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Takeaways from the Calgary Flames preseason openers

September 17, 2019, 11:23 AM ET [58 Comments]
Todd Cordell
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The Calgary Flames played a pair of preseason games against the Vancouver Canucks on Monday night.

The star-studded lineup, despite vastly outshooting the Canucks, lost at home while the watered down version picked up a win in Victoria. Go figure.

I was able to watch (and track) the latter game so I’m going to focus on that one, however, I will share some noteworthy stats from the one in Calgary.

Flames @ Canucks

1) Austin Czarnik needs to have a great camp to hold down his spot. He certainly got off on the right foot last night. I thought he was dominant throughout the game and the numbers certainly back that up. He scored twice, recorded a game-high seven shots on goal, and picked up three shot assists at 5v5. Czarnik made a couple really nice passes through small seams. He toe-dragged around defenders to create his own shot. He did whatever he wanted, really. I thought both of his linemates – Mark Jankowski and Tobias Rieder – excelled as well but Czarnik was the best of the bunch.

2) I do want to touch on Rieder, too. His passing was very good all night. He finished tied for 1st on the team with five shot assists at 5v5. His speed was a factor, and he did some good work on the penalty kill. Rieder failed to convert on a couple good chances – finishing was a big issue for him last season as well – but, overall, I liked what I saw.

3) Dillon Dube looked like a guy ready to force his way onto the roster. He showed good burst with and without the puck. He won more than his share of battles and made life miserable by hounding the carrier every chance he had. Dube assisted on three shots, recorded four of his own, and buried the opening goal of the game on a nice feed from Matthew Phillips.

4) Rasmus Andersson looked smooooooth (not just because he was wearing an ‘A’ and had great hair). It felt like he put all but one or two outlet attempts right on the tape for teammates. He jump started a lot of rushes. He also used J.T. Miller’s head to score a goal, which feels like an accomplishment of sorts. He’s ready for October.

5) Dmitry Zavgorodniy and Adam Ruzika both impressed me. Despite playing limited minutes, they created quite a bit of offense. Zav had four shot assists, good for 3rd on the team, and Ruzika recorded five (tied for 1st). They’re not going to contend for a roster spot this year, obviously, but it’s good that they didn’t look overwhelmed against a Vancouver side dressing quite a few NHLers.

6) Artyom Zagidulin played great during his ~30 minutes of action. He stopped all 15 shots he faced and made a couple nice flurries of saves where he showed good athleticism and concentration. I’m excited to see more of him.

7) Though the Flames won, and controlled much of the play, it wasn’t a perfect night across the board. I thought Alex Yelesin was pretty mediocre for a guy trying to chase down an NHL job. Tyler Parsons allowed three goals on 19 shots (.842 SV%), allowing the Canucks to get back in the game while pushing down the stretch.

8) Shot attempts were not available for the game – something I didn’t know at the time – so I only tracked shot assists. I still want to share the numbers, though, so here are the raw totals sorted by line and pairing.

Rieder - 5
Jankowski - 4
Czarnik - 3

Dube - 3
Quine - 2
Phillips - 2

Lomberg - 3
Froese - 1
Robinson - 1

Kirkland - 2
Ruzika - 5
Zagorodniy - 4

Kylington - 3
Andersson - 1

Davidson - 1
Stone - 2

Nielsen - 0
Yelesin - 0

Flames vs Canucks

1) Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, and Elias Lindholm remain very much a thing. The Flames controlled better than 80% of the 5v5 shot attempts with that trio on the ice. Bill Peters is going to have a very tough time even considering breaking them up, and using Lindholm at center, come October.

2) Michael Frolik quietly had a very strong season last year despite the decrease in ice time. He picked up right where he left off, scoring a goal and easily leading the team with eight scoring chances against the Canucks. Considering the likely return for a veteran player a year removed from free agency, I think the Flames would be better off keeping Frolik than dealing him. It’ll be interesting to see what they do.

3) Cameron Talbot, my friend. I defended you all summer. Did you really need to go out and post a .667SV% while blowing a 3rd period lead in your debut? But seriously, hopefully he can get back on track in the coming games and feel good about himself heading into the season. The Flames are going to need him for 30+ games even if David Rittich separates himself as the starter.

4) Numbers of note for PTO guys: Zac Rinaldo had a 69 CF% and led the team with six hits. Devante Smith-Pelly had a 71 CF% and finished 2nd with five hits. That’s great! Unfortunately, I think those numbers will dip, like, 30% when they face some real competition.

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