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A few notes from Calgary vs Dallas:
1) Every team has ups and downs. With so much parity in today’s game, you’re simply not going to go out and dominate for 60 minutes. Not often, anyway. This Flames team *really* knows how to fall asleep at the wheel, though. Almost each time out they look completely lifeless for long stretches of play. Last night was no different.
After a decent 1st period where, thanks to a couple dangerous power plays, the Flames recorded a few more Grade A chances than Dallas, they completely no showed in the 2nd.
The Stars out-shot the Flames 18-6, won the high-danger chance battle 8-1(!), and spent a ton of time on the attack. As we know, the Stars aren’t exactly a great offensive team so to be on the backfoot to that extent – especially on home soil – is not exactly encouraging.
Unfortunately, it is nothing new. I don’t know what it is – perhaps the Flames are a little too confident they can turn up the heat and make noise in the 3rd if necessary – but it simply has to change. Too often the Flames show nothing for 20-30 minutes of play, and often the end result is giving up ground that ultimately can’t be made up.
If that doesn’t change, and fast, the Flames are going to be lucky to earn a playoff spot as a Wild Card team.
2) I’m not going to lie: as soon as Cam Talbot was announced as the starter, I thought I had an edge and pulled the trigger on Dallas scoring over 2.5 goals. Though I won, Talbot certainly made that play a sweat. He was nothing short of spectacular. There were several sequences where he made multiple quality saves in quick succession. All you want from a backup is a chance to win the game. Talbot gave the Flames that even though they didn’t necessarily deserve it. I thought he looked a lot like the guy who routinely stole games early in his Edmonton tenure. He was awesome.
3) The top line has been much too quiet as a whole but it's Monahan who really seemed to be dragging the unit down. He certainly didn’t against the Stars. He led the Flames in Corsi (66.67 CF%), Expected Goals (82.28 xGF%), shot attempts (7) and scoring chances (5) at 5v5. He was all around the net and, if Andrej Sekera didn’t block seemingly every chance, he probably would have had an even-strength goal to go with his power play marker. It was a definite step in the right direction.
4) Mikael Backlund has eight points in 21 games. That’s not good for a 2C who often skates on PP2. The good news is he’s still generating chances. His shot attempt, chance, and expected goal numbers are actually all up this year. The bad news is he’s having a helluva time converting. He is shooting just 2.7% at 5v5, and is missing some layups. There is no better example than last night when he was fed a Grade A look on the doorstep, failed to capitalize, and the Stars immediately lugged the puck the other way before scoring the eventual game-winner. Regression should hit sooner or later but, man, the Flames could use more production from him.
Numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com
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