Game Takes: Flames 2 Wild 0

December 6th, 2018 | Posted in Game Takes | By: D'Arcy McGrath

Good teams win games many different ways.

Sometimes it’s a jump ball and a last one to shoot wins. Sometimes it’s a special teams battle. Sometimes it’s a grind fest with little by way of scoring chances and highlight reel action.

Tonight the Flames ran their win streak to four straight games, points in six straight, but outlasting the Minnesota Wild to the tune of 2-0 on the strength of a Elias Lindholm hat trick … ok one of them didn’t count but you get the point.

The win moves the Flames to 18-9-2 and the best start in almost a quarter century in Calgary making GM Brad Treliving look somewhat brilliant with the current head coach and depth at all positions.

Merry Christmas!

Line Up Changes

Often times I get it. The masses always want youth in the lineup over veterans or physical players, while I tend to buck the trend and actually place value on intangibles like experience, personality and the ability to defend teammates when you go to war. The battle over the enforcer is all but lost, there just doesn’t seem to be a place in the game for a player with such a limited role, but there is a need for guys with energy and ability to drop the gloves if need be.

But Ryan Lomberg?

He isn’t very fast, he has next to no puck skills, he’s not a grizzled vet with all kinds of wisdom to dump on his teammates. He isn’t great in his own zone and doesn’t get around quickly enough to be a huge factor physically. So why is he in the lineup over Austin Czarnik who actually scored two nights ago in Columbus? I haven’t been a huge Czarnik defender this year as his games have been mostly vanilla, but with the other option being Lomberg I don’t get it.

The other changes I do get. Dalton Prout back out for Oliver Kylington adding some speed and panache back to the blueline. And Mike Smith starts after mopping up after an iffy David Rittich start against the Jackets.

Pacific Rising

A lot of shade was sent the Pacific’s way as little as a couple of weeks ago given the collective malaise that ensconced the division’s seven charter clubs. But in recent weeks five of the seven teams in the division have been rolling moving the group closer to the other divisions in key categories.

In terms of win percentage the Pacific sat at .524 coming into games tonight, just back of the Metropolitan at .530 (Atlantic .596 and Central .575).

However if you look at the number of teams above .500 in each division the Pacific now has 6 teams, tying them with the Metropolitan and ahead of both the Central and Atlantic. The Kings and Canucks records are really pulling the group down.

Also means the Flames had better keep winning as the easy trip to the playoffs may not be as easy as it looked ten days ago.

Mangia-Poste

The kid can play.

Now he’s hit iron in two of three games this year and had another chance in the game. That’s all fine and good, but the big thing for me is the separation factor from being a small player. Johnny Gaudreau has elite hand and feet skills. Perhaps never seen before hand and feet skills. It allows him to dispel the small guy myth and be a consistent top ten player in the National Hockey League.

Andrew Mangiapane has a low centre of gravity that makes his height almost irrelevant. He wins board battles. When you think of small players you assume the biggest exposure is in puck up for grabs plays and getting out muscled, but he wins most of them.

He should stay.

Smith Confidence

That was a weird start for Mike Smith, and I think over a pint or two he’d admit it.

A high save count despite not really ever feeling in danger. A first period where he seemed to fight the puck but got the job done pushing the game to the second. Then he settles down and starts to look like Mike Smith from last year. He’s square to the puck. He’s tall and not doing that odd Trevor Kidd skates inside the net saves that make us all nervous. And then finally he’s moving forward in the paint and looking like he knows what he’s doing.

He doesn’t have a think fan base these days, but give the guy credit that was pretty impressive. And more importantly, it’s a huge issue for the Flames. If this guy is back the Flames have a decidedly less dicey goaltending situation.

Third Line Emerging

Please Bill Peters … please … leave the third line alone.

You did the right thing by promoting Mark Jankowski from the third line to the fourth line. I’ll be the first to admit that Derek Ryan has been doing a lot of the little things right in the last month and has value, but Jankowski is your best bet to compliment the surge by Andrew Mangiapane and get James Neal going.

As a trio they seem to have the right ingredients to do some damage if they’re left to build some chemistry. The lanky pivot in Jankowski to take the line, the crafty hands guy for the board work in Mangiapane and then a big league shooter in James Neal.

The line finished first, second and fourth in terms of shot attempt splits tonight.

Walk with Elias

I’ve avoided the trade evaluation for the most part this season because I’m old. I’m old and I’m battered and I know that things swing. If you jump in two weeks into the season and call a trade a win one way or the other you’re bound to look foolish a week or two later when things swing the other way completely.

This trade was always about control.

The Flames traded an unhappy player (walked out of team meetings at the end of the year) with three years left on his contract, another player with one year left on his deal, and a prospect that had indicated to one degree or another that he wouldn’t sign … or zero. 3+1+0

The received two RFA players that were both signed to six year deals. 6+6

3+1+0 < 6+6

Add in the fact that Elias Lindholm has “popped” to a huge degree heading for career numbers before Christmas and that Noah Hanifin is happily at home on the second pairing with Travis Hamonic giving the team almost two top pairings.

I defended this deal all summer as a smart contract move with the chance of a pop on the ice. The pop is easy to perceive and measurable.

Backlund Hit

It wasn’t late, but it was certainly high.

It will be interesting to see what the NHL does with a high hit and a suspicious change with Ryan Lomberg coming on to avenge Backlund despite his unlikely placement as a defender of a two goal lead with less than a minute to play.

Hopefully Backlund is ok, that’t the bottom line but his leaving the ice and heading straight to the room isn’t a good sign.

Standings Implications

The Flames move to an impressive 18-9-2 for 38 points in 30 games, three point up on the Ducks with a game in hand, and five points up on the Sharks with even games played. The fourth place team the Knights are five points back but the Flames have a game in hand. The Oilers are eight back but have a game in hand.

The idea two weeks ago was that you had to have a spot in the Pacific because both wild card spots were going to the central, but don’t look now .. the Knights now have the second wild card spot.

Fancy Stats

Very odd game when it came to data gathering. The Flames seemed to me to be in control for the most part but they were out shot all night. High danger chances for both teams were sparse despite seeing a lot of what I would call blue chip chances.

The five on five metrics recorded the Wild at 38-37 victors, 50.7%. In terms of scoring chances the Wild had 54%, and in terms of five on five high danger chances the teams were tied at a season low 3-3. 3-3? Seriously? Not sure that’s what I saw.

In all situations shot attempts were 50/50, scoring chances were 22-18 Wild, and high danger chances were 6-5 Minnesota.

Individually, the third line rule the roost with Mangiapane leading the way at 78%, Mark Jankowski following up at 76% and James Neal posting 68%. Mark Giordano (69%) and TJ Brodie 67% also had great nights. The first line was right behind, all slotted between 58% and 60%. At the other end, Derek Ryan posted a 0%, that’s not easy to do, followed by Ryan Lomberg at 8% and Garnet Hathaway at 18%. Yikes.

 



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