The Calgary Flames came out flat footed against one of the most high-octane attacks in the entire league and paid dearly for it. The Hurricanes were too much for the Flames and spent long stretches attacking in prolonged waves. A rough road back-to-back for the Flames, but the Hurricanes never cut them any slack. Calgary can now come back home, recuperate, and get ready to play the electrified Avalanche on Tuesday night.
CF% – 29.84%, SCF% – 37.39%, HDCF% – 30.51%, xGF% – 33.33%
It’s a Team Game – Look, stinkers are going to happen when you try and retool your roster. I would much rather this kind of thing happen against a team as good as the Hurricanes rather than come out flat like this against a lottery contender. The Flames themselves did recover and play some serviceable hockey for a stretch, but the start was so bad there was no chance to overcome it. Passes weren’t connecting and the Hurricanes were picking off any attempts to stretch the puck up the ice for breaks. A relentless forecheck never gave the young defence time to think and the result is mistakes. I don’t think anybody should be particularly upset with the outcome, this is more of a one-off performance and it’s doubtful this level of play continues.
Corsi King – Dryden Hunt (39.79%) being the top guy in terms of just shot attempts for and against is not what you want to see. Kudos to him for being one of the guys able to generate some offence – that shot was perfectly placed at the right velocity. Only one guy had under 10 chances against him and that was Jakob Pelletier (38.89%) who played the second least in terms of 5v5 ice time. Not critiquing that, just pointing out that’s probably why. MacKenzie Weegar (37.10%) may have seen 34 attempts against, but he countered that with being the only guy to help get over 20 for the Flames as well.
Under Pressure –
Taken By Chance – Deep within the numbers hid a real positive that was kind of surprising to find. New guy Daniil Miromanov (42.00 SCF% // 79.05 HDCF%) had the biggest disparity in terms of high danger looks… on the positive side of the puck. Amidst back-to-back dud games the new guy nobody really new about has stood out as a positive contributor. Good early start for him as the team plays its worst hockey since the bad start of the season. If you hear anyone using the Flames young D as an excuse just a reminder the guy struggling against the top competition is Rasmus Andersson (33.61% // 8.69%) who doesn’t look himself. 10 high danger looks against while seeing involvement in just 1 himself.
xG Breakdown –
xGF% – Joel Hanley (68.09%) and Daniil Miromanov (56.87%) are examples of still being subjected to the mass amount of shot attempts against but being able to limit their danger quality and get a bit for their team as well. A bright spot in the middle of a dark afternoon. I could go on and talk about everyone else but it’s not going to do any good. When you ask for a team to restructure sometimes games like this will occur – so long as the rebound game shows the team can get back to the compete, they’ve shown the prior 60 games there is nothing to worry about.
Game Flow –
Game Score –
Shot Heatmap –
In The Crease – Dan Vladar hadn’t played too much of late after that run of games filling in for a brief Markstrom injury. This one wasn’t on him, but he also didn’t do a fine job of stopping shots from distance. There were five goals at 5v5 from outside the dangerous area in front of the crease. The best thing to do with this game is burn the tape.
The Goals –
Flashalytic’s 3 Stars –
1) Dryden Hunt
2) Daniil Miromanov
3) Kevin Rooney
(Stats compiled from Naturalstattrick.com // Game Score from Hockeystatcards.com // xG and Under Pressure charts from HockeyViz.com // Game Flow and Shot Heatmap from NaturalStatTrick.com)
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