Blue Jackets 1, Flames 0 (OT) post-game embers: Can’t win them all

Mike Smith deserved the shutout. On the other hand, Columbus deserved the win. That’s just how it goes sometimes.

Smith already has one shutout as a Flame, and that’s great. It was a 43-save shutout, at that, bearing strong resemblance to this outing – Smith stopped 40 of 41 shots – except for one key difference: this time, his team didn’t score any goals.

But he was phenomenal. You harken back to Johnny Gaudreau shooting the puck wide in that four-on-one rush back in the first period. That goes in, and Smith gets his second shutout of the season. It didn’t, and so, he didn’t. He could only control things down on his end of the ice, and he did just that, and the Flames got a point out of it. It could have been worse.

So, for some perspective on Smith’s season so far: He’s one of three goalies to have played 19 games this season, the other two being Henrik Lundqvist and Matt Murray. Two goalies – Frederik Andersen and Cam Talbot – have played 20. Smith has faced the second-most shots in the NHL: 616 (Andersen leads the charge with 674, somehow, somebody please help him).

Smith’s save percentage is .925%, tied for seventh amongst all goalies with at least 10 games played (and that’s with a league-worst penalty kill). His even strength save percentage is .937%, third amongst all goalies with at least 10 games played (of course, Sergei Bobrovsky is first, with .944%).

Smith’s play dipped for a small stretch there. Now, it looks like he’s back to where he was. We’re a quarter of the way through the season, and he’s still proving why the Flames went after him.

The first period was fantastic hockey. Clean, back-and-forth play between two teams who were both able to get some strong chances, only to be foiled by stronger goaltending. For a scoreless period, it was an incredibly entertaining one; honestly, it was kind of exhausting to watch.

The second and third periods didn’t quite live up to the billing the first one set. Columbus took the game over; look no further than the Flames being outshot 12-3 in the second period alone. Both teams needed a goal, and only one seemed like they were really trying to get one (though a lot of Smith’s big saves seemed like they popped up in the third period).

Maybe you can blame some of it on the travel; fact is, though, that the Flames were bested by a team that was better than them last night. That’s it. The Blue Jackets look like the real deal this year. They got flawless goaltending, they stymied the Flames’ chances, and they played the perfect game.

Doesn’t mean the Flames are a bad team: just one that got outlasted this time around.

This season, the Flames had three overtime wins, and two shootout wins. It was pretty much a guarantee that if a game went to overtime, they’d pick up the second point, too.

So that Smith got them to that point was a sign of hope. And indeed, the Flames got their chances early on, just not one as golden that T.J. Brodie served up.

I mean, we weren’t really expecting them to go perfect the whole way out, were we…?

I get the temptation to blame this one on Brodie, and that turnover was obviously pretty bad, but it’s a team game. Sure, he was the culprit. And there were 17 other guys who didn’t bother to get a point while they were out there, either. The way Columbus played, they were just asking that the one break went their way. It did. The victim of the turnover was unfortunate, but unfortunate plays happen to the best of players. Mark Giordano took two tripping calls last night. The game could have ended there, with one of the Flames’ most frequently-used penalty killers in the box.

Brodie isn’t exactly playing great right now. It’s a far cry from where he was even just a month ago. We know he’s a phenomenal skater. We know he’s great at controlling the puck. Sometimes it backfires. The solution to Brodie’s woes is to probably let him work his way out of this funk, because he’s a good player, and we know he’s capable of being much, much better.

(Side note: Mark Jankowski got his first ever overtime shift. Matthew Tkachuk didn’t see the ice. I get wanting a centre out there, and I get Tkachuk has no clearly defined partner the way Gaudreau and Sean Monahan, or Mikael Backlund and Michael Frolik are, but Tkachuk is one of the Flames’ best forwards, period, and not sending him out in extra time makes no sense.)

So Travis Hamonic looked like he had a pretty good game for himself. Some solid defensive plays, trying to hit the net, and the 61.29% CF was a nice touch over 17:43 of 5v5 play. Really great game for him. Brodie was leaned on much more heavily – he played almost three more even strength minutes alone – and that’s where some chances went against him. Looks like he got caught out there with Dougie Hamilton a couple of times.

You’ll recall Sam Bennett and Kris Versteeg switched places about halfway through the game, with Versteeg reuniting with Jankowski (including for that one overtime shift) and Bennett getting bumped down to the fourth line. Despite that, he didn’t really play much with Freddie Hamilton at all; Hamilton only dressed for 6:29, and they killed a bit of a penalty together. Kind of weaker fourth line usage. Bennett and Versteeg both played a little over seven minutes alongside Jankowski, with roughly the same results, both goal- and corsi-wise.

And finally: Brett Kulak on the penalty kill! Granted, that probably doesn’t happen if it isn’t Giordano in the box. But it was. And Kulak got 1:43 of penalty kill time out of it. He played 16:17 in all, a season high for him. Nice to see.

Gaudreau didn’t get a point in this game and I don’t know what to do with myself, I’m so sad. His 10-game point streak has been snapped. He’s now at a paltry 31 points in 21 games. Good for only third in league-wide scoring now, still. Just sad.

So Gaudreau has been held pointless in just four of 21 games so far this season. Three of those games, the Flames were shut out. So uh. Take that how you will.