An off night for Calgary’s defence led to a a disappointing 5-3 loss last night at the SAP Arena.
It wasn’t just the bottom pairing It would be nice to blame the bottom pairing for the entire loss, but there were mistakes from all three pairings. Hanifin lost Karlsson on the Sharks’ second goal. Every defense recorded at least a giveaway* and the entire blue line lost tempo in the third. That said, Zadorov and Gudbranson had a rough game. The game is entirely different without two Sharks powerplay goals. One of the two were in the box for cross checking penalties when the Sharks scored those markers. To be fair, Gudbranson’s “crosscheck… was about as weak of a call as it gets.
Then the same pairing fails to clear it on the Sharks’ game winning goal. Just a rough night for them. Maybe that’s as much as one needs to read into it.
Zadorov seems to need heavily sheltered minutes if he is out of the lineup the game prior. It’s usually hard to disagree with Sutter’s coaching decisions. Zadorov on the penalty kill is a “strong disagree… from this writer.
Speaking of those two.
How is Valimaki doing in Stockton? Two games into his time in Stockton Jusso Valimaki had three points and a +3 at 5-on-5 — good for highest points per game on the team. He was called back up to Calgary after asserting himself in a two game sample. He even appeared on the game sheet last night. Looks like the Valimaki saga will continue in the immediate future.
Based on Sutter’s comments after the game: maybe Valimaki won’t be eating popcorn in the player’s box when the Flames play the Hurricanes tomorrow.
Not a strong game for the Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman line This line seemed to be missing a step at 5v5. Outpaced 3-1 in high danger chances and 9-2 in scoring chances — something seemed off. Backlund made a bad mistake in the first on the PK — his stick broke and he abandoned the 5-on-4 to get a new one. Tomà¡s Hertl had all the time he needed to walk into the empty coverage and wire one home for San Jose’s first goal.
Ruzicka At 15:29 of the second period rookie center Adam Ruzicka scored his first NHL goal after jamming away at his own rebound in front of goalie Adin Hill. Great to see the 22 year old from Bratislava, Slovakia get on the board. If only the game had ended right there when the Flames went up 3-1. Richardson and Lewis did some nice work getting the puck back to Chris Tanev who got the shot on net for the rebound.
Explanations? Both the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames have went on losing streaks after having a night off in Vegas. Coincidence? Let’s be honest. Not a chance. A night off in Sin City without wives or kids in tow is probably looked forward to all year. That’s one theory to consider as to why the Flames haven’t been up to speed the last two games.
The four day break may be a factor too given the Flames previous history of season turning breaks from hockey. In 2018, the Flames were on a seven game winning streak, took their bye week then lost six in a row. In 2019, the Flames lost five of six following their week off. Stretches of days off seem to steal momentum from this core.
The Flames are back in the Dome tomorrow to play the 17-6-1 Carolina Hurricanes tomorrow at 7pm MST.
Drive safe. The roads in Calgary are slippery.
Trevor Neufeld
*nhl.com doesn’t list the Flames blue line as all recording giveaways and they’re just completely mismanaging the stat. They gave Gudbranson zero giveaways on the night. Take a look at the fourth flames goal. It doesn’t get more blatant. That and takeaways are entirely ignored by stats keepers.