Canadiens 3, Flames 2 post-game embers: Maybe try the whole game next time

Turns out, you can only rely on a 26-year-old goalie playing in his 26th career NHL game to do so much for you. Maybe, if the Flames wanted to consider winning, they would have given David Rittich some help before the third period.

How do you respond to a poor effort against the Predators and then the Rangers? With a poor effort against the Canadiens, apparently. There was a hint of deja vu to start the game, with the opposing team generating a bunch of high quality chances, only for Rittich to stop everything that came his way, and the Flames to get on the board first, perhaps undeservedly. But hey, we’d seen this story just two nights ago and it worked out great, so surely the same thing would happen once again, right?

Except the Canadiens outshot the Flames 22-8 in the second period, finally cracking Rittich to the tune of two powerplay goals and one last backbreaker, goals he wouldn’t have had much of a chance on. There was only so long the Flames could sit on their heels and act like their goalie would bail them out of everything: a dismal effort saw them deservedly down in the game.

The Flames tried a bit in the third – there was some life when Elias Lindholm drew them back within one, and James Neal combined with Sam Bennett nearly made it a tie game thereafter – but the Flames deserved to lose this one, plain and simple. Rittich didn’t, but the skaters in front of him did. That’s three poor performances in a row now, and you’ve gotta wonder what it’s going to take for them to play better – because we know they can.

Rittich, Rittich, Rittich. Is he a starter? It’s way too early to even think of proclaiming that – again, this was literally his 26th NHL game; he’s already exceeded expectations as an undrafted kid playing in the Czech league – but you’ve gotta love what he brings. The Flames would have needed him to be near-perfect to win, and he was already making a bunch of stops to keep them in the game; finishing with 37 saves on 40 shots and a .925 save percentage is almost always going to be a good effort.

You can’t say it for many of the skaters, but Mikael Backlund and Matthew Tkachuk at least looked like they came prepared to play. They created the Flames’ only goals of the night, and were lone bright spots in what was overall a pretty poor effort.

Rasmus Andersson is getting powerplay time, and still getting the chance to play with Mark Giordano on occasion. No way he’s going back down when Travis Hamonic comes off the injured reserve; otherwise, there’s gonna be a lot of deserved outrage. Kid’s still looking for his first NHL point but it’s gotta be inevitable, doesn’t it?

At least the Flames didn’t get shut out for their efforts. Hell, the fewest goals they’ve scored in a game this season is two. That’s still pretty good, even if it didn’t bring the desired results.

For the third game in a row, the team was flat. This is going to happen sometimes, but you’d prefer it to be more an individual line not working as opposed to four lines and three defence pairings taking the night off but for small spurts here and there. They shouldn’t have had to make Rittich work as hard as he did this game. That wasn’t fair to him. Two games in a row in which they gave up 40+ shots is unacceptable.

Complain all you want about the officiating performance in this one – and rightfully so, how does one call 10 penalties in this game without Jordie Benn’s hit on Johnny Gaudreau being one of them? – but the Flames went zero-for-five on the powerplay. One powerplay goal would’ve at least gotten them to overtime. The powerplay has had like… one good game, that 3-0 win over the Predators. I honestly can’t remember another time it’s come through. We’re nine games into the season now, and fixing disasters of the 2017-18 season’s caliber takes time, but it’s just a worrying trend that’s still continuing with seemingly no end in sight. With a 15.8% success rate, they have the league’s 22nd-ranked powerplay.

Let’s not forget giving up two powerplay goals on five penalty killing attempts, either. Standing up to the Habs at the blue line and pressing the puck out of the zone was great, and Michael Frolik lost his stick on the first powerplay goal, but for as dismal as the Flames played, special teams did end up being the difference. (If it’s any consolation, giving up three goals in the span of 3:21 didn’t feel as disastrous as it did during the Flames’ meltdowns last season?)

50% – The Flames’ 5v5 corsi on the night. Which feels like it should have an asterisk beside it, because score effects were part of that: they just waited too long to actually start trying.

21:11 – Andersson’s ice time, second among defencemen (behind just Giordano) and a new career high. Which, whoa, okay, that’s a jump I wasn’t quite expecting. Seriously, remember how they sent him down at the start of the season? What the hell was that? This includes 2:52 of powerplay time, behind Giordano and TJ Brodie in that category, and no penalty kill time. Unfortunately, he also clocked in at a 31.25% 5v5 CF, the worst on the team, but hey, single game sample sizes. This is a lot of faith being shown in Andersson all of a sudden, and it’s welcome.

8:09 – Michael Frolik’s ice time, the least among all Flames. Which, really? We’re doing this again? How does one justify giving Garnet Hathaway more ice time than Frolik, let alone keeping him off the ice for so much of the game? I understand reducing Frolik’s role as more dynamic forwards have come into the fold, but he’s not this team’s 12th forward, and he keeps being treated as such more often than not for some reason.

12 – Tkachuk has tied Gaudreau for the team lead in points again.

.950% – Rittich’s save percentage through three starts (two wins) and a period of relief effort. So. That’s really good, actually. Mike Smith is at a .885%, and he’s still going to be this team’s starter for the meantime due to experience alone, but maybe Rittich’s elevated play will push him to up his game? This might be the first Flames loss this season though that you couldn’t really blame on the goaltending.

I legitimately don’t get it. I’m not expecting the Flames to be a top team in the NHL, maybe one that makes the playoffs somewhat comfortably and actually wins a round or so, but we know they’re better than this. The least they could do is put up a fight through 60 minutes, not, what, five? Losses will happen, but this was another instance of unacceptable play and they need to cut it out immediately.