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Five notes from Calgary vs Philadelphia:
1) Despite the loss, I thought the Flames played fairly well and were deserving of a better result. They outshot the Flyers in all three frames – and out-chanced them by 15 – but, simply put, nothing would go their way. There were several times in the game where they created waves of chances and Brian Elliott stopped them all, only for play to go down the ice and the Flyers to convert on the first decent opportunity they had.
The best way to summarize the game is the Flyers getting, and converting on, a power play opportunity because Andrew MacDonald high-sticked his own player in the face. It was just one of those nights for the Flames. The problem is that's been said pretty frequently of late.
2) Gather 'round, gather 'round. We're going to sit down and have a little talk about Mike Smith. He was fantastic – fantastic! – for the Flames early in the season but his game has fallen off a cliff over the last month or so. Smith has started 12 games since November 5th. He posted a sub .900 save percentage in eight of those games. Were there nights where some unlucky goals found their way into the net? Absolutely. Were there nights where the Flames didn't play great in front of him. You bet. In saying that, you can't win games with any regularity when your goaltender posts a sub .900SV% and that's often been the case of late. I don't know if Smith is tired, fighting injuries, or simply regressing after playing over his head in October, but the Flames won't win many games if the goaltending doesn't improve.
3) On a positive note, Sam Bennett probably played his best game of the season. He was flying around the ice with confidence and routinely was able to get the puck into dangerous areas. He had an assist, fired a game-high eight shots on goal, and recorded a game-high six scoring chances, despite seeing only six seconds of power play time. He's now quietly riding a four-game point streak and may very well be playing the best hockey of his career.
4) Sticking with the 3rd line, I thought Mark Jankowski had another good night. As usual, he was very dangerous around the net and was able to create a handful of really good scoring opportunities. Among 319 eligible forwards (200+ 5v5 minutes), Jankowski ranks 17th in scoring chances/60 and leads the Flames in that regard. He's a big-time chance generator and has been able to take advantage of softer matchups on a nightly basis.
5) Another game, another easy power play goal for the opposing team. I don't know how the Flames' penalty kill went from really good in 2016-17 to really bad in 2017-18 using essentially the same personnel, but they sure found a way. The Flames rank 26th in chances against/60 and 28th in goals against/60 while killing penalties, which is somehow better than I expected. They really need to figure things out because a bad PK + a struggling goaltender is not a good recipe for success.
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