1) Last night the Calgary Flames continued their season-long trend of taking a step back every time it seemed like they were ready to start making some real progress.
The Flames were in the latter half of a back-to-back, so it's not fair to expect anything close to a dominant performance, but they were significantly out played in the first two periods by one of the worst teams in the Eastern Conference. The Sabres are a poor team to begin with so the Flames should have been able to at least tread water considering the injuries Buffalo is dealing with. That was not the case.
In the first two periods, before score effects ran their course in the 3rd, the Sabres out-chanced the Flames 11-3 at 5v5 and 20-6 overall. That shouldn't happen.
2) Over the last few games the Matthew Tkachuk - Mikael Backlund - Michael Frolik line and Mark Giordano - Dougie Hamilton pairing have been carrying the Flames. With those units on the ice the Flames have been fairly dominant while, for the most part, it's been a disaster when they've been on the bench catching a breather.
Using Game Score, which factors in a lot of different statistics such as goals, assists, points, hits, blocks, shot attempt differential and goal differential, the aforementioned line and defense pairing have been the Flames' best of late. Their worst line has been the one anchored by $44 million center Sean Monahan. He is playing the worst hockey I have seen from him since I started writing about the Flames.
As good as the '2nd line' is playing the Flames are going nowhere if Monahan doesn't get going.
3) By now I'm probably beating a dead horse but I continue to be impressed by how well Tkachuk is playing. He is skating alongside a couple excellent players but he is definitely holding his own on that line.
I tracked a lot of London games last season, and Tkachuk was always good at driving possession and playing through the neutral zone, so I shouldn't be surprised he's doing well in those areas. I can't say I expected this much this soon, though.
As it stands he currently leads the Flames in Shot Attempt For%, Scoring Chance For%, High-Danger Scoring Chance For% and has more points than Monahan, Giordano and Troy Brouwer, among others. He is playing fantastic hockey right now and definitely proving the Flames right for keeping him around.
Recent posts: The Flames' top players need to be better