As the saying goes; you can’t win them all.
You’d think you could by the torrid pace the Calgary Flames have been on in the last six weeks, but with an audible thud their most recent string of three wins was brought a close with a shut out loss in Dallas, the same result that ended their five game win streak before that.
The Flames just didn’t have it on this night.
They were thoroughly outplayed through forty minutes, relying on David Rittich and a goal post to keep the game close before a frantic third period attempt to comeback added some drama, but inevitably not the result they were looking for.
The loss concludes the team’s three game road trip with a 2-1-0 record, as they head home to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Saddledome on Thursday; a measuring stick if there ever was one.
Line Up Changes
Some forced change due to injury had the lineup looking very different for the game in Dallas.
In net David Rittich started his third straight, looking to sweep the road trip. On the blueline they went with the seven defenseman look with Dalton Prout inserted (just like the game in Minnesota), but this time due to having nobody else, rather than Prout around to keep peace in a game expected to be dodgy.
Up front Sam Bennett missed his second straight game, and was joined by James Neal who took a puck in the face in St. Louis and couldn’t go.
Getting Thin
With the injuries to James Neal and Sam Bennett; two players that have played a top six role and struggled to produce, but to date have been the team’s best bets to move up, the team looked remarkably more thin that they have in any other game this season.
The two join the other top six fill in … Michael Frolik in sick bay meaning the team was without three of their top nine or ten forwards in the game.
The result was Austin Czarnik moving up to take their spot and a bottom FIVE of Mark Jankowski, Alan Quine, Garnet Hathaway, Derek Ryan and Kerby Rychel. Things are getting very thin at the bottom of the Flames roster, and it showed.
The Hathaway Hit
Garnet Hathaway knocked Ben Bishop out of the game with a shoulder to the chin of the big goaltender in the second period, when Bishop came out of his net to play the puck.
The impact was interesting for a few reasons.
Bishop went down after feeling the impact, and was then removed from the game for concussion protocol, messing up his shut out as he had to inevitably share the goose egg with backup Anton Khudobin.
Hathaway meant to make impact, not sure if he meant to get the goaltender on the chin, but he knew what he was doing making one wonder if they’ll look at the hit and maybe assess a fine.
On the other side you have a goaltender that may have embellished the impact himself, and with that was forced out of the game, something that could help quel the flopping by incidental contact in the future.
Speaking of Hathaway
Have to hand it to Athletic writer Darren Haynes for pointing out the penalty killing record of both Garnet Hathaway and Mark Jankowski this season.
Jankowski has been noticeable as he’s been involved in some shorties, but the duo have been the two most effective forwards on the penalty kill all season, sitting 1st and 2nd in time on the kill between goals. Jankowski has gone almost 17 minutes of penalty killing time between goals, second ahead of Travis Hamonic, but the real eye popping number belongs to Hathaway who has only given up one goal while killing all seasons in 43 minutes of kill time.
So next time you rage at the fact that Garnet Hathaway is dressed ahead of Austin Czarnik keep in mind the role the player has carved out for himself in Calgary this season. He’s no longer the replacement level player that brings some bite to the game and little else. He’s one of Calgary’s key penalty killers, an ideal role for a fourth line player to get minutes without affecting the flow of the top nine forwards five on five.
Oh Austin
Speaking of Austin Czarnik, you just have to wonder if this addition will ever pay dividends in Calgary colours. With the injuries to Frolik, Bennett and Neal the carpet was rolled out for the diminutive forward to maybe grab a role and force Bill Peters hand with the start in Dallas.
Instead he was pretty much at the bottom of every major possession stat including a high danger split of 1-7 on the night, as the second line got filled in almost every time they were on the ice. Truth be told you can never blame the performance of a whole line on one player, but when the line is usually a staple in terms of controlling the play, it doesn’t look good on the resume if the other two guys happen to falter when you get added to the trio.
When the Flames are healthy, Czarnik is often the first guy shown the door when it comes to roster completion, so with three forwards on IR it’s a shame to see Czarnik fail to seize the opportunity and change the make up the roster going forward when players get healthy.
Standings Impact
The Flames record falls to 22-11-2, and eleven games over .500, but the out of town scoreboard actually helped them out for once with the Oilers and Ducks both losing in regulation to the Blues and Rangers respectively.
The Flames now sit tied with Winnipeg and Nashville for top of the conference, but the Jets have a game in hand on both the Flames and Predators. In the Pacific Division the Flames hold their lead of three points over the Ducks and Sharks, and have a game in hand on Anaheim. I’d tell you where the Oilers are, but they don’t really matter.
Fancy Stats
Not a good night for team or player analytics, as you’d imagine.
In terms of five on five shot attempts the Flames made it respectable with a third period push, ending with 48% of the pucks attempted towards the goal with period splits of 35% / 26% and 83%. They only had 37% of the scoring chances, and 28% of the high danger chances, making it very clear which team came to play. The Flames gave up 13 high danger chances against five on five, their worst game for this statistic since that debacle of a game at Madison Square Garden in October. It’s only the fourth time they’ve given up double digits in high danger chances against since the blow out loss to Pittsburgh on October 25th.
In all situations, the Flames had 49% of the shot attempts, 42% of the scoring chances and 28% of the high danger chances. Not a good night.
Individually, the Flames were led by Dalton Prout with 80% in just over two minutes of ice time … put a caveat on that one. In terms of players that played Alan Quine, Sean Monahan, Derek Ryan, Elias Lindholm and Johnny Gaudreau all managed to find their way past the 50% mark, a feat in itself in this game. At the bottom end, Czarnik at 37% was all on his own under 40%, but had lots of company in terms of players under water. Five players were deep in the red in terms of high danger chances; they include Tkachuk, Czarnik, Hamonic, Giordano, and Backlund.
