Flames let line matchups slip away in Game 2

In Games 1 and 2 at the Saddledome, the Calgary Flames had last change against the Colorado Avalanche and could dictate line matchups. Unfortunately, they let that advantage slip away in Game 2.

Here’s a quick rundown of how the Flames and Avalanche lined up (by forward lines) in the first two games of their first round series. Each center is listed by 5 on 5 ice time and with their Corsi For percentage against each of the other team’s centers. Matchups that they won possession-wise are bolded.

Let’s be blunt here: the Avalanche weren’t all that great in Game 1. They never really wore out the Flames and they didn’t really hem them into their own end long enough to throw a monkey wrench in their matching plans. The most tinkering or on-the-fly work Jared Bednar seemed to do was swap Mikko Rantanen on (and off) the Nathan MacKinnon line.

As a result of that lack of hemming, lack of tinkering and overall flatness in Colorado’s game, the Flames seemed to run their show in Game 1 – even if their line-by-line performances weren’t terribly dominant. Calgary won their primary matchup (Backlund vs. MacKinnon), won their secondary matchup (Monahan vs. Soderberg), and their tertiary matchup (Ryan vs. Brassard) was close enough to even and resulted in the only five-on-five goal of the game.

The roles were reversed in Game 2 by most measures. The Avalanche didn’t need to make a ton of line changes, as their trios performed quite well. The Flames got into a good amount of trouble, in that Colorado’s players did well and because of some puck management challenges, the Avalanche were able to dictate the pace of the game and get the Flames away from their matchups. The Monahan line saw a decent amount of MacKinnon’s group (which they avoided in Game 1), while Backlund’s group saw a lot of everyone else.

In terms of matching priorities: the Flames lost their primary handily (Backlund vs. MacKinnon), eked out a toss-up on their secondary match-up (Monahan vs. Soderberg), and barely got much of a chance to have Ryan’s line out against the bottom six. The symptom of the other lines getting thrown into disarray a bit was seeing a bit more of the Jankowski line out against the other Colorado groups; it worked out alright, but it’s definitely not ideal because it means that the Avalanche groups are getting a bit of an easier workload.

It’ll be interesting to see what adjustments Bill Peters makes to his lines heading into Game 3 in Denver, where the Avalanche will have last change. The Avalanche didn’t make many adjustments between games, they simply buckled down and played better – and used their forecheck to make the Flames make mistakes in their own zone.

Given how strong of a road team they’ve been this season, the Flames might not necessarily need to make substantial changes to their lines; they might just need to commit more fully to their system and simply play better within it. Even with control of things, there were too many situations in Game 1 and 2 where the Flames were outworked or outplayed by Colorado.