So much for the goal funk.
The Flames having lost four in a row, with a futility stretch that featured only five goals in that time span score six tonight (empty net assisted) to get back on the win board and put an end to the team’s worst run of the season.
Sure the top line didn’t contribute at all in the 6-3 win but they did get their chances in a walk before you run mantra.
With the win the Flames beat back the Knights who could have been six points back with a win, but now sit an even ten in arrears, and Calgary passes the Sharks back into first though the Sharks have a game in hand.
Lineup Changes
These days changes come in both the micro and macro level when it comes to the Flames.
Macro changes involve scratches and with that there are none, as the same 18 skaters nor two goaltenders are different from any of their games in this four game losing streak. Micro changes are the little changes within the 18 skaters; who plays with Mikael Backlund and Matthew Tkachuk on the second line? Is Tkachuk on the top line? The little nuances.
Tonight David Rittich starts as the tandem continues to go back and forth. Michael Frolik goes back to the second line with Tkachuk and Elias Lindholm returns to the top line. Bottom six remain unchanged.
Oscar Fantenberg gets his second straight, and fourth overall game as a Flame.
Fantenberg Effect
You don’t want to make too much out of a sixth defenseman. You kind of hope they’re not noticed. But you have to tip a hat to Fantenberg and his underlying numbers with the Flames since coming over in a trade with the L.A. Kings.
He’s become the Derek Ryan of the blueline. You don’t notice him, but nothing bad ever happens when he’s on the ice.
Coming into the game he was close to 2/3 in terms of possession with quiet details when it came to high danger chances; a guy that is just taking care of business.
He’s a UFA and he plays on the left side so there really isn’t a lot of room, but you have to wonder if they look at bringing him back as a solid 6/7 guy next season.
Scoring vs Goaltending
All players go through ups and down, hot streaks and slumps, peaks and valleys. It’s human, it’s part of being an athlete.
As an onlooker of the 2018-19 Calgary Flames however, I assign trepidation in different measures to different components of the club’s roster.
I do worry that goaltending will rebound, so it’s good to see both stoppers have good games this week or so. I don’t however worry to the same degree that Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan have forgotten how to play hockey. They were off the charts for the better part of three months and that just couldn’t continue.
Now they’ve gone ice cold, and that can’t continue either.
It will turn. Better to have the gut check in March than April.
Tonight Johnny Gaudreau may have not hit the scoresheet but nine shots on goal certainly suggests he’s not far from lighting one up.
Mangiapane Rising
The advanced stats group got together for their annual summit this week and a presentation by @3hayden2 isolated American Hockey League stats and their extrapolation to the NHL.
On his list of likely NHL contributors were two Calgary Flames, Dillon Dube and tonight’s first goal scorer Andrew Mangiapane.
Tonight Mangiapane’s stone cold freeze job on Malcolm Subban was part and parcel of a player that is getting more comfortable. He’s figured it out. He wins a lot of board battles for a guy that doesn’t have a lot of size, and he has the mitt skills to finish plays in tight. Can’t help but wonder what his future roll on this team will be.
Is he a bottom six forward with skills, or is he a top six productive 20 goal a guy? I was firmly in the previous camp a few weeks ago, not so sure now.
Standings Implications
As I said in the opening, the space above the Knights is probably the biggest impact from the inter-division win. Calgary moves ahead of the Sharks at least temporarily, as San Jose has a game in hand.
If it comes to it, they’re seven points up on the Jets with Winnipeg playing one less game and eight games up on the Predators with a game in hand.
The playoff mark now is 18 points over Arizona with only 13 games to play.
Calgary leads the Oilers by 24 points.
Counting Stats
Team Stats:
Shots – Calgary 35 Vegas 28
Face Offs – Calgary 52%
Special Teams – Knights 0/2 Calgary 1/2
Player Stats:
Points – Matthew Tkachuk and Michael Frolik – 4
Plus/Minus – Tkachuk / Frolik and Travis Hamonic +3
Shots – Johnny Gaudreau with 9
Fancy Stats
Shot attempts finish at 50/50 with third period score effects. The full game breakdown shook out at 71%/47% and 34% five on five. Scoring chances were 49% Calgary, while high danger chances were 54% Flames.
In all situations the Flames had 47% of the shot attempts, 45% of the scoring chances and 40% of the high danger chances.
Individually, the Flames were led by Michael Frolik with 60%, adding to his four point night. Matthew Tkachuk, Travis Hamonic and Mark Giordano were all above 55%. Ironically after my big build up of Fantenberg, he Rasmus Andersson and Austin Czarnik were all under 40% for the Flames.
Mark Giordano and TJ Brodie were both 20% in high danger splits, victimised for both Vegas goals to start the second period.
