Talk about Jekyll and Hyde.
For the second straight game on this three game road trip the Calgary Flames came out in a first period as a confused, disoriented, discombobulated mess. The St. Louis debacle they almost survived as Mike Smith turned aside three quick chances before the Blues finally broke through. Tonight it was 2-0 Colorado before the game was even three minutes old.
The Flames didn’t quit though, out shooting the Avalanche 31-9 in the last 30 minutes of regulation and the overtime, tying the game late on another Elias Lindholm goal, and then winning it in overtime when Sean Monahan sprung Johnny Gaudreau.
Not for the feint of heart.
Rittich First Start
Years ago it didn’t matter who they put in net when Miikka Kiprusoff took a night off; it didn’t work out well.
Part of the problem was the quality of goaltenders in that era as the Flames simply couldn’t find a competent backup to save their lives. Joey McDonald, Henrik Karlsson, Vesa Toskala, Jamie McLennan, Matt Keetley and Curtis McElhinney may not have been the greatest of goaltenders, but the Flames for whatever reason played just horrible when a lesser goaltender could really have used them at their best.
So tonight it felt like more of the same as the team gave up two goals and four quality chances in the first five minutes to welcome the backup to his season.
Roster Changes
Sure interesting to watch Bill Peters use his depth from game to game as he inserts players from game to game. Tonight he shook up the rookie defense pairing putting Michael Stone with Jusso Valimaki and Noah Hanifin with Rasmus Andersson and it seemed to have a calming effect.
Up front he sat Anthony Peloso and Michael Frolik, likely for his two stick fouls against the Blues, inserting Mark Jankowski and Garnet Hathaway.
Peters Time Out
A lot of fans felt one of Glen Gulutzan’s biggest short points was his infrequent use of time outs to settle down a hockey team that often got shook and lost games entirely.
Bill Peters doesn’t look to have the same philosophy. We saw one used early in St. Louis and we saw it again tonight after the Avalanche scored their second goal.
I wouldn’t say the Flames were good after the suspension of play, but they did settle in a bit and find their game again.
The Change Up
The Flames stymied their death spiral with the Peters’ time out, but they launched their comeback with a Peters’ shuffle midway through the second period.
Through the early part of the season we’ve seen the man not afraid to juggle his forward lines when things didn’t seem to be rolling out for his club.
Tonight he moved Matthew Tkachuk up with Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau and they dominated. But the biggest find was a revamped second line with Mikael Backlund centering James Neal and the suddenly resurgent Sam Bennett. Both lines were instrumental in bringing the team back from the two goal deficit.
Once again all these forwards certainly provide options.
Tough First For Brodie
Yikes tough start for TJ Brodie tonight.
The first goal just 12 seconds in where he lost his man Nathan McKinnon, though a Sean Monahan giveaway and a big David Rittich rebound were also culpable.
A few minutes later a bouncing puck at center ice goes by him resulting in a JT Compeer goal and a quick 2-0 lead.
Later in the period he tipped a puck that went off a goal post behind Rittich.
Good start to the season for Brodie, but he gave some of that back in the first 20 minutes tonight.
Oh and he did steal the puck in overtime creating the Gaudreau goal, so it wasn’t a complete loss for Brodie. His night ended -1 with 24+ minutes of ice time.
Monahan Iron
A bit of bad luck from Sean Monahan on this trip, as he’s fired hard shots off the iron in back to back games in St. Louis and Colorado.
Those go in and his start is really suggesting 40 is quite possible this season, but all in all you want snipers hitting posts because you know they’re within a whisker of perfection, as opposed to firing wide or hitting goaltenders right in the crest.
Landeskog at it Again
Simply a brutal hit by Gabriel Landeskog on Rasmus Andersson in the second period, the Colorado captain hitting the defender from behind, his head going into the dasher.
Kind of a repeat performance for Landeskog, as he was suspended for a cross check on Matthew Tkachuk in a game in Denver last season.
You’d think Swedes would have some sort of club within the league.
First Unit Powerplay
Not sure if it’s by design, by chance or personal decisions, but the first unit powerplay is simply killing itself with Gaudreau being the primary shooter. His shot isn’t hard enough to beat NHL goaltenders that are square to him, and his shtick is to hesitate to give them more time and take the puck to a wider angle which really hurts his chances.
Not many players better at setting up teammates or dangling through opposition players, but the shot shouldn’t be on his stick.
Have We Talked About Sam Bennett Lately?
With the game 2-0 in the second Sam Bennett was a pretty big straw stirring a pretty stale drink when he started hitting Avalanche defenders and then scored the team’s first goal changing the game’s complexion.
He led his teammates in shot attempt splits at 80%, and hits with four and finally had a goal that wasn’t disallowed.
It will be interesting to see what they do with the lines when the team returns to Calgary, Bennett sure seemed to be a fit with Backlund and Neal on that second line.
Fancy Stats
Score effects with the team down 2-0 for sure again tonight, but this one was almost like two games were played. At the nine minute mark of the second period the Avalanche were +9 in shot attempts and looked to be running away with the game. David Rittich makes some big saves on a Colorado powerplay and then the game changes with the Flames ending +24 (55-31) for 64% five on five shot attempts by the end of the game with period splits of 43%/74%/83%. Scoring chances were 61% Flames, and the high danger chances were 61% Flames as well.
In all situations the Flames had 64% of the shot attempts, 61% of the scoring chances and 54% of the high danger chances.
Individually the Flames were led by Sam Bennett at 80%, followed by James Neal, the new Valimaki/Stone pairing and Mikael Backlund who were all over the 70% mark. Only Noah Hanifin was under water at 46%.
