If you had any doubts heading into tonight that this could be a rough season, the outcome in the home opener may have pushed some doubt into your imagery.
Three Seattle first period goals, two more in the second and a final one in the third as the Seattle Kraken cruise to an easy 6-1 win in the last home opener at the Saddledome.
The Flames gave up too much, created too little, took too many penalties, made unforced errors, fell down … not a great night.
83 to go!
The Lineup
Ryan Huska left his lineup together all preseason (well all is a stretch as it was only 10 days), and those concrete lines are exactly what we will see tonight.
On the blueline it’s Kevin Bahl with newcomer Simon Nemec, Yan Kuznetsov with Zach Whitecloud, and Jake Middleton with Zayne Parekh; both Joel Hanley and Brayden Pachal get the night off.
Up front last year’s concluding fourth line held together with Morgan Frost between Matt Coronato and Matvei Gridin, Mikael Backlund with Sam Honzek and Joel Farabee, Ryan Strome with Connor Zary and Yegor Sharangovich, and a fourth line of Martin Pospisil between Adam Klapka and Maxim Tsyplakov. Brendan Othman takes a seat.
An in goal Dustin Wolf starting with Devin Cooley backing him up.
Stats Dive
A new season with a new roster.
The Flames sit 28th in the league in age with only Anaheim, Chicago and Montreal being younger.
They’re a tall team averaging 6’2″, which ties them for first in the NHL with quite a few teams. Shortest teams are Colorado, Minnesota and Chicago.
They’re not that thick, with an average weight of 194 pounds good for least heaviest in the circuit tied with Pittsburgh, Colorado and Chicago.
The youth is served across the roster with the team having the 5th youngest defense corps and the 4th youngest goalie tandem.
Only four players are 30 or greater; Mikael Backlund, Joel Hanley, Ryan Strome and Jake Middleton.
Wolf’s Start
He battled.
His stat line won’t look good in the summary but he was pretty much abandoned on the night.
A first period with three goals against on six shots, but then he was a save factory the rest of the way.
One he likely would like to put behind him given the goals against start to his season, but clearly not his fault.
It will be interesting to see what they do on the weekend with back to backs.
Odds and Sods
Great opening video before the player introductions. I’m sure every fan in the city saw a game that they were at live in that montage, many more than one. The Flames video crew has certainly come a long way. Openings like that but also the youtube show called the Chase. Quality stuff. … Also noticed just how few single digit numbers are in play on a modern NHL roster. …
The Flames took the queue from the video guys and also started with some quality, hemming the Kraken in and going to work early. … It’s interesting to watch the differences between Zayne Parekh and Simon Nemec. The former takes the puck and goes, and gets attention with puck movement. The latter more quiet, but also stealthy as he creeps around the ice finding the open spaces. It’s going to be a fun season with both players. … Seattle with two quick goals to silence the fans; the first on a powerplay and the second 30 seconds later. … The fourth line had a solid first period after a great preseason. That line won’t be a problem. …
Flames take three straight penalties to start the second period, two of which came from Joel Farabee, the second of which was a terrible call. … Calgary shuts down Seattle on all three to keep the game reasonably close … Pretty much what we expected right? The Flames just don’t have the horses. When they do generate they don’t finish. Work hard, but not much to show for it. … No scoring in the second, and the Kraken outshoot the Flames 12-8, which is honestly not bad given the powerplay minutes came out 8-0 for the Kraken. Tough enough five on five! … I love me some Kelly Hrudey, simply a great human. He’ll be missed. Having said that Kevin Sawyer is a step up when it comes to colour work. More technical and better timing perhaps?
Calgary with a good start to the third. Parekh with a great move in the slot and a back pass to Zary that just misses. … Moments later Whitecloud and Kuznetsov clip skates sending both players down and a breakaway for the Kraken who put the game away. Tough home opener. … In my estimation Connor Zary needs to move the puck quicker. He’s be more effective. When he gets the puck he tends to keep it and it’s pretty predictable … Not a lot of third period push back from the Flames in a 5-0 game. Pretty much accepted their fate …
Fancy Stats The Flames actually had a decent start territorially before completely folding the tent in the last half of the game. The Flames gave up nine high danger chances in the third period. That’s a normal full game result. The Flames, five on five, had 56% (66%/57%/50%) of the shot attempts, 46% of the high danger chances and 44% of the expected goal split. In all situations they had 48% of the shot attempts, 39% of the high danger chances, and 39% of the expected goal split.
The Flames with 0% on the Moneypuck deserve-to-win-o’meter.
Individually, the Flames were led by Matvei Gridin with an xGF% of 60% on the night. Only four other Flames were above the breakeven mark; Morgan Frost, Matt Coronato, Kevin Bahl and Simon Nemec in his Flames debut. The fourth line brought up the rear with roughly 20% a piece. Seven players were under 40%.
