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Five observations from Calgary vs San Jose:
1. Mike Smith was excellent
Dating back to the 2nd half of last season, you can pin quite a few losses on Smith. Last night vs the Sharks was certainly not one of them, even though he'd probably want the 1st goal back.
It felt like every other shift – particularly in the 2nd period – the Flames had a brutal neutral zone turnover or were caught pinching and the Sharks generated an odd-man rush as a result. Smith came up with save after save, including some excellent post-to-post stops, to keep the Flames within striking distance until the final minute of the game.
When all was said and done, the Flames were out-chanced by 19. They gave up more opportunities than in any contest outside of the David Rittich Game™ in New York.
It was the key guys generating them, too, with Joe Pavelski, Logan Couture, Timo Meier, Evander Kane, Tomas Hertl, Brent Burns and Joonas Donskoi finishing within a chance of each other for the team lead.
The Flames put all their eggs in Smith's basket and he almost came through. While I'm skeptical that will continue, it was nice to see him be more of a solution than a problem for once.
2. Sam Bennett will never score again
I am convinced this is not an overreaction. Night after night Bennett gets a few good looks around the net and simply never converts. His performance in San Jose was the perfect one-game summary of the player he has become. He posted a game-high five scoring chances and accounted for 40%(!) of the team's high-danger opportunities. He did not score. Even though he managed to get a decent shot off on the breakaway, he still was granted a penalty shot. Again, he failed to score and did so in ugly fashion.
The guy works hard and generates quality looks at a good clip. He just can't finish them. Nearly 260 games into his NHL career, I'm not sure that's going to change.
3. James Neal was horrific
He was benched for the entire 3rd period and deservedly so. While the blame shouldn't *all* fall on Neal, he posted a -7 chance differential (zero for; seven against) in just over eight minutes of ice at 5v5. That's not close to good enough.
I'm interested to see if Bill Peters goes back to him on L2 come Thursday night.
4. Mark Jankowski showed signs of life
He made a nice pass to Sean Monahan on Calgary's lone goal, recorded a couple scoring chances, finished above 50% in possession for the third game in a row, and skated a regular shift on a penalty killing unit that was perfect on the night. If he can get going, the bottom-6 will be much tougher for teams to handle.
5. A rare off night for the 2nd pairing
I've used this space a lot to talk about how the Flames have dominated the shot and chance share with Noah Hanifin and Travis Hamonic on the ice. They didn't last night.
In 15:10 together, the Flames were out-attempted 19-11 (36.67 CF%), out-chanced 10-3 (23.08 SCF%), and out-scored 2-0. The 2nd line's struggles played into that as well but...yeah, not good.
Everyone has off nights, though, and I'd bet on them bouncing back at home vs Montreal.
Numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com and Corsica.Hockey.
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