Post-Game: Flames can’t tame Predators

The Calgary Flames ended their short homestand on a sour note on Friday night. In a game where they never had the lead, they dropped a 5-3 contest to the visiting Nashville Predators.

The Predators struck first and generally controlled the opening 20 minutes of action. A dump-in was bobbled by the Flames, allowing Filip Forsberg to collect the puck and find Ryan Johansen all alone in front, and his wrist shot beat Mike Smith and put Nashville up 1-0.

The Flames had just three shots in the opening period. The first was at 2:07. The second, more than 16 full minutes of hockey later, was a pass from Johnny Gaudreau from below the goal line to Elias Lindholm at the side of the net. Lindholm’s quick shot beat Pekka Rinne to make it 1-1.

Shots were 8-3 Predators, chances were 8-5 Predators.

The locals had some nice chances early in the second period, including a tic-tac-toe passing play between Mikael Backlund, Matthew Tkachuk and Michael Frolik – of course – that resulted in a tip by Tkachuk that narrowly missed the far post.

Nashville retook the lead off a turnover by rookie Juuso Valimaki. Valimaki collected an errant puck in the Flames end but couldn’t clear it, which led to a great feed from Kyle Turris to Craig Smith in the slot. Once again, with plenty of time and space, the Predators forward buried the chance to make it 2-1.

The Flames answered back on the power play. After Tkachuk drew a slashing call, the Flames took awhile to get set up in the offensive zone. But once they did so Lindholm’s shot from the top of the face-off circles was redirected off Tkachuk’s ankle and beat Rinne to make it 2-2.

But James Neal took a double-minor for high sticking and just 33 seconds into the ensuing power play for Nashville, Kevin Fiala made it 3-2. The Flames defended fairly well, but a scramble for the puck to Smith’s right resulted in the puck squirting out to his left – right to Fiala – and Smith’s attempted pad stack had just enough space for the puck to squeak in between his pads

Shots were 10-10, while scoring chances were 11-7 Predators.

The two sides traded quality scoring chances to open the third period, but the Flames managed to capitalize on one. Sam Bennett buried a superb pass from Derek Ryan on the rush, receiving the pass from between two defenders and then deking around Rinne, to make it 3-3.

Rinne was injured early in the third off a scramble in front of Nashville’s net and was replaced by backup Juuse Saros. A little while after Saros entered the game, the Predators retook the lead (again). Noah Hanifin got caught pinching into the offensive zone, leaving Rasmus Andersson alone to defend a two-on-one. Andersson guarded the passer, so Zac Rinaldo shot and beat Smith to make it 4-3.

The Flames pulled their netminder late but couldn’t draw even. Forsberg added an empty net goal to make it a 5-3 final score. Shots were 13-13, while chances were 12-11 Flames.

They just weren’t good enough in their own end. They made too many gaffes and had too many lapses, giving a dangerous and deep Predators squad too many quality scoring opportunities.

It’s hard to pin this on Smith – the goals he gave up were all on pretty good scoring chances – but he wasn’t amazing. He didn’t make any highlight reel saves. He wasn’t the difference between the Flames getting two points or zero, but this was the type of close game where they needed him to be a difference-maker and he wasn’t one.

Bennett was a spark-plug throughout his game and was a big difference-maker in the final 40 minutes for the locals. Honourable mentions to Tkachuk and Giordano.

Rinaldo’s goal was the wrong play at the wrong time. The Flames seemed to have momentum on their side before that, as they had tied the game and Nashville had lost their star netminder. Unfortunately the Predators managed to retake the lead and keep the Flames chasing for the remainder of the game.

This was the first home game this season for Flames in their “regular” red home jerseys.

Bill Peters made one significant line shuffle mid-game, swapping Derek Ryan to the third line (between Bennett and Neal) and demoting Mark Jankowski to the fourth line.

As you would expect, Peters also shortened his bench in the third period: the fourth line barely hit the ice. Hathaway had three shifts (1:52 total), Dube had two (1:14) and Jankowski had four (3:12).

The Flames (4-3-0) have a travel day tomorrow, heading to the Big Apple to prepare for a Sunday evening date with the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.