It honestly doesn’t seem like it was still this season when the Flames walked into New York and beat the Ragners solely on the back of David Rittich.
It was a signature win for the Czech stopper (Salt Bae) at a time when Mike Smith was struggling mightily and the city was screaming for a changing of the guard.
Flash forward five months and not a lot has been solved in the Calgary crease, but the Rangers have sure altered their roster, as the trade deadline seller, now a shadow of their former selves went quiet easily at the Saddledome tonight by a 5-1 score on the strength of five points by Matthew Tkachuk.
The five goals gives the Flames 20 on their three game homestand, putting an abrupt end to their struggles in their previous four games; all losses.
Next up a trip to Winnipeg, back to back with only 19 hours and travel between the end of tonight’s game and puck drop tomorrow.
Lineup Changes
Not a one.
Same goalie.
Same pairings.
Same forward lines.
Boring is boring, not a bad thing when you’ve won two in a row and looking for a third.
I think the plan was to play Mike Smith tonight, but he missed practice yesterday feeling sick, meaning he wasn’t ready to carry the load tonight. Bank on Smith tomorrow in Winnipeg however.
Fantenberg Ride Continues
Are the Flames starting to see Oscar Fantenberg as the man?
Another night with solid underlying numbers, as the Swedish defender put up a 63% CF and a 5-2 split in high danger chances. Basically nothing goes wrong when the man is on the ice.
A lot of that credit goes to his partner Rasmus Andersson of course, as Andersson continues to gain confidence and chew up a larger role at the NHL level. But Fantenberg has been money in keeping the third pairing a quiet experience, something every NHL team strives for.
I’m a little surprised that Bill Peters hasn’t dressed Stone and given that Brodie-Stone pairing a whirl with Stone returning from an injury and the top pairing of Mark Giordano and Brodie struggling so much against the Devils.
So perhaps it’s the Oscar story. Maybe he’s a piece of the playoff puzzle after all.
Monahan Injury
Or sickness as it turns out.
No wonder the collective media in Calgary had nothing to offer during the second and third periods when Sean Monahan was a no show tonight. Usually video is found showing a collision or a puck off an ankle, or a rub out that could lead to an injury and perhaps shed light on a player’s absence. But tonight nothing.
Nothing during the game. Nothing from the media after the game. Nothing from the coaching staff right after the game.
Does that make sense however? How does Geoff Ward do radio after the game and not know Sean Monahan is ill and didn’t return?
The conspiracy guy in me (not a strong trait) wonders if there’s more to this than is being let on.
Tkachuk it Up
Getting six points is pretty special, not many Flames players have accomplished. Johnny Gaudreau turned that trick on Tuesday night scoring six points on nine Calgary goals to put his name in the all time list with names like Hakan Loob, Joe Mullen, Sergei Makarov and Al MacInnis.
We almost saw it again tonight.
Matthew Tkachuk scored two goals and added three assists, coming up one point short of Gaudreau’s mark this week, and two points short of the team record set by Sergei Makarov.
What makes it more incredible in some ways however is the hit rate; the Flames only scored give goals. Tkachuk was in all of them. I tried to look that up, but couldn’t find a stat site that allowed that drill down. Guessing however, that no Flames has ever scored five points in a game where he was in all of his team’s goals.
300 Club
When this home stand started the Flames were sputtering offensively, clipping along at 3.46 goals per game for a pace of 283 goals on the season.
Three home wins and 20 lamp lighters later and the Flames are now on a 3.59 goal pace, or 295 as a projection, making their entry into the race for 300 a little more interesting.
The underlying numbers in the four losses suggested the Flames were getting the chances and shot attempts to suggest they likely should have hit the scoresheet much more often. Now we see the correction. Are the Flames 5 goals in 4 games bad? No they’re not. Are they 20 goals in 3 games good? No they’re not.
It will be interesting to see if they can score 45 more goals in their remaining 11 games to hit the 3 century mark.
Standings Implications
The Flames were given an opportunity to reclaim the conference/division titles with the Sharks misstep last night at home to the Florida Panthers.
They didn’t disappoint.
The win moves the Flames a paint ahead of the Sharks with even games played, and nine points up on tomorrow’s opponent, the Winnipeg Jets.
I certainly didn’t see the Central Division completely out of the race for the conference essentially for the entire last quarter of the season. I thought the Pacific Division sucked?
Counting Stats
Team Stats:
Shots – Calgary 32 Rangers 25
Face Offs – Rangers 52%
Special Teams – Rangers 0/3 Calgary 0/3
Player Stats:
Points – Matthew Tkachuk 5
Plus/Minus – Matthew Tkachuk +5
Shots – Mikael Backlund 7
Fancy Stats
Pretty much a complete game by the Flames as they took control and really never let up. The Flames had 62% of the shot attempts on period splits of 74%/44% and 66%. Scoring chances were 63% Flames (24-14) five on five, and high danger chances fell Calgary’s way 15-5 (75%). That’s a solid night.
In all situations the Flames had 60% of the shot attempts, 55% of the scoring chances and 63% of the high danger chances.
Individually, only two player finished under water on the night; Mark Jankowski 36% and Andrew Mangiapane at 47%. On the other side, the 3M line simply shredded the Rangers with Michael Frolik leading the way at 80%. Sam Bennett and Mikael Backlund were also over the 70% mark. Twelve skaters topped the 60% mark overall.
