A return to the scene of the crime.
The blood stains still remain, police tape no longer halting entrance but still flapping in the wind.
The last time the Flames were in Denver the season felt lost as they blew a third period lead and dropped an overtime game to go down 3-1 in the series. Tonight wouldn’t provide a true chance at revenge, as a regular season game certainly doesn’t make up for a series, but it would at least suggest there was more to the Calgary club than the feeble group that stepped on their own rake and bludgeoned themselves seven months ago.
The result was another loss, but at least a terrible start did turn into an interesting and entertaining hockey game as Calgary pushed back and made a game of it in a 5-3 opening night loss.
Line Up Changes
What changes?
Given the fact that this is the first game of the season, one can’t truly refer to the 20 guys that started tonight as changes to anything before it. That is, unless you look to last season’s final game in the playoffs.
Mike Smith is out as the starter, replaced by David Rittich and Cam Talbot as his backup (tonight at least).
On the blueline the Flames return the same six but with Oliver Kylington playing for the injured Juuso Valimaki.
Up front the top six are unchanged, Milan Lucic is added to the third line in place of James Neal. Derek Ryan moves up to the third line from the fourth with Mark Jankowski taking his place. Sam Bennett stays on the third line, and the fourth line wingers are Andrew Mangiapane and Austin Czarnik who replaces Garnet Hathaway.
Something to Prove
Winning the opener is fun, well I assume it’s fun as we just don’t see it in Calgary.
However the big picture for me is a return to a team on its collective toes instead of firmly planted on their heels. The team completely abandoned their system in games two through five against Colorado, and didn’t seem to have the mental strength to bring it back. When I heard Calgary personnel referring to how close games two and four were to going the other way I’ve cringed; the problem was bigger than a bounce or two.
So are they back? Or is there a longer term problem?
The answer in this one is somewhere in the middle I suppose. A terrible start that felt like PTSD from last year’s playoff series, but then a much healthier push back suggesting maybe there’s more in the gray matter tank.
Oh that Start
Could you script a worse start on the road in a tough arena against a solid opponent with some demons to lance?
Sean Monahan takes a penalty ten seconds in … they survive.
TJ Brodie takes a penalty four minutes in … the Avalanche score.
Then the Avalanche go ahead on what appears to be a neutral zone high stick by captain Gabriel Landeskog with no call.
The Avalanche rifle off the first six shots of the game and eight of the first nine, including two off the cross bar that don’t even count on the shot clock. The Flames were in the fetal position for most of the first ten minutes before finally righting things somewhat. They played them even in the second, and were pushing well in the third but you’re not going to win many games coming off the blocks like that.
Lucic Presence
Not the easiest game to judge from a hockey standpoint as the big lug missed 17 minutes of action with a 2-5-10 combination late in the second period, but when he was on the ice he made his presence felt.
Flame annoyer Nikita Zadorov stapled Austin Czarnik into the boards late in the second period on a Calgary powerplay. The rough treatment was the second time that period that Czarnik got hammered into the same corner by a towering Russian, as new Avalanche Valeri Nichushkin did the same about a half dozen seconds earlier.
On the second instance however, there was an answer as Milan Lucic stepped in, grabbed Zadorov and when the big Russian wanted nothing to do with him, Lucic punched him in the mush anyway. It didn’t look like Zadorov was getting a penalty initially, but then suddenly got a boarding penalty to make things even.
Calgary didn’t really have that scary answer last year.
It may not be worth $5.25M per year, but it’s worth something, which honestly would be a stretch in most of James Neal’s games last year.
David Rittich the Starter
Hard to fault the guy for this one, he was under siege.
Four goals on 31 shots for a .871 save percentage isn’t announcing to the world that Calgary has a starter to contend with, but the Avalanche had the lion’s share of bluechip chances and the guy hung in there given the onslaught.
If I was to pick a goal I’d like to see back it would be the Ave’s second goal, a Rantanen backhander that Rittich could have had. But the loss should be tagged on other targets than goaltending in this one.
Defense Pairings
Great sign from the second pairing, as Hamonic and Hanifin put their rough playoff series behind them and were Calgary’s best pair.
The top pair was competitive despite a few mistakes.
But the third pair was a tire fire, with Oliver Kylington specifically having a rough night. Between sketchy reads and still not having the muscle to screen out speedy NHL talent the kid struggled. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Mike Stone sighting on Saturday night.
Counting Stats
Team Stats:
Shots – Flames 30 Avalanche 32
Face Offs – Flames 54%
Special Teams – Flames 2/4 Avalanche 2/6
Player Stats:
Points – Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan each had a goal and an assist.
Plus/Minus – Derek Ryan, Sam Bennett and Andrew Mangiapane at +1.
Shots – Sean Monahan with 5
Fancy Stats
The five on five shot attempts fell towards the Flames at 54% despite getting absolutely owned in the first period to the tune of 24%. Calgary topped 60% in the second and third however with splits of 61% and 67% as they endeavored to climb back into the game. Five on five high danger splits fell towards the Flames as well at 53% with period splits of 50%/63% and 43%.
In all situations Calgary had 49% of the shot attempts and 50% of the high danger chances (12/12).
Individually, the fourth line and second defense pairing led the way with Andrew Mangiapane pulling in a 69% (nice!) split of shot attempts. Mark Jankowski (better sledding without Neal), Elias Lindholm, Noah Hanifin, Austin Czarnik and Travis Hamonic all topped 60% as well. Milan Lucic pulled up the rear with 30% last night, joining the third defense pairing of Rasmus Andersson and Oliver Kylington at the bottom.
In terms of expected goal %, the 3M Line simply got cratered with Mikael Backlund posting a miserable 27%.
