The Calgary Flames tried their best to dig themselves out of a four goal deficit, but could not crawl back in a 4-3 loss to the visiting Detroit Red Wings.

It’s a Team Game – I love an interesting game with absolutely interesting results. Let’s start with the Flames first goal against, which has become something that is occurring far too often with the Flames. Let’s take a look below.

So the Flames continue to have this exact problem defending early rushes. Someone – usually the defender – is over committing to the middle of the ice leaving the far side attacker to be able to walk in uncontested for prime scoring opportunities. The examples shown are just some recent times it went bad, but this is clearly something that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. For the rest of the game Calgary did do a good job at limiting the amount of shots and keeping possession of the puck for longer stretches of time, however a lot of that stemmed from Detroit actively trying to make sure the chances they did take were of the high danger variety. 58 per cent of all shot attempts and just 36 per cent of them are high danger? That’s a little too much perimeter work and not enough penetration for the Flames.

Corsi King – It’s not going to take long to get to the best story of the day, and that was Hunter Brzustewicz (85.84 CF%) absolutely cooking in his first real NHL minutes. Yes, he played in game 82, but this level of competition Is a whole different level. He thrived, with all offensive zone starts, but that does not diminish anything. He was a natural fit, was not the direct cause for any of the goals against and was given extra shifts when trailing to try and get caught up. It was a performance that demands another appearance, in a big way.  The entire defence was very involved in this game. After MacKenzie Weegar (44.23 per cent) got his coverage under control it was a well-oiled machine in terms of keeping puck possession. I would like to see more in terms of getting to the crease and not defaulting to so many point shots, but I’m not holding my breath waiting for the coach to change something so fundamental to his system.

Taken By Chance – MacKenzie Weegar (52.62 SCF% // 32.86 HDCF%) got some shade above because he saw eleven high danger chances go against him in his time. He found himself out of position and unable to stop some chances that the team really need him to. I’m not expecting Yan Kuznetsov (49.85 per cent // 28.63 per cent) in his rookie season to anchor that pairing – and Weegar worked his tail off later in the game to atone for early mistakes – but they need more from him. They need to have their foot on the gas nightly in the era of the loser point if they want to climb, and if they keep delaying selling pieces the Flames could be right on track to end right in the mushy middle again. I know the direction they want to pick, just not convinced it’s still the right one. No matter what, if they want to find success they can’t have either of their top four defence pairings struggling to the level they did in this one.

xGF% – Morgan Frost (62.34 per cent) led the way for the forwards in quality share. Wasn’t on the ice for a single 5v5 goal for or against. He gave up more high danger chances though, which showcases this number is more of a result of an accumulation of smaller chances rather than evidence of getting high quality ones. Each game the data tells a specific story, if you don’t watch you can misread/misinterpret what they could be telling you. Only Nazem Kadri (38.64 per cent) and Yegor Sharangovich (36.45 per cent) were on the ice for multiple goals scored. To be fair, also were out for multiple goals against. It was just an imperfect game with bright spots, all around. A unique result, one they just fell short of making even more interesting.

In The Crease – Devin Cooley could not maintain his top of the league form, and that’s okay. His role here is to be the backup goaltender and losing to a team that’s showcasing all the skill and youth like the Red Wings have done this year yields no shame. In fact, he did his job well enough to give them a chance to pull him to get things tied. No quarrels from my side of things with Cooley. Can’t win them all. I just wish John Gibson would have skated out to centre in the third period and gave us all a tendy tilly.

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