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Senators 4, Flames 3: One step forward, two steps back |
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Follow me on Twitter @ToddCordell
Five observations from Calgary vs Ottawa:
1. Darryl Sutter has work to do. Lots of it, at that. I thought the Flames played well for long stretches against the Oilers. I understand fatigue could’ve been a factor but last night was a massive step in the wrong direction. They started slow (again) and looked lifeless for a lot of the first 40 minutes. It was a lot of the same issues (puck management, little support, etc.) that plagued them. Ottawa is one of the worst teams in the league and the Flames were at home in desperate need of two points. To play with so little juice, and urgency, is unfathomable. Sutter is going to have to push a lot of buttons to get these guys going in the right direction. There are so many bad habits to rectify.
2. The power play was truly horrendous. Calgary’s PP has struggled for much of the season. I think Sunday night was a new low, though. It has to be. Ottawa took penalty after penalty after penalty after penalty after penalty. A team never parades to the box to that extent; not in today’s NHL, where few calls are made and refs tend to even things up sooner than later. And the Flames couldn’t take advantage. They went 1-for-8 on the power play and were pathetically sloppy. Forget creating chances in the offensive zone; the Flames couldn’t even get possession and set their offense. It rarely felt like they were any threat to score. Despite playing poorly for much of the game, the Flames could have won in regulation – easily – if they had any sort of execution on the PP. Apparently, that was too much to ask. Calgary has a lot of time off prior to the next game. They best spend a lot of it working on their power play. There is simply no reason for that kind of talent to be so ineffective.
3. Young Sam Bennett impressed. He started on the 4th line but moved up the lineup and spent a lot of time with Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan as well. Regardless of which unit he was on, the Flames were on their front foot. Attempts were 20-6 and chances were 9-1 with Bennett on the ice at 5v5. He generated a bunch of looks around the net and was one of the few who played with real urgency throughout. Sutter wasn’t behind the bench, obviously, but Bennett sure seemed determined to make a good impression. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sutter carves out an important role for Bennett.
4. Jacob Markstrom looked a little off. I’m not pinning the loss on him by any stretch – the Flames were sloppy, there were some strange deflections, and Calgary’s PP could’ve won the game on 20 different occasions – but he did not play to his usual standards. He seemed to have some difficult tracking pucks and his positioning just wasn’t right. On Tim Stuetzle’s shootout goal, for example, Markstrom’s angles were way off and it made scoring a goal a formality. I understand why the Flames went back to him – he’s their workhorse and David Rittich has played inconsistently – but starting goaltenders in a B2B is generally -EV and we saw some of the reasons why.
5. The save of the game. In a contest featuring two goaltenders making at least $6 million per season, you’d think the highlight of the night save would come from one of them. Nope! Markstrom had a mishap playing the puck and got caught out of his net. Juuso Valimaki noticed as much and scrambled back to the net-front, where he made a diving leg save to prevent a goal and keep the Flames in it.
numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com
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