Post-Game: On The Verge

Since the tongue-lashing they received from head coach Glen Gulutzan following their ugly, ugly outing in Montreal on January 24, the Calgary Flames have been a much better hockey club. Not only have they scored more, but they seem a lot less terrified when they have a lead. Moreover, in games against some of the league’s better teams and teams they have to beat to make the playoffs, the Flames have been very sharp.

The Flames continued to perform well in big games, beating the Los Angeles Kings in impressive fashion by a 5-2 score at the ‘Dome. The Flames are a step closer to cementing their playoff status, while the Kings are on the verge of being permanently on the outside for this season. With another strong 60 minute effort, the Flames made their own lives much, much easier for their remaining 10 games.

The Flames got a lot of chances early, generating a lot off the rush and making some smart decisions with the puck. Sean Monahan got them on the board roughly mid-way through the first, absolutely crushing a feed from Johnny Gaudreau to make it 1-0.

Just over three minutes later, Michael Stone’s slapshot eluded Jonathan Quick to make it 2-0 – spelling the end of the Kings’ netminder’s night.

However, the Kings did manage to get one back before the first was over. Anze Kopitar was left unattended on the outside of a board scrum – it seems that Troy Brouwer was supposed to cover him, but was too late – and Kopitar got a nice redirection of the puck in the goalmouth to make it 2-1. Shots were 8-5 Flames in the first.

The Flames got another goal early in the second, with Mark Giordano beating Ben Bishop 47 seconds into the period (from far, far away) to make it 3-1.

Gaudreau extended the lead further with a breakaway goal off a tremendous pass from Monahan. That made it 4-1.

Nic Dowd answered back for the Kings with a nice redirection in the slot to make it 4-2, but that’s all the Kings got in that period. Shots were 10-9 Kings in the second, though skewed a bit by a pair of Kings power plays in rapid succession.

The Flames played a really nice third period. Shots were 7-5 in their favour, but only because the Kings pulled Bishop for the extra man and got some pressure late. And even that was for naught, as Kris Versteeg added an empty netter (with an assist from Smilin’ Curtis Lazar) to make it 5-2 and ice this one.

This is what depth does, folks.

The 3M Line got the tough match-up. Backlund & Co. were able to face off against the Kings top line all night long. That left Gaudreau’s trio more time and space to operate. The chances and pressure generated by the top two lines allowed the team to use the bottom six strategically, which allowed them to (a) generate some chances within some favourable match-ups and (b) shelter Lazar in his debut a bit.

It also helps that Calgary got better goaltending from Elliott than the Kings got from either of their guys. The two Kings goals? Redirects from the slot. The Kings didn’t get too many of those types of chances, which is another reason the Flames got two points.

Gaudreau’s breakaway goal temporarily put the Flames up three goals, their biggest lead of the game. The Kings pressed a little bit after that, but largely seemed to lack the traction in their game to make up that large of a deficit.

Gaudreau’s been really good for the last little while, so let’s go with him. He had a three point evening.

Stick-tap to Alex Chiasson, who got a battlefield promotion to the Gaudreau line due to Micheal Ferland’s illness and looked very sharp. Monahan, Elliott, and the usual combination of the 3M Line and Giordano/Hamilton were all quite good.

On November 15, when the Flames lost Johnny Gaudreau to injury in Minnesota, the Flames began the day at 5-10-1. They were dead-last in the NHL in points percentage. Since then? They’re 36-17-3 and their “team” game is much, much better.

The Flames are now 22-3-1 when leading after the first period (only San Jose has a better points percentage) and 30-0-1 when leading after the second period (only Pittsburgh has a better points percentage).

In his Flames debut, Curtis Lazar played 10:08 (all even strength), had three hits, two shots that were blocked, and an assist on Versteeg’s empty-netter. Not a bad first appearance.

Coming soon!

The Flames magic number to clinch a playoff spot began the night at 8. With the regulation win over the Kings, that number drops by 2 (1 for a Flames win and 1 for a Kings regulation loss) to 6. Any combination of 6 Flames wins or Kings losses clinches a Calgary playoff berth.

The Flames (41-27-4) have a travel day tomorrow as they head off to Washington, DC. They play the red-hot Capitals on Tuesday night to kick off a three game eastern swing.