A better effort against a quality opponent, yet the Calgary Flames still came up short losing 2-1 in overtime to the Carolina Hurricanes.

It’s a Team Game – A better effort at being aggressive offensively did not translate to success early. It was over 17 minutes before they registered a shot, but the effort and gameplan into how to attack had shifted. Two men were up on the forecheck, the defence were activating, the Flames were attacking the middle lane off the rush, and they were more diligent on making something out of their turnovers. It was their bad luck that the Flames had to try to rebound against one of the most structurally sound teams in the league, with possibly the league’s best defensive defenceman in Jaccob Slavin. The better effort did not yield any 5v5 goals, just one scored right as a two-man advantage ended. Dustin Wolf kept the game within incredible reach despite the Hurricanes working the Flames into some tired legs. Before the overtime score happened, it was obvious poor Morgan Frost had barely any energy left to move his feet – two games in twenty-six hours can do that. Love the increased passion after the back-to-back shutouts, need the execution to follow.

Corsi King – Jonathan Huberdeau (60.03 CF%) has this obvious change in pace of play when he’s more invested. Tonight, he started the game with more visible pop in his stride – the players themselves seemed to be more invested in the attack. Took the whole team a period to settle in and start finding ways around the Hurricanes defence – and what they found was not very much. Employing that kind of attack against some non-playoff teams might reward them with more goals and start spreading some confidence around the room. The number one priority has to be fixing the offence right now unless they plan to go as far as Dustin Wolf drags them (which could be quite far).

Taken By Chance – Rasmus Andersson (30.93 SCF% || 19.14 per cent) did not fare well against top Carolina competition. Over eight high-danger chances surrendered at 5v5. With the offence also stagnant he is not making a case for a very lucrative or long contract extension. I know the Flames said they are going to work a deal out, but unless the play improves his dollar value shouldn’t be much more of a cap percentage than Weegar’s when he signed. His agent may have a different opinion, but results speak loudly, and Andersson has not been getting quality results. On the flip side I thought Matt Coronato (54.90 per cent || 29.75 per cent) was one of the better players. He never quits moving his feet in the offensive zone and it creates a lot of turnovers – I think he’s going to continue to grow but he needs some consistency on knowing where his passes are going to come from.

xGF% – Joel Hanley (36.72 per cent) feeding Andrei Svechnikov his lunch was not on my bingo card, but it was fun to watch. I appreciate the coach understanding the need to move to some more puck moving defencemen – Brayden Pachal’s (DNP) only real fault is he’s a pure defensive defenceman. Then again, so are Hanley, Kevin Bahl (28.52 per cent), and Ilya Solovyov (DNP). Don’t really need four of them taking lineup spots when the teams scored zero 5v5 goals in three straight. Don’t get me wrong Jake Bean (32.39 per cent) and Daniil Miromanov (30.83 per cent) are not my suggestion of a proper fix but staggering the ability of what’s available seems necessary right now. With Andersson’s (26.83 per cent) clear struggles there is a mountain of pressure on the last man standing, MacKenzie Weegar (20.04 per cent), to be consistently excellent every shift. If Calgary does anything at the deadline, I hope they move a couple rostered defenceman for a left-hand defence upgrade while saving some draft picks. If a hockey trade is to be had it would be a smart area to shore up, especially if you’re truly pursuing a playoff spot.

In The Crease – Wolf makes things look effortless. When Calgary scored for the first time since time was invented I had to check and see how many more goals the Flames needed before being promptly reminded that with Wolf in net it truly does not take much. That alone makes the offensive struggles that much more frustrating. Also, at this point, the word struggling is a very light term to use for the actual scope of how terrible things are going offensively. The general manager has an opportunity to use the success Wolf has brought to self himself on buying for this roster. In reality they should be selling off non-essential veteran pieces, but the minute you engage in that you run the risk that you may lose even more veterans by virtue of requesting to leave. Without Wolf this is not a conversation – the Flames are not only a bottom-10 team but more than likely a bottom-5 team without his presence – but hey, that’s their call to make. 2.43 expected goals against at 5v5 with one goal getting behind him. 

I’m hoping on Tuesday Robert gets to post a 5v5 goal.