Panthers 6, Flames 3 post-game embers: At least someone scored

Well, at least one Flame undeniably had a good overall game.

I honestly hadn’t even realized it was David Rittich’s first start at home, but it makes sense, considering how the Flames seem intent on avoiding using anyone other than Mike Smith in net until they’re absolutely forced to. Rittich has had two appearances in the Saddledome before: in relief for an eventual 7-5 Oilers loss, and in relief for an eventual 7-4 loss to the Lightning. (Maybe this should have been a 7-3 loss?)

Rittich faced 15 shots and was only able to stop 11 of them. Two goals came at even strength and two on the powerplay. Unfortunately, it was the start to the second that ultimately killed the Flames, and dug them into a hole they couldn’t get out of. Rittich wasn’t solely at fault for it – those two powerplay goals came back-to-back, right at the start of the second – but at some point, a save had to be mixed in there.

Jon Gillies, in relief, didn’t fare much better. His only NHL time so far this season has been two relief appearances, and he’s let in a couple of goals in each. This time was arguably worse, however. When Gillies drew into the 8-2 Detroit blowout, the game was long over, and he was the victim of a phantom Matthew Tkachuk spearing major. When he drew into this game, the Flames were able to make it a two-goal game before he gave up two quick even strength goals to start the third, effectively ending the night.

Would things have been any better had Smith been available? Maybe. But he’s had his off nights, as well – and it’s not like anyone was really helping out either netminder.

Of course, something that might have helped would have been if the Flames could have maybe, just maybe, stopped high-sticking everyone in sight – and that’s even with them getting away with making Aleksander Barkov bleed his own blood. Careless penalties led to those early second period powerplay goals, and often poor defensive coverage, combined with inadvertent own-screens, did the rest.

The Flames are playing with the starting AHL tandem right now. Rittich may have proven himself to at least be NHL backup level, but this was still an AHL tandem just a couple of months ago. A much tighter game was needed, and nobody delivered on it.

But! You know who else had a bad game? The officials. There was the aforementioned missed double minor on Barkov’s face; then there was Curtis Lazar’s goal-not-a-goal which, honestly, just left me incredulous at every turn. The official, on seeing the puck in the net, immediately signalled no goal and then, not even a second later, emphatically signalled goal multiple times. So… which was it? I have no problem with it being ruled no goal due to a high stick – the old “call on the ice stands” didn’t apply here since the official apparently decided to have the best of both worlds – but in that case, there were still two seconds left on the powerplay, and they just let Vincent Trocheck step out of the box anyway. He served 1:58 of a two-minute minor that didn’t result in a goal. What the hell?

Lazar’s non-goal wouldn’t have made a difference in the game, ultimately, but what a stunning display of incompetence from the officials. That wasn’t “missed a call” bad – that was just sheer incompetency. It was on the level of them blowing the play dead for a powerplay when the penalized team hadn’t touched the puck, maybe even worse.

Sometimes the Flames are just not going to play a great game, and we can rage about that, and it’s warranted, but after a certain point, exhausting. There’s only so much to dissect about a team quitting and letting in a ton of goals and quitting all over again.

But the only thing about this that genuinely made me angry is that it took more than 50 games to get Dougie Hamilton on the top powerplay unit, which should be a fireable offence.

Hamilton had 50 points last season, leading the team’s defencemen in scoring, and coming in fourth in scoring overall. He led the team in shots that season with 222, 20 more than the next highest guy. He was fifth in powerplay ice time, well behind T.J. Brodie and Mark Giordano, though he outscored the former and tied with the latter despite nearly 30-40 fewer minutes on the man advantage.

That was 2016-17. This season, he still leads the defence in points, now up to 34 – six more than the next defenceman. He still leads the team in shots with 185, 11 more than the next highest guy. He is sixth in powerplay ice time, this time only roughly 20-35 minutes behind Brodie and Giordano, but he’s already one point back of the former and tied with the latter.

The powerplay has reached undeniably low levels of productivity since about mid-December, and it has legitimately, singlehandedly cost them some games. They now have six powerplay goals in their past five games. Hamilton has been directly involved in four of them. Whether it’s his shot alone getting the job done, or creating a rebound for his teammates to cash in on, or tip, he has made an immediate impact.

And it is something we could all. See. Coming.

Who would have possibly thought that the team’s top offensive defenceman should be given prime powerplay time? What excuse does anybody have for it to have taken it this long? This isn’t about player usage, or shooting percentage, or any other woe you can drag up: it’s about common sense, and it took 50 games to reach it this season, and more than 130 games if you include the past year as well.

Teams will have meh games. Sometimes the goalies won’t be up for it. Sometimes the skaters in front of them will play stupid. These are all things people can rebound from. But that it has taken this long to recognize Hamilton should be getting prime powerplay time is much worse, because that has had a much, much heavier long-term impact on this team and its placement in the standings than any off night ever will.