Before getting into how the Flames played and how they could have been better, it’s important to point out the effort Koskinen put forth last night. He’s isn’t the most talented goalie in the NHL and his confidence in himself has been diminishing as the losses piled on.
It’s nice to experience any player reach a turning point. As long as it’s just a 1B goalie on the Oilers.
Fast and loose
Word of the game last night was “sloppy”. It may sound like a broken record, but the Flames can’t afford to trade chances en lieu of keeping formation on any given night.
The foundation missing from the structure ended costing the Flames greatly. They need their defensemen lining the boards in order for a 2-1-2 or 1-2-2 to work. While he wasn’t the only guilty party, breakout defenseman Oliver Kylington got caught up in the fun of the game a bit too much.
Jumping into the play as a defenseman can be useful in a lot of ways. You can break a defence with a player pinching low to reverse the flow of an offensive cycle. You can overload coverage or even just get to the net for the extra target for the passer.
The issue lays more at how often you do it and when you do it. In a tie game with players like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on the ice— maybe rein it in.
When Ryan Pike asked of Kylington’s game, Head Coach Darryl Sutter had this to say:
“Well, we were playing against Connor McDavid and/or Leon Draisatl and they play on different lines and your defenseman’s out there, your job is to shut em down; not create offence and, and you know what uh it’s a challenge for Shilly to play against some top guys for sure.”
Kylington and Tanev were on the ice for two goals against— including the game winner.
That said— big learning experience. Pike pointed out that the last time these two teams played, Kylington was a 7th defenseman on the roster. A very apt observation.
Further to that, Kylington played 20:26 last night. Tied with Noah Hanifin for 2nd most minutes played on the Flames. A far cry from the 3:27 he played in the first Battle of Alberta this season.
Finishing more
As much as one can blame a lack of structure for the results, the Flames has plenty of chances to win this game. Every line except the fourth line out-chanced the Oilers. Here is the CF% of each forward line as well as high danger chances for and against:
Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk
CF%: 62.16
HDCF: 5
HDCA: 1
Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman
CF%: 51.72
HDCF: 2
HDCA: 2
Lucic-Monahan-Dube
CF%: 62.5
HDCF: 3
HDCA: 0
Lewis-Richardson-Ritchie
CF%: 44.44
HDCF: 2
HDCA: 0
The numbers certainly tell a different story than what the scoreboard showed. Koskinen did a great job even if it looked like he was just flailing around at points. Finish on a few more of those chances and this is a different post-game piece.
Also encouraging was the Flames’ increased dominance and the play as the game went on. The third period featured an absurd 75CF% in favour of the Flames. That’s 24-8 in shot attempts over 20 minutes. The work was there despite the result.
Bitter ending
It’s frustrating to watch Puljujarvi take out a puckless defenseman then see Leon Draisatl walk the puck into the area Kylington would have been. It was blatant interference and the refs simply didn’t want to call it.
Endings like that leave one fanbase bitter about the state of officiating in the NHL. It’s also annoying to listen to the Oilers broadcasting team show such a clear bias towards the team they cover when it’s the only broadcast available for the game. Rogers is simply too cheap to have multiple broadcast teams cover the game, so Flames fans have the options of the equivalent of three Oilers fans watching from their basement as commentary or just watching the game in silence.
That said, the Flames had more than enough chances to put the game away. They need to be better at finishing those plays.
McDavid
Something seems mechanically wrong with Connor McDavid. He had a nice play here and there, but he wasn’t breaking the game open with his speed. It’s one thing to look at his stats and interpret that he’s went cold, but watching him out there— he looks injured.
He just seems to be missing explosiveness in his step. He seemed rigid when he had the puck. It looks like something from the hips down.
Or possibly his back from carrying the Oilers for the last six and a half seasons.
Stockton
Just looking at the box score— it looks like the Heat were involved in an entertaining 4-3 overtime loss to the Henderson Silver Knights last night. Check out this penalty list:
Defenseman Connor Mackey racked up two assists and 17 penalty minutes. Do you think he’s trying to get a certain head coach’s attention?
The game also featured two goals from former Flame Sven Baertschi.
The Flames are back in Calgary tomorrow to play the St. Louis Blues at 7pm MST
Trevor Neufeld
Advanced statistics courtesy of naturalstattrick.com
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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