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The Calgary Flames were back in action on Tuesday night after a brief break from the regular NHL schedule as the All-Star Weekend was in full swing in Columbus. It was a fun weekend, for some at least, and it was nice to see the players have some fun in a different environment.
Calgary's very own Mark Giordano and Johnny Gaudreau were selected to participate in the weekend festivities, too. But last night, the Flames hit the ice against the league's worst Buffalo Sabres to kick off the second half of the season, and they started on a good note!
All things considered, last night would go down as being a “fun game…. The team continues to have questions around whether or not they can maintain their success, and the guys who needed to post up points, did! Mr. Johnny “Hockey… Gaudreau was able to pot two goals for the Flames in a 4-1 win over Buffalo as the Flames improved their playoff chances by two points.
In terms of how things broke down, I wouldn't consider the first period as a quick paced opening frame, but granted the two teams haven't played in a while and that's something you would expect.
Both the Flames and Sabres would get on the board to send the game into the first intermission tied 1-1, thanks to goals from Buffalo's Chris Stewart and Calgary's Gaudreau. The Flames would outshoot the Sabres 8-5 after twenty minutes of play and didn’t appear to have a great deal of confidence.
The second period would see no goals, and only one penalty to Buffalo's Brian Flynn who served a two-minute minor for delay-of-game after shooting the puck over the glass. The Flames were not able to convert on the man advantage and the game would remain tied 1-1 after two periods of play. Again, things weren’t looking great up until this point.
That being said, the third and final period of the game would see Calgary unload offensively, scoring three goals. Josh Jooris would give the Flames a 2-1 lead after Joe Colborne rushed the puck to the net, bouncing off a Buffalo defenceman's skate and right to Jooris, where he would sneak it by Enroth.
A few minutes later, Colborne would find a way to score a rebound past Enroth to give the Flames a 3-1 edge over the Sabres. And shortly after Gaudreau would score his second of the game after a nice feed from Jiri Hudler to make it 4-1.
It was nice to see Colborne get up on the scoreboard as he’s been somewhat, well, absent in recent games which he’s been known to do from time to time. I still have hope for this kid to become an asset among the Flames roster, and hope he can find some more consistency in his game.
After all things were said and done, the Flames were able to outshoot the Sabres 31-18 and with Tuesday's win, they are now 26-19-3 with 55 points and sit fourth in the Pacific Division, holding on to a tight race in the Western Conference playoff hunt.
Around this time of the year I typically set a bench mark of around 10 games following the AllStar break. What I mean is that how teams do following the break over a ten game sample I find offers whether or not they have a chance at playoffs or not.
Teams who start to slow down or ramp up will often either take their game to the next level and pick up where others begin to slack. With that being established, 1-0-0 so far for the good guys!
The Flames are back in action on Thursday when they take on the Minnesota Wild.