The Calgary Flames had a great start spiral into a bad ending as the fell 6-2 to the Dallas Stars.

It’s a Team Game – Two sets of problems persist with the Calgary Flames. First, they have a hard time on the road. Second, they continue to struggle with their offensive finishing. They do a good job of getting a decent number of high danger chances each game, but they can’t get enough goals on a nightly basis without their goaltending being close to perfect. In this game they were solidly playing against a contender like Dallas deep into the third period before the wheels fell off.  There were signs it might happen – Dallas has a relentless forechecking and it was causing turnovers all night long – and eventually Dustin Wolf couldn’t hang on. It was a good team, and the game felt closer than the score, but plenty to work on.

Corsi King – Martin Pospisil (91.52 CF%) has been playing more physical and has been more noticeable the last two weeks. He has been quite the complement next to Kadri (63.42 per cent) and Huberdeau (67.69 per cent) and was directly involved in both of the Flames 5v5 goals this evening. He may not have got an assist on the opening goal, but the play happens because he aggressively played the body of a defender. Need to see more than just Pospisil get involved like that though. It has to start coming from the rest of the lineup as well.

Taken By Chance – I didn’t think Kevin Bahl (53.83 SCF% || 36.04 HDCF%) had a particularly strong game tonight. He failed to clear the zone multiple times as a result of the Dallas Stars relentless pressure. It also resulted in him being out there for three 5v5 goals against. It was the biggest problem for Calgary – usually they are the faster team and are the first ones on the puck – instead, it was the Stars playing that role and Calgary had a hard time dealing with it. Someone on the team does need to figure out how to generate more than three high danger chances in a game as well. The stifling offence needs a bigger spark than a couple minor league call-ups.

xGF% – A bright spot in this game was Weegar (81.46 per cent) never got stuck out for a 5v5 goal against. The only player on the entire team that can say that. Weegar and his partner Miromanov (85.44 per cent) played great and were the most reliable option for the Flames all night long. Offensively the player with the most quality was Connor Zary (75.55 per cent) which at this point does not come as a surprise. He’s the offensive driver of the offence at this point of the season. Zary doesn’t have the most points on the team, but he constantly leads the charge in getting the Flames into the offensive zone with possession and getting the puck to the middle of the ice in the attacking zone.

In The Crease – We all have rough days at work sometimes. Sunday night was rough for rookie Dustin Wolf. 1.56 expected goals against at 5v5 with four goals getting behind him. Throw in one shorthanded and one at 4v4 and it was his worst performance of the season. Gotta just close the book on this, reset, and move on. Dan Vladar probably steps in next game unless Huska wants to give his young netminder a chance to prove he can bounce back. Personally, either way that goes the goaltending has given me confidence it will be quality.