Penguins 4, Flames 3 (OT) post-game embers: One point is good right?

Good game. Except for the part where the Flames absolutely need to make the playoffs lest this season be labelled anything but a massive failure, and they only got one point out of it. But you know, that aside, good game.

I know this is a controversial opinion, but hear me out.

Jon Gillies couldn’t have asked for a worse start. Giving up a goal just over two minutes into the game is one thing; being the direct cause of your team going down 2-0 literally 55 seconds later is something else. And this time, there was no “well he was facing Henrik Lundqvist, what can you really expect” moment: he was playing opposite Tristan Jarry, he of 24 NHL games. Gillies has played eight. They are not that far apart.

Jarry put up a .921 save percentage on 38 shots. Gillies, .875 on 32. Gillies looked mostly fine in his wins against Arizona and Colorado, and a .923 save percentage against Dallas was pretty good as well, but those three games aside, uh.

I think this is the first one where we can very concretely say that Mike Smith would have won the Flames this game. Too bad he got injured, possibly as a result of being run into the ground because the coaching staff really seemed not eager to use literally anybody else for an extended period of time. The goal was to keep him under 70 starts this year and guess what! They’ll make that now. Hooray.

The real kicker to Gillies’ performance was the goal that wasn’t: a shorthanded 171-foot shot that had to be reviewed to make sure it didn’t actually beat him and cross the line. Gillies has had his moments in which he’s looked lost. That should-have-been-harmless clearing attempt nearly cost the Flames a point. Dude just simply doesn’t have it at this point in time.

What was most heartbreaking was, perhaps, his reaction to the overtime winner, just lying face down on the ice. He had no chance on it anyway, but absolutely everything is going wrong for him right now and it really sucks to watch on a purely human level.

The refrain was very easy: the Flames were down 2-0 just over three minutes into the game and the game was, therefore, over. Really couldn’t have blamed anybody from turning it off and walking away, we’ve all seen this story before.

But this time, it was different. Mark Giordano did work and got the Flames back within one a little over three minutes later. Mikael Backlund really did work and tied the game four minutes later. What looked like another case of “here go the Flames, again” suddenly turned into a reset and maybe, just maybe, they had a chance. They had a five-game winning streak against the Penguins, after all! Why not?

Even when Kris Letang recovered from Backlund absolutely dunking on him well enough to beat a not-really-prepared-for-this-quite-yet Gillies, the Flames pressed, and T.J. Brodie and Troy Brouwer got the game tied up with three seconds to go in the period. They did not quit. It was very refreshing.

Two points to that.

One, how do they respond when they see that for all of their effort to get back into the game, they still lost?

And two, for all of their effort to get back into the game, they never once led. Tough to win when you don’t lead. Not impossible, but tough. Also, goal differential is -11 now.

The fourth line created two of the Flames’ goals on the night. Brouwer had a two-point night and led the way with a 69.70% CF. It was one of those games in which you just put away the snark and concede that for as easy as it is to get annoyed at some of these players for not living up to their contracts, or ice times, or what have you will, they are still NHL players and can still bust out those games that prove they belong in the big show.

Of course, it’d be nice if it happened more often, but you take what you can get. And as much as the Flames’ depth players have been – deservedly – maligned this season, some of them really did step up on the night.

Also? Brodie’s assist was vintage Brodie. The guy who can see the ice and, more importantly, just skate so dang well that he can dive through any manner of players and set up a goal – he’s still in there. And hopefully he shows himself more.

Johnny Gaudreau, guy whose game is pretty much tailored for three-on-three, got a two-on-oh with frequent sniping partner Sean Monahan, in overtime, the game on his stick, and he shot wide.

I mean, at least he shot it, I guess? There have been plenty of moments where he’s just held onto it and run out of real estate. But he should’ve had Jarry’s heart pounding and the puck just rolled off his stick. The absolutely worst time for that to happen, and maybe one of many microcosms for the season on the whole.

Gaudreau did pick up an assist on Brouwer’s goal, so his four-game point-less drought was snapped. Monahan, however, is on a four-game point-less drought of his own now. The Flames’ best players were not their best players and it hurt them.

Micheal Ferland was unceremoniously booted from the top line after a four-game absence. When he originally sat, it wasn’t clear whether or not he was actually injured or just being punished for a sub-par performance. I feel like, without further information, it could be the same case here. It’s easy to protest that it was Brouwer who took over his spot – why not Sam Bennett? Not like the third line was really doing anything – but Brouwer was having a legitimately good game. So.

Backlund maybe barely catches Jarry with the toe of his skate while his defenceman collides into him and gets called for goaltender interference. Uhhh.

Curtis Lazar outright, like, runs Jarry and gets nothing for it. Uhhh?

Mark Jankowski backs his ass up into Jarry and gets called for interference and okay, that one was legitimate. The refs went one-for-three on some of the most obvious examples possible last night. Excellent batting average, really horrible percentage in literally everything else.