A game the Calgary Flames certainly deserved a better fate for ended up as a loss Thursday evening against the St. Louis Blues.  Calgary had the tying goal before the empty netter to make it 4-4 due to a miss called high stick as well as getting another one called back for being just offside. No breaks for the Flames who did everything they needed to offensively, but the luck was nowhere near them.

It’s a Team Game – When one of these four stats ends up pretty well right on even while the rest sit in a different direction it intrigues me. Today’s shows the Blues were more willing to take chances and shots from farther out and Calgary prioritized getting to the net for the dangerous looks. Calgary was fantastic around the crease tonight, even being a major threat on multiple occasions. They really poured it on in the third trying to equal up the game but Binnington and the referees did more than enough to prevent Calgary from any points.

Corsi King – I do not know how many times one has to pound the table and scream that Matt Coronato (31.42%) does not work at the NHL level with Kevin Rooney (38.49%). They mistreatment of Coronato at the NHL level this season is baffling from a club that should be prioritizing his development. Too much time is being devoted to the bottom line veterans – like Dryden Hunt (62%) – instead of putting your highly offensive players with other highly offensive players trying to get them some form of success. Matt Coronato deserves better from the coaching staff.

Taken By Chance – The biggest disparity in dangerous chances turned out to be Daniil Miromanov (53.09 SCF% // 21.87 HDCF%) who saw 4 chances against to just one look for the squad. His early returns were highly positive but the last week, week and a half, Miromanov has started to find himself more lost and out of position. He is a forward playing defence – sometimes he gets caught up ice leaving more work for those behind him covering. Can’t help but notice that Andersson (64.72% // 81.05%) away from Kylington (DNP) absolutely thrived. Over 8 high danger looks at 5v5 for the Flames in his minutes, truly a play driver from the back end in this one. When Kylington returns he needs to go back next to Pachal (35.70% // 53.26%) where they were shown to be quite a competent and effective pairing.

xGF% – Thursday’s game was a prime example of why you probably want to end the Yegor Sharangovich (32.93%) at centre experiment. The first goal goes right through his coverage area, completely uncontested, after Pachal (30.72%) does everything he can to gap up and limit the passers ability. Sharangovich didn’t have the awareness to see that coming and it led to a fairly easy goal for the Blues. The coach did see that as his ice time was limited, but something else needs to happen down the last 9 games – you need to know what you should sign in free agency to keep this team afloat and competitive (that’s their modus operandi) and if you don’t start mix and matching now you won’t know as much as you could have.

In The Crease – While I can very easily find fault for the defenders letting those shots off some of those goals against Markstrom has been saving all year. Dustin Wolf didn’t have his best game and that’s okay. If he doesn’t have them now he’ll have them later, the bumps and bruises need time to be worked out. At least the Flames are giving him a real opportunity before he hits 26 years old – they try him for 4 games and then decide everything based off that. Yes not going the Leland Irving route with Wolf is a very positive thing, and he can use these rough games at the NHL level to help himself grow.

Player Spotlight – Andrei Kuzmenko – This guy is the one I feel for the most because he had a very clear hat-trick goal taken away from him. All three goals would’ve been incredibly smooth and not just anyone could have pulled off what he did. He’s got an offensive engine that makes everyone else look like their standing still, but sometimes he lets that run to far and he gets himself out of position to play on the other side of the puck. He giveth, he taketh away, hell at least he entertains us. Still curious what their long term plans with him are, one of the most intriguing storylines heading into the off-season.