Why in Leaking Chances
Was interesting to see Bill Peters comments about the defensive work of his team last night in Toronto.
For weeks I’ve been scratching my head as to the team’s loose play in their own zone, wondering how much of it was structure, how much of it was performance, and how much of it was a room not either understanding or dialling in.
We can scratch structure from the list.
“If our group can wrap their head around the fact we’ve gotta check and check for our chances and be proud of the way we played in our D-zone, I think we have a chance to be real good,” Peters said.
“We’re learning how to manage the puck, taking some of the risk out of our game, and if we continue to do that, we can have a good team by the time it’s all said and done.”
And there you have it. A pretty clearly frustrated coach that has had trouble getting his skilled forwards to play both directions thus far on the season.
Last night they backchecked hard, creating enough back pressure to allow their defensemen brothers the ability to step up and challenge, something Nazem Kadri alluded in post game comments.
I was so curious to see if even a semblance of that would carry over to the Buffalo game.
Tonight they were good again, maybe a little shakier than the Toronto start but they gave up exactly eight five on five high danger chances again, matching their season best set the night before.
Rittich Back
Game number 13, the final game for the Flames in October, and start number four for David Rittich. That works out to a 57/25 work load for the two goaltenders over the course of the season, and a good situation.
The Flames have been cursed/blessed with a slow starting Mike Smith this season, which has given rise to a quicker emerging Rittich and maybe a better story to tell near the end of the season with the starter not warn out.
Coming in Rittich was 3/3 in quality starts, with wins in Colorado and New York and a loss in Montreal where he was utterly abandoned by his teammates.
Tonight his only blemish was on a great shot by Jack Eichel that would have beaten almost anyone. Do the Flames have two goaltenders going?
Sam Bennett Jam
Haven’t mentioned Sam Bennett in a week or so, but his play really hasn’t waned. A goal post in Toronto last night naturally, and tonight his board work drew two penalties while similar plays kept cycles going and created scoring chances.
The longer this goes the more likely it is to stay, which is such a good sign for the Flames and their forward depth. Last year there was an assumption that Bennett and Mark Jankowski would be the third wave of scoring and it really didn’t happen. This year they went out and added depth so getting some help from the two now is further competition for ice.
The other slight on Bennett in recent season was too many penalties. This year through 13 games he has only taken four, and if he’s credited with a penalty drawn tonight he will be even on the season.
Fancy Stats
The Flames really carried the play from late in the first period, pretty much to the end. They had 55% of the shot attempts on period splits of 45% / 56% and 63%. In terms of scoring chances the Flames had 54% with a count of 21-16, but only 47% of the high danger chances five on five (7-8).
In all situations the Flames had 57% of the shot attempts, 55% of the scoring chances and 52% of the high danger chances.
Individually, the team was more spit than you usually see in a game where one team carries the play. Four players sat at the top with 67% of shot attempts including Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau who for the third straight game have really cleaned things up defensively, and Noah Hanifin who has been reborn with the return of Travis Hamonic, and Derek Ryan who did the same split with almost no play events at all. At the bottom of the pile was Mark Jankowski and Garnet Hathaway who were both sub 40% of the night.
Standings Watch
First place in the Pacific?
All depends on how you look at it. With the Oilers and Sharks still playing and ignoring games played the Flames are the only team with 15 points and sitting at the top at the end of their game tonight. More logically the Sharks and Oilers are both three games over .500 and have a chance to go to four tonight and would overtake the Flames, who would grab third in the division.
