Flames are on a tare!
Points in two straight game despite the 4-3 shoot out loss to the Jets tonight.
The Flames tie it up with just over a minute to play and have the edge in overtime with a man advantage opportunity, but fall in the shoot out.
Calgary with goals from Jake Bean, Kevin Bahl and Matt Coronato.
Next up the Flames play in Chicago on Tuesday night.
The Lineup
No change from the win over the Sharks on Thursday night.
Up front it’s Morgan Frost with Jonathan Huberdeau and Matt Coronato, Nazem Kadri with Rory Kerins and Joel Farabee, Mikael Backlund with Sam Honzek and Blake Coleman, and a fourth line of Connor Zary between Ryan Lomberg and Adam Klapka.
On the blueline Joel Hanley takes a seat for Jake Bean, creating a new third pairing of Bean with Brayden Pachal. No change to the top six with Kevin Bahl with Rasmus Andersson, and Yan Kuznetsov with Mackenzie Weegar.
Dustin Wolf in net for the Flames.
Stats Dive
The Flame’s powerplay is bad. I mean really really bad.
They sit 32nd at 10.9%. And the next team is almost 4% ahead of them!
Oh and it gets worse! If you look at the last five seasons individually (that’s 32 teams x 5 or 160 powerplays) the Flames are the worst powerplay in that time period. Last year’s Ducks are 0.9% better. If you go back ten years, there is one team worse, the 21-22 Ducks.
As a team they’re not generating enough to point to bad luck or great opposing goaltender as the reason for their struggles, as they sit 30th in xGF60 up a man. They are 21st in HDCF/60 which is a little better. They sit 31st in shot for per 60.
Not pretty.
When you look at individuals, Mackenzie Weegar leads all Flame’s skaters in xGF60 up a man with 8.32. But that’s ranked 103rd in the league.
Wolf’s Start
Wolf was the less busy of the two goalies in shot volume in the first, but the much busier stopper when it came to dangerous plays around his crease. And was perfect.
The second period was more of an adventure for both goaltenders with pucks off skates and sticks creating a four goal period.
Wolf beat once in the third period, but is perfect the rest of the way.
The Jets with 3.61 expected goals in all situations on the night and Wolf gives up three for the check mark.
Odds and Sods
Clean start to the game for both clubs. Solid back and forth hockey without a lot of mistakes or breakdowns in the first third of the first period as the game remains scoreless. … The Backlund line probably the most consistent, the Frost line likely the most dangerous in one instance. … Game’s first penalty goes to the Jet’s Demelo. … Have never understood the Kadri shot from the flank with the big load up. No way that beats an NHL goaltender 99% of the time. One time it or dish it. … No score in the first period, Jets with a 1.18 to 0.84 edge in expected goals despite being on the other side of the shot clock.
An even quieter start to the second period as literally nothing happens in the first handful of minutes. … Flames almost open the scoring when Zary finds Klapka in close but the monster hits iron and the game stays scoreless. … Wolf stands tall with back to back saves a few minutes later, goalie battle continues. … Jets open the scoring on a strange turnover caused by Mikael Backlund and Sam Honzek colliding at the Jets blueline. Honzek down and winded, as the Jets go the other way with Scheifele scoring. … Honzek heads down the tunnel looking to be favouring a shoulder? … A few minutes later Jake Bean ties it up with a puck off a Jet fooling Hellebucyk. … Didn’t stay tied for long as the Jets go ahead again on a delayed call, Pearson the goal. … Rory Kerins comes really close to his first NHL goal tipping a puck off teh post, and then almost cashing on the rebound. … Crazy second period continues with Kevin Bahl tying it up with a shot off of Stanley with about 6.5 minutes left in the second. Morgan Frost picks up his second assist of the night, after garnering the 100th of his career in the middle of the period. … Man can Matt Coronato fire a hockey puck. Insane. Had to be shooting pucks into an old dryer from when he was 5 or 6. … I often wonder how much better a hockey player Nazem Kadri would be if he didn’t have that non-chalantness to his play away from the puck. Pitbull with the puck, and often a witness to the play without it. … 1.57 to 0.65 for the Jets in expected goals in the second period, but each team score twice; 2-2 game through 40.
Is the Honzek injury curse continuing? The promising rookie wasn’t back on the bench to start the third period. … The Jets score an early powerplay goal when the puck goes off the post and then out for an empty net rebound for Perfetti. … From there the Jets are happy to grind the third period down by keeping pucks to the outside, and chipping pucks into the Flames zone. Time goes by without any blue chippers either way. … Things finally get a little more interesting with a late call to the Jets for high sticking (Namestikov) with just under three minutes to play in the third period. … What a play by Rasmus Andersson on the aerial pass from the blueline late. … Calgary ties it up when Matt Coronato finds an Andersson rebound with just over one minute to play and the goalie pulled. And it was on the powerplay! Only the 2nd home ice man advantage goal all season …
Very careful overtime played by both teams. But then Scheifele takes a two minute minor giving the Flames the man advantage in over time (which if 4 on 3 of course). … Calgary with one good chance up a man, but no goals and we go to a shoot out. … Scheifele is such an ass hat. Always has been. Loser.
Jets win it in the shoot out after five straight shot failures. Vilardi the winner.
Fancy Stats
Pretty even game overall when you dig into the underlying stats. The Jets with more shot attempts and expected goals, the Flames with a small edge in high danger chances. The Flames, five on five, had 44% (37%/43%/60%) of the shot attempts, 47% of the high danger chances and 39% of the expected goal split. In all situations they had 48% of the shot attempts, 52% of the high danger chances, and 47% of the goal split.
The Flames with 38% on the Moneypuck deserve-to-win-o’meter.
Individually, the Flames were led by Adam Klapka with an xGF% of 86% on the night. He was joined in the 80s by linemate Ryan Lomberg at 81%. Rasmus Andersson as in the 60s. Five players under 30% on the night; Sam Honzek, Morgan Frost, Matt Coronato, Jonathan Huberdeau and Yan Kuznetsov.
