The magic of these Calgary Flames did not work on the slumping Senators of Ottawa as the men from YYC fell 4-3 in regulation, snapping a four-game win streak.

It’s a Team Game – This was a game where Calgary did not get the right bounces – at all. They also did not receive any favourable calls from the guys wearing stripes, but complaining about the refs doesn’t get anybody anywhere. The Flames played from behind for 2/3rds of the game which Is nothing new to them. However, the failing to find your way back was new. This was a case of the offensive woes rearing it’s fierce head and effecting the end result – 19 straight games without scoring at least 4 goals in a game. At 5v5 the Flames dominate play, puck possession and high danger chances are always in their favour, but the goals just do not come easy. Tonight, they scored a power play goal and one with the goaltender pulled and they still didn’t get enough. It has to fix itself.

Corsi King – Mikael Backlund (82.00 CF%) and his line were the only one that clearly spent the majority of the game in the attacking zone. Coronato (67.05 per cent) has been very good at board play, Backlund is the ultimate support centre always in the right spot, and Sharangovich (74.60 per cent) has a shot for the ages. It’s been the most effective line since the switch. Joel Hanley (67.19 per cent) had himself a positive shot attempt game – and also sacrificed the inside of his left arm to block a shot. That is going to leave a fancy bruise.

Taken By Chance – There’s always at least one of the two defence pairings going. This one was Andersson (57.93 SCF% || 71.62 HDCF%) and Bahl (55.57 per cent || 71.62 per cent) who saw over 5 high danger looks at 5v5. The 5v5 numbers are split between quite good and quite bad. MacKenzie Weegar (25.64 per cent || 0 per cent) failed to help get a high danger look which was significant to the result of this one. At least he was only out there for one 5v5 high danger goal against, Blake Coleman (38.23 per cent || 41.65 per cent) was out for two.

xGF% – Not a fourth line victory tonight. Two members of the unit in Lomberg and Rooney were unable to generate a single amount of offence. They also hardly got a chance to really play with all the special teams and bad calls. The Andrei Kuzmenko (46.76 per cent) experiment needs to be coming to a close if the Flames feel they can genuinely compete. Having him and Kadri (36.94 per cent) do next to nothing all game isn’t helping this team. The garbage time goals and the extra time goals still matter, but Nazem Kadri needs to start producing at 5v5 badly. It’s been over a month of the Flames dragging along a top 9 forward line despite the inability to create anything on a consistent basis.

Time to have a hard talk with the vet, coach.

In The Crease – The Dustin Wolf show didn’t get the win and let in some goals we didn’t see happen at home. That’s okay – the team in front of him did a pretty bad job of limiting the Senators forwards in front of him. Power play goals with defenders leaving positions and not enough time to get over there. With how the season has been operating after a performance like this I expect a shift back to Vladar in Detroit. No worries – just an off night. 1.04 expected goals against with 2 getting behind him at 5v5.