The Calgary Flames are the hottest team in hockey. No, seriously.
After registering their fifth consecutive win - and ninth in a row on home soil - the Flames are tied with the Edmonton Oilers(!) as the league's hottest team with both teams on five-game winning streaks.
Some thoughts on their win over the New York Rangers:
1) Johnny Gaudreau was the best player on the ice in this game and I'm not sure it was close.
Gaudreau had two goals, an assist, six shots (game-high), five scoring chances (game-high) and three high-danger scoring chances (tied for a game-high), according to War-On-Ice.
What's most amazing about Gaudreau's recent play is not that he is piling up the points but how he is doing it. It seems like every night he's making a highlight-of-the-night-type play and we saw that again Saturday.
#nice pic.twitter.com/3B5zX7dlN0
— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) December 13, 20152) Michael Frolik continues to play good hockey and not be rewarded by head coach Bob Hartley. Frolik was one of the Flames' top possession players against the Rangers and made a beautiful saucer pass to Mason Raymond on his goal yet he barely played 14 minutes and four of them (most late) came while killing penalties.
Frolik played no less than 16:34 in his first 10 games as a Flame. He's reached that total four times in 19 games since.
3) The Flames continue to surrender power play goals on a nightly basis and there are plenty of reasons for that.
Among them is their inability to get the puck out when they have an opportunity to clear the zone and we saw that on Mats Zuccarello's game-tying-goal late in the 3rd period.
#NHL Success-rates when attempting to dump the puck out of the d-zone while short-handed @NHLFlames pic.twitter.com/zArrXfG2kv
— Christopher Boucher (@Chris_LogiQ) December 13, 20154) T.J. Brodie's last six games: seven points (at least one in each game) and a hair over 160 minutes of total ice. That's more than 26.5 minutes per game. He's playing exceptionally well right now and is a big reason the Flames have won five in a row.
5) Crazy fact of the day: the Flames won just eight of their first 24 games. Through 29 they sit just two points out of 2nd (or 3rd) in the Pacific Division and have a game in hand over both Vancouver and Arizona. There's still work to be done but, despite the Flames' disastrous start, they're within striking distance and that's all anyone can ask.
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