Five takeaways from Calgary's bounce-back win over Washington:
1) The Capitals were playing in the latter half of a road back-to-back, as well as their third game in four nights overall, and it definitely showed.
The Flames skated the Caps into the ground for the majority of the contest and, though it was never more than a one-goal game, it never felt like the Caps had a realistic chance at winning.
There were a couple questionable calls (again) that gave the Caps a bit of life, but the Flames did a good job of regaining control of the game as soon as it was back to 5v5.
In that game state, the Flames out-attempted the Capitals by 19, out-chanced them by 10 and did a great job of generating consistent looks around the net.
2) The Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Micheal Ferland line was firing on all cylinders and, for my money, played their best game of the year. Gaudreau was his usual self dissecting the defense with crisp passes and sharp cuts, Monahan potted his 6th of the season, and Ferland led the way -- by a mile -- with seven(!!) scoring chances at 5v5. As a trio, they combined for 13 5v5 chances, which is insane given the Capitals' entire roster tallied 18.
3) The 3M line didn't get on the scoresheet but I thought they were very effective once again, especially as the game wore on. They did a nice job of chewing clock while cycling the puck down low and, on one occasion, extended zone time led to an icing call, which allowed the Flames to put fresh bodies on the ice against exhausted competition to continue to bleed the clock dry.
Defending a lead by eating time off the clock 101: pic.twitter.com/Brpf1ZerRL
— Mike Pfeil (@mikeFAIL) October 30, 2017
Now that is how you defend a lead.
4) Mike Smith didn't face many Grade A chances but he quietly had another strong start stopping 30-31 and pushing his save percentage up to .931 on the season. By my count, he's given the Flames a legitimate chance to win in 10 of his 11 starts and has even stolen a few games along the way. The Flames have to be thrilled with what they've seen from him thus far.
5) Brett Kulak certainly looked the part of an NHL defender vs the Caps. Not only did he not continuously throw away possessions by wiring pucks off the glass or down the ice -- the Matt Bartkowski special! -- but he actually made plays with the puck. He helped create one of the two goals and the Flames out-chanced the Caps 7-3 with him on the ice at 5v5. Keep him in the lineup.