The Calgary Flames made a living off come from behind wins in the 3rd period a season ago.
On Tuesday night they were given an unfriendly reminder that this is not 2014-15 as eight minutes into the 3rd Jaromir Jagr gave the Florida Panthers a 4-3 lead and the Flames were unable to mount a comeback.
Notes:
1) What's more discouraging than dropping two points against a struggling Panthers team (they won just two of 10 prior to Tuesday's game) is how the Flames did it. They struggled in possession once again as they generated just 45.5% of the even-strength shot attempts against one of the NHL's worst possession teams in the early going.
After a good stretch where the Flames out shot and out possessed their opponents on a nightly basis they have now generated 45.7% or less of the shot attempts in three consecutive games. Their score adjusted Corsi has been 49% or less in each game, too, so it's not just score effects (i.e. sitting back when leading) bringing their numbers down.
Hopefully for the Flames this trend doesn't continue because they won't win many games if it does.
2) Johnny Gaudreau was held pointless for just the 5th time this season but even so I thought he played a very good game. Johnny Hockey had four shots, five scoring chances and six shot attempts at even-strength alone. The guy is a beast.
3) How about this stretch pass from Matt Stajan? Beautiful.
What a perfect stretch pass from Stajan. https://t.co/mioL4LIjXB
— Todd Cordell (@ToddCordell) November 11, 20154) I don't know what has gotten into Joe Colborne but he's been playing some good hockey of late. He has points in consecutive games and has been a lot more dangerous with the puck than in recent games. He's not a very physical player - that's fine - but I like that he's using his size more to get around defenders and protect the puck while driving the net. He needs to continue doing that.
5) A couple goals were unstoppable so it'd be unfair to pin the loss solely on Karri Ramo but it's real difficult to win games when your goaltender stops 87% of the shots he faces. This has happened way too often this season and it's killing the Flames.
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