What a treat last night’s game was. As the Flames have continued to take steps forward, they’ve seemingly still had an Achilles Heel in being unable to solve some of the league’s hotter goalies. Given the team’s ability to score early this season, Flames fans had to be worried after the Penguins managed to keep the score 0-0 after ten minutes. A ten minutes that included an onslaught of chances on net. Tristan Jarry, who now has a .982 save percentage in his last six games, managed to close the door amidst his team scrambling in front of him.
Hats off to the hottest goalie in the league.
A 65 minute game
The Flames outplayed the Penguins from minute one to sixty five. You have to cherish times like these. They don’t come often for Flames fans. The Flames kept the Penguins cased in their own end of the ice for nearly the entire game. Chances for don’t tell the whole story, but they certainly provide evidence to support claims. Take a look at the CF% last night courtesy of naturalstattrick.com:
A new look OT
Was anyone else happy to see the Flames take a different approach to OT possession? Most notably the work of Chris Tanev. He retreated and regrouped three times and took the offensive zone clean on all three. At one point he took it all the way back from the Pen’s side of the neutral zone to behind the Flames net.
Dropping games in OT has been an issue for a team once known for their 3-on-3 dominance. Great to see the team put some work into addressing it.
Crosby not 100%
While Sid the Kid had some moments last game; most notably a deke that proverbially broke Oliver Kylington’s ankles and sent him sliding into the boards, he wasn’t looking like his normal self. Four takeaways and five shots on net are good statistics, but here’s hoping Cole Harbour’s finest gets back to 100% soon. He did have a nice faceoff win to get the assist on the Penguins tip-in power play goal.
Up next:
The Flames play future acquisition Anze Kopitar and the 9-8-3 LA Kings on Thursday. I have my suspicions that Drew Doughty is returning to the lineup before he’s fully healthy in order to make a case for himself to make the Olympic team. He is almost guaranteed to be extremely tightly wound.
Meanwhile, Brendan Lemieux has rekindled an old rivalry with the Tkachuk brothers with a bite to Brady’s hand. Matthew proceeded to called him a number of choice words. OHL fans can attest that Matthew and Brendan don’t like each other.
Here’s what Matthew had to say on Lemieux:
“I know [Lemieux] is not a very well liked guy and that shows it right there.”
Them’s fightin’ words.
Trevor Neufeld
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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