Islanders 2, Flames 1 (OT) Post-Game Embers: Sigh

7 years ago

The Islanders are an unmitigated disaster right now. Their star players can’t score, and not helping that fact is that they keep scratching key contributor Ryan Strome. They couldn’t keep Kyle Okposo because they gave a shipload of money to Casey Cizikas, Cal Clutterbuck, and other fourth liners. They are second worst in score-adjusted 5v5 and have the least number of points in the NHL.

Those are just the on-ice problems. They play in an obviously converted basketball arena which includes an off-centre jumbotron, reduced seating capacity, terrible sightlines, and a Honda in the front row like we’re watching the Spengler Cup. It’s very symbolic that the outside of the arena is covered in rust. Every player on their roster will probably retire before they stop paying Rick DiPietro. Their coach allegedly lives in the general manager’s basement. No matter how bad this season gets, Islanders fans are looking at us (well, at everyone) with envy in their eyes.

Yet the Flames had a tough time against the suckiest bunch of sucks who ever sucked. You couldn’t ask for an easier end to the most gruelling road trip of the season, a road trip that many thought the Flames could use to turn their season around, and they blew it. Against a bunch of chuckleheads.

A review of Janko

I kept my eye on Janko for most of the game, like everyone else. Here’s my review of him; it might be a bit different than yours.

He was given some favourable circumstances initially with Troy Brouwer and Kris Versteeg on the presumed scoring line. To his credit, he looked comfortable in the role. To his detriment, he didn’t look like much of a contributor.

Jankowski did win faceoffs and he did get involved in front of the net, but the team couldn’t get the puck to him. It didn’t seem he was able to find much space, but when he was open, he couldn’t get his teammates to pass to him, which is not his fault. Defensively, I didn’t see him do much besides standing and breaking up a few passes. He still looks a little unsure there, but impressive in small bits. He’s still learning a new system, after all.

Where Janko impressed was below the faceoff dots, working hard on puck retrieval, often times successful. The only critique I have with regard to this facet of the game is that he still looks like he needs some more weight on his body. Matt Tkachuk also works well below the faceoff dots, but he’s two inches smaller and about the same weight as Jankowski (according to HockeyDB, a bit heavier). Tkachuk doesn’t get outmuscled like Jankowski was getting outmuscled last night. Janko was able to keep the puck on his stick, but because he couldn’t physically beat out his opponent, he was unable to do much with it.

The difference came in the third period, where he was placed with Hunter Shinkaruk and Micheal Ferland. With 49 and 79, I liked how he kept up with their high energy forechecking, although we didn’t get to see much of that. If that was the line all game long, I could probably see them causing some real trouble. Here’s an example of what it looked like:

While remembering the general rule of 10 games being predictive and one being descriptive, I come to the conclusion that Jankowski just isn’t ready for the NHL quite yet. I didn’t notice him make a major mistake, but he didn’t do enough last night to make a difference, even a minor one. I would keep him developing in the AHL. That’s clearly where he’ll be able to succeed and grow. Let him claim a spot next year, instead of forcing him into one this year.

Final stat line: 47.06 CF%, -8.50 CFrel%, 50% OZS, 0 SOGs

Final review: 6.5/10, best new music

Some respect for Micheal Ferland

Typical narratives might read that Sean Monahan was demoted from the first line and placed on the third with Shinkaruk and Ferland. That is false, my good friends. Monahan was in the right spot. Ferland deserves the promotion.

Instead, it was Ferland (and to a lesser extent, Shinkaruk, who was somehow the worst CF% player although it didn’t really feel like that) that were buzzing and Monahan Monahaning, or whatever the hell he’s been doing this season. When Monahan left for Versteeg and Brouwer, Ferland and Shinkaruk looked the same.

This is how it has been all season long, even going back to last season. Ferland has been effective, his numbers prove it. Last night, he had a 63.16 CF% (11.73 CFrel%) with 40% OZS. He was the only Flame who really looked good for the first two periods. If you would like to see more examples, read this and this.

We’ve been clamouring for Gulutzan to unleash the Ferklund throughout the season. He’s been one of the only all-around players this season. He’s shooting, he’s scoring, he’s playing physical, and he’s playing responsible. It should be time that he is recognized and utilized as a top six option.

For good measure, here’s him crushing some fool. It’s not the former Flames first rounder.

Talking Monahan

I’ve ragged on him enough, he deserves his own section.

Monahan, by possession standards, was alright last night. He had a 57.69 CF% and a +5.31 CFrel%, which is probably in his top five performances all season. He also scored, and maybe this time, it gets the monkey off his back.

This sounds impressive, but it still feels like I’m overstating his case. He played a season low 10.32 5v5 TOI, and for the first two periods, his total contribution could best be described as floating. Even that feels too generous, because that implies that he did at least something.

As stated, he was invisible with Shinkaruk and Ferland. The other two were active, he was passive. When he moved between Versteeg and Brouwer, he seemed a bit more involved, but still kept that floating tendency at times.

I understand why Gulutzan is tempted to use him extensively, despite 90% of games this season pointing to the opposite. Whenever he’s put into the 2/3C role, he tends to start succeeding again. Then it feels that the Monahan that Calgary had for the past two seasons is back, and his usage goes up. It doesn’t go well, cycle repeats.

Maybe Mony noticed that Gulutzan wasn’t playing him anymore and woke up. He got third line usage tonight (ahead of Janko, and behind Stajan for 5v5 ice time), and that seems to be workable in this given moment. Gulutzan just needs to resist the temptation to move him back up again. With Matthew-Mikael-Michael working miracles right now, that should be easy.

A few line recommendations

The Flames’ middle six looked promising in some bits, but overall, disappointing. I’m going to spit some thoughts about how to improve that.

I really liked the Versteeg-Monahan-Brouwer line, mostly because Brouwer digs up the puck, Versteeg can dodge people and draw all the attention away from Monahan, who can float to his heart’s content and get open in the slot. It worked for the Flames’ only goal last night.
As you can tell, I also like Ferland and Shinkaruk together. I would be happy if Bennett or Janko was slotted in there for Toronto’s game, depending on what happens with call ups. Monahan was invisible around these guys. Worse case scenario, Freddie Hamilton.
Never let Garnet Hathaway play again. Send him down before Janko. Hathaway isn’t offensive (in both senses of the word), but I feel the team flows a lot better without him in the line up. The team clearly needs goals, and they aren’t going to get it with Hathaway in the mix.
A suggestion the FN staff has been tossing around is Ferland-Monahan-Versteeg (maybe swap the wings?), which seems promising and functional. The caveat is that you have Shinkaruk-Jankowski-Brouwer on the other line, which seems less than promising and functional.
For pairings, Giordano and Hamilton is looking just fine, thank-you-very-much Brendan Shanahan, Lou Lamoriello, and Kyle Dubas.
As for the other defensive pairings, they all looked fine. Wideman was all over the place last night, but was also the CF% (63.33) and CFrel% (14.18) leader. Odd.
The only change I would make would be to put Kulak in instead of Engelland, who was far and away the worst player last night (43.33 CF%, -15.99 CFrel%). You can argue about Kulak versus Jokipakka, but ideally, they are both in over Engelland.

Other stuff I noticed but doesn’t take up more than a few sentences

Brian Elliott looked good last night, his only regulation goal against coming on an unforced error leading to an odd man rush. He faced John Tavares, one of the league’s best players, clearly hungry for a goal. He’s reasserting himself into the goaltender conversation, and that’s nothing but good news.
This team is quite clearly the 3M line and a whole bunch of third lines. I miss Johnny Gaudreau.
The Flames took four really dumb penalties last night. Thankfully they killed them, but it was still eight minutes that could have been better spent elsewhere. Please stop with the Wideman effect nonsense, because it paints over the fact that the Flames are routinely taking bad, bad penalties. The Flames need to cut out their nonsense, and we need to cut out ours.