Last season the Flames were lights out on home ice, running up a 26 win season on home ice in reversing a few years of head scratching misery at the Saddledome.
Tonight the Flames got off to a good start on the season at home winning their first contest wearing red with a 3-0 victory over the Vancouver Canucks. Don’t let the score fool you though, the Flames are still shedding rust as the game was inconsistent and was wound up with Calgary killing three straight third period penalties and then sitting on the lead as the clock wound down.
But a win is a win, and this win gives the team their first on the season and moves the team’s record to 1-1-0 on the season.
Line Up Changes
Just one change from the curtain raiser three nights ago, and that’s Tobias Reider making his Flames debut replacing Austin Czarnik. Czarnik coming out could be line tinkering, but he did take two pretty big board shots from giant Russians on Thursday.
David Rittich gets the start again after giving up four goals on 31 shots to open his season.
No other changes to lines one through three or the three defense pairings.
Big Save Dave
I thought David Rittich was solid in his first start of the season despite the box score bottom line suggesting it was a sub par night for a goaltender.
Tonight there was little doubt that the Czech stopper was in the zone as he parlayed 34 Vancouver shots without exception in picking up the shut out. To me however, the biggest thing was the nature in which he tended the twine tonight as he was calm, almost unflappable in being very economic with his movements and looking both confident and comfortable.
Good sign as he looks to establish himself as the team’s starting goaltender, both now and going forward.
Discipline Issues
For the second straight game the Flames take six minor penalties, compared to earning four powerplays of their own as discipline continues to be a problem.
Sure some Canucks went down quite easily, but the bottom line has to be keeping sticks out of skates and hands and taking the judgement call away from the referees. Elias Lindholm and Milan Lucic both fished with sticks and created tripping penalties. The same two players were also caught with sticks in hands and gaining hooking penalties.
The Flames are deep, they need to stay five on five and roll lines and not get caught up in a special teams battle.
It’ll come.
Not Firing On All Cylinders
The Flames were solid in the middle ten minutes of the first period, and the first ten minutes of the second. But other than that they were far too passive and letting the Canucks come to them.
The consistency just hasn’t been there.
A terrible first in Denver before getting untracked and finding their game. Tonight it was on and off all night as they just couldn’t establish their five on five game due to their own foibles and the high number of penalties.
It’s early, and this season will always be about getting ready for April, so take the win and move on. They’re certainly not playing their best hockey however.
A New Sean Monahan?
Who is this guy?
Scott Cruickshank wrote a great article for the Athletic this week that highlighted the off season aspirations and efforts plied by Sean Monahan this summer.
“When players get to that point, what they’re really saying is, they want to win,” Ward said. “I think every player goes through it — when winning is more important than an awful lot of other things. That’s really good for us because we need him to do what he says he wants to do. Everybody has a bad taste in their mouth … we need to be better. What he’s saying is, ‘I’m going to be one of the guys that can be counted on for that to happen.’
Tonight we saw a lot of that. There’s more bounce to his stride, he carried the puck with authority, he was physical and he was productive.
In essence he was a number one center.
If Sean Monahan can take his game to another level, or at least to a more rounded level the Flames are in really good shape. Tonight and in Denver actually, he looked like an improved player. Hopefully that will be the case.
PK Dominance
A shut out at home is always a great outcome, you need great goaltending and great team play to push that across the finish line.
But taking six minor penalties and posting a doughnut? That’s not an easy task.
Tonight in a total of 9:19 shorthanded that included 1:01 down two men the Flames only gave up two high danger chances. Two! That’s hard work, plain and simple, helped by some questionable decision making by Brock Boeser specifically who’s shot choices were suspect at best.
But a good sign given how mediocre the Flames special teams were last year.
Third Pairing Bounce Back
The second pairing stumbled, but the third pairing had a great bounce back game tonight.
Rasmus Andersson and Oliver Kylington played a much quieter, simpler game against the Canucks tonight than we saw in Denver on Thursday. Sure the Avalanche are a different kettle of fish than the building Vancouver chapter, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that both Swedes looked much more comfortable in their own zone.
Counting Stats
Team Stats:
Shots – Flames 30 Canucks 34
Face Offs – Flames 47%
Special Teams – Flames 0/4 Canucks 0/6
Player Stats:
Points – Johnny Gaudreau leads the way with a goal and two assists.
Plus/Minus – Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan at +3.
Shots – Sean Monahan with 6
Fancy Stats
The Flames had 49% of the shot attempts five on five with period splits of 54%/63% and 27%, as score effects certainly played a role with Calgary sitting on a third period 2-0 lead. In all situations the Canucks had 58% of the shot attempts, including 78% in the third period.
Calgary did get the best of Vancouver in terms of expected goals for with 55% on the night.
Individually the Flames were led by Andrew Mangiapane with 69% CF on the night. Other guys in the 60s included Mikael Backlund, Tobias Reider and Rasmus Andersson. At the bottom of the pile we see Travis Hamonic and Noah Hanafin with values under 40%.
In terms of xGF% the Flames were led by newcomer Reider at 81%, and others that had big nights was the third defense pairing with Oliver Kylington and Rasmus Andersson being joined by Mangiapane in the 70s. Michael Frolik had a miserable night with 19% xGF.
