I’m thankful to Rasmus Andersson and the Calgary Flames video coach, Jamie Pringle, for delivering the C of Red an early battle of Alberta victory. It was a close game at the start with the Oilers snagging the early lead off Jeff Skinner’s first as an Oiler.
That would be it for the boys in blue though, Calgary won two separate coach’s challenges to erase their other two scores from existence. One was a very clear off-side and the other was a message from the league telling everyone the blue paint is the goaltender’s territory. Doubt the consistency in those calls sticks around, but for last night’s game it worked in the Flames favour. Rasmus Andersson would take the game over from there – he scored a highlight reel goal to tie the game and added assists on the second goal by Anthony Mantha and the third goal by Justin Kirkland. It was the 28-year-old Kirkland’s first career NHL goal, a fantastic story to cap a fantastic Thanksgiving Sunday.
CF% – 53.64%|| SCF% – 61.32% || HDCF% – 65.62%|| xGF% – 59.41%
It’s a Team Game – In the first period the quality share between teams at 5v5 was near 50/50. The Oilers had more overall attempts and Calgary had the better quality of attempts. The second period Calgary woke up and left Edmonton where they stood. They dominated high danger chances nine to four over the final 40 minutes – by the time the Oilers finally got a power play they were disinterested to say the least. McDavid still had his speed pop and Draisaitl was taking some risky (and yet oh so dangerous) shots from funky angles, but it never looked like the Oilers were ever going to tilt the ice back in their favour. Calgary smothered them, hit them hard, kept the puck from them and got their own chances in close to the net. A well-executed game from Ryan Huska’s squad.
Corsi King – Justin Kirkland (70.84 CF%) scored his first goal and went into the corner smiling, Rasmus Andersson (50.28 per cent) went to grab the puck for him almost immediately. Credit to Kirkland because he’s been very good at doing the simple things right – chip the puck out, support down low, be a defensive buffer, and hit hard. His goal was a great display of this. Kirkland starts at the blueline to be a support in case the puck is chipped back into the neutral zone, instead it stays in the zone but gets pushed over to the other boards. Kirkland drove up the middle lane with his stick on the ice, got the rebound, and tucked home his score. Brayden Pachal (65.30 per cent) continues a strong stretch of play to start the season. He’s giving me right handed Cory Sarich vibes and I’m more than okay with that.
Under Pressure –
Taken By Chance – Brayden Pachal (72.56 SCF% // 74.06 HDCF%) led the way for everyone being on the ice for 8 high danger chances at 5v5. Linemate Tyson Barrie (67.88 per cent // 68.11 per cent) was third with 6 in his first game as a Flame. They both saw three go against them so significant advantage on the offensive side for them. Up front it was Anthony Mantha (60.49 per cent // 70.74 per cent) leading the charge with seven high danger looks and one slick backhand goal. Every single member of the Flames finished above 50 per cent in their high danger ratio percentage except one. Translated: almost every Flames player was involved in getting more and/or the same number of high danger looks on offence than they gave up on defence. Full team effort from top to bottom even with some lineup changes.
xG Breakdown –
xGF% – I’m not sure which lab they made Mikael Backlund (77.23 per cent) in but the result of him being a tremendous defensive centre is undeniable. The Oilers found themselves with a 3-on-1 during the game and the aggressive backcheck by Backlund was the reason it got broken up. His chemistry with Coleman (73.12 per cent) is at a level that it is almost effortless for them to defend their own end and transition the puck back the other way. Right now Connor Zary (56.34 per cent) is the beneficiary of playing on their line – he’s been demonstrating some more offensive creativity in the offensive zone as well. More room to develop confidence when you have a safety net like Mikael Backlund beside you. We’ll end with one last check in on teenager Samuel Honzek (63.34 per cent) – who remains superb. His game tonight wasn’t quite as strong as the first two, but he’s still showcasing top 6 NHL skill and smarts.
Game Flow –
Game Score –
Shot Heatmap –
In The Crease – Dan Vladar was the man tonight – holding McDavid and company to just a single goal. It wasn’t like it was a perfect game either as there were plenty of pucks needing to be cleared on net front scrambles. Vladar did stop the first shot all night long though, the defenders are supposed to get involved after that to help him out. Sometimes you need your guy to make those second saves – that wasn’t needed to often in this one. The Oilers attack was fairly lacklustre for a long stretch of play. Calgary got a fair bit of luck as well after Edmonton hit three posts late in their brief window of energy to try and crawl back. Vladar faced 1.90 expected goals against with just one high danger chance getting behind him for a 5v5 save percentage of 0.952%.
Player Spotlight – Kevin Bahl – I am enjoying his presence in the corners and on the penalty kill. People can’t just skate around him because he is mobile enough to turn and keep pace with them. It’s been a great complement to his partner Andersson allowing him to have more confidence in his pinches. He put in the second most time on ice tonight with 23:28 and was a major factor in limiting what the Oilers were able to achieve. A shot suppression specialist I do believe Flames fans are going to come to like Bahl who is still only just 24 years old.
The Goals –
Flashalytic’s 3 Stars –
1) Rasmus Andersson
2) Justin Kirkland
3) Anthony Mantha
(Stats compiled from Naturalstattrick.com // Game Score from Hockeystatcards.com // xG and Under Pressure charts from HockeyViz.com // Game Flow and Shot Heatmap from NaturalStatTrick.com)
