Rough game last night. Despite a two goal rally in the second period to tie the score 2-2; the Calgary Flames just couldn’t get the puck past Jake Oettinger for the lead. Their best chance being a Micheal Stone opportunity that caught the shaft of Oettinger’s stick.
Tough luck, but the game could have played out as a win for either team.
In fact, it was the most even game of the series on the stat sheet. The Flames finished with 52.42% of the shot attempts, 12-10 in high danger opportunities and 38-40 in shots.
The combined three periods make it out to be fairly even, but a closer look reveals that the second period was not in favour of the Calgary Flames.
Flames in the Second Period of Game Six CF/CA: 9-16 (36%) Shots for-against: 9-17 HDCF-HDCA: 3-6
But do the stats alone tell the true story? As usual, no. The game loosened up after Michael Raffl scored on a low percentage shot. This game was unfortunately turned on a missed save by Jacob Markstrom. In a series where both goalies are performing at a .945 Sv% or higher; mistakes like that simply cannot happen.
Markstrom saves that shot and the game stays conservative and low percentage. What could have been.
Despite the stats and the goaltending, this game could have gone either way with a different bounce here or there. Best not to delve too deep into it.
The Flames and Stars will face off for the final game of the first round tomorrow at 7:30pm mst. Expect a different performance from several key players. More on that tomorrow.
Playing Hurt Every team in the playoffs has players working through injury. It’s obviously no excuse. That said, it certainly may explain the dip in quality performances from a few players.
Tkachuk One has to wonder if Matthew Tkachuk did something to his hand or wrist in either the fight with Michael Raffl or the two skirmishes with John Klingberg. His shooting had been a non-factor this series.
Considering he had 10 goals in his final 13 regular season games, it’s safe to assume something is up.
Mangiapane Another one in the hand/wrist department. Despite taking over in the fifth game, Mangiapane has been held scoreless in the other five. He was pointless in his last four regular season outings heading into the playoffs.
Tanev Certainly the most publicly injured, Tanev left the ice at 33:44 in the second period of last game and did not return. It takes quite a bit for Chris or the medical staff to make that call. An injured Tanev and an absent Zadorov could spell trouble for the Flames in game seven.
Toffoli One assist in six games and a -5 on the season. That’s not good. In 24 regular season games to finish the season: four goals. That’s really bad. He’s doing his best, but rolling him out on the first powerplay unit is plain stubborn at this point.
Zadorov Gets a Freebie Nikita Zadorov had a hearing with the Department of Player Safety today for his hit on Luke Glendening. A slap on the wrist is all that resulted in it. His 6’6… height makes hitting players such as Glendening, who is 5’11…, a bit of a challenge.
Also strange was that there was no call on the play. The Dallas Stars have received two minors this series for hits to the head. That kind of play should be a misconduct given the severity of it’s nature.
It’s now the waiting game. Tomorrow the Flames and Stars will conclude this first round series and both fanbases can collectively exhale. This sort of defensive matchup has been an extreme in terms of style of play. Until then, enjoy the three game sevens going on today. Flames fans are not alone. This first round has been rough on a handful of fanbases.
Take this with you. While it’s stressful to watch the stakes continue to increase, it could be worse. The last two Flames series included four and three game losing streaks. Maybe this one will only be limited to a two game losing streak.
That’s progress.
Trevor Neufeld
Stats via naturalstattrick and nhl.com
@Trevor_Neufeld