Post-Game: Winning ugly

7 years ago

(Matt Kartozian / USA Today Sports)

In the cinematic masterpiece The Fast and the Furious, noted dramatic actor Vin Diesel notes “It don’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning’s winning.” The takeaway from that part of the film is that while it’s great to win in dominating or impressive fashion, ultimately all that matters is picking up the W. Winning pretty is good, but the standings don’t reflect the beauty of the wins – they simply tabulate the points.

The Flames picked up two points in rather ugly fashion tonight in Glendale, Arizona against the Coyotes. They weren’t very good, particularly defensively, for roughly 35 to 40 minutes. But they got some Johnny Gaudreau plays from their best player and timely goals and they won 2-1 in overtime.

THE RUNDOWN

This was a weird game. There were as many fights (three) as there were goals (three), despite these guys not really being traditional rivals. For the lack of offense, we’ll summarize the game in this fashion:

The Flames were bad in their defensive zone for roughly two-thirds of the game.
The Coyotes were inconsistent in all three zones for basically the entire game.
The fights came about due to some really disjointed physical play from each side; teams trying to spark their benches with big checks and ending up scrapping afterwards.

The Coyotes scored first off some very October Flames defense in the first; Chad Johnson made the initial save and seemed to lose track of the puck. He got tangled up with Mark Giordano going across his crease, the other four Flames stood around in confusion, and Max Domi scored on the wide-open net to make it 1-0.

The Flames tied the game up before the end of the period, though. On the power play, they had some nice puck movement and Giordano buried a feed from Gaudreau to make it 1-1. Shots were 9-9.

There was no scoring in the second and third periods. Shots were 15-8 Calgary in the second and 10-9 Arizona in the third. The Flames had the better chances, but couldn’t bury ’em. It went to overtime and Johnny Gaudreau had a few chances, then fed the puck to Dougie Hamilton…who slid through two defenders and beat Mike Smith for the winner. (Shots were 2-1 Calgary in OT.)

WHY THE FLAMES WON

To be blunt? They won because they’re better than the Coyotes.

The Flames were quite so-so for two periods, but they were good enough to not be losing despite their own gaffes and miscues in the defensive zone. Then they were able to turn it on late and let Gaudreau do his thing. It’s also quite helpful that they won the special teams battle, as they scored a PP goal and didn’t give up one to the Coyotes.

THE TURNING POINT

The Flames penalty kill midway through the third period (with T.J. Brodie in the box) was huge and gave the Flames momentum they never really frittered away. They pressed in the second half of the period and carried that swagger over to overtime.

(Secondary turning point: Johnson not leaving the game after getting hit around the collar-bone region with a hard shot in the third.)

RED WARRIOR

Gaudreau had two primary assists and was the most dangerous Flames player tonight.

Honourable mention to the entire 3M Line, who continue to be quite good, and Hamilton for the game-winner and a generally strong game.

THE NUMBERS

(Percentage stats are even strength. Game score is overall.)

Player	Corsi For%	O-Zone Start%	Game Score
Tkachuk	77.4	12.5	1.535
Backlund	74.1	0.0	0.855
Frolik	64.3	0.0	0.475
Hamilton	61.1	66.7	1.800
Bennett	56.0	78.6	0.405
Gaudreau	53.3	83.3	1.800
Wideman	52.5	53.9	0.350
Jokipakka	50.0	42.9	0.350
Stajan	50.0	50.0	-0.010
Ferland	50.0	60.0	0.000
Brouwer	47.4	71.4	-0.050
Brodie	47.2	53.9	-0.075
Engelland	46.2	42.9	-0.075
Giordano	46.2	69.2	0.825
Chiasson	44.8	80.0	-0.290
Bouma	36.8	0.0	-0.200
Monahan	33.3	75.0	0.050
Hathaway	29.4	33.3	-0.050
Johnson	—	—	1.950

THIS AND THAT

For the fight fans: Lance Bouma fought Ryan White, Micheal Ferland fought Connor Murphy and Garnet Hathaway fought Max Domi. Domi never returned to the game after his scrap with Hathaway.

UP NEXT

The Flames (15-13-2) head back home tonight. They’re back in action on Saturday night for a tilt on Hockey Night In Canada against Patrik Laine and the Winnipeg Jets.