Signs Of Life, Three Games In

So, the Calgary Flames won last night. The game itself was pretty even and pretty nerve-wracking for both sides. The Ducks had a chance to go up 3-0. The Flames had a chance to keep themselves alive in the series. Shots were even, and the Flames actually won the possession battle via a 57-45 Corsi advantage.

How did player performance shake out in that respect to other games this series?

We have the breakdown after the jump!

Some of Hartley’s Game 2 line shuffling becomes evident here, particularly with Gaudreau’s numbers really improving once he got away from Sean Monahan. Monahan’s numbers have been the worst among Flames forwards all series, and I presume he’s still feeling the ill-effects of some manner of malady, because he’s usually much better than this.

That said, the entire team was pretty “meh” in Game 1 and really recovered in Game 2, and basically everybody beyond the top line has respectable even-strength numbers. As we saw last night, if the depth guys can start potting some goals, this could become a series.

Well, guess which pairing gets the Getzlaf/Perry line? Russell and Wideman haven’t been amazing, but T.J. Brodie has been superb this series, in a combination with Engelland and Schlemko. The addition of Diaz gives the Flames a bit more of a veteran kick on the back-end, but against lesser NHL competition in the playoffs, Wotherspoon did just fine.

I suspect this will continue to be the performance pattern we see throughout the rest of this series, for what it’s worth.

The majority of the Flames players performed how you’d hope they would at home. The top line and top defensive pairing continue to get out-chanced, but everybody else is performing rather well – and actually were improving in that respect as the series has worn on.

If the Flames can just get some pucks at the net, they may have a series on their hands.