Beyond the Boxscore: Calgary Flames feel full wrath of the Tampa Bay Lightning

That was a letter from the champs – this is how the reigning cup winners play hockey. Tampa brought their A++ effort and left Calgary in the dust. Easily the most outmatched in any recent game they’ve played, including the Panthers. Flames need to use this as a learning curve – it was a good thing Tampa gave them everything because now they’ve seen the level they need to elevate their game to. Can they do that? Time will tell.

It’s a Team Game – Straight across domination for Tampa. Calgary was trying to press in the third but couldn’t get any real number of high danger chances. The Lightning were a solid unit and didn’t leave many cracks in their coverage. It was truly impressive how Tampa kept possession of the puck for long stretches whenever they got it, never getting muscled off pucks or mishandling it for a turnover. They are a machine.

Corsi King – Two guys cracked the 50% cutoff in Brett Ritchie (53.17 CF%) and Andrew Mangiapane (50.86%). Dillon Dubé (49.90%) was just off so we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. No defenceman finished over 45% – truly a rough night all through the lineup.

Corsi Clown – Can I put everyone else? Unusually lower than anything he had done recently was Milan Lucic (17.16%), but that’s what happens when you split up the Dubé-Looch connection. Oliver Kylington (34.03%) was also lower than he typically performs. Just got outplayed by an extremely good hockey club.

Taken By Chance – I love looking at high-danger chance ratios in games where the possession game was outmatched. Usually here you can find some positives in some players defensive prowess. For example: Sean Monahan (49.90 SCF% // 67.81 HDCF%) didn’t get as many chances in total as the other team, but the ones he got were more significant. Rasmus Andersson (26.4% // 52.59%) was able to really handle the onslaught best among defenders.

xGF% – Andrew Mangiapane (54.68 xGF%) was the top Flame across the board tonight. By all metrics he wasn’t outmatched in any, but the problem is he was the only guy to have that. I have faith that the Flames are going to use this to get better. With the trade deadline coming the team needs to start getting some Ws again to justify spending assets to seriously add in-season.

Who had momentum at any given time? The Tampa Bay Lightning that’s who. Did Calgary amass any real pushback at any given point? No, no they did not.

Game Score – Sean Monahan (1.07 game // 0.40 average) with his assist was tops for Calgary, Mangiapane (0.91 // 0.92) was behind him. Worst game of the year for the Flames top line, with all three getting their lowest scores of the season. Blake Coleman may have got a low score too, but he also got a nice new shiny ring.

Calgary still found a way to get a fair amount of their shots from in tight around the net – but they just didn’t get enough volume. Nothing like what they usually get, but that was all Tampa’s doing. Seriously as the game went on they just became a brick wall in their own slot.

In The Crease – I truly believe the score would have been a lot worse if not for Dan Vladar. There were times earlier in the game where he was making some ridiculous saves. 2.39 expected goals against with two high danger and two medium danger goals beating him. I’m not worried about him going forward one bit.

Today’s Specials – I mean these are the types of games you need your power play to come through earlier on. Their penalty kill was alright, with all the goals coming against at 5v5… which isn’t good overall, but it definitely wasn’t the penalty kills fault tonight.

Player Spotlight – Brad Richardson – Ejected from the game with what the referee described as a match penalty. When assessed a match penalty supplemental discipline could follow from the league. It would not be shocking to see Richardson get a suspension as primary point of contact was in-fact the chin on the play.

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