Now that was festive wasn’t it?
The Calgary Flames scored goals early in all three periods, including just 11 seconds into the first period when Andrew Mangiapane took a pass from Elias Lindholm and started things off on the right foot in routing the Oilers by a 5-1 score on Friday night.
The Christmas season game must have been fun for a half a province, but a slap to the face for Edmonton who gave up their hold on the third spot in the division, having their rivals take over for the first time since the season began.
Calgary, with a game in hand, now heads home to play the Canucks and Rangers before the year is officially put to bed.
What a great and late stocking stuffer.
Line Up Changes
So we don’t get the media friendly ex goaltender vs ex goaltender battle tonight as both teams have gone with incumbents over their rival import.
That doesn’t take away from the James Neal vs Milan Lucic battle though, a game within a game that could prove interesting.
The Flames go with David Rittich in net, not a surprise given the two club’s proximity in the standings and with that the importance of the game. Quite frankly Calgary needs the two points.
On defense it’s good to see the Flames went with the quicker defense look with Oliver Kylington lining up on the third defense pairing with Rasmus Andersson, ahead of Micheal Stone. Mark Giordano pairs with TJ Brodie and Noah Hanifin lines up beside Travis Hamonic as expected.
Up front a change to speed and youth. Elias Lindholm between Matthew Tkachuk and Andrew Mangiapane, Sean Monahan between Johnny Gaudreau and Mikael Backlund (still haven’t gotten used to that), Derek Ryan with Milan Lucic and Devon Dube, and finally Tobias Rieder between Sam Bennett and Michael Frolik.
Is that the best lineup possible in Calgary? I’m guessing a fan poll would say so … maybe with an asterisk for a AHL call up like Matthew Phillips.
Eat Bread Goes Wild
Having your first three point NHL night is a good story and great evening no matter how you look at it.
But when you’re not all that big in stature, and you completely out muscle a large defender for the second point, and are generally a handful on almost every shift it says something quite a bit more.
Andrew Mangiapane is now a top six forward and I don’t see him coming out of that role any time soon.
Michael Frolik did a valiant job of filling in for a future young Flames for a few years, he was a great plug and play addition to the lineup, and a quality player. We didn’t see the burst from Sam Bennett as expected. He was physical, got chances but was inconsistent.
Late last year Mangipane made himself an NHL player, carving out a fourth line role. This year he’s stepped up again and is now heading for a pretty good pay day.
The Green Jacket
Three more minuses for James Neal tonight … one in the first, one in the second and yep another in the third to move his season total to an eye popping -24.
That’s insane. The Green Jacket leader board is littered with Detroit Red Wings, so he’s not going to win at Augusta but he’s sure giving it the old college try.
He got off to a slow start with only -4 in October, picked it up with a huge -11 in November, and with tonight’s effort he moved December to a strong -9, and he still has the Rangers on New Year’s Eve.
Another fun split? He’s now a whopping -21 on home ice, that’s fun for the big off season acquisition. He’s even in wins, way to chip in James!, but -23 in losses as he finds a way to lead when the chips are down.
The gift that just keeps on giving.
A Challenger Emerges?
Not to be overlooked, Leon Draisaitl continues to have himself a second quarter of the season.
Tonight another -3 giving him 15 minus games and an even game in his last 16. That’s a slide folks. In those 16 games he’s a whopping -25 after going -3 in back to back games.
It’s great to put up points, but if you’re getting your head kicked in five on five you’re not really helping your team are you?
TJ Brodie Has a Night
TJ Brodie skates his way to 20 minutes, two assists, a +3 and more miles than you can count causally skating himself out of trouble.
The emergence of the player after his scary episode this season has been nothing less than shocking for a hockey base that was pretty much ready to move on from the player.
I know I’ve moved from the retain Travis Hamonic camp to the try and keep TJ Brodie camp, though I’m still in for either if they keep the term and dollars down (home town discount).
But put another notch in the TJ Brodie belt tonight. Game changing skater.
The Heat Have a Night
Big 8-1 win for the Heat tonight over the Sharks affiliate that also plays in San Jose.
Glen Gawdin had four points, while Alan Quine had three goals and three assists. Why do I bring this up after a Flames win in Edmonton?
Well mostly because I’m an ass, but given the amount of hype upon final cuts in Edmonton this fall and that their AHL squad was chock a block full of can’t miss players ready to ream roll the AHL this season it’s entertaining to see the “thin” Flames farm club post a 18-5 record and a .732 win percentage compared to the Condors 10-13 and .444.
Objects in Your Mirror …
With the win the Flames move a point past the Oilers in the Standings, erasing a long journey that started in October with a hot Oiler start with an easy schedule.
The Flames now have the third spot in the Pacific nailed down, a point back of the Knights and Coyotes, though Arizona has a game in hand.
The Flames have a game in hand on Edmonton as well.
Happy New Year!
Fourth Line Deployed
Thought the line deployment was pretty shrewd by Geoff Ward on the night.
Finding a way to contain Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl when they play on the same line is tough, but given the dearth of depth up in Edmonton, if you can tie that match up up you can pretty much run over the rest of the roster.
The fourth line of Rieder, Bennett and Frolik had the most five on five minutes against the McDavid line on the night, and while their fancy stats got p0unded, they held their own on the scoresheet and let the other lines do their thing.
That’s the benefit of having solid two way guys on the fourth line instead of the old days when at least one player was a face puncher.
Counting Stats
Team Stats:
Shots – Flames 31 Oilers 29
Face Offs – Flames 50%
Special Teams – Flames 0/1 Oilers 0/2
Player Stats:
Points – Andrew Mangiapane leads the way with his first three point game of his career.
Plus/Minus – Mark Giordano leads his team with a +4 on the night. Good thing Edmonton has a plethora of this exact type of player.
Shots – Elias Lindholm and Matthew Tkachuk each had four shots on goal to pace the club.
Fancy Stats
Score effects made it’s mark with the Flames literally leading the whole way.
Five on five shot attempts finished 45.4% Calgary with period splits of 51%/44% and 36%. Five on five scoring chances were 8-6 Edmonton (an extremely low number for the two clubs), while the Flames xGF% was 45% as well.
In all situations the Flames had 49% of the shot attempts, 44% of the high danger chances (giving up only 9 all game), and an xGF% of 50.1%.
Individually, the Flames were led by TJ Brodie with a solid 57% night. His defense partner Mark Giordano wasn’t far behind with a 54% night. Lindholm, Mangiapane and Tkachuk were all on the plus side as well. Michael Frolik, Oliver Kylington, Tobias Rieder and Rasmus Andersson were all under the 40% mark on the night.
