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A few Calgary Flames notes on this off-day:

1) I couldn’t be more impressed with what I saw from the Flames last night. The knock on them for so much of this season has been an inability to get to the net. They are seemingly always kept to the outside and forced to take low percentage shots. That wasn’t the case last night; at all. Despite playing in the latter half of a road back-to-back, the Flames looked like the team with fresh legs. They were able to break the Canadiens down in the offensive zone and get to the net with urgency. Nine of their 12 forwards recorded at least one scoring chance at 5v5, and four of them had multiple Grade A opportunities on the doorstep. They got to their spots and really tested Jake Allen.

2) On the flip side, the Flames put forth one of the better defensive performances we’ve seen from them this season. They gave up volume (60 attempts, 27 shots on goal) but absolutely no quality. The Canadiens generated only four high-danger chances and were credited with 1.17 expected goals. 1.17! So yes, Jacob Markstrom played well; but he only trimmed 0.17 goals off the expectation. The reality is the Flames did a great job of clogging the middle of the ice and taking away dangerous shots. Some of Montreal’s best ‘chances’ were shots from mid-to-long range that hit the pipe. They were forced to try and beat Markstrom from range and, with some help from the post, they weren’t able to do that. Don’t get me wrong, Markstrom deserves credit. But he should be able to put forth performances like that more often than not if the Flames do what they did in front of him. It’s taken a long time – too long, in all likelihood – but they seem to be making strides and playing the way Darryl Sutter wants them to.

3) It’s very refreshing to see Calgary’s best players, you know, playing like their best players. Jacob Markstrom, Johnny Gaudreau and Elias Lindholm came up huge the other night in Toronto. Markstrom followed that up with another strong showing last night. Beyond him, Sean Monahan scored, Mark Giordano scored, Matthew Tkachuk led the team in shots on goal; you get the point. Seemingly every broadcast talks about how the Flames don’t have the depth to get wins if their best players don’t produce. Well, they’re finally starting to do so and the Flames are slowly clawing their way back into the playoff race as a result. It’s still a long shot, of course, but the Flames have a few more games against Montreal coming up. If they win, say, three of the next four vs Montreal – and beat Ottawa and, potentially, Vancouver in between – they’ll be right there. It’s a lot to ask, especially given their inconsistency’s this season, but it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility. At the very least, their recent success is cutting down on the amount of meaningless games we'll have to watch.

numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com

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