Ah, momentum.
That invisible hand that dictates the ebb and flow of both professional and amateur sports.
Have you ever been watching the game with a group of people less familiar with hockey and find yourself trying to explain why the game has suddenly turned in to one of the two teams dominating the other?
You cite a big hit or a quality individual effort from a few minutes ago as the reason the dominant team is now dominating and the group more or less treats you like the character Tangina Barrons, the psychic, from the Steven Spielberg film Poltergeist?
This woman.
That intangible force was well at work last night. Unfortunately, and pardon my Tangina impression here, that force had grown so strong that it had now physically manifested it’s self in our world. In the form of NHL referees.
34-2
That was the amount of penalty minutes assessed to the involved teams in the 7-1 blowout of the Calgary Flames versus the Vancouver Canucks (and referees) last night.
It only took seven minutes and 24 seconds into the game before things became apparent. Defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson throws an elbow, Tkachuk retaliates with a slash— powerplay Canucks.
While that penalty was killed off and the two teams left the first tied at 0-0, the second period would be where the poltergeist really took over the house.
Four penalties against. Three power plays goals. Oh and a penalty shot goal thrown in for good measure.
A truly backbreaking moment for momentum of this game— the moment most Flames fans should have simply turned their TV off— was Sean Monahan’s high sticking penalty in the second. Monahan
did catch the top of Canucks winger Tyler Motte’s helmet. A penalty
was reasonable, but Motte whipping his head back then holding his face acting like he got punched was a sell job. A job that was bought several times later in the game. You could see the Flames were frustrated with officiating at that point.
Three powerplay goals, a penalty shot goal and Thatcher Demko standing on his head at the other end of the ice was indeed a rough second period for the visiting team. Tack on an equipment malfunction leading to backup Daniel Vladar being thrown in on the penalty kill; boom, goal against. JT Miller gets a penalty shot on said unwarmed backup; boom another goal. Just a tough night.
Those that kept their TV’s going until the end of the game got to experience a perfect coup de grace for referee Gord Dwyer.
Dwyer gets fooled for, not one, but two blown calls in a row. Tyler Myers whips his head back on a stick lift by Dillon Dube, then the next play clamps his arm on Lucic’s stick and takes himself for a ride. Two horrible calls. You get a nice shot on the Sportsnet Pacific broadcast of Myers smirking after the Dube penalty.
Then. THEN— Highmore loses control of his stick in a puck battle and smokes Gaudreau in the mouth with the blade of his stick. No call of course— because it wasn’t Tyler Myers. The Flames are incensed. Half the team is now yelling at the refs from the bench. Gaudreau gets told he can’t be on the ice for the faceoff (because that’s a rule), so he switches on after the faceoff and tells Gord Dwyer what he thinks of his performance tonight.
Former Lady Byng winner Johnny Gaudreau gets kicked out on a misconduct.
Game is boiling over, right? Just let the clock play out? Nope. Another blown high sticking call. This time Mangiapane nearly misses the face of Tanner Pearson. Pearson throws his head back. Dwyer gets played again. Lucic gets a ten minute misconduct for (most likely very rudely) pointing it out.
The Flames kill a penalty to finish the game and storm out. Shit eating grins across the board for the Canucks as they congratulate Demko.
Epilogue
While the game went off the rails, at the end of the day it’s still just one game. Their five on five play was actually pretty good. You may think that was an attempt at humour given the score, but no. The Flames actually played a really good game at full strength.
They didn’t post one period under 50CF% at 5v5. Their penalty kill got lit up and an onslaught of penalties simply stole any momentum they tried to pick up.
Also the Canucks did a good job finishing on power plays. Demko played great too.
Not too much of reason to be down on the Flames after this one. Call this game an anomaly. Don’t believe that the results had anything to do with the direction the Flames are going. Do not go in to the light, Carole Anne.
Trevor Neufeld
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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