Beyond the Boxscore: Calgary Flames get back to their identity, earn victory over Winnipeg Jets

Taken By Chance – Andrew Mangiapane (79.53 SCF% // 85.33 HDCF%%) had some swagger in this game – It’s not often his line gets into a slump but for a few games they weren’t finding the scoresheet. That ended in a big way as Coleman (78.11% // 80.52%) scored a beautiful tic-tac-toe goal to tie his career high and Mangiapane ripped home a quick shot off the rush to give the team some third period insurance. On the back-end Rasmus Andersson (62.34% // 58.67%) had my favourite offensive play of the afternoon. He picked up a pass that bounced off Monahan’s skate, faked like he was pulling the puck in for a shot and dished it off to Huberdeau (76.27% // 64.46%).

xG Breakdown – 

xGF% – Kuzmenko (4.88%) won’t work regularly with Rooney (6.90%) – the players Kuzmenko needs to find success have to have a little more offensive juice to them. There was always going to be rough games, that came with Kuzmenko when they traded for him, the real question moving forward is if the Flames can work with him to grow through these rough patches. What is the response going to be? It’ll be interesting to watch. Nazem Kadri (42.09%) despite finishing on the south of the quality share was a primary reason for a whole bunch of the offence. His dish to Mangiapane for the fifth goal was right on the tape after a zone entry where he pushed back the defenceman and took the centre lane of the ice.

Game Flow – 

Game Score –

Shot Heatmap – 

In The Crease – Markstrom got no help on the powerplay goals against as Monahan was allowed to freely whack at loose pucks with little resistance. Outside of that he was stellar at 5v5 making some classic Markstrom saves to keep the Flames in the game. The veteran netminder never let himself get phased as he immediately bounced back from some off nights. 1.60 expected goals against and only one of them being a high danger 5v5 goal – quality stuff from him. I believe that makes it win 100 in 200 games as a Flame for him.

The Goals – 

The best goal of the night, so glad to have Kylington back.

Flashalytic’s 3 Stars –  

1) Andrew Mangiapane

2) Jonathan Huberdeau

3) Nazem Kadri

(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)