Post-Game: At least they didn’t get shut out

Two things can throw off a hockey club from their normal rhythm. They return home from a long road trip and get back to their “old” routine, or a team can come into town and turn a home game into a road atmosphere. The Toronto Maple Leafs came to town on Tuesday night, bringing with them a boisterous group of loud fans. Whether it was the Leafs speed, coming back from a road trip or them being thrown by the crowd, the Calgary Flames seemed a bit off in their game.

The Flames began their homestand with a rather pedestrian effort in a 4-1 loss to the Maple Leafs.

The opening period was built for speed, in the sense that it flew by and was very much back and forth and end to end. The Leafs carried most of the play, but the Flames had a few flurries here and there. The highlights of the period included a dreadful Flames power play where they barely gained entry to the Toronto zone, and a tremendous save by Mike Smith on Mitch Marner.

Late in the period, the Leafs got a weird one. The Flames failed to clear their own zone, allowing the puck to trickle to the point for Roman Polak. Polak’s shot redirected off both of Mark Jankowski and Travis Hamonic before blooping into the Flames net to make it 1-0. Shots were 12-8 Leafs and scoring chances were 11-8 Leafs.

The locals had good energy early, creating some chances on the first few shifts of the second period. Unfortunately, arguably their best passing sequence – a dandy invoving Mikael Backlund, Matthew Tkachuk and Michael Frolik – ended up with Freddie Andersen robbing Tkachuk with a toe save.

The Leafs gained steam late in the period and eventually struck again. After two failed zone exits by Mark Giordano and Dougie Hamilton, the Flames were running around in their own end. Nikita Zaitsev’s shot was partially deflected by Backlund and trickled through Smith’s five-hole to make it 2-0 Toronto. Shots were 11-6 Leafs and scoring chances were 9-7 Leafs.

Calgary opened the third period with 1:43 of power play time. They generated zero shots, which set the tone for the final frame. Immediately after the power play expired, the Flames iced the puck. They won the ensuing face-off but Tkachuk coughed up the puck, allowing Nazem Kadri to rifle a wrister top-corner to make it 3-0. The Flames answered back a few minutes later, with a Michael Stone point shot with a Mark Jankowski screen in front beating Andersen. But that was as close as they got. Leo Komarov added an empty-netter to make it 4-1. Shots were 7-5 Leafs but scoring chances were 5-4 Flames.

To be honest? The Leafs were better than the Flames in just about every area. The Flames couldn’t generate much on the rush, as the Leafs were great at clogging the middle of their zone. The Flames had bad puck management in their own end, repeatedly whiffing on zone exits and creating scoring chances for the Leafs. The Leafs were great at taking advantage of said Flames mistakes and layered traffic in front of Smith to create additional scoring chances.

 

Ultimately, the Leafs depth is probably what beat the Flames. The Flames top six did great, but their bottom six (or lack thereof) was exposed by the Leafs bottom six.

It seems like we’re doing this a lot, but we’ve gotta go with Smith. He made 26 saves, many of them very good, and held the Flames in this one early.

The Flames had a power play to begin the third period. Down 2-0, they had a golden chance to get close. They did nothing.

Matthew Phillips scored his 21st goal of the season (in his 28th game) but Victoria lost 7-4 to Moose Jaw. D’Artagnan Joly had a goal as Baie-Comeau beat Chicoutimi 5-4 in overtime.

Sam Bennett took a puck to the face late in the game. All indications after the game was that it wasn’t considered serious – I’d imagine some stitches or something like that.

“We made a few mistakes, not just one. Bad decisions, I think I made a few bad reads on plays that could have gotten out. They’re good. What they do do when you do turn it over is they throw the puck at the net. I thought a few of their goals, they threw pucks at the net which kept it in for them and generated a cycle and some chances and then they put it in.” – Flames captain Mark Giordano on his team’s puck management.

“Our power play, without Steeger here today, obviously you could tell we were a little bit out of sync. They got on the power play, we couldn’t clear a couple and they got some momentum. We didn’t get any off ours, they did off theirs. And then wall play. Two goals coming off… they won a battle on the second goal, two off the wall play that we didn’t clear it. We didn’t make the right play with the puck… They got a bounce on the first one, but yeah, not enough to get it done against a good team.” – Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan on his team’s performance.

The Flames (13-10-1) hit the practice ice tomorrow as they prepare to host Arizona on Thursday night.