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Some off-day thoughts as the Calgary Flames prepare for Monday night's game against the St. Louis Blues:

1) At the trade deadline the Calgary Flames shipped out a couple rentals in David Jones and Kris Russell.

It just so happened that, relative to the team, those were the two worst possession players the Flames had rostered.

With those two out of the fold - Russell in particular - and their minutes being allocated differently the Flames have been a much different team at 5 v 5; and for the good.

In 60 games prior to the deadline the Flames controlled just 47.6% of shot attempts and 49.3% of scoring chances at full-strength. Since the deadline the Flames have improved in both regards controlling 50.8% of the shot attempts and 50.9% of the scoring chances.

The sample size is very small (seven games) but the early returns have certainly been encouraging. It'll be interesting to see if the spike in performance is just a short-term exception from the norm or if they can sustain the numbers down the stretch.

2) I think the coaching staff should stop using Bouma as a defensive specialist because the numbers certainly suggest he is not that.

When Bouma is on the ice the Flames allow more shot attempts per 60 minutes of play than with any other regular on the team. He's one of the team's worst players in terms of shot suppression on the penalty kill as well.

Sure, he plays a physical brand of hockey and isn't afraid to block shots but his totals in those categories are high because the Flames are often chasing play when he is on the ice.

3) I'd like to see Jakub Nakladal get a little more ice time down the stretch so the Flames - and myself - can find out what he's really about. He has killed it in limited minutes thus far as the Flames a) generate more scoring chances per 60 minutes of 5 v 5 with him on the ice than anyone else and b) allow less scoring chances per 60 with him on the ice than anyone else.

That obviously wouldn't hold true if he was given a ton of minutes against top competition but I'd like to see how much the number varies when he's asked to do a little more.

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