Flames 2, Penguins 1 (OT) post-game embers: Here’s to the goalie

Different players will step up each night. While the Flames were getting vastly outshot by the Penguins, Mike Smith held them in it. Eventually, the skaters in front of him rewarded him for his efforts.

The Flames still need more from their depth – but in the meantime, Smith made sure they were in a position to pick up points. Progression is not linear, but means very little if the points aren’t there to back it up. That the Flames are still getting them is incredibly helpful.

Seriously, what more is there to say about Smith? He saw 44 shots and he stopped 43 of them. He held down the fort as the Flames were outshot 19-8 in the first period, and kept holding it down against all of the close calls and random bounces – save for the one – while the rest of the team eventually caught up in effort, and scored a couple of goals for him.

The game could have – and probably should have – turned nasty early on. Even just one look at the Penguins’ top powerplay unit – Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel, Patric Hornqvist, and Kris Letang – is insane, especially with one of the Flames’ better penalty killers in Mikael Backlund sitting in the box, let alone the six shots they had over the two minutes. Smith was aggressive though, challenging players, punching pucks out of the air, and generally disrupting the Penguins’ play.

Seriously, you can hear everyone talk about Smith’s puck handling forever, but I don’t think it actually means anything to an individual until they get the chance to watch him on a regular basis. What’s going to make the highlight reels are his mistakes, the times he passes it to the wrong player or leaves the net wide open on a bad bounce. What’s not going to be so evident are all of the little things his active play does, from initiating the Flames’ breakouts that much quicker, to sparing his defencemen from that little extra mileage, to ending any hope of an opposition’s forecheck by not even giving them the chance to reclaim the puck.

Most of the plays Smith makes are so low key, but seem so obvious, it’s left me wondering why more goalies don’t venture from their net just for the little things. There’s very little risk on most of them, and it picks up the pace for the team.

Especially now that Smith’s defencemen seem to know what to expect from him.

As a side note, it’s wild that Smith could turn in that performance and still get roughly the same amount of scoring as a rookie making his second ever NHL start. Tristan Jarry did a great job considering what was asked of him, but he probably got a little something more to aspire to from watching the guy at the other end of the rink.

And it only took four tries!

The Flames now have a 15.2% success rate on the man advantage, tied for 23rd in the NHL. So it’s still really not all that great, but there was a key difference introduced.

It may not have lead directly to the goal, but in the third period, Micheal Ferland replaced Troy Brouwer on the top unit. He may be shuffled off when Jaromir Jagr returns, but could find himself on the second unit in that case; he certainly provides a necessary net front presence, but with the talent to turn it into scoring chances, too.

Ferland has played half the time Brouwer has on the powerplay, and has a goal and an additional shot to show for it. He’s also maintaining his role as top line right winger, so it only makes sense that if you’re going to trust him with that much responsibility five-on-five, he should get that chance five-on-four, too.

The Flames have mostly been at their best five-on-five – and though the Penguins had the more dangerous chances, the Flames did manage to turn in a better five-on-five performance as the game went on – but they have to be able to win at special teams. Last night they did, and it helped them win the game.

In the Flames’ season opener against Edmonton, Todd McLellan was able to avoid the Mikael Backlund-Connor McDavid matchup. And for good reason for him: McDavid was struggling against Backlund, and had a much better go of things when he matched against a different Flames line.

This time around, Backlund’s line was given the Crosby assignment, and guess what: they dominated him. Crosby, when out against the 3M line or top defence pairing, was reduced to a roughly 30% CF; during the approximate three minutes he was able to face other players, his corsi more than doubled.

Small sample sizes and all, but if the other team is going to deploy one of the de facto top players in the world against you, you’d better have an answer for him. And the Flames do.

Matthew Tkachuk, in particular, had a special game, not only with some of the top numbers but with his assist on the overtime winner, as well – the second ever overtime shift he’s had. (He didn’t get any in 2016-17, and had one shift against Nashville in a game that ended up going to the shootout.) And in it, he directly bested Crosby.

It’s a really good line. I don’t think that can be stated enough.

While the Flames had a hard time getting the puck to the net, a couple of skaters really ramped up the chances.

Ferland, for example, is probably going to stay in a continuous fight to prove he should stay on the top line. And when he’s putting up six shots in a single game, it’s difficult to argue with that.

Dougie Hamilton meanwhile, only has one goal so far this season, which is kind of wild when you consider just how much he’s been shooting. He had five shots in this game alone, not to mention a number that just missed. Hamilton was all over the ice, fighting to create chances: and the season-high 26:10 played – second only to Mark Giordano, and about four minutes ahead of T.J. Brodie – was definitely earned. He’s a top pairing defenceman on this team (on a lot, if not most, teams, honestly); he should be getting those minutes.

And then there’s Sean Monahan, who had four shots on the night, not to mention the all-necessary goal. He’s been the Flames’ shooting leader through much of the season; Hamilton has only just now tied him for the team lead, with 39. It’s no wonder Monahan is leading the team with seven goals.

The thing with Brett Kulak is he’s just plain good. It isn’t even a matter of “well, he’s better than the other guy, so he doesn’t deserve to be the seventh defenceman” – his play isn’t even comparable with Matt Bartkowski’s. He’s a good skater, so he can get back if trouble should arise. He’s a good skater, so he can jump up into the play and work to create chances, period.

It feels like there’s a new confidence to Kulak’s game. We’re all benefitting from finally seeing it on the ice, but he probably is moreso because it’s become incredibly clear he belongs at this level. Kulak played 12:52, six seconds shy of partner Michael Stone, and had a 60.00% CF to show for it. Granted, that was with 75.00% offensive zone starts – but we’re talking about a bottom pairing defenceman, here. Someone is going to have to take those minutes.

And when your bottom pairing defender is playing as well as Kulak has been since drawing back into the lineup, your defence is in good shape.

Mark Jankowski, meanwhile, played 10:52, and seems to be being used in more of a fourth line capacity. He played a little more than Curtis Lazar, while Sam Bennett had extra time thanks to the powerplay.

Jankowski definitely still has work to do, but it’ll probably be easier to do it now that he looks like he’s going to stick in the NHL. (Lazar, meanwhile, still should be the favourite to be scratched when Jagr returns.) But man – getting foiled by Jarry when sprung on a breakaway in a 0-0 game. The stage was set for him; maybe next time he’ll be able to do it. When the scoring chances are coming – and this goes for Bennett, too – then you know you’re doing something right.