Islanders 4, Flames 0: post-game embers

Well, that sure was a game of hockey!

This wasn’t quite as terrible as previous efforts were. Don’t get me wrong, it was still pretty bad – the Flames are really not playing particularly well – but in previous efforts, the Flames gave up much, much earlier. At least now, they’re starting off games decently enough.

The puck just isn’t going in. Then the other team proves better than them, and then they give up. But at least you get some level of effort first.

Bob Hartley started off the game with somewhat new line combinations. Of course Gaudreau, Monahan, and Hudler remained together; it was nice to see Bennett back up with Backlund and Frolik, though. Grant ended up centring Colborne and Jones, and that left Bollig, Stajan, and Jooris to round things out.

But when the Flames entered the third period down 1-0, he decided to try something new. And then something else new. And then another new thing for good measure.

At even strength only, these were the lines Hartley played throughout the entire third:

Gaudreau – Monahan – Bennett

Hudler – Grant – Colborne

Frolik – Backlund – Jooris

Bollig – Stajan – Jones

Alright, mixing things up a little. He kept it going, as the next shifts were:

Gaudreau – Monahan – Bennett

Frolik – Backlund – Jooris

(The Islanders scored a goal here.)

Hudler – Grant – Colborne

Bollig – Stajan – Jones

And this is where we start going a little more all over the place:

Colborne – Monahan – Jooris

Gaudreau – Frolik – Backlund

Colborne – Monahan – Jooris

Bennett – Grant – Hudler

And why stop there:

Gaudreau – Monahan – Frolik

Bennett – Grant – Hudler

Colborne – Backlund – Jooris

(The Islanders scored again at this point.)

Gaudreau – Monahan – Frolik

Bollig – Stajan – Jones

And since none of that was clearly working, why not go back to what you’d just tried like two minutes ago:

Colborne – Monahan – Jooris

Bennett – Grant – Hudler

Gaudreau – Backlund – Frolik

Bollig – Stajan – Jones

Colborne – Monahan – Jooris

Gaudreau – Backlund – Frolik

Bennett – Grant – Hudler

(The Islanders scored again.)

Colborne – Stajan – Jones

Bennett – Grant – Jooris

Colborne – Stajan – Jones

And then the Flames got a powerplay, Hartley sent out Gaudreau, Monahan, and Hudler, and it was mercifully over.

Over one period, Bennett and Gaudreau, for example, played on three different lines. Twenty minutes, and three different line combinations per player. They were supposed to generate offence with that? With a coach that formed and dismantled lines throughout the period? With players they haven’t regularly practiced with?

Well, that didn’t work. The Flames not only stopped producing chances with consistency (although that Gaudreau – Backlund – Frolik line tried really, really, really hard), but they were giving up goals all the while.

Frantically switching line combinations in the dying period of a 1-0, then 2-0, etc. game is the action of a desperate man. There was no payoff.

What do the lines look like next game? Who cares, they won’t stick. 

Where do we go from here?

Of course, we have to address this particular issue. Even after Paul Byron was waived, the Flames had more than enough forward personnel to keep Brandon Bollig out of the lineup. He’s not one of the 12 best forwards on this team, after all.

But hey, you can kind of rationalize it. With Lance Bouma and Micheal Ferland out, the Flames are missing two of their toughest players. And if you want that feature still in the forward lineup, you turn to Bollig.

There are several problems with that.

First: Bollig’s impact on the game was to take a stupid interference penalty in the offensive zone, thereby putting his team on the penalty kill for no particular reason. Now, the Isles didn’t score on this kill – it was Dougie Hamilton’s puck over the glass call almost immediately after where Mikhail Grabovski finally solved Joni Ortio – but that didn’t help.

Speaking of puck over the glass penalties, Bollig, for some reason, tried to do a stretch pass (as this entire team is wont to do). It failed miserably (as is wont for this team). Bollig’s pass, made under zero pressure, instead flew right over the glass, and he put his team, now down 1-0 and no longer generating anything, back on the kill.

That’s not toughness, that’s just stupid hockey. I don’t care how underwhelming Mason Raymond may be: if he’s going to take dumb penalties (and he probably isn’t going to take penalties as atrocious as those), at least he can be a scoring threat on occasion.

Furthermore. Okay, so you want toughness, but two of your tougher players are injured, so you put in Bollig. Except… you still have other players that are plenty tough. Wasn’t that supposed to be one of Deryk Engelland’s defining features? Not him being a top four defenceman, the fact that he’s tough.

Or even this. There was a moment in the second period where Travis Hamonic took out Johnny Gaudreau. He was called for interference, but before he was off the ice, Sean Monahan was on him, and it kind of looked like he had murder in his eyes. There were no fisticuffs – just some very intense hugging, and probably some bad language – but before Gaudreau had even gotten himself up, Monahan was in Hamonic’s face.

Bollig isn’t going to protect Gaudreau out there, because Bollig and Gaudreau should never, ever be on the same line (and throughout the chaos of the third period, it seems Hartley agrees).

Monahan was willing to step up to the task, though.

So again: what’s the point of having Bollig in the lineup? He’s not being tough, he’s not protecting anybody, and all his contributions were to take two stupid, easily avoidable penalties and put his team down a man.

And for all his efforts, he got more ice time than David Jones. (At least Jones had the decency to not take penalties and actually get shots on net and try to get something going. What nerve.)

The Flames are missing shots they probably would not have last season. Of course, last season was the fabled “top two shooting percentage team in the league” season, and part of the reason why they scored as many goals as they did. Gone is their 10.52% shooting percentage, now replaced with a mere 7.55%.

That’s a difference of about six goals, which would give the Flames a -13 goal differential, rather than the -19 they currently sport. So they’d still be in a pretty bad spot.

But hey, at least they’d be putting pucks in the net. The game kicked off with Jaroslav Halak mishandling the puck, gifting the Flames with beautiful chances – and Joe Colborne missed a wide open net. He’d go on to do the same thing later. Credit where credit is due, he did lead the way in shots (six) and scoring chances (four), but fact is, things simply aren’t going in for the Flames to start the season.

In 2014-15, it took 49 games for the Flames to get shutout. This year, it took nine games.

And it really, really isn’t for lack of trying. Colborne should have had a couple. Same with Bennett. Gaudreau. Backlund. Jones. Giordano. The effort to score is back again – it’s just, so far this season, it’s not happening.

Of course, that’s not the main problem. The Flames and Kings both have 16 goals this season, tied for second worst in the Pacific Division. (RIP the Anaheim Ducks, scorer of six. And somehow with the same number of points as the Flames. Okay.) The main difference: the Flames have allowed 35 goals against; the Kings, 17.

Neither is putting the puck in the net, but the Flames’ defence is an unmitigated disaster that’s just enhancing the problems. You can’t win if you can’t score, but you really can’t win if a puck in your zone is enough to send you into fits.

Kris Russell did not have a particularly pleasant game. He was on the ice for all three Islanders goals in their third period, either getting twisted around, out-battled, or simply not doing much of anything as the Isles turned their surmountable 1-0 lead into a crushing 4-0 win.

Probably most damning for Russell was his part in the Islanders’ third goal. Casey Cizikas turned Russell inside out from the corner, eventually feeding Cal Clutterbuck. It shouldn’t have been able to get to that point. Cizikas shouldn’t have been able to make that pass; with just Russell covering him, he did. (Granted, it’s not entirely on Russell – his teammates should have been covering Clutterbuck – but it did start where he was.)

But at least he led the way with five blocked shots? That’s supposed to be a good example of his defensive prowess, right…?

Through two periods, Ortio had stopped 23 of 24 shots, good for a .958 save percentage. The one goal scored against him came on the powerplay, so he couldn’t exactly be blamed for it; especially as he was doing a pretty good job dealing with the lively Barclays Center boards and the Flames defence we’ve come to know and not particularly enjoy. 

It was a team-wide breakdown in the third, though, and that’s where Ortio picked up his .886 SV% finish. He should have had the second goal; goals three and four weren’t exactly on him, though.

So Ortio did, in fact, play his part in the loss. But considering the team in front of him and his current stage of development, he really did all he could, and deserved at least some offensive support to have a chance.

Goaltending remains a symptom, but not the main problem. God-era Miikka Kiprusoff wouldn’t be able to do a thing to help out this team, let alone an entirely different kid from Turku.