To beat the best you have to follow a pretty tight recipe.
Limit the mistakes and turnovers you make, be opportunistic when chances come your way, get better goaltending than the guy at the other end, stay out of penalty trouble and be in receipt of a helping or two of luck.
The Flames certainly got some bounces early in building 2-0 and 3-1 leads early in the first period of a 4-3 loss on Friday night to the Boston Bruins. They cashed in on their chances, and appeared to have been given a golden opportunity to give the Bruins just their second loss in their last twelve games. On the night they didn’t surrender a single powerplay to the ever dangerous Bruins.
It’s the limit the turnovers and mistakes part that reached up and bit them on the collective ass.
For about 13 minutes to wind down the first period the Flames were on their heels, leaving open Bruins behind them, not covering pucks or players going to the net, and pretty much handing the game back to a team that didn’t need a lot of help.
The game stablilized for the final 40 and the Flames were full marks for pushing the issue and looking to force overtime, but in the end the experienced Bruins put a tight game away.
Opportunity missed.
Line Up Changes
Only one change in the lineup with Derek Ryan coming back in and Zach Rinaldo heading to the sidelines as a healthy scratch.
Cam Talbot started his second straight game for the Flames after beating the Ducks 6-4 on Monday afternoon.
That means Sean Monahan between Johnny Gaudreau and Elias Lindholm, Mikael Backlund between Matthew Tkachuk and Andrew Mangiapane, and the third line staying put despite Ryan’s return with Sam Bennett centering Milan Lucic and Dillon Dube. The fourth line was constructed of Derek Ryan centering Tobias Rieder and Mark Jankowski.
On the blueline it was Noah Hanifin with Rasmus Andersson, TJ Brodie with Michael Stone, and Oliver Kylington with Alexander Yelesin.
Paper Thin Defence
With those two goal leads the Flames as I said were given a huge opportunity.
But back to back goals where the puck went wide, and none of the defenseman on the ice nor Cam Talbot were able to track and adjust to the trajectory and prevent or cover any of the puck or the empty man in giving up easy ones to the Bruins.
The third goal had Charlie Coyle inexplicably get in behind the Flames defense for a breakaway goal.
Goal one was on Talbot and the Hanifin/Andersson pair, goal two on Talbot and the Kylington/Yelesin pair, and that same pair owns that third goal on their own.
The point? Don’t go up against the Bruins with two of your top three defenseman missing!
Bennett Third Line Center
Interesting to see the Flames stick with their top nine in tact against Boston with Derek Ryan back.
The game wasn’t as eventful as the previous two games where Sam Bennett managed three goals and was 62% in the face off circle, but they did get their looks in the second period and nearly tied the game and the third line was the team’s best in terms of most underlying stats, including Bennett at the top with 63% on the night.
Derek Ryan led a solid fourth line late last season between Garnet Hathaway and Andrew Mangipane, if they could find a combination that makes magic again the Flames could truly roll four lines and be dangerous down the stretch.
Gaudreau Gets a Goal
Eight games without a goal, a streak finally snapped with a first period semi breakaway goal against the Bruins on Friday night.
The point gives Gaudreau 11 points in the month of February in just ten games, his first point per game or more in a month.
He has nine points in his last eight games, and if you consider last year’s 99 point season an outlier, he’s starting to move into his career average range with recent play. He’s 0.823 points per game on the season, compared to a career average of 0.894 when you remove last year from his numbers.
His pace since December first is a more comparable .909.
Backlund Keeps Rolling
Another two points on two goals, has the roll being enjoyed by Mikael Backlund extending deeper into February.
He’s essentially saved his season, and perhaps Calgary’s if they continue to chip in offensively as the team waits for the reformed top line to start taking over games.
With tonight’s production, Backlund is now right back on recent career averages with a projection of 16 goals and 45 points over the course of an 82 point season.
His 34 points has him ranked 124th for forwards in the league, 124 in contract ranking for forwards comes in at $5M in cap hit, pretty close to Backlund’s mark of $5.35. Not sure this is going to be a good contract going forward, but at least Backlund’s resurgence this season means years one and two are no longer blights on the five year deal.
The Road Trip
Was thinking in order to keep pace in this chaotic West race the Flames would need eight points in the six games that started with last night’s game with the Bruins.
Was thinking a point last night, and two against Detroit would leave the team needing five more in the final four games of a very tough trip.
They’re already down one on that projection.
So now they need to go 4-1-0 to bring home that lofty goal, something I honestly can’t see coming with Boston and Tampa as two games on this trip.
Can they beat the Wings? They’d better. Can they beat the Predators? They have and they could. Could they beat the Panthers? They could for sure, but they’re in a tough playoff battle themselves and are likely thinking they should beat Calgary.
It’s man up time, will be interesting to see what they have.
What to do Monday
Which doesn’t make it easy for the Flames management group to make a call for Monday afternoon.
They get one more game, and it’s the easiest one on the trip. Lose it and I guess they could consider things grim, but a win certainly doesn’t cement anything going forward on the trip.
As per always it’s hard to say what’s going on behind the scenes.
One would assume an ownership group would see a somewhat feeble Pacific Division as a huge opportunity and be very much against selling. But would Treliving? Does he see the opportunity as well, or does he see a team that just hasn’t done enough to invest in this season giving him the opportunity to move some pieces for picks and keep the window moving wider?
Personally I wouldn’t give up any more than a third round pick or a B prospect to add to this group with depth or a rental. Just not worth it.
Hoping an actual hockey trade happens that helps the team next year every bit as much or more than it helps this year and maybe alters the chemistry enough for the team to surprise with existing talent down the stretch.
Counting Stats
Team Stats:
Shots – Flames 21 Bruins 23
Face Offs – Flames 54%
Special Teams – Flames 0/2 Bruins 0/0
Player Stats:
Points – Backlund led all skaters with two points, both on first period goals to continue his hot hand.
Plus/Minus – The only plus player on the team was Tobias Rieder with a +1 rating on the night.
Shots – Johnny Gaudreau and Noah Hanifin both had three shots on goal to pace their club.
Fancy Stats
The Flames were the better team in terms of five on five shot attempts with 52.3% on the night with period splits of 44%/58% and 57%. In terms of high danger chances though it was all Boston with a 55% split. Expected goals split fell to Boston as well with 58.4% on the night, though the bulk of their dominance was in the first period with 70.1%, followed by 38.7% and 42.2% the rest of the way when Calgary asserted their will.
In all situations (Calgary had the only two powerplays), Calgary had 55.4% of the shot attempts, but only 40% of the scoring chances and 49% of the expected goal split.
Individually, the Flames were led by Sam Bennett with a 63% night, followed by Oliver Kylington, and Derek Ryan who both had numbers in the 60s. TJ Brodie, Andrew Mangiapane, Matthew Tkachuk and Mikael Backlund also had good nights. The top line, Milan Lucic and Rasmus Andersson were at the bottom of the pile.
