Five takeaways from Calgary's disappointing opening night loss in Vancouver:
1. The power play was horrendous Though the Flames broke in four new regulars on the man advantage – and had a different coach running the operation – it closely resembled the disaster we saw nightly last season.
They really struggled to navigate their way through the neutral zone and gain the opposing line with the puck. Whenever they did, they'd quickly squander possession – or lose a battle – and be forced to regroup all over again.
The final numbers were as ugly as you'd expect. The Flames went 0/7 and managed just four scoring chances. They couldn't get the puck into dangerous areas, which meant settling for a lot of perimeter shots – as evidenced by Mark Giordano accounting for 50%(!) of the shots on goal and 46% of their attempts while up a man.
Vancouver has a really good penalty kill, as I talked about in the preview, but you'd still expect a lot better given the personnel the Flames can trot out there.
2. The Flames showed well at 5v5 As bad as the power play was, the Flames still deserved better last night. Why? They were the far better side at 5v5.
The Flames won the high-danger chance battle 19-10 (65.52 HDCF%) in that gamestate. They did a terrific job of working the puck down low and getting good looks around the net (if only they could do that on the PP).
Naturally, all those net-front chances resulted in only one goal while the Canucks made good on most of theirs.
3. 2M is back Though Austin Czarnik seemed to give the 2nd line a little more pep than Michael Frolik did, the Matthew Tkachuk-Mikael Backlund duo was dominant regardless of who played right wing.
They logged 11:31 together at 5v5. In that time, the Flames out-attempted the Canucks 19-4, out-chanced them 11-3 and out-scored them 1-0.
Tkachuk-Backlund was one of the best two-way duos in the league last season and they picked up where they left off last night.
4. Noah Hanifin impressed Of the seven players debuting as Flames, I thought Hanifin stood out the most. I'm not sure it was even close. His passing was really crisp, his skating was fluid – as usual – and he didn't hesitate to take the puck and go with it. He helped create the team's opening goal as a result.
Hanifin's individual and on-ice numbers were fantastic as well. He recorded five shot attempts, four chances, and led all players with a ludicrous +16(!) on-ice chance differential.
He looked like a guy ready to take a big step forward, which the Flames really need.
5. A slow start from Mike Smith Though the Flames didn't give much in terms of quantity, they did hand the Canucks a few Grade A chances on a platter. That makes life difficult on any goaltender.
In saying that, Smith faced only 22 shots against a team severely lacking shooting talent. Vancouver's two high-end offensive players – Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson – accounted for just one of those shots. And yet Smith still only managed a .818 save percentage while conceding four times.
I don't mean to pile on the guy but that's a bad night any way you slice it. Making matters worse is it comes on the heels of an awful preseason, which followed up a tough 2nd half.
Numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com Recent posts: Notes on Dube, Mangiapane, prioritizing skill, and the Kulak trade