Ducks 2, Flames 1 post-game embers: Yikes

Sometimes, a team will play well but still lose, because somebody has to lose. Other times, a team will play like complete garbage and they’ll have earned the loss and then some. The Flames were the former Thursday night. Friday night, they were very much the latter.

That the Flames escaped the first period down only one goal was nothing short of a miracle. (That and goaltending, but we’ll get into that shortly.) They were outshot 20-5, they were out-corsied 29-10. It was an astonishingly horrific effort on their parts, and only so much leeway can be extended to them by virtue of “well, it was the second of a back-to-back.” It was, and that poses its own challenges, and the odds were stacked against them from the start, but that was just disgraceful.

They rectified it with a pretty good second period, and were rewarded for their efforts with a goal. They outshot the Ducks 11-8, they out-corsied them 30-12, they forced a ton of icings; in short, though they didn’t have as many direct shots, they gave themselves a chance again. By the time the third period rolled around, it deserved to be a tied game.

The Flames decided to take the chance they had given themselves and completely squander it. Their third period numbers aren’t as ugly as they should be because in the final four minutes, the Flames figured they should start trying again. We keep seeing this song and dance: “oh no, game’s nearing its end and we’re down, best try to fix that”. Too little, too late. Again.

Say what you will about Sam Bennett for some completely inexplicable reason deciding not to shoot at a completely wide open net – they’re just doing it to themselves at this point, it is beyond baffling – but that does get them a point. Maybe more. But the Flames are barely scoring, and seem to be in it to just hang around with their opponents, and not actually best them.

The Flames scored one goal. They scored two goals apiece in the three games preceding it. They have scored 31 goals total in December: the eighth worst team in the NHL. That’s over 13 games. They scored 15 of those goals over the course of three games: two wins over the Canucks and one loss to the Oilers. Take away those outliers, and that’s 16 goals over the course of 10 games.

Yeah, that’s not going to win you many. It’s won them two. The Flames’ 8.21 shooting percentage is the seventh worst in the NHL, and that absolutely has to change. They are ninth in shots for. It is just absurd how the puck will not go in for them.

That wasn’t the case against the Ducks, though, what with their lack of willingness to try. Matt Bartkowski took a shot on net and it turned into a goal. And he’s Matt Bartkowski. Nobody is expecting him to pick up any points.

Johnny Gaudreau led the way with four shots, but he also spent a lot of time peeling off towards the edges and not setting up the chances he could have if he’d just been a little more decisive with the puck. Some of that wasn’t his fault – Josh Manson stopping his breakaway was brilliant – but this month, he has two goals and seven points in 13 games. That’s tied for second in team scoring with Mark Giordano and Garnet Hathaway. Sam Bennett is the scoring leader with 10 points.

Gaudreau’s 19 points in 10 games wasn’t sustainable. Sean Monahan is coming up on 10 games without a goal. These two were near the top of the NHL standings a month ago and they’ve been dropping like stones since. And evidently, the Flames can’t make up for their absence.

Mike Smith was fantastic, except for when he wasn’t. He gets a ton of credit for keeping the Flames in the game to begin with, and they have absolutely no chance at winning at all if he isn’t in net. They really did not deserve to come out of that first period down by just one goal. When you’re watching the last seconds tick off the clock hoping the goalie can keep holding firm just long enough, because it’s clear nobody else is going to do anything else to help, well, you’re in a really bad spot.

And then there was when Smith, uh, wasn’t in net, and shooting pucks over the glass for some reason. I get playing the puck is his thing and all, and there’s a fair bit of verbiage on how he takes some work away from the defence, but this is a defence full of guys who can skate and who will play big minutes and it was just so unbelievably unnecessary.

Not at all that the loss is on Smith’s shoulders. For one thing, the Flames would have had to actually score another goal at some point; for another, again, he was the only one who bothered to show up for three periods, not just one. But that was pretty needless, and finally broke a penalty kill that had gone four-for-four. There’s only so long that was going to hold up. Self-inflicted wound.

Curtis Lazar played 8:09. What is it we would say he actually does here? Matthew Tkachuk got in a fight and he still played 18:43.

Jaromir Jagr played 13:01, which was just barely in the bottom six for forward ice times. Not quite a top six forward replacement, though special teams time will play into that. The Flames are definitely still better off with him in the lineup though.

There looks to be something of a changing of the ice time guard. Of course Gaudreau, Monahan, Tkachuk, and Mikael Backlund led the way, and Michael Frolik’s absence means someone else has to step up. Rounding out the top six were Bennett and Mark Jankowski, who are getting increasingly bigger roles – now, if only they can just be a little more productive with them. (This isn’t a knock on them. It’s probably a good sign in the long-term, but it’s difficult to look at the long-term when the standings are, uh, not great!)

Last season, Micheal Ferland scored 15 goals in 76 games: a career high.

This season, it took him 37 games to reach 15 goals. He’s on pace for 33. Of course, his 18.3 shooting percentage is only just slightly unsustainable at the moment – he shot at 14.2% last season – so while a 30-goal season is certainly still possible, it might not be something to bet on.

But hey, it’s not like a high shooting percentage – he and Monahan are the only ones up there – takes away from the fact that he’s matched a career high in just under half the time. And that’s pretty cool for him. Look at where you are, look at where you started, and all that.