1) Remember when the Calgary Flames had no goaltending depth and couldn't get a stop regardless of who was between the pipes?
Oh, how the times have changed.
Chad Johnson has cooled off over the last couple starts but he's been among the best goaltenders in the league this season. Brian Elliott is also better than he's shown.
In the event of an injury to one of those guys, they should have confidence one of their guys in Stockton can come up and give them a spot start if necessary.
Jon Gillies continues to recover nicely after missing the entire 2015-16 season with an injury. Gillies stopped 48 of 49(!) in a 3-1 win last night, has a .916 save percentage and owns a 9-3-3 record on the year.
Meanwhile rookie David Rittich has been lights out posting a .941 save percentage through 10 starts.
Given the fluctuation in goaltender performance on a year-to-year basis, it's important to have depth. The Flames have that.
2) The Flames' underlying numbers haven't been great of late, which I've noted several times. One way to improve them: trim the fat.
I like Garnet Hathaway more than Lance Bouma, for example, but neither player is particularly good at garnering positive results. Hunter Shinkaruk brings more to the table in terms of offense, as well as analytically.
I also don't understand why Jyrki Jokipakka continues to play while Brett Kulak was in and out of the lineup despite getting much better results.
Jokipakka looks lost defensively at times and brings almost nothing to the table on the offensive side of things (he has five points and 12 shots in 22 games).
On the year, the Flames are controlling ~45% of the shot attempts and 42% of the scoring chances at 5v5 with Jokipakka on the ice. He's last among Flames defenders in both categories, so it's not like he's bringing something to the table we're not seeing.
I thought Kulak was better than Jokipakka in terms of moving the puck and his underlying numbers (52.7 Corsi For%, 50.6% Scoring Chance For%) are much better. Get him back up here.
3) The Flames have hit a bit of a rough patch but their schedule is about to soften up in a big way.
In the next nine games, they play the Arizona Coyotes twice, the Vancouver Canucks twice, and the Colorado Avalanche twice. All three of them are among the very worst teams in the league in terms of pretty much every major statistic, either standard or advanced, you can look at. The Flames have a really good opportunity in front of them and they need to take advantage of it if they're serious about getting back into the playoffs this season.
4) I scouted Rasmus Andersson a million times during his OHL career -- I'm based out of Barrie so it was easy to keep tabs -- and have always been a huge fan. I said at the draft the Flames got a steal in Andersson.
He hasn't done anything yet, obviously, but he has a very respectable 16 points and 40 shots in 24 games as a first-year pro. Those are very good totals for a 20-year-old blueliner. He's going to be a good one.
Recent posts: Flames handled by Blue Jackets, 5v5 struggles continue