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The Calgary Flames have already clinched top spot in the Pacific Division and Western Conference. They really aren't playing for much down the stretch and their lineup in Los Angeles reflected as much.
In the latter half of a road back-to-back,
Bill Peters smartly elected to rest Mark Giordano, T.J. Brodie, Travis Hamonic, Noah Hanifin, Matthew Tkachuk and Mikael Backlund.
You'd think the end result would be a big dip in performance and, thus, a loss to show for it. Apparently not! The Flames have surprised us all season long, and they managed to do it again by putting an absolute thumping on the Kings.
Though Jonathan Quick's struggles certainly helped the cause, the Flames were legitimately good. Really good.
At 5v5, shot attempts were 51-39 (56.67 CF%), scoring chances were 24-16 (60 SCF%), and high-danger chances were 13-7 (65%) in favor of the Flames. Those are the kind of numbers you'd expect to see from a full roster. That they did it with so many key pieces missing is really impressive and encouraging. They relied on a lot of depth players to step up and, well, they did.
Derek Ryan scored a pair of goals, both of which came at 5v5, to continue the absolutely insane run of play he's on right now.
James Neal scored a goal and added a primary assist while leading the team in shot attempts, shots on goal, and scoring chances. He's now riding a season-long three-game point streak.
Mark Jankowski put up three points, Andrew Mangiapane scored again, Sam Bennett scored, all three young defenders – Rasmus Andersson, Oliver Kylington and Juuso Valimaki – found the scoresheet and posted strong underlying numbers while taking on larger roles.
David Rittich was also more than adequate when called upon.
I don't think it's an exaggeration to say everything you possibly could have wanted to see in last night's game actually happened.
I know the Kings are a bad team but that kind of performance shows why many – myself included – are so optimistic about the Flames. They have the high-end talent, and the depth players are clearly capable of stepping up and contributing when necessary.
I really think they're ready to go on a long run (provided Mike Smith isn't the starter). With last night's win, they've all but officially locked up home ice for the entirety of it – barring a June date with Tampa Bay, of course. But I'm sure everyone would happily sign up for that.
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