A few notes from Calgary vs Los Angeles:
1) The Flames once again started the game sluggishly and found themselves in a 2-0 hole as a result. I don't know what the deal with that is, and why it happens so frequently, but credit to them for responding as well as they possibly could have in the final 40 minutes. The Kings are fantastic defensively – there's a reason no team has allowed fewer goals – and yet the Flames generated chance after chance after chance in the 2nd period and, to a lesser extent, the 3rd with little resistence. As the heat map shows, the Flames had no problem getting shots off in high-danger areas and they were rewarded accordingly. That was a really big win for them.
2) I thought the top line looked as good as we've seen in weeks, if not months. Johnny Gaudreau was darting around the ice and using creative passes to set up quality looks for teammates, Sean Monahan was his usual self living around the net, and piling up the shots from in tight, and Micheal Ferland was bulldozing his way through everybody with the puck on his stick. All three guys brought their best games to the table and when that happens, they're pretty much unstoppable regardless of who they're going up against.
3) Mark Giordano continues to be a lot more involved offensively on a nightly basis. He was shooting anything and everything as he piled up nine shot attempts – seven of which hit the target. He's now recorded 9+ attempts in six of his last eight games after doing it just twice in the first 32. It sure seems like the Flames are making a more concerted effort to put his shot to use and I think that's a good thing.
4) If Jaromir Jagr is out of the picture for a while, and it sure looks like that's the case, I think Andrew Mangiapane should definitely get a look on the 2nd line with Matthew Tkachuk and Mikael Backlund. Mangiapane had as many shot attempts as Troy Brouwer did last night in six less minutes of ice and I think he has the speed and skillset to compliment 2/3 of the 3M line rather than slow them down. We know what Brouwer can do and, though he scored last night, it's generally not much. We don't know what Mangiapane is capable of so why not find out?
5) As expected, the 3rd line had another strong night feasting on the highly mediocre bottom-6 of the Kings. The puck was often in Los Angeles' end when they were on the ice and they did get a goal to show for it as Mark Jankowski banged in a rebound out of the air. It's amazing a struggling player in Bennett, a rookie in Jankowski, and a guy who looked like a fringe NHLer last year have teamed up to be one of the better depth lines in the league.
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