Some nights are just not your nights.
A quick three goal lead by the Canucks … a screen shot, a whiff, an own goal and just like that you’re chasing a game, and that quite frankly never ends well.
But bottom line the Flames weren’t good enough. They were great in Edmonton, but tonight in a 5-2 setback to the Vancouver Canucks they took too many penalties, they lost the goaltending battle, and didn’t have the push back to make a game of it despite having those early bad bounces.
Shake it off, Chicago comes in on New Years Eve.
Line Up Changes
Not a lot of change from the Flames victory in Edmonton on Friday night.
Up front Sam Bennett comes out for Mark Jankowski, meaning a new fourth line of Jankowski between Tobias Reider and Michael Frolik. No change to any of the top three lines with Elias Lindholm centering Matthew Tkachuk and the suddenly surging Andrew Mangiapane. Sean Monahan between Johnny Gaudreau and Mikael Backlund, who now has goals in two of his last three games after going almost 20 games goalless. And Derek Ryan between Milan Lucic and Dillon Dube.
On the blueline no change at all; Mark Giordano with TJ Brodie, Noah Hanifin with Travis Hamonic and Oliver Kylington with Rasmus Andersson.
David Rittich gets the start in goal.
Sitting Bennett
Don’t 100% agree with the Bennett scratch tonight.
I do agree that his play this season hasn’t been upon reproach, meaning he hasn’t produced enough to hold down a spot. I also agree, that Vancouver has a top powerplay so getting Mark Jankowski into the game makes some sense. Additionally, I also like the idea of keeping guys hungry by swapping out the bottom six on a night to night basis.
However, I thought Sam Bennett played a pretty important role in shutting down Connor McDavid the other night, so I would have liked to see that same deployment carry into the game tonight and see what he did with it.
Sam Bennett when on his game is a solid third line player. He hasn’t found that game this season with a slow start, the team struggling and then an injury.
Will be interesting to see where his season goes.
The Rittich Start
What can you say?
A screen shot that he didn’t see. A terrible bobble on routine shot through his pads, and then an own goal … though one that he was already over committing to on a slide across.
Not a great night from David Rittich.
Additionally, didn’t love his look at TJ Brodie on the first goal. We’ve heard nothing but Rittich man of the people stories since he joined the Flames so I’m hoping that look isn’t a sign of a guy getting to big for his britches.
Missed Opportunity
Have to feel this is one of those missed opportunity games.
Things were rolling well for the Flames in the past few weeks. They won seven in a row, and then ran into trouble, but corrected things with a great win in Dallas, a tired effort in Minny, and then a great win in Edmonton off of the break.
With Vancouver coming in it seemed like a great chance to serve notice in the Pacific Division and send a message to the Canucks and the rest of the clubs in their group that a new division title contender was making noise.
Instead it was a weak start, some bad bounces, and some poor goaltending … which happens. What bothered me the most was the lack of push back for most of the night.
There was more than enough time left to turn this game around.
The Calls
Don’t honestly blame the officials for the game at all.
The Flames were lazy and with that took four stick fouls that the officials pretty much had to call.
Sadly plays like that are 90% of what you want; a player engaged and pushing the play, but not to the extent where said player pushes right through the play and finishes his check.
Winning in this league is razor thin, but tonight we saw an example over and over again of a team that was intense enough to be at the play, but not intense enough to finish it.
Counting Stats
Team Stats:
Shots – Flames 25 Canucks 28
Face Offs – Flames 68%
Special Teams – Flames 0/4 Canucks 2/5
Player Stats:
Points – Matthew Tkachuk led all skaters with two points, both assists.
Plus/Minus – Not a single player for the Flames had a plus night, so no point in listing the players that were even.
Shots – Sean Monahan led the way with five shots on goal, the next closest Flame had two.
Fancy Stats
Another night where the Flames were good to not give up a whole lot five on five, but more importantly, extremely weak in creating much five on five. Shot attempts five on five were dead even at 50% with period splits for Calgary of 37%/60% and 52%. Scoring chances went to Vancouver by a 7-2 margin (hence the lead), as Calgary generated only two high danger chances in 42 minutes of five on five hockey. The expected goals split fell to the Flames at a 52% rate.
In all situations the shot attempts were again 50%, but the high danger chances were actually in Calgary’s favour at a 9-8 split, telling you how much of this game was due to bounces and goaltending. The Flames had a 50.4% xGF% in all situations.
Individually, the Flames top line ran all over the Canucks as Andrew Mangiapane and Elias Lindholm both posted nights of 71.4%. Their linemate Matthew Tkachuk was just behind with 69% on the night. Oliver Kylington, Rasmus Andersson, and Travis Hamonic also had solid nights. On the other end of the spectrum, the third line of Milan Lucic, Derek Ryan and Dillon Dube were all owned, posting numbers in the 30% range.
