Five notes from Calgary vs Toronto:
1) I thought the Flames were horrible from start to finish and, all things considered, it was one of their worst performances of the season.
The Maple Leafs aren't exactly known as a stingy defensive team yet they held the Flames to 20 shots (a season low) and 21 chances (tied for the season low). The Flames struggled immensely to create scoring opportunities and the few times they broke through Frederik Andersen was there to make a big save.
At the other end of the ice, the Flames didn't fare much better. Their gaps were poor, they were caught out of position and running around in the defensive zone numerous times, and they were really sloppy breaking out of the zone.
I'm certainly not blaming Mike Smith for the loss – there were some weird bounces and the team was horrible in front of him – but he ended up with a sub .900 save percentage, which is rarely good enough to win.
Simply put, nothing went right for the Flames. Absolutely nothing. I mean, Roman freaking Polak scored.
Luckily, the Flames should be able to get back on track in a hurry as their next three games are against Arizona (31st), Edmonton (29th) and Philadelphia (have lost nine of 10).
2) I don't want to pile on Travis Hamonic because the poor guy is trying so hard, but the own-goal he scored is a perfect summary of how his season has gone thus far. He's just never settled in and looked comfortable over the span of multiple games and everything that could go wrong, has. I don't know if he's still fighting injuries, or things are getting to his head, but he has not played well at all. I think he'd benefit from being more aggressive, especially in the neutral zone, because giving opposing teams miles of space to work with and free entries over and over is clearly not a good way to play defense.
3) I'm #TeamBrettKulak but, man, he struggled against Toronto. He made some sloppy plays with the puck and was Calgary's worst defenseman in terms of possession. I still think he's much better than Matt Bartkowski, and don't agree with making decisions based on one game, but I wouldn't be surprised if the latter gets back into the lineup vs Arizona.
4) On a positive note, the 3M line was good once again. They generally controlled play at 5v5 and posted a plus-7 scoring chance differential, which is pretty good considering the team was out-chanced. Mikael Backlund had a handful of good looks and the best chance of the night probably came off the stick of Matthew Tkachuk. They just couldn't convert.
5) The Flames really need to do something about their bottom-6. The 3rd line has been generating chances but they give up more than they get – especially without Jaromir Jagr – and the 4th line has been absolutely useless all season. Kris Versteeg, Troy Brouwer, Freddie Hamilton, Matt Stajan, Tanner Glass and Curtis Lazar have all spent good chunks of time on L4 and they've combined to contribute seven 5v5 points in 92 games.
If this continues, the Flames are going to have to make some changes sooner than later. Maybe give Andrew Mangiapane a shot? If you don't want to rush him, perhaps recall Marek Hrivik, who showed well with the Rangers last year and has 18 points in 16 games with Stockton. Maybe even make a waiver claim if someone interesting pops up in the coming days.
Just do something, anything, because this group is not getting it done.
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