Beyond the Boxscore: Calgary Flames waste everyone’s time with depressing effort against St. Louis

There was not much of a fun atmosphere in the home arena from the drop of the puck. Fans where sporadic as empty seats filled the television. The team responded by having one of their biggest dud performances of the season. A lack of effort mixed with lack of communication. Everything in Calgary looks off right now as their losing skid has slid into the fourth game far too easily than anyone would have hoped, losing 3-0 to St. Louis.

It’s a Team Game – Not one period could be said to have been played in Calgary’s favour. They still can’t find ways to get off the wall with the puck to a dangerous area. They make getting a high danger chance look about as hard as it would be to successfully skydive out of a plane you are flying by yourself without crashing the plane. Its not just that they failed to execute they looked lacklustre in doing so. Dark Clouds have rolled into Calgary early.

Corsi King – Blake Coleman (68.68%) led the way in chances for the Flames – which is significant because the lines were in the blender all night long. The coach cannot find anything to work on a consistent basis. Positives were the play and hustle of guys like Hunt (60.35%) and Coronato (57.33%), negatives are those two guys are the ones that stood out. Where is all the production and play-driving from the guys making the most money, because as of right now the vanishing act needs to end. If the new head coach can’t find anything in his one hundred line combinations maybe the GM should get involved.

Corsi Clown – Wow look at that, the basement is Kadri (31.24%) and Huberdeau (33.71% – just friggin’ peachy. That pretty much says it all, the entire team as a collective was crap but the guys that are supposed to stir the drink were on a whole different ethereal plane of crap. Not even a dung beetle would go near this – it’s a colossal problem.

Taken By Chance – Nazem Kadri (9.02 SCF% // 0 HDCF%) went 0 high danger chances created and saw 4 come back his way to really set the limbo bar as low as possible. Just when you thought he could come back and salvage something respectable an absolute gutted result from the top paid centre… who started at RW. The only guy who truly outperformed anybody in terms of high danger chances was in fact Blake Coleman (66.91% // 70.06%). That was it – nobody else came remotely close to acceptable.

xGF% – You don’t need quality shots to win the quality share, the Flames have proven that before. If Huberdeau (28.31%), Lindholm (33.78%) and Kadri (15.14%) play the way they did in this game Calgary will have fun at the draft lottery. Won’t have fun at the draft though because the league wants to decentralize things and kill the art of the draft floor trade. Wait – I only want to be upset with the Flames right now, we can get back to one of the many things the NHL makes so easy to mock later. Did I mention Dubé (34.28%) struggled again? Rough start to the season for someone who has not taken a step forward yet again.

In The Crease – Finally a section where it can be nothing but positivity. Markstrom has looked like his old Vezina finalist self this season and the team in front of him as responded with terrible play. He is not going to be perfect every night, but some run support wouldn’t hurt. He was forced to make more than a handful of 10 bell saves to keep the score 2-0. 2.07 expected goals against is the largest 5v5 total he’s faced this year (if I recall correctly). The blame finger does not get pointed anywhere near the Flames starting goaltender to start the season.

Today’s Specials – At what point do we see the better puck movement, the better passing, the more dangerous opportunities, and the creativity that was supposed to come with Marc Savard being hired. They still play too soft on the boards with the puck, play with it too close to the blueline making sure their turnovers result in lost zone time, and can’t find a way to get back in with possession. They got some powerplay goals in spite of the early performance but maybe forcing Kadri and Huberdeau on the first unit is the wrong idea. Maybe Nazem Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau losing a bit of their privileges within this lineup could help spark a solution because right now it just looks nightmarish.

Player Spotlight – Ilya Solovyov – Welcome to the NHL, seventh-round, double overager at the time of drafting him, Mr. Solovyov. A beautiful success story and his name alongside the other NHLers is deserved. He showed speed, quicker decision making, and showed he has the size to not be pushed around at the NHL level. He had his rookie mistakes – of course those are going to happen – but he showed up and played well. Stood out in a positive sense often because the veterans around him were playing so poorly. Congratulations as this will be the first of many games played, I’m sure of it.